Revival 2023: Write-up

[Mad Ax 10595]

Well, here it is at last, folks!  The write-up for Revival 2023!

This will be word-heavy and pic-light, as I can't be bothered to take lots of photos at the events and perhaps more importantly I can't be bothered to organise all the photos when I get back.  Plus I don't have a camera with a long lens and cars on track generally come out like little coloured dots in the distance.

Our story began months ago, when I started work preparing my cars to race - for further details see Hotshot Custom Chassis Build and SRB Superlight Vintage Restomod, but this particular chapter began on the morning of Friday 28th August, as I loaded the very last things into my van and set off on the 3+ hour trip through the middle of England to get to Bingham Model Raceway near Leicester.

I was an hour into the journey, and in fine spirits, when a message arrived from my wife informing me that the new airbeam for my awning had arrived, and my pillow was still on the dining room table.  I would survive without the airbeam, since in preparation I had cut a piece of wood to replace it, but I wouldn't survive two days sleeping on a rock-solid pull-out bed with no pillow.  My back is bad enough as it is, and not even my prescription supply of industrial-grade codeine was going to get me through that.  What followed was 90 minutes of back-and-forthing around Leicester trying to find somewhere that sold pillows.  That's not as easy as it sounds, especially when one's smartphone is around 8 years old and rather slow and the data speed in the industrial backwaters is unreasonably poor.  Eventually I found joy at a B&M, after several detours to "superstores" that turned out to be glorified mini-markets.  A few pennies lighter (and foolishly resisting the urge to buy some cheap wrestler figures for scaler drivers from the toy section) I got back on the road and made the last hour to Bingham without any further mishaps.

The weather was dry when I arrived, but it was a somewhat soggy July here in Britain and the ground was soft and damp.  Perfect for putting up tents, but threatening bad if we got more rain.  My van is low to the ground, and has road tyres and an automatic gearbox.  Although I've never officially got it stuck (the live rear axle probably helps) it's probably only a matter of time.

Despite my later-than-planned arrival, I was surprised to find our usual camping spot (right at the far end of the site, well away from that noisy raver lot) still empty, and none of my camping buddies around yet.  So I pitched up alone and started carting my stuff over to the pits to get in some practice.

View of the site, as seen from my pitch:

Ornamental lake.  The blue orb is either a manifestation of the Spirit of Bingham, or an aberration caused by the sunlight landing on the scratched coating on my camera lens:

[Mad Ax 10595]

Now that I'm an official driver for Dell's Racing Products, I get a proper undercover pit space with the rest of the team, in a spot right next to the track.  This means we're all ready to lend tools, parts, advice, alcoholic beverages and banter whenever the need arises, and also means I don't have to do several miles of van-to-track walking every time I need to make an adjustment or repair.

I decided to start the day by getting straight on track.  I've found it can be very easy at these all-day practice sessions to fall into the trap of wandering, exploring, chatting, socialising and being lazy, and end the day having not even got my car out of the box.  So I dragged the vintage SRB out of the box, bunged in a battery and transponder and went out for a blast on the open track.

Typically for an SRB, it was flipping horrible to drive.  But it was not quite as flipping horrible as it was back in 2017 when I raced it last.  It still wanted to roll over a lot, it was as bouncy as an under-inflated bouncy thing on national bouncing day, but it more-or-less went where it was pointed, it had plenty of grip, and that huge brass counterweight disguised as a front bumper did a great job of keeping the front wheels on the ground.

I had chosen to run with 2.2 yellow staggers on the front, and one of several options of modern 2.2 tyres on the back.  I can't even remember which now, because when I checked the oversized barrel nuts after a few laps, they were both loose.  One tightened up readily, but the other stripped a thread.  So much for that, then, as nobody had a spare barrel nut that would fit, so on went the Hornet spikes.  It was those or Sand Scorcher paddles, which would have been about as much use as ice skates on a dog.

There's actually so much grip on BMR's hallowed astroturf that oldschool Tamiya tyres aren't really the problem.  In fact, in my experience, Tamiya tyres have a bit too much grip - the trick is tuning it out.  The classic 70's balloon profile on the Hornet tyres probably helps here by reducing the number of spikes digging firmly into the carpet at any given camber angle (and with an SRB, there's a lot of camber angle).  It was no worse to drive with the Hornet tyres than it was with proper 2.2s.

