On the last Saturday in May, we set off for Classic Ford 2008 at Santa Pod Raceway. Three hundred and fifty miles there and back … I’m starting to think that a fifth gear might be nice for the motorways 
After spending some time buftying up the car, popping to Argos to get a tent, loading up the car with a whole load of stuff we wouldn’t need, failing to pack stuff we would need (jumper anyone??? 
), we set off from sunny Lancashire on Saturday morning a mere hour or so behind schedule. 
On the way down, the bright sunshine started to tail off the nearer we got to Birmingham, which wasn’t a problem for us what with having a roof and a heater and such like … the crew of Baby Cakes, however, were just grateful that someone had invented Thinsulate balaclavas 
Once we arrived at “the Pod” just after lunch, we cheerily handed over our fivers for access to “one of motorsport’s most hallowed campsites” to the girl on the gate. Maybe we should have paid extra, as the ticket she gave us only got us entry to some farmer’s field. 
At least we got there early before the campsite got really muddy
Did we mention the mud? 
A little bit of soggy ground isn’t enough to dampen the entusiasm of a group of Turbosport campers though … especially not when there’s beer, burgers and countless other things beginning with “b” 
As it got dark, we had to break out the torches to stand any chance of being able to find the next drink … 
Far too soon, Dawn arrived, like some cold-hearted callous witch who wanted to put a big pan over your head and bang it with a spoon 
After a hearty breakfast of, erm … whatever was left in the coolbox, we made our way round to the display area. In what was a bit of a running theme for the weekend, the original fields that were going to be used for club stands were a bit flooded, so the organisers had been up all night with their drawing pads and had re-arranged all the clubs onto the hard standing area that usually forms part of the pits. Getting all the cars round to our stand was a bit of a struggle, but Gary did a sterling job of shepherding us into our places on “the grid”. 
Can you tell who didn’t get up in the morning and start polishing his car? 
The cars basked in the early morning sunshine and the crowds flocked to see us
Once the weather had done its best to wash the mud off the cars, they drove up and down “the strip” with a big jet turbine on the back of a truck to dry out the tarmac – then let people drive up it as fast as the could. We weren’t entirely convinced that this Cortina was still running its original engine. 
Around the club stands there were loads of really nice motors, but one of the best turned out, in our view, was actually this little Thames van
Apparently, doing the quarter mile in under twelve seconds is quite an achievement. From the looks of the traffic jams that plagued the day, doing the half mile roundtrip to get back for another go took considerably longer 
All too soon it was time to leave – the end of another good show that had taken a beating from the weather, but the company we kept more than made up for that. To everyone we met and chatted with – thanks for a great weekend. 
As we made our way out though, there were still a few people struggling to find a way out of the campsite, poor buggers …
