Sunday 6 July 2014

Après Le Deluge !


This seemed an appropriate quote to start the day with.. until I looked up its correct origins only to discover the full quote is “après moi, la deluge” which is attributed to Louis XIV and at the time it seems he meant  "when I'm dead, all others may die too". So not quite so apt.. however it has been a pretty miserable night and as the French might say “pisser avec la pluie” . 

But after a very wet start the rain has relented a bit. Our thoughts go out to the marshals, drivers of open cockpit cars and those brave souls out there camping.

At least the live motoring extravaganza that is the roundabout by L’Arlequin was upto scratch. Even our chum in his 14.5 litre Le France/Simplex beast was doing a bit of ‘showboating’ and it is not like him at all. Arnage was heaving with very jolly (over jollyied?) fans and the locals were certainly making a brisk living, at least they did last night. 

This morning dawned badly for your team.. one member wound up in the medical centre. The symptoms were ‘indigestion based’ but this didn’t stop the doctors giving him a full 10,000 mile service and check up!  After being royally looked after he asked if he could contribute to a local charity, the staff simply said “ Non..Money is money and health is health”.. which is a  refreshing attitude to medicine. He is now proclaimed fit and back on the team!

Strange how you miss effective wipers when you normally take the things entirely for granted, how did the heroes of yesteryear cope? The driver’s side wiper cried enough and chose to simply move water around rather than remove it. Even that is now cured with a rather short replacement blade found in the boot!

If you have been following Tony’s Tweeting (if not why not !)  you will notice that keeping on top of results is well-nigh impossible. The provisional results are posted and then hours later all the penalties arrive and they are then re-posted. Some penalties are heroically draconian.. one driver was penalised five laps and he hadn't actually completed any laps.. so he went ‘minus’! It is very easy to fall foul of the stewards during this event .. speeding in the pit lane, circuit limits, taking your pit stop early, late or not at all, not stopping long enough during your stop and so on. The tricky bit is that they don’t explain on the results what heinous crime had been committed. So it is all as clear as mud to us.

There is one scheduling problem and that is irritating fact that the ‘big bangers’ in Grid 6 go out at midnight on Saturday,( time to in bed or bar!)  then again at 08:00hrs ( coffee and croissants time ) and finally they end the show at 16:00hrs on Sunday.  Having been a lucky lad I have driven various ‘classics’ in the dark on the public roads and the headlights give a cheery glow ‘illuminating’ the road about a foot in front of the car on main beam and then six inches on dip. This may be why the older cars don’t go out in the dark during the Classic.

There have been no mishaps to speak of and  as far as we know the level of retirements has been very low as well. Even so a few have fallen by the wayside, despite this the grids remain 60-65 cars strong. 

Jock Simpson 

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