In fact I was having a great time (or at least as great a time as one can when one is driving a vintage SRB on track with Cougars and CATs and RC10s and Top Forcii) right up until I got too close to the barrier on the main straight, clipped it, caught another car which spun us both into the middle of the straight, and got collected full-pelt by something fast and expensive before I could shout "car on the straight!"

The result was a broken front suspension pin:

You may recall from the SRB Superlight build thread (go back and read it now, if you haven't, it's very good) that I had drilled through my bent vintage suspension pins and fitted Element RC screw pins to prevent the arms from sliding off literally every race.  Well, when one drills a 2.5mm hole through a 4mm pin one isn't left with much pin.  Around 1.5mm of pin, to be precise, neatly divided into 0.75mm halves.  When said pin is attached to the solid metal lever which we call a radius arm, which is then clobbered violently by an Optima Mid Custom Special, the pin is likely to come neatly into two pieces.  Unsurprisingly, this somewhat hinders its ability to do its job of holding the radius arm onto the car.

Also my face fell off.

[Mad Ax 10595]

With the SRB now officially broken and the 2wd race due to start first thing in the morning, I decided I'd get the Hotshot out for a blast, because to this point it had literally done a couple of runs up and down the lane behind my workshop, and that was it.  Nothing like being prepared, then.

The mini darts up front had way too much grip, but otherwise it drove pretty well.  Suspension was a little high at the rear, but it was well balanced without any ballast weight and it jumped nice and flat - although, in typical Hotshot fashion, it didn't always land well, and often cartwheeled on hitting the carpet.  I decided to make a setup adjustment to resolve this, which I called "going slower over the jumps."  This turned out to be a fantastic adjustment, because the 10.5 turn motor had so much punch it could be back up to full speed within a few feet anyway.

I decided to break open my wallet for the second time that day, and bought some yellow staggers, unspecified foams (they were blue and squidgy and had a proper tyre profile shape and Adie told me they were good and would make me win) and Tamiya wheels.  You can actually buy two pillows, with genuine faux satin pillowcases, for less than a pair of racing tyres on wheels, and you can't even sleep on racing tyres.  I then glued myself to the wheels trying to fit them, which is pretty normal for me.  Once I'd managed to cut myself free and clean up the mess, I turned my attention to the rear ride height, of which there was too much.  As you will recall from the Hotshot thread (you did read it, didn't you?) I had drilled some lower-me-down holes in the rear lower shock mounts, but alas the mounts interfered with the cups and caused the spring to bind, so I needed another option.

Fortunately, I had a lovely pair of Associated shocks that were on the SRB rear tower I made which of course you know all about because you read the thread.  These were slightly shorter than the cheaper-than-a-pair-of-B&M-pillows Abisma shocks, and much smoother too, so I threw these on instead.  The result was a back end that was a little closer to the astro and a suspension movement that was as creamy and smooth as a bar of Cadbury's chocolate.

After another run with the Hotshot, during which I went slowly over the jumps and rolled over slightly less, I decided it was high time that I really should start procrastinating about fixing the SRB and went to take some pictures.

[Mad Ax 10595]

View of part of the Dell's pit area, track and rostrum, as taken from my pit table.

Dell's team manager and officially my boss, Jiffy, in the blue Dell's top.  Fella with the beard and beer is former TC member, Tomcat, now a team driver and chief beverage tester for Dell's Racing Products team.

This is not my SRB, this is a proper SRB as built by someone who knows how to build an SRB.

Toy cars on a table.  Also a beer.

[Mad Ax 10595]

This is where I would spend half of my money over the course of the weekend.

This is where I would spend the other half of my money over the course of the weekend.

I'm not sure what this is but I think I saw one on Black Mirror once and it didn't end well.

[Mad Ax 10595]

Some time between opening my first beer and packing all my stuff away for the evening's festivities, this happened.

Pins, tubes and radius arms from the spare re-re "wet weather" car.  Uprights  and towers are from the vintage car because they have the bigger ball ends and modifications for the fat shocks respectively.

Notice the two screws not fully tightened on the front counterweight / bumper.  Well, I'm glad you did, because I flippin' well didn't, at least not until I'd been out on track and lost 'em.

Then it was beer-and-hotdog-and-fries time, and I kind of forgot about the camera for the evening.

[Mad Ax 10595]

The rest of the evening involved wandering around the site multiple times, catching up with old mates and making new ones, sharing drinks and stories of Revivals past, laughing about the good old days when the early classes were full of stock SRBs and Hornets and Holiday Buggies, before people started turning up in matching race team jackets and it all got serious.

