It also occurs to me that, well over a month ago, we had the annual NSCC Drivers' Meeting and AGM. Over the weekend of February 28th to March 2nd, the faithful headed for The Manhattan in Blackpool to discuss the NSCC calendar and rule book and refloat their livers. It was a pretty good bash, a decent turnout and a good catch-up for a lot of folks who haven't seen each other since the last round, plus the overall atmos seemed positive, which is always a good indicator for the year.
Business got under way with the usual recap of the foregoing season, a discussion of cruises (same as last year) and the shows (pretty much the same as last year). Then we gave the rule book a good going over, and while we have stuck pretty rigidly to the same format for many years - if for no better reason than "because that's the way we've always done it" - there were some changes put forward that surprisingly went through without the usual Mobius debate.
First was the rear-wheel drive only rule. This got downgraded a year or two ago in light of the fact that some of the older front-drive stuff is now properly classic, or at least 'retro'. Now the rule states that you can run absolutely any car you like in NSCC, in your first year. This was aimed at bringing in people who might fancy having a go, but haven't yet got a car ready or maybe just want to give it a whirl before committing to building something. It's already been taken up by some of the younger guys who simply can't get insurance on anything "interesting".
The next rule was slicks for race meetings, which went through smoothly with a surprising majority. There was a points-boost for attending shows for the full weekend, with 1800 points up for grabs if you drive your car to a show and make a weekend of it. There's another points bonus for the person (or, rather, the car) whose quarter mile times improve the most between the beginning and end of the season, though anybody suspected of sandbagging will be shot with a blunderbuss loaded with fox shit and thrown to the hounds. Also, surprisingly to many, the vote went that we will run 2014 on a Sportsman tree!
The only tricky bit points-wise was the UK Power Tour. Run by the UKV8 Club, this looks like an excellent beginning for Britain's answer to drag week, and happens over the Bank Holiday Weekend of May 24th to 26th. Starting at the 1/16th-mile (!) strip in Rye, then heading to Shakey, then to York, it's a good old road test for street-legal machines. Any NSCCers participating can score points - at the end of the Tour, the highest-placed NSCCer in the Power Tour organisers' ranking gets 2000 points. The next highest gets 1900, then 1850 and so on. The best bit is that the Monday when the Tour rolls into York is also an NSCC round, so you can score points in NSCC as well! The Tour is at Gary's Picnic/Yanks Weekend at Shakey on the Sunday, and while this is an NSCC 'show' event, Power Tourers won't score show points for being there. If they did, it'd be a bit of an insurmountable points bonanza overall, with the Tourers scoring more in one weekend than many NSCC qualifiers do all year.
At this point in the proceedings, we thanked out sponsors for the 2013 season - Andy Hadfield, Simon Boot and champion John Peace. While showing our appreciation, a Unicorn ran in through the side door and kicked seven shades out of Andy Hadfield. I know I wasn't the only one to see this...
Hah, see?! There's photographic proof, though this was after the Unicorn had sold his shirt to Simon. The following photographs were provided by Drakie - there's a link to his site on the right - and due to a failing lens (his story... :-)) the photos got progressively more out-of-focus as the night went on. Which is a pretty accurate reflection of the perception of the attendees, I should imagine.
First up was Simon Boot, receiving the John Payne Spirit of NSCC award for having a nine-second car, taking it bloody everywhere including round Mallory Park and over Kirkstone, and generally being a helpful chap and all-round good egg.
Next up was Billy '4-speed' Cattell, picking up the KC Best Newcomer award. With his marvellous metalflake Austin, Billy and his family have not only had a damn good go in their first year, they've also fitted right in and are lovely people to boot.
Next there were trophies for all qualifiers, but let's skip to the top three. Now I wouldn't say that Derek Beck's luck is bad, but if he fell into a bucket of tits he'd come out sucking his thumb. Even so, nobody can have tried harder than Derek in the TVR. Even on the way to the drivers' meeting he managed to put the bloody thing through a dry stone wall, yet there he was, smiling, to pick up his more-than-well-deserved trophy.
James Murray's Cortina has been a consistent NSCC performer for 15 years now, rarely off the podium at the end of the year, yet you have to wonder how it holds together. It's been used, abused, crashed, repaired, patched and thrashed, used as a test mule and guinea pig for James' electronic trickery, yet still, wherever you look, there it is. Usually very late.
And the 2014 winner, a guy who put thousands of miles on his Mustang last year, took part in every round of racing plus a hillclimb, a track day and the Hot Rods & Hills uber-cruise, and looked like he was enjoying every minute of it, John Peace. Always ready to lend a hand, he's become one of those NSCC characters that the series would be so much poorer without. Not only that, he had engraved pint pots made for every qualifier, out of his own pocket, because he wanted to give something back to the series. Now that's a worthy winner, I think you'll agree...
So there it is, just over a month late, and now the season's started it's time to put some of it into practice. I've already had the Fox down at Shakey for some pre-season testing, and I'm pleased to say that it completed several passes without needing attention from the AA or the track clean-up crew, so that's a start. Let's get ready to rumble, as they say.
Eugene
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