The hot rod drags has always been and will be the biggest show (drag) of the year, not only is it one of the must to do events of the year but it is also a chance to catch up with friends you won’t be able to see until the next season starts again as most will call this meeting as their last. It’s hard to explain the vibe of the Hot Rod Drags as it is one of them events that is so looked forward to the buzz of just being at it grabs hold and won’t let go. Friday people came flooding in from every corner of the UK and even some from across the waters of lands far far away this was also the first time back to Shakespeare County Raceway since 2014 and I’m glad I went it was so good to see everyone again. The track opened Friday at 12 for street tyres and exhaust cars only normally on the Friday you have a few that come sign on to race but this year 80 signed on, and it gave me chance to try get back in the swing of things after being away from the track for so long and try a few new things and that’s just what I did, Friday was dry but cloudy and as most know the weather in the UK is like dropping a coin off a building and having a marked spot for it to land on yea that will never happen bit like our weather reports that change every 5 minutes, you will always see a gathering of people stood around with mobile phones out all having a mass debate well mine says its dry tomorrow but his says rain with sun, it’s a given rule if you wake up and don’t hear the rain pouncing off your tent or caravan your good to go so get up and get in the fire up road while you can! Unfortunately this wasn’t the case on Saturday morning with rain set in for the day the only thing that run up and down the track were the track crew and volunteers that were sweeping the rain off the track late Saturday afternoon when it stopped with the hope of getting some cars down the track but alas that wasn’t to be as just as I was sweeping away at three quarter track, the rain started again just as we all thought we may get away with this if the rain stays off...... yea right! Luckily it did stop in time for the cackle fest on Saturday night with rolling burnouts a static display on the track before everyone went off when the cackle finished and piled into the marquee for the band then on into the bar after for the disco into the small hours of the morning.
Sunday Sunday Sunday, the sun was out, the clouds were parting and the people crawled out of the havens they stayed in last night to hit the burger vans for coffee and a bacon roll to set them up for the day, engines were being fired for pre warm ups and everything was set for a full days racing WOOHOO! The fire up road was opened and the cars rolled down to try and get as many runs as they could but because of no racing the day before and with the outlaw Anglia’s and supercharged outlaws needing to fit the qualifying runs semi finals and finals in that would be a hard thing to do, I did hear that out of the whole day someone only got 1 run all day just shows how busy it was and if you add that cars have just been sat all weekend we did get a few oil downs and one of them was the full quarter, no one’s fault it was just what it was with the weather buggering everything up the day before everyman and his dog wanted to get down the track the pairing lane was at one point all the way back to the back of the pits it was what it was. The action on track was thick and fast all day long and the NSRA had done yet another sterling effort for us all as well as Shakespeare County Raceway and I would personally like to say I had a blast thank you to everyone for the warm welcome and for all the help I was given when I needed it, See ya all next time, Drakie