I decided to end the evening before it all got too silly, making the long trek back to my camper to walk off the calories from my hotdog-and-fries and the Toffee Crisp I'd eaten for dessert, and I was in bed reading my book by 11:30.  A brief shower shortly after lights out was the only rain for the day, and it seems my waterproofing worked well enough because I fell asleep with the door open and was dry when I woke up at 2am, to the gentle lullaby of 80s pop music echoing across the field from the Dell's tent.

[Mad Ax 10595]

Saturday morning dawned dry and bright, and was even threatening to be quite warm, which came as something of a shock since it's been pretty gosh-darned freezing over here recently.  I did notice that just as we Brits started to get all excited, they stopped calling it Global Warming and started calling it Climate Change.

This is the 2wd concourse.

Yes - that is a genuine vintage Hilux in the middle, and yes, it genuinely was scheduled to hit the track in the 1976-1982 class, running in 2wd mode, but alas, the rear axle failed on the warmup lap and it ended the day in pieces.  Which was probably just as well, since you have all seen my front bumper (because you read the thread).

Strange yellow glowy hot thing in the sky.  Not sure what this is.  Not seen it at Revival before.

Arty low-down shot of RC toys ends in soggy knees.

[Mad Ax 10595]

Now, I would love at this point to give you a proper race-by-race account of my day, complete with fastest laptimes and comments on other drivers' progress and all the rest, but alas, it seems the online RC timing system used by BMR doesn't keep historical race data (or if it does, I can't find it), so I only have the data for Sunday.  So instead I'll just talk about the bits I remember.

Looking slightly sorry after the previous day's battles, but nonetheless back in one piece, the SRB is ready to hit the track.

Oh...

In fairness, heat 1 actually went quite well - I had reasonable pace against the other cars and was on course for a good finish, until the radius arm came off the pin.  Some Tamiya threadlock and me tightening it up just that much more than I did last time would have to do.

Also, I noticed this:

No doubt this was costing me laptimes, so I found the re-re shafts and Frog drive flowers to widen the back end up just a smidge.

[Mad Ax 10595]

Not a lot of thread dothe show through the wheel, but some flanged and serated nuts did the trick.  Actually the wheel wasn't fully seated, the nut helped to pull it on and get more thread out.

After that I went for a bit of spectating.  Royalty alert - two world champions stand on his rostrum.

[Mad Ax 10595]

After my next race, one of my fellow SRB racers suggested my ride was too high at the back, and if I could lower it and tie it down, I'd reduce the grip roll.  The easiest way to do that, it seemed, was to rob some shorter shock ends from my parts stash.

Also I took the time to pull apart the front end and re-tighten all the radius arms.  I'd rushed the job the previous night, and had put the radius arms on after I'd assembled the front tubes, which mean there was too much play in the front end.  I added a couple of washers to the lower arms so I could pretend I had some camber.

Also I decided the front end of the car was too heavy, and it wasn't really helping me, so I put my CC01 bumper back on.  I added a smidge of stick-on wheel weights to keep the nose on the ground.

Why don't Tamiya make 2.2 wheels that look like wheels?

Now that's a proper bug stance!

[Mad Ax 10595]

aaaand, that's a proper bug failure...

Fortunately this was just laziness on my part - I hadn't checked the screws between rounds (I'd checked literally all the other ones).  The car had run really well in the heat, right up until the front end went just a bit weird and I kinda felt like maybe I'd lost a bit of grip at the front, maybe.  One knows a car is bad when one can have a front wheel flopping around like a squirrel caught in a bumper and still finish the race wondering what the problem might be.

After this I had a final.  I'd love to tell you where I qualified and where I finished, but if I'm being totally honest, I can't remember.  I think the car went well enough and I gave a good account of myself, didn't crash too much, didn't take anyone else out and generally had a heal-load of fun.  But, as is usual with a long day's racing in the hot summer sun, I was kinda glad when it was all over and I could head over to the food van and order a bacon cheeseburger and fries, and sit down on the little plastic table with a good mate and sip beer and eat greasy food and watch the Race of Champions while the heat started to go off.  It really doesn't get much better than this.

