It’s been nearly two months since Street Weekend already. If I had wanted to write about it immediately after all id have written is one word “wow”. It took some time to let it all sink in and to wrap my head around what an amazing time it was.
Friday morning, I woke up having not slept very well through excitement. My co-pilot for the week, Alex, was on his way to my house so we could get stuck into Street Weekend. I’ve known Alex for about 6 years now, since I started my YouTube journey, he and I share a passion for Minis and for most things’ cars, (including old Vauxhalls) so he was the perfect choice to be my passenger and co-pilot.
Once Alex arrived, we got our things thrown into the Mini and headed off to Santa Pod. The format of the weekend is such that we start at Santa Pod on Friday to do at least 1 ¼ mile pass on the track to record a time. Then we must head to Melbourne Raceway to go on the 1/8th mile track before heading back to Santa Pod to run on Sunday. The winner of the weekend is the one with the lowest total time for the three days.
Many people trailered their car to Santa Pod initially to set up camp and then to begin the race. I chose to drive my Mini to the track, mostly because I didn’t own a trailer to be able to tow it there. The drive to Santa Pod went well on Friday morning, if a little too long due to a need to stop at Greggs for food. We arrived about 11am where we saw cars already on track. We got signed on and began getting the car ready to go on track. All we had to do was empty three days’ worth of spare parts, tools and anything else we thought we might need, which I must add that in doing this realised the first mistake of the weekend.
This is where the fun part started, drag racing. I’ve watched drag racing on YouTube for quite a few years now, mostly 1320 video and Cleetus McFarland. Even though I’ve been watching it for a long time I have never had a go myself. So, I got in the lanes and headed to make my first ever ¼ mile run on a drag strip. In leading up to this event I tried to work out what time I might expect to run, I had no idea. So, I did a few small tests on local roads. I decided that I would expect a 17 second time, be over the moon with a 16 and if I was really feeling good get a 15.
My first run, I forgot to turn on my go pro, so this run is permanently in memory only. My heart rate started racing, I felt hot and uncomfortable. I had on put my helmet on and driven to the front of the lanes so far. I was given the thumbs up to move onto the burnout box and prepare for my run. The sky was clear blue, the sun nothing short of tropical, at least that’s how it felt with the windows up and a helmet on. I did a burnout, for the first time, then moved onto the start line. Having watched as much drag racing as I have, I knew this procedure well, but still doubted everything. The lights dropped and the green light lit, it then felt like a decade before my brain told my arms and legs to go. I completed the run with a reaction time of about 2.2 seconds and an ET of 16.14 at 84mph. I was over the moon with that. The rest of the day passed covering another 4 runs on track trying to get my time down. It didn’t happen, what did happen was I began to struggle to select second gear.
With the racing done for the day it was time to pack the car and head north via some check points that were set for us. We had two check points to visit prior to arriving at Melbourne Raceway for racing on Saturday. The first was Crowden car park. A picturesque parking area was waiting for us in the peak district along Woodhead pass. Upon arrival we met Peter and Kayleigh who we fellow racers in the event. We had a little chat and then got ready to take the prerequisite photo. Afterwards we were met by a very disappointed lady who didn’t like the noise of some of the competitors’ cars. We hopefully made her see that we aren’t hooligans but only Race Car drivers. I can use that title now.
We headed to Alex house for the night as he lives locally to Melbourne and the northern check points. During the drive to Alex’ house we found 2nd gear harder and harder to select, we got to Alex house having decided that we need to have a quick look and then find another gearbox to swap into the car. Once parked in Alex’ garden the bonnet came off and the second gear problem investigated. The reverse light plug had got tangled in the gear linkage.
Saturday morning, we felt good about what we had done so far, and that we weren’t changing a gearbox. We are heading straight to the second checkpoint at EDA, which due to being open late fixing competitors’ cars wasn’t open in the morning. Then headed to Melbourne Raceway. Once al Melbourne we had to empty the car again and then find the scrutineer. Once done I headed to the lanes to get ready to get a run in. We had already made the decision at this point for a one and done approach to the day. I got the run in of 10.87 over the 1/8th mile, submitted my time slip and got the car loaded again.
Back on the road to head south. The route was to visit the two check points and then head to my house for the night before driving back to Santa Pod again. The first check point was Darkside developments, which was an amazing place. I had heard of them but didn’t realise the scale of the business. We stayed there and chatted to some people and headed off to the second check point. We arrived at Straight To The Point racing. Alex and I thought we had died and gone to heaven. It was incredible. The workshop was spotless, the cars on display were perfect and the staff were so friendly and happy to chat to everyone. An hour to so later we arrived home for the night.
Sunday morning arrived with some anxiety of the last leg of the journey ahead. Back to Santa Pod, race and then we will have completed the Race. The trip to ‘Pod went great with no problems at all, we got back emptied the car and headed straight to the lanes. The weather forecast wasn’t great for Sunday so we had to make sure we got a run in ASAP to be sure we could run. The run felt great, I hit each gear change just right, I got off the line with minimal wheel spin (it was a fully prepped track). I crossed the line feeling quite good, even though the R50 next to me ran way faster. I picked up my time slip on the way back immediately felt the whole weekend come to a head. I felt like I was floating, or some other cliché for feeling on top of the world (or that one). I ran a 15.99. What a way to finish the weekend. I got that 15. I handed in my time slip and finished the UKs first Street Weekend.
The best car event ever. Now I’m hooked.