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21st-24th - March 2008 Easter Thunderdall,now know as the Snowball!
Santa Pod Raceway.

Lyn and I, drove to pod on Thursday, morning, in our new transit van(new to us)and new caravan! in a very strong and gusty head wind, hard work or what at times we could not get above 40 mph. Mpg went out of the widow! We got in OK, and pitted, and for the first time ever, we had power in our caravan! And boy did we need it over the weekend.

I started scrutineering, at 5ish, and got about 15 done, it was nice to be back at pod, and meet up with everyone again, thanks to all the racers who made me a cuppa, which helped to keep me warm, as it was wet, windy and very cold ! madness!!!!

Netty (now a Pod official) and Tim pitted next to us.

During the night the wind got stronger, gale force, it woke me up 4ish, it was Very scary, not good and it did not drop!

Steve Johnson and Steve Hill (Avon scrutineer) and I started work at 8.

The track opened, but for cars only, the gusty and strong side winds made it unsafe for the bikes at first the bikes where going to run over the 1/8 only, Tim Blakemore came to see me he was very unhappy with the side winds, I checked the wind meter in the tower oh dear, 1 mph, 28 mph, 10 mph and so on. I must admit there's no way I would have done a run on my bike!

So, Steve, Darren and I walked the track and we made our decision, no bikes to run until, the wind drops! The cars had a field day, and ran all day.

The bike racers where very good about not running, we gave them up dates every hour.

At 4 o'clock, it was beer o'clock for the bike pits.

Its now Sunday afternoon as I write this report, and still no bikes have run up the track. In fact nothing has run since Friday well apart from the tractor.

This morning we woke up to snow, and lots of it (see pics). A lot of racers have already gone home, and who can blame them.

It's the worst weather Santa Pod has ever had, the Medi Centre has been kept busy with loads of campers suffering from hypothermia.

Nitro FM saved the day yet again, this time in there new home, in the old barn, very nice.

And thanx to our very own Lorna, who sent in a text wishing all NAST members at Pod a good time, good girl.

Monday, the track crew worked hard and got the track race ready, the wind had dropped and I am pleased to say the bikes ran, as well as the cars. Well done those who weathered the storm of Saturday and Sunday. We did get the odd snow storm but the meeting did run its course. Well done everyone.

Rick Naylor was running in Comp Bike on his new Gas bike, he was doing some shack down runs, the last pass was nice A to B, and it was in the tens.

Racer of the weekend, I watched all the bikes do their, runs there were loads of very fast passes, but the one who impressed me the most was Phil Pratt, well done that man.

Phil runs in 950 bike, it was a joy to watch him in the semi and the final - which he won.

The last bike final was run at 7 o'clock, by which time it was freezing, time to go home.

Before I go I would like to thank Steve Moxley for his write up in the Pod programme, and thanx to Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes, for words and pics of Wendy and myself in Dragster Australia.

Lyn and I drove home in the trusty Transit, after a very exceptional but enjoyable weekend.

Leso

Photos

Bob hard at work in the only thing regularly going up the track each day! - Tim Hooper
Scott Collier - The only bike running! - Tim Hooper	Sorry mate, that seat's taken! - Tim Hooper	Scrubbing up something else makes a change from Oil! - Tim Hooper
The most Productive result of Sunday - Tim Hooper