An empty pint at the Pig & Truffle 16-08-2003
- 28 May 2013
My, it's that time again.
Having consumed another couple of pints of bitter it is time to spew forth
some more drivel to really, really piss you all off.
Ready?
You sure?
OK here we go................
Split from Castle Donington last Monday & sped North (in a round-about sort
of manner) & wound up in Keswick & spent 4 days lazing about the Lakes
district taking in all the rather spectacular sights.
{mosimage}
Lots of green. Lots of VERY big hills. Lots of lakes. On Tuesday, lots of
rain & mist so driving over the goat tracks called roads up there was quite
exciting. They are fun if you have good weather because, with roads going up
& down 30 degrees (bloody steep) that are only as wide as the car, with no
barriers so you can see straight down the side of the cliff & sheep to dodge
they can be a bit of a challenge. When it's pissing down with rain & the
clouds are so low that you are actually driving through them & you can't see
more than about 15 yards in front of you it definitely gets your attention.
Fined up over the next 2 days though so there should be some pretty
pictures. If the camera works this time. After last years debacle I may just
have to climb up that bloody great hill & photo Beeston Castle again. Better
work this time.
Food in Keswick is utter crap.
Not much more to be said on that matter.
Back down to Derby today (about 15 miles from Donington, round & around in
circles I go). Not what you would describe has a scenic little town however
it is nice & close to Nottingham & Trent Bridge where I shall be spending
the day tomorrow wallowing in the sun & watching a days test cricket between
the Poms & South Africa. Poms are reasonably well placed at this point but
SA are about to bat & it IS the English Cricket team.
Sorry Dom.
The old band Queen would have loved Derby, lots of material for their songs
like "Fat bottomed Girls".
There is what is described as an Australian Bar here. It's interesting to
see how we are viewed in other parts by people who obviously have never been
south of Blackpool. The menu was a hoot. Lots of stuff like "Genuine
Australian Wildfire spice/Walkabout sauce" Never bloody heard of them, have
you?
"Australian Crocodile fillets". Funny, I could have sworn that crocs were a
protected species in OZ unless they have been grazing upon humans.
And the decor, GOOD GRIEF!!! Like something out of a Mad Max film. No wonder
they think we have roos in George St.
Mind you, the Pig & Truffle is a nice old pub & will probably pull in some
of my coinage.
For those of you that may want a quick report on the races at Donington,
read on.
The rest of you can bugger off now.
Wasn't a bad meeting all in all.
There was;
Thoroughbred Grand Prix race, non turbo F1 cars from early 70's to early
80's.
FIA World Sports car championship race.
European F3000 championship race.
2- Historic F2 races for F2 cars from late 60's to late 70's
2-British Sportscar championship races.
2-Supercart races.
The main event (as far as I was concerned) was the TGP.
Unfortunately none of the Ferraris or Alfas showed up (they were running
around the Nurburgring) so it was a field full of Cosworths. Williams FW07s
& FW08s dominated the race but there was plenty of interesting beasties in
the lower half of the field. Lotus 81s,87s,91s & even one of the twin
chassised Lotus 88s (banned from the world championship for being too far
ahead of everyone else's thinking)which came home in 6th. Several Arrows A4s
& an A6 which was being driven with élan to say the least.
Not sure if it was intentional however. Getting it completely sideways under
power out of the Melbourne loop every lap was most entertaining if not the
quickest way around. 3 Ensigns also showed up (N175, N177 & N180) which
although rather pretty were not particularly competitive. The was however
the one daft git who went out in the pooring rain on slicks, but not for
long. An expensive decision. One hopeful chap even turned up with an
Osella. Very hopeful, spent more time off the circuit & in the barriers
than on the track. A couple of Tyrrells rounded out the field, 011 & 012.
After a race that started wet, got wetter & red flagged & then started in
the wet again it was a Williams
1-2 with the Tyrrell 011 coming home in 3rd followed by another 2 Williams &
the Lotus 88. All rather spread out & no great dices but lovely to see them
thrashing about all the same.
{mosimage}
The FIA Sportscar race, despite a rather slim field was a fine race all the
way to the end of it's 2 & a half hours.
Ex F1 driver Jan Lammers won in the Dome but probably only because Jamie
Walle's pole-sitting DBA was slowly running out of gears. And then did
altogether with about 15 minutes to go. Wallace was only about 20 seconds
behind at the time & Lammers still had a final pitstop to make. Would have
been close.
There were other bad luck stories as well. One car lost it's engine with
only 2 minutes to go while running 3rd. Bugger.
F3000 race was again a pretty thin field but not a bad race.
Minardi test driver Gabriele Bruni held on in the wet after blowing a 16
second lead in about 14 laps only to have his persuer run up his arse at the
Melbourne hairpin & wipe out his front wing.
Watching some of the minor events from the Cramer curves was illuminating.
Unlike Eau Rouge, which looks daunting on the idiot box, these curves are
utterly spectacular when viewed in person. Bloody fast & bloody steep & the
camber is all wrong so if you stuff up your line..................
Anyhow, the chap here is trying to close up so until next time.....
I'm off for a pint.
f.u.s.b.