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John Cooper Challenge Castle Combe 31 May 2004
DK and Apple attended their first John Cooper Challenge event of 2004, a race meet at Castle Combe. The event was organised by minisoopercooper of MINI2 fame. Please click here for the main thread on MINI2.
The event was well attended, with nearly 30 "official" MINI2ers who had nothing better to do on a Bank Holiday Monday turning up to cheer a mix of MINI Coopers and Cooper S's in 2 20-minute races involving seasoned MINI2 racers, Racer and Stephen Campbell who competed in the Club Sport class.
This year is the John Cooper Challenge's third year, but the first to involve Cooper S's. Coopers and Cooper S's raced together in the first double-header event of the season, but separate scores were kept for each class of cars.
The day started unsociably early for DK and Apple, who had to leave London at about 06:00h in order to meet up with scooperman_uk, Jasonfields007 and wigley en-route, before joining the rest of the MINI2 contingent at Tormarton for the final convoy to the Castle Combe circuit.
The group arrived at the circuit shortly after 08:30h, and managed to fill a considerable proportion of the prominent parking space along the Avon Rise. Shaun of MINI2 kindly prepared bacon sandwiches for the hungry mob, while minisoopercooper et al erected the gazebo. minisoopercooper and scooperman_uk kindly provided tea and coffee using piping hot water fresh from a stove, adding a more civilised feel to the day!
Once again, PMR446s (commonly known as walkie-talkies) demonstrated their value as a means of communication. The benefit of having radios that are capable of using sub-channels was clearly evident when the groups' radios kept picking up transmissions from other people. Hence they had to switch to a sub-channel in order to have some peace and quiet! Thanks to minisoopercooper, DK has also learnt not to leave the radio switched on when visiting public conveniences!!!
The weather was kind to the group until just before the afternoon's second JCC race. The rain made the track slippery, resulting in a few car-casualties. Luckily, both Racer and Stephen Campbell finished the second race unscathed. DK is not very good at reporting races, so please visit the John Cooper website for the full details by clicking this link (please note that the write up may not be available until a day or two after the event).
After being drenched yet again at a race meet, although not as cold and unpleasant as JCC Mallory Park 2002, DK is seriously considering equipping herself with some decent waterproof gear!
All in all, a grand day out!
Please click here to see a slide show featuring scenes and people who made this a very enjoyable day.
Please note that it may take some time to download all the photos before the slide show will start to run, depending on the speed of your internet connection. If the slide show does not start automatically, click "Pause Slide Show" and navigate manually using the "Previous" and "Next" links.
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