Finding ourselves with a spare weekend, we thought it would be rather jolly to take Miss Daisy to visit sunny Wiltshire and in particular, the ancient market town of Castle Combe. Sadly, little remains of the Castle and even less of the Combe. Other facilities not featured in the area include petrol stations, with the result that we had to gamble on some of the finest moonshine available, AKA Morrison’s economy petrol, whilst those who take matters far too seriously were measuring out precise quantities of what looked like rocket fuel.

Being one for punctuality, Miss Daisy was chaperoned to the circuit nice and early by Marcus the Musician only to find that her chauffer, Hoke Colburn, was fashionably late. Needless to say, Miss Daisy was somewhat deflated by this, particularly her front tyres, but still made it to qualifying in good time. Whilst always wishing to share our experience with our closest friends, we were a little surprised to see some 41 others had elected to tour the circuit at the very same time as ourselves. Not having travelled to this part of the world for some years, Hoke was just a smattering off the pace, but it is a little difficult to take qualifying seriously on a circuit where Dean Straight heads for Camp Corner.

Come race time, there were so many cars on the circuit that Miss Daisy’s style was somewhat cramped and we were so far from the front row of the grid (having secured a strong 37th place in qualifying) we were practically in Bristol! Our plan, if there is such a thing, was to hold our ground for the first few laps before reeling in those ahead of us. However, this came to nowt when we realised that our grid position prevented us seeing the start/finish line and perhaps more importantly, the lights, regardless of whether we looked through or above our bi-focals. Not wishing to seek an unfair advantage, we felt it best to wait until those around us had departed before setting off in pursuit at a jolly rate of knots.

For the first few laps we amused ourselves by chasing after the metros and scaring them at the corners but as the race progressed, we found ourselves in a battle! Young Mr Piggott was attempting to show Miss Daisy a clean pair of heels having previously shown most of Wiltshire a suspect pair of knees whilst modelling a rather dubious pair of shorts. Unfortunately, for Michael, he lacked the horse power (and accountancy skills) of his brother, Lester, and Hoke was able to ease past. From 37th Daisy finished a resounding 34th, passing a whole 3 cars (count them) in just 14 minutes and 21.918 seconds. How those who mocked our choice of Morrison’s economy fuel must feel now!

Congratulations are in order to our former chauffeur, Mr Daniel Ludlow, who escorted Miss Daisy at Donington but secured victory at Castle Combe in a very smart Metro. Class Honours went to Mr James Walpole, thus securing a victory at the castle for the Round Heads.

Race Results

Fastest Lap: Dan Ludlow

Class A Results

 Fastest Lap: James Walpole

Download:
Castle Combe Race Booklet

Videos on YouTube

Author: simonpaulwhite Author: burchillracing Author: incarvideo

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