Hmmm? Isn't it? Banana?

Prescott Hill climb

I had a call last night from a mate, he was going to Prescott Hill climb. Now I haven't been to a motor racing event since my decision to turn my back on it more than 2 years ago, so I thought that it might make a nice change. I took a couple of photo's but it was more fun to watch, really.

It was good talking about the cars, and it did spark a little of the intellectual challenge that I enjoyed from racing before, and hopefully I didn't bore my mate too much explaining about tyre temperatures, racing lines and different suspension designs and set ups. He seemed interested enough at the time, but he's a very polite chap, so it's hard to tell...

I took a call from another mate during the morning, Keith, who has worked with me on and off throughout my racing years, and I was telling him what had been happening so far in the day and taking the piss out of some of the driving and the cars, but in particular the marshalling, which was very slow and seemed almost comical in its organisation.

Keith: "So if there's all these cars running, why is it so damned quiet?"

Me: "Ah well, you see. A Lotus Elan dropped all it's oil all the way up the hill, and the top smart marshals are just running around flapping. They've got the concrete dust down, but they've just been dicking around on the track for ages. We're starting to think that they might be waiting for it to dry, or just blowing at it to see if it will soak away or evaporate."

Keith: "Well if they want to soak up the oil, they should use something better...pauses... What about Seagulls? They seem pretty good at soaking oil up, I've seen them do it on the TV."

Cue hilarity as we both discuss the idea of marshalls running out onto an oily track throwing seagulls from a hessian sack at the mess. Sick. But funny.

My mates are great. Despite the fact that the mate that was with me is an environmentalist, and works for a Wildlife trust, he still cracked up at that. Mind you, he was already at a race meeting, so he's not exactly a dyed in the wool 'all or nothing' anti-pollution and nature is paramount freak, I guess.

posted by Brock @ Saturday, April 30, 2005