POLAR NEWS   -  No. 58 November 2009
FROM YOUR EDITOR Many thanks to Pete and Cathy Cathchpole for stamps for the Polar News. Thanks also to Mike Webber for writing about the Curborough Trackday he attended and to Dick and Pat Nortcliffe for the article on the 2009 Highland Fling.

CONFESSIONS OF A FIRST-TIME SPRINTER
'No previous experience required' was the clincher in Dave Muttock's invitation to the 1st. 2009 Curborough Sprint. An added attraction was that the sprint was open to road cars, the only safety requirement being a helmet if you were in a convertible or open sports car. I opted to use a borrowed helmet despite having a fixed roof. My insurers (Peter Best) were happy to cover the event at no extra cost, provided it was not a competitive timed trial. Having taken the plunge and sent in the £60 fee, the immediate question arose, where on earth is Curborough? Garmin had no idea, but the Internet produced the answer -a long way from here! It's near Lichfield, just at the southern end of the M6 Toll Road. This meant travelling the day before and staying overnight, finding a bed through the excellent Sporting Bears section on www.frontdesk.co.uk. (He would say that -Ed.). The 'Dino' performed faultlessly on the trip south and early next morning, in fine dry weather, it was off to find the circuit. This was slightly less straightforward than expected, and assorted confused-looking Bears could be spotted cruising up and down the A38 looking for the turnoff, which turned out to be signed 'Fradley Park' rather than 'Curborough'. Once found, the circuit was just a mile or two to the east of the main road, and on arrival there were unmistakable signs of Bear activity, with SBMC banners round the track and a good selection of sporting machinery lined up ready for action. Dave's friendly welcome was followed by scrutineering, a stern safety briefing (no doughnuts, no drifting, as if) and a guided walk of the track.
Scrutineering consisted of an inspection of the cars for any bits that were likely to fall off and an examination of the battery mounting and connections to make sure they were secure and well shielded in the event of a crash. The guided walk of the track revealed a tight, twisty circuit with a quarter-mile straight the fastest section. Ribbed kerbs, F1 style, mark the inside of the tighter corners, of which more later. The startline is on a curving spur leading onto the circuit, so drivers charge off up the spur onto the circuit and then do two laps. This gives a run of some 1900 metres. At last it was my turn and off we went, tentatively and with not much idea of the right lines to take. Fortunately Andrew Holman, who sprints and hillclimbs his fearsome Ferrari 355, offered me a passenger ride to show me the quick way round. This was a revelation and really helped me to enjoy my remaining laps, thank you Andrew! Invitations were freely given to be a passenger with others, so car hopping was rife. Only the brave ventured in a Westfield with a 4.5 litre V8 installed. It spent a lot of time sideways and spun on a regular basis. Dave Muttock's very smart BRG and yellow Westfield was quick but Andrew's Ferrari looked fastest of all. Other interesting machinery included a Renault Spyder and Brian Evan's P4 Replica. How did the 'Dino' and its novice driver get on? We got on quite well, really, at least until lunchtime. In the tighter corners, the car's quick steering and agility were a bonus and accelerating out of the final corner as it opened out onto the straight was a joy, balancing the car on the throttle before snatching third gear on the straight.
It was on my last run before lunch that the gremlins struck. Coming round the final corner the engine cut out, stone dead. After coasting to the end of the straight and being pushed into the paddock the inquest began. In the true Bears' tradition, willing helpers descended, led by Brian Evans. Many theories were examined and discarded before Martin the Mechanic, who was tending to SBMC Ambassador Jody Hemmin's Jedi single seater, flung himself under the car, which was by now up on blocks. He found there was no power getting to the fuel pump, which is so conveniently situated at the bottom of the bulkhead in the centre of the car. A wire was jury-rigged direct from the battery to the pump and lo and behold the car burst into life. Without more ado, and facing a 5hour journey home, I set off northwards. I'm please to say the journey was uneventful and on closer investigation the problem turned out to be minor -vibrations from the kerbs had shaken a connection off the relay that feeds the pump. With that reconnected, as Brian Evans remarked, she'll run forever. Dave Muttock and his team put on a great day and over £1000 was raised for charity. I would definitely enter Curborough again and I hope that some other Polars will make the trip to keep me company. But if anyone wants to know the best line in that final corner, it will cost them a beer!
HIGHLAND FLING 2009 The now traditional Polar Bears' Highland Fling took place this year with the superb Dalmunzie Castle hotel, in Spittal of Glenshee, as our base. This was great for Pat and me since it’s relatively local to our home in Ellon, a mere 88 miles -in theory about 2½ hrs away. Friday afternoon was reasonable weather so top down all the way, the lovely drive, particularly south of Braemar, only marred by a too “spirited” last section of about 4 miles where the road undulations were not to be trifled with, and a couple of bottom scrapes ensued. The castle drive of about 1 mile and a half was also worthy of care if your bottom’s close to the ground like mine. After a lovely welcome by staff and by Fiona and Mike, we found to our surprise that we were not the last arrivals as we’d thought we might be. The “Preston gang” of Liz and Archie Russell, and Sandy and Kevin Talbot, had still to arrive, as also had Gill and Derek Nicholson, not only because they had the furthest to come but a much more welcome delay in the form of new grandson Max, who had chosen to appear at 04:00 that morning. Other Bears who we hadn’t seen for ages were Ruth and Paul Bonsall from the “Fat Lamb” in Kirkby Stephen, in a spotless Jag Mk. 2, Ian and Cