Saturday 7 April 2012

Surf, Lambos, and a Puncture

Thusday morning, chuck my shortboard in the car and set off for two days of surf and driving on a dodgy weather forecast knowing I cannot put the roof up untill I get home.

Head over the M62 to Runswick and the waves look small but walked around anyway and went in, one SUPer out. Caught a few little uns and decided to head round to saltburn for high tide.

Checked phone and John was getting in at Saltburn so figured I would see him in there - sure did, he ran me over as I was paddling out! All in all a couple of decent surfs, waves in Salty were ok if a little lumby and disorganised. Not been out on the 6.4 for about a year forgotten and had forgotten just how responsive it is under your feet - going start using it as my main board again.

Got out and called Ash, who was driving up to meet me in his Elise for a track day in Middlesdborough the next day. Decided to meet him just north of York so had a fantastic drive down Blakely ridge which had snow piled 10 foot high either side of the road in places. Parked up in Hovingham to wait for him and had a sit in the sun.
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Ash rolled up and we had a blat up the Helmsley to Stokesley road and to our hotel where we met up with the Sporting Bears gang and had a good northern dinner - £10 with a starter of Melon or Prawn Cocktail - and Ash unbelieving that you could buy two pints for a fiver!

Next day off to Teeside Autodrome to the charity track day. My first passenger, a young lad of 10 stated he loved the elise so I made sure the car was sideways everywhere I could manage on the little kart track. Then after 8 laps I pull in and discover this little beauty in my back tyre.



After a couple of hours of frantic phoning around (good friday) I had  sourced two used tyres for free (thanks Moggy, Kev and Mark) if needed but as it turned out the tyre was repairable and I had the car back at the track by 1pm.
Now for what most people have logged on here to look at....Lambos - well offering kids a ride in your lotus is pretty pointless when you have these cars behind you waiting to take them out.



  






Wanting to be home at a reasonable hour Ash and I left a little early finished up with a brilliant drive over the Yorkshire Dales from Hawes to Settle then over to Longbridge in appalling weather conditions. Concentration was required at times but both cars Elises performed without a single scare and their owner still cant get bored of driving them. I set Ash off earlier today with his tomtom set for the Cat and Fiddle and beyond.

Final mention goes to the little lad who kept me company whilst we queued for ten minutes to exit the track in the rain, not only did he clean the inside of my car with the towel he fished out from behind the drivers seat but he made me laugh so much I could have happily taken him home.