[Mad Ax 10595]

Then I decided to spend some money.  It's kind of a ritual that I buy a new car at Revival every year, and usually I wait until Sunday, but this year my NIB-wants list is kinda short (I'm genuinely running out of space) and Adie didn't have anything that was on it.  Plus I've got various projects that are almost stalled because I need parts, and the most cost-effective way to get the parts is to swap them for those on another model.  In particular, I want a non-overdriven crawler transmission for my F150 race truck project, and the transmission from an FTX Marauder would be perfect - especially as the overdriven transmission in the F150 right now could go in the FTX and be an instant improvement, and I don't have (and have never owned) a proper rock buggy, so it would be a bonus improvement all round.

Well, there were no FTX Marauders for sale, but there was this.

It's an FTX Outback 2 - a budget-friendly entry level crawler with a passable Land Rover clone body.  Now there'll be a full build thread about this later, but for now - it came with the larger 540-type transmission (the stock kit comes with a 380, which was in the box) so it has a tranny I can swap into my F150, 3D-printed interior, spare set of Class 1 tyres, 25Kg servo, genuine Hobbywing 1080 ESC and a 2200mAh 3S LiPo.  Two of the axle shafts were bent (I noticed this before buying and adjusted my offer accordingly) and it's obviously had some use, but there was a lot of stuff in the box for the price.

Of course, the main reason I bought it is that there were a few other crawlers on site - at least 2 other Land Rovers in fact, and a Range Rover, and a new Carisma RTR rock van thing that one of the Dell's racers won in the raffle, so we all spent an hour pitting our trucks against the mount of earth on the back of the banked curve.  I have to say, for an entry-level truck with cheap tyres, very little weight and wey-hey-hey-heeeey too much wheel speed, the FTX did a fantastic job and clomb over everything I threw it at.  A genuinely neat little truck and one I'll really enjoy doing a project thread on later.

[Mad Ax 10595]

While I was messing around with my crawler, our illustrious leader, Jiffy, was getting his fleet of Schumacher Wildcats ready for the Wheelie Race.  Sadly this isn't the 30+ car fun race that we used to have back in the old days, instead it's a 3-car 2-lap race around a shortened oval-ish track, with the fastest time from each race being scribbled down onto a piece of soggy paper so that the 3 fastest drivers can be pitted against each other in a Grand Final with a range of fantastic prizes, such as a Dell's Racing Product's t-shirt for 3rd place and a very used Tamiya TL-01 Subaru for the winner.  It cost £1 a pop with as many goes as one could handle, and it was fantastic fun.

I took to the rostrum with my good race buddy Pete (although officially he is now my rival because he races for Team Chimera) and a certain chap name Craig Drescher.

I've never driven a Schumacher Wildcat before, but having spent all day coaxing an ancient SRB around the track, I was already well tuned for driving cars that don't do what one expects them to do, so it was no surprise to me at all to find myself out in the lead.  I absolutely positively did not let this go to my head at all and that is definitely not what caused me to overdo it on the main straight and backflip the car into the barrier, causing me to finish plum last.  Although plug last in a 3-car race still technically means I got a podium finish in a race with a world champion in it.  It was the very highlight of my evening, nay, my weekend.

I called it a night before it got too late, and went back to the van to read some more book before I fell asleep to the buzzing of my aching feet.

[Badcrumble 4422]

Thanks for the write- up, always enjoy your exploits on and off track. Pillow Quest did make me smile, as did judging the cost of things against pillows 

[Mad Ax 10595]

I conveniently forgot to update the bit about Friday night where I had brought my LMT along for some evening shenanigans, but as ever it was too fast for its own good and I spent most of the time trying to keep it on 4 wheels.  I think I need to follow @87lc2's advice and adjust the rear upper links to stop it wheelieing.  I'd only been running it for a few minutes when I foolishly handed the controls over to my good mate Tomcat, who proceeded to launch it at full speed into a metal post.  The result was a bent drag link and a truck that positively refused to steer straight.

To be fair I still drove it around for a while, but I was constantly having to adjust the trim, which got tiring.  Plus yet again one of the sway bars came out (those grub screws come undone more often the ones on the SRB front-end) so it was lifting a wheel like an over-enthusiastic dog and generally being a pain in the backside, so it went away for the weekend.

I ordered a brand new Treal draglink from the bay as soon as I got home, which only cost me about 2 pillows, and arrived in the post yesterday.

There's more to follow, including the entire of 4wd day yet, but I stopped because I kinda wanted to go do fit the Treal draglink, which turned into yet another glorious saga and yet another order with a local hobby shop, which cost me 2 more pillows.  More on that when I update my LMT thread...

