So my voice is almost back and i have had a couple of days off, so rather than copy n pasting my drivel from the Facebook page i at least owe it to the guys at Eircooled for a brief rundown.
What a day!!!!!
well i say day, that was the first time we had an overnight stop at bishopscourt, not the most glamorous location, but for the racers and crew that have to travel such long distances it did its job and i was pleased to see so many of you arriving, particularly the ones who got lost!!!!
I slept up at the gate ( if you can call 4 hours a good kip) to make sure any waifs and strays were let in, as it turned out, everybody was in by midnight.
I won't bore you with the emotions i was going through at that moment, seeing Eircooled members rocking up with race cars, an outlaw anglia with Bugeyed not far behind, to be honest it was pretty intense for me as the buzz just seemed electric.
So on to the day, we didn't to bad with regards to starting on time this year, with the first pairing leaving the line at 11.18 am, still much room for improvement, both on our part and racers to get to the track on time ( I'm not naming names, Jimmy Rice ) Latecomers absolutely fuck with everyone in the timing booth trust me!!!!
So on to the action. WOW, is all i can say, i was super impressed, and that was by the first class (up to 1641) that went out, there wasn't much talk leading up to the event from this class, but little did we know they ALL turned up with their game faces well and truly on, it was clear from the off everyone was going to be driving as hard as possible.
Tsar Sheane, Ivan Sheane, take a bow, 16.1 at 80+mph from a stock lonblock that was full of water 3 weeks ago, WOW.
Again with the vans, it was great to see a good sized field again this year, Greg "pull the pin" Yeomans was out to impress in his heavy bay with 2332cc stroker power, the boy sure did impress, i cannot clarify his best time but I'm sure someone will chime in.
Pat Best, take a bow, first pass off the trailer, 17.5 seconds, instant entry to the BWA ( Busses with attitude ) but not content with that he went on to run a storming 17.2 but watching him through the day left me sure there would be a 16 second pass to come another time.
On to the 2000cc class and stock H2O, brilliant class with a real mix of vehicles this year, plenty of golfs and scirroco's squabbling over positions, but i have to take my hat of to some character, namely Simon Pattison, who was driving the ex vwdrc car "Plain Lazy" the title is quite apt, as he left it 5 mins before the event to throw the car together as many others did, he drove the dung out of it, and i had him down as a true contender to either destroy the gearbox or blow the motor to bits, but a small miracle happened there and he went home well into the 15's with just a basic 1835cc engine and the heaviest right foot I've ever witnessed.
Dudly (colin Doris) again with another mild engine plonked his herbie bug from last year straight into the 16's and was grinning from ear to ear all day.
Who can miss the Knightlys though, i drove the car at camp last year, and i said it was bloody quick for what it was, and it didn't disappoint, the Baja in the hands of Frank, went 14.8 and ended up taking the class win.
The modified category was full to the rafters, you've all seen the list, colin taylor impressed by getting his new setup straight into the mid 15's with plenty left on the table I'm sure, the wilkinson bros have stepped right up and neil ran 15's but the outstanding driving of Brian meant he piloted his beautiful green bug to a new and unbelievable P.B of 13.6 seconds @ 98mph, with just 131.5 bhp and a stock gearbox, absolutely outstanding. Liame neale again has been chipping away with a few events under his belt with the new engine and his wonderful jeans bug ( the ex super snot ) went 14.6 which he was chuffed to bits with.
Dave took the overall modified honours, the track wasn't particularly quick on the day with 60ft times being a few tenths down in general, meaning Daves best of the day was a 12.5, but still plenty quick enough to see off competition from the brave water-cooled souls who turned up with plenty of horsepower, pretty much double (and some) of gethin Evans in his awesome turbocharged vr6 mk3 golf and Andrew Robb in his highly tuned Revo mk6 golf, the best time of the day from the was Andrew with a 13.3, no mean feat for a fwd road car on road tyres.
A special mention has to be given to Britt and Stevie who's efforts although not rewarded with an incident free pass, did not go unrecognised,boy these two went balls out to get the Tetnus track ready with its new high compression engine, Stevie worked on the car, then went and did 12hour night shifts and then after a few hours sleep, was back at it, repeat to fade for a full week. Britt was under pressure from the word go, with an engine that was still in Southampton on wednesday, stirling job from the team, and rightly deserved to walk away with Bernard Newburys spirit of the show trophy. Well done guys.
Again a special mention to John Kelly for bringing Bugeyed to the track, one of my all time favourite uk race cars sent me over the edge just seeing it on the trailer, but to see it run the strip and after a morning of issues be rewarded with a 13.9 on the most basic engine in the field was cracking, top job.
Also lets not forget Mr Kvinyl himself, so the Ghia wasn't finished, but JEEEEEZ, car of the show for me, what an awesome looking machine, we cannot wait to see it finished, thank you so much for bringing it down, LEGEND.
Baranby Levy and David Walsh both brought their insane drag machines and laid down a few passes to please the crowd, David had some issues but still the site and sound of a rotary viva is addictive and hard to beat, but how can you trump the outlaw anglia of Barnaby, the man is a star and has etched himself firmly in the history books of Bishopscourt, thus far, with much peddling and anywhere but straight, he is without doubt the quickest aspirated car to run the court. top man.
The show n Shine was brilliantly organised by Turlough from the t4 forum, with help and sponsorship from our very own Buggyboyshane and Simon maynard from Vagen, a huge thank you to them, from where i was standing it looked buzzing and certainly up on numbers this year.
I guess you guys will fill in all the blanks, there will be plenty of em, but thank you to all our sponsors this year, without you all, this event wouldn't be what it is. Also a big thank you to STUMP for making a wonderful trophy which quite rightly went to the best newcomer Christine MCkinney in her 1300 bug.
More importantly, a huge thank you and pat on the back to everyone at EIRCOOLED.
This event would not exist if it wasn't for your support, you are a hugely important part of the whole event and one i will never take for granted or thank you all enough for.
Well done to all, and roll on 2015.
Cheers
Ben.
