2014 continued......

First of all can I apologise to all my loyal followers of this blog for the distinct lack of updates in 2014. A combination of factors meant that I simply haven't had the enthusiasm for, 1- actually going to many race meetings and 2- to bring myself to write about the few that I have attended.......
After pretty much going to Motor Racing week in week out for the last 20+ years, there comes a time when the enthusiasm runs out and 2014 is/was that time. However, there is still an interest in the sport that I love, and like anything you truly love, you can't seem to forget about it.

As you can see from the programmes above, I've managed to drag myself to 6 car meetings since I last posted in March. They are; April 27 - Donington MSVR : June 1 - Donington BARC : July 13 - Donington BRSCC : July 20 - Mallory Park CSCC : August 3 - Donington MGCC : August 23 - Donington BARC

After an operation in late March which put me out of action for a few weeks, my first meeting back was the MSVR Donington in April. It was this meeting though that led to my apathy this year, as this was truly a shocker. On paper it looked great with Mini Challenge, GT Cup & Production BMW among the 10 races on the Sunday. However this was a day on which the Safety Car was seen on track NINE times and the Red Flag waved FIVE times. Indeed there was only 1 race ( take a bow Radical SR3 Challenge!) that ran without interruption. I've written many times on this blog about the overuse of Safety Cars, especially at club level, but this was the nadir for me. To be fair the weather was mixed with showers throughout the day so incidents were many, but most of this meeting as a spectator was quite simply unwatchable due to the stop/start nature of racing.
So bad was it that it was 5 weeks before I dared venture trackside again with a low key 8 race BARC meeting at Donington on June 1st. This was a decent day with highlights being a brace of wins for Pietro Fittipaldi in Protyre Formula Renault and some energetic racing from the Michelin Clio Cup series.
6 weeks now pass before the July 13 BRSCC meeting at Donington which saw an impressive 15 races on the Sunday. Lots of Fiestas on the bill with not only 4 races for the main championship but 2 aswell for the Junior drivers. The race of the year for me (so far) took place on this day with a superb Avon Tyres Formula Ford 1600 Post '89 encounter. Won by Joey Foster's Ray, the race featured a great lead battle throughout and proved once again that the Kent engined formula still provides some of the best racing in the country. Add into the mix the totally mad Superkarts and this was by far the best meeting I'd been to in 2014.
 It must have been good as it was only 1 week later that I went to Mallory Park's "Revival" meeting. So called as this was the first and only Car meeting at the circuit this year. Organised fairly late in the day by the Classic Sports Car Club this meeting featured 10 races and was highlighted by 3 races for Special Saloons and Modsports. The irony for me was the presence on track of lots of very loud cars from the 1970's racing at a circuit where noise issues are very sensitive at present! It was good to see a decent crowd at the circuit and let's hope that car racing at Mallory becomes more frequent again in 2015.
August saw The Spectator at Donington on the 3rd for the one day MG Car Club meeting and the 23rd for the first day of the 3 day Truck meeting. Not much to report from both days with 9 races at the MGCC meeting featuring  all kinds of MG funnily enough and just 7 races on the Saturday of the Bank Holiday weekend Truck meeting. The Trucks practised last thing on the day so I'm glad to have seen them this year.
It was also good to see the venerable Mini Se7en and Mini Miglia championships on this day. Like most things in life, there not quite as good as they used to be but still provide good racing.
So this blog is finally up to date and I intend to resume "normal" updates in the coming weeks.