[Andreas W 2533]

Nice writeup. Almost feel I was there.  Looking forward to read how it went with the Hotshot. 

[87lc2 2848]

Awesome read as usual @Mad Ax, sounds like you had a good time.  Count your blessings that you guys have events like this across the pond, there's nothing like that over here (at least in my neck of the woods). 

 

[Mad Ax 10595]

13 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

Count your blessings that you guys have events like this across the pond, there's nothing like that over here (at least in my neck of the woods). 

Yeah, it's actually gone crazy here over the last couple of years.  For vintage buggy races, there are now two Revivals, plus the Lakeland Classic, a Jingle Bell Cup taking place at the end of November and we even have the Euro Masters coming back to the UK for the second year in a row in 2024.  I was considering taking a step back from racing next year (in fact I even shunned the Jingle Bell Cup in favour of booking another walking weekend) but Revival was so much awesome, I kinda want to do the Euro Masters in March, then get a few more vintage meets in throughout 2024 while I save up to do the Euro Masters over in Europe in 2025 (assuming it doesn't come to the UK for the 3rd year in a row!)

[Mad Ax 10595]

After a fairly good sleep (well, better than Friday night's sleep, anyway) I woke refreshed and ready to get cracking on 4wd Sunday.  There's the temptation to be sad on Sunday because it's the last day of the event, and there's no evening of frivolity to look forward to, but for me, 4wd day is the best of the lot, and I'm one of those strange people who looks forward to the drive home and getting back to normality.

I got up early, as I usually do, ate a healthy breakfast, then started carting all my kit across the site to the pits while one half of the pits was still poking their bleary eyes out from behind their tents and the rest were already giving their race packs a final top-up and setting out their racks of tyres for the day.  Before I knew it, it was time to take my cars over to the start/finish straight for the obligatory pre-race concourse.

Here's a selection of vintage race cars:

The sun decided to join us again, defying all expectations, but there was rain on the forecast for mid-afternoon, so the day was going to be run at flat-out pace to try to get all the heats and maybe even the finals done before it got soggy.

I threw a pack into the custom HotShot and prepared to go racing.

[Mad Ax 10595]

Once again, I'd entered the earliest possible class, and had seeded in the first heat - 4th place in C, so mine was the first heat out on track at 8:30.  The race went well, the car was an absolute dream to drive, its only fault being too much front-end, leading to a few instances of grip roll.  I finished 2nd and came back to the pits to make some adjustments.

First adjustment was a new rear wing, from Penguin Custom Bodyshells.  The original HotShot wing got ruined years ago, the one I was running is, I don't know, some random modern-ish thing, it was probably a Penguin that I won in a Revival raffle some years back.  It wasn't really the right thing for the job - this one (I think it's an early RC10 Worlds wing?) looked much more appropriate for the age of the car, and would become the sticking point for a variety of stickers throughout the day.

After fitting the wing, I trimmed off the outer ring of knobbly bits from the front tyres to combat the grip roll, then went off for a wander.

Kenny from Kengor Racing over on insta was out with his fleet of white-with-black-bits cars, including some rare FWD buggies.

And there was another huge haul of goodies for some lucky people to take away from the raffle

[Mad Ax 10595]

Round 2 was scruffy and involved a roll that had me stuck for a while, so my overall time was slower than before, even though I still finished 2nd.  A lot of people were struggling with reliability, so finishing in a good position was largely a case of keeping it on the road and not having any bits fall off.  My car felt a little slow, especially on the straight, and although I had buckets of drive out of the corners I was running out of puff before I got to the next braking zone.  So, it was time for more speed!

I pulled out the motor to discover I still had a 13 tooth pinion in place, so there was plenty of scope for improvement.  I had a 16 tooth pinion in the box, but that felt like too big a step.  Unfortunately my 15 tooth pinion was in the spare car.

Because of the way I'd installed the wiring, with the motor wires tucked neatly under the driver and above the battery compartment, getting the motor out turned out to be way more of a pain than I planned.  Getting it back in again isn't easy in a Hotshot either, with those silly spacer plates to set the pinion mesh.  I spent a short lifetime trying to get it all back together and having it not line up properly due to the soldered-on motor wires interfering with part of my custom chassis.  But after a fair bit of cursing and moaning it finally went back in, and it wasn't long before I was ready to hit the track again.

