The trip to Arque-La-Bataille in France was well documented in October’s Acorn but I would just like to add a few comments and some amusing moments.  For me the worst memory of the trip was leaving Suffolk at 3am on a Saturday morning, in the dark, in the rain when there were people still going home to bed.  Oh and the roadworks on the M2!
The journey from home to Arques took about 5 hours driving time and the ferry cost £164.00 with the trailer on the back which I thought was pretty good value.  When we arrived the hill was all that Jim had described before, complete with some very hard looking kerbs and massive straw bales.
We camped and I can remember my dynamic assistant was not finding it easy to sleep as it was p***ing with rain most of the night.  There was one horrifying moment when I turned over half asleep to be met with a huge bum hanging out of the wrong end of his sleeping bag….not a pretty sight!
What should have been a really good weekend ended up a total disaster for me, water in the engine, bent gearbox, wet bum, stuck trailer in the Tesco Wine Market car park!  I felt that the French organisers could have been a bit more enthusiastic about the English contingent.  It seemed to me that we were held in a collecting area beside the start until all the French competitors had run.  We were not given times, so the starting procedure was casual to say the least with someone shouting “Allez! Allez!” and one other guy shouting “Non! Non!”.
Would I go again?  Probably but only if we had  numbers, were timed and generally more included in the competition.  After all we did actually pay an entry fee, although to be fair that only covered the minimum insurance requirement.  Oh and perhaps a different time of year with less rain!
Finally I must say thank you to those hardy chaps from Team Kemsing plus the honorary members, for their beer and sandwiches.  Perhaps someone could consider organising a group next year on a slightly more official basis i.e. Team Sevenoaks challenges Team Frog or something similar.  Anybody got any thoughts?
Again thanks to Jim Giddings for leading the way.
 

Rob Hulme
This winter Rob is starting a new project as he intends to build himself a new car from scratch, a motorbike powered rear engine with an aluminium monocoque. I am hoping Rob will perhaps send us a snippet or two (with pictures) of his progress.  Good luck with that, Rob…..The Ed