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15/08/2005 DANCING IN THE RAIN It appears that ACI Racing is a modern-day rain god. We left a flooded Mantorp to arrive at the campsite at Karlstad and guess what, it started raining. The Schofers said there were campers in swimsuits sun-bathing just 10 minutes before our arrival. This time we put down pit-flooring to avoid wet feet. Whilst helping Harry to put his tent up he quietly revealed he "hadn't had it up since the World Finals", I must admit I thought he was looking a bit peaky! Needless to say it was too cold and miserable for the nudists at the lake, but it was dry enough for the Turners to comprehensively stuff us at badminton and volleyball. Later that day some guy in motor bike leathers asked if we were a line-dancing team! It must be the way we walk. He seemed to think our ACI team jackets were typical of those worn by the yee-hah brigade. Good job we weren’t singing our favourite Dolly Parton song. One particular pleasure at the campsite is mixing socially with the other teams and to learn new and interesting facts. We learnt, for example, that there is a stuffed dog on platform 4 at Slough railway station called 'Station Jim' (the dog not the platform). He used to travel the railway network many decades ago and had quite a reputation. After he went to the big kennel in the sky, he was stuffed and placed in a glass case. Regular passengers missed him of course but were relieved not to be walking through dogsh*t every day. What was particularly amusing was that Fiona Flynn who told us about it comes from New Zealand and couldn’t understand us locals not knowing all about “Station Jim”. Sadly, Jim is now looking a bit rough, not surprising really if you spend 80-odd years in Slough. Readers of our report for last year at the campsite might remember the issue of seagulls. The first night was blissfully silent but the second night they revealed their new and fearsome weapon, the duck-bomb. Seagulls are noticeable by their tap-tapping on the truck roof but this time there was a sudden and unexpected bang in the middle of the night that woke everyone. It seems they bring in the duck to blitz the target and then follow up with the machine gun tap-tapping of their feet. It's difficult to tell but I'd swear that I saw a wink from the gull that peered through the sunroof of the truck. We arrived at Gardermoen and after unloading the car and setting up the pit, it rained. Friday, the first day of qualifying, began with sunshine. In keeping with our usual policy, we backed off the tune-up but the track was good and 5.48 at 261mph came up on the board. This put us no1 qualifier after the first round. The tyres were blistered and we only had one spare set . This gave us a dilemma in that we like to make as many runs as possible not only for the data but also for the spectators but we are leading the FIA championship and commonsense prevailed. We were due to run last in the 2nd round of qualifying and after having watched them all fail to bump us from the no1 spot, we elected to tow straight back to the pits. Saturday morning and it is hissing down with that heavy and very wet rain. It stayed that way pretty well for the entire day. We took the opportunity to make some repairs to a leak in a sunroof in the truck but Ricky is a mechanic and I'm a plumber so sadly the roof now leaks more than ever. Spent most of the day bench-racing of course but eventually Dave decided he wanted the engine re-configured which took a couple of hours but then the Easter Thunderball gremlin hit, it wouldn't start. We were not going to have a repeat of the flame and no thunder show of a few months previous so we had some bowls of water ready and indeed had to put out a small fire in the pit. Eventually we solved the problem and the car fired up around 11pm and thankfully the evening meal wasn't burnt. Race day and up at 7am for an early warm-up but by 7.30 it was pouring (especially through the sunroof) and so it remained for the rest of the day. More bench racing, an excellent barbeque courtesy of Catherine and plenty of socialising with the other teams. Suzy gave us all haircuts. Not bad, 10 days away from home and a total of 30 seconds action, that's Drag Racing. It was still pouring on Monday morning as we struggled to pack up the pit. Just ten minutes after leaving Gardermoen in the truck and the sunshine was dazzling. See you at the Pod ….weather permitting.
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