This was our first visit to Santa Pod and while we didn't quite achieve the goal of it being our biggest yet (there's space to spare - make sure you come next time!) it was a great day, made better still by some lovely spring weather.
Upon welcoming people to the gate it was entertaining to hear many who'd initially declined the chance to run the strip suddenly giving in to temptation and signing up. Going by the expressions on the faces of some passengers the enthusiasm for this didn't seem universally shared!
Some of the cars which signed up to race also came somewhat of a surprise, the entry list including a Smart FourFour Brabus, a Zafira GSI and a Ford Anglia. The latter turned out to be a little more potent than expected, providing a great show for anyone seeing it run.
No surprise to see a Golf R opening the day's bidding, its 12.4sec time repeated with Swiss watch precision every time it ran thanks to the DSG-assisted launch control. Good to see plenty of AMGs in attendance too, the unmistakable pitch of the new 4.0-litre twin-turbo C63 a regular sound. Of this particular line-up lead vocals remained the preserve of the SL65, happily taking centre stage.
Gentlemanly competition was the order of the day, making it a huge success from our point of view. Well, among PHers at least. Rivalry among the PH team got a little heated, the much anticipated run between Ben and his 'standard' Audi TT Quattro Sport and Matt in his new Civic Type R long-termer seeing the former conforming to stereotype and rather smug about
taking the win
. The other pairing we were looking forward to was that between 'our' borrowed Mustang and PHer RossP's manual BMW M4; unfortunately for us once the BMW hooked up the Mustang never stood a chance.
By lunch many attendees had done their time on the strip but we were there until mid-afternoon, leaving the die-hards (mainly the TVR owners, appropriately!) continuing to battle it out on the strip.
Thanks again to Santa Pod for hosting us - hopefully we'll be back soon! In the meantime we'll look forward to our next event at Morgan on April 17. Join the Sunday Service discussion here.
Ollie
Watch the video here.
[Photos: Chris Teagles and Dafydd Wood]