JAPFEST - CASTLE COMBE, NEAR BATH - SATURDAY 20th JUNE 2006
For the first time this year the club had a stand at the Japfest held at Castle Combe. This
event is the biggest of its type in the south west.
Club members could descend on the site at any time after 7am and by the time I
arrived there was a number of members present, including Peter Scatchard the Upper Thames regional organiser.
Once we had chance to park up and take it all in we realised what a great pitch we
had been given. Just inside the main gate in a prime location. Unfortunately the
weather hadn’t been quite so kind to us at the start of the day with it
raining constantly on the journey up and once this had finished, the wind that
came with the rain persisted.
Once everyone had arrived we were free to do our introductions and have a look around
the site and admire the many hundreds of cars displayed around the site and look
around the trade stands as well. A total of 15 cars were displayed on our stand
and I felt we had a good presence and presented the club very well.
You may be aware that Japfest is different to most Japanese car shows in that you
can buy track time and go out on the famous Castle Combe track. This costs £25
for a 15 minute session and you have to attend a drivers briefing before you can
go out on the curcuit.
Our group’s first session was at around lunch time and I would like to say it went
without incident, but unfortunately this was not the case. Garrick, one of the
clubs members, was mis-identified by a Honda driver as being a car he had a
close call with. Having heard about the events since, it appears the Honda
driver was just about breaking every rule he had been placed upon him at the
drivers briefing, following this up with the threat of physical violence to poor
old Garrick. Not good.
The afternoon session went a little more smoothly with only Philip Bood having a
mechanical problem out on track. This turned out to be a wiring failure to the
fuel pump and didn’t detain him from leaving the site that day.
I would like to thank everyone who came along that day with special thanks to
Peter Scatchard and Jo Walker who came along and helped set things up. Let’s
hope next year is just as good.
Steve Hallett South West regional organiser.