Heat 3 went well, with a cleaner run and a much faster car.  I finished 3rd, but with improved times - other drivers were fixing their reliability problems and getting in some fast times.  The car felt way faster on the straight, but braking wasn't compromised, it still had loads of punch out of the corners and the motor wasn't too hot after a run.  The tiny Trackstar ESC tucked away inside the chassis wasn't burning up too much either.  Top marks to Turnigy and Thunder Power!

With so many classes (12 heats total) there was plenty of time between rounds to get back to the van and pack everything up.  It felt odd to be packing down just after lunch, but rain was still on the forecast and my awning is a pain to air and dry at home, so I wanted it all packed away before it got wet.

I don't think I made any changes between round 3 and 4, I just went out and drove.  My time improved again, but so did everyone else's, so I came in 4th in heat.

I had a lot of spare time between quali and finals, but being in the first class out means I have to keep a close ear on the commentary or risk missing the final.  I couldn't hear the announcements way down where I'd parked, so I drove the van up near to our pit area (people were already starting to leave, so there was a bit more space) and started packing up my stuff.  I literally just left my table and chair, car and transmitter out and ready to go so I could make a swift exit if it started raining.

[Mad Ax 10595]

When the results were announced, I was thrilled to find I'd qualified 7th in the B-final - a huge step up from 4th in the C where I'd started that morning.  I'd thought my racing wasn't really that good all day, but turns out the drivers in the higher heats weren't having the best of luck and I managed to leapfrog my way into the midfield, landing among some names that I have seen on the timesheets for years and have recently come to know as friends.  I even had the rare treat of winding up Adie from RaceCraft RC as we queued up for our final, because I'd outqualified him.  I said I was making the most of it because it hadn't happened before and probably wouldn't ever happen again!

So what a treat it was, to be racing in the final with a whole bunch of mates, way above my expected pay-grade with a car I'd pretty much built myself.  It didn't even matter if it broke on lap 1 - what an epic day it had been.

So off we race on the start, and because it was a busy grid and I was in the midfield, I forgot all about my usual plan of hanging back and picking up some places from the inevitable first-corner charge.  The result was a roll in the first section, which put me plum last and picking up scraps.

In the end it was a scrappy race for me, but fantastic fun, being in the midfield meant I had a few slower cars to enjoy passing here and there but still had to make space for the leaders.  In the end I finished in 9th, 2 laps off the lead - down on my quali, which is never good, but my quali position was in part due to other peoples' misfortune, so it wasn't really surprising that some of them got the better of me in the race.  But hey, what a fantastic race it was, and what a great way to finish a great weekend.

Except it wasn't over yet - Revival isn't over until my head hits the pillow.  The rain was still a little way off, so I took my time packing up the last few things, wandered around the track to find as many of my buddies as I could to say goodbyes, in some cases for a whole nother year.  But then the skies were darkening, the ground was still wet, and my van isn't designed for mud, so I couldn't put it off any longer.

Bingham to West Wilts on a Sunday afternoon is a good run, usually without much traffic, and I had a playlist of epic and uplifting albums to keep my spirits high and reflecting on the good times that had just passed.  It was the 30th July, with the whole of the British summer still ahead of me, and, as I often tell my daughter, it is no good to be sad that good times have passed, but to be happy that we had the opportunity to enjoy them.

And then, 10 minutes into the journey, it started raining, a state of affairs that would persist intermittently for the next 3+ hours, but would add no bitter taste to my fond memories, for I was heading home to a lovely wife and a big greasy takeaway.  (Just had to check I got that the right way round).  It's a Revival tradition that I get my favourite takeaway from the local kebab shop to round off the weekend.  A proper shower to remove the dust, pollen, tyre grime, and that special kind of stink that can only occur in the mounds of sand left to sweat in darkness under sun-baked astroturf, and then there was just time for a large chicken donner with chilli sauce and chips, a few pints of ice-cold lager before Iconic Revival 2023 was officially over.

[87lc2 2848]

Sounds like a great time.  I used to always get down when a nice weekend or day like that was over, but that's changed over the years.  I do as you say and appreciate the moment and look forward to the next one.  Glad you got to rub fenders with your buddies and had a good final, that's what its all about.  I've only recently gotten back into racing with other cars on track and its a thrill I've been missing for a long time.  Thanks for sharing, love reading your race write-ups and can now further relate. 

[bavee 1151]

Thank you for the write-up. Really enjoyed reading it!

If it would be me I would have driven back home to collect my pillow. Nothing sleeps better and you could have also picked up your airbeam. Whatever that may be .

To new adventures 🍻!