On the Run - Part 1
Here it was, yes the day had finally arrived, the day of the annual 'SmartClub London to Brighton Run'. A day where a couple of thousand Smart-lovin' maniacs could gather in one place to discuss all things Smart related. I did the run last year, and there was no way I was missing this years gathering. I even put seeing Clerks II aside to attend this event, that is how much I wanted to go. This is my tale...
It's 6.30am on Sunday morning, and I am climbing into my trusty Smart. I had spent nearly three hours on Friday evening cleaning and polishing it in readiness for today, and of course, its raining. But unwavered by the weather I drive to Bluewater where I am meeting some other members from the SmartClub website. I arrive just before 7am, and everyone has got there before me. I park and go to meet them. I walk up to the group and say a cheery 'Good morning'. It didn't take too long for me to notice that I already knew one of the people standing there from some years ago, and we spend a few minutes catching up before we all decide to leave for our next meeting point.
The group of 15 or so Smarts leave Bluewater behind, and join the M25. It decides to rain some more on the way to Clackett Lane services. Then a bit more, and then a lot more before it finally stops again. We pull into the carpark, where there is another gathering of ForTwo's, ForFour's and Roadster's from Essex. We get out of our vehicles, say our 'Hello's and "ooo' and 'aaah' over various cars sitting there until we all leave for Brooklands circuit, which this year is doubling for the startline.
After getting a bit lost, and a slight detour we drive into Brooklands at 8.30am. It looks a bit like a wasteland with just a big shiny silver Mercedes building and a bendy track in front of it. The end of the track is where 70 or 80 cars have already gathered. So ignoring the "Its 15mph on the circuit mate", I sped off down the track at a jaunty 30mph...ish to join the back of the queue. This was to be my home for the next couple of hours while we waited for more attendees to arrive.
We stood, chatted, admired and generally socialised until our numbers had swelled and the aerial view (taken from one members remote control helicopter) looked rather like this. (I'm parked in the middle of the first bend)
Still more cars arrived and filled the remaining tarmac, but the time to leave was almost upon us. At the sound of the foghorn, we all climbed back into our cars and slowly we all filed out of Brooklands and back to the motorway for our drive to Brighton racecourse.
More to come...stay posted!
It's 6.30am on Sunday morning, and I am climbing into my trusty Smart. I had spent nearly three hours on Friday evening cleaning and polishing it in readiness for today, and of course, its raining. But unwavered by the weather I drive to Bluewater where I am meeting some other members from the SmartClub website. I arrive just before 7am, and everyone has got there before me. I park and go to meet them. I walk up to the group and say a cheery 'Good morning'. It didn't take too long for me to notice that I already knew one of the people standing there from some years ago, and we spend a few minutes catching up before we all decide to leave for our next meeting point.
The group of 15 or so Smarts leave Bluewater behind, and join the M25. It decides to rain some more on the way to Clackett Lane services. Then a bit more, and then a lot more before it finally stops again. We pull into the carpark, where there is another gathering of ForTwo's, ForFour's and Roadster's from Essex. We get out of our vehicles, say our 'Hello's and "ooo' and 'aaah' over various cars sitting there until we all leave for Brooklands circuit, which this year is doubling for the startline.
After getting a bit lost, and a slight detour we drive into Brooklands at 8.30am. It looks a bit like a wasteland with just a big shiny silver Mercedes building and a bendy track in front of it. The end of the track is where 70 or 80 cars have already gathered. So ignoring the "Its 15mph on the circuit mate", I sped off down the track at a jaunty 30mph...ish to join the back of the queue. This was to be my home for the next couple of hours while we waited for more attendees to arrive.
We stood, chatted, admired and generally socialised until our numbers had swelled and the aerial view (taken from one members remote control helicopter) looked rather like this. (I'm parked in the middle of the first bend)
Still more cars arrived and filled the remaining tarmac, but the time to leave was almost upon us. At the sound of the foghorn, we all climbed back into our cars and slowly we all filed out of Brooklands and back to the motorway for our drive to Brighton racecourse.
More to come...stay posted!
posted by Redrawn at 12:49 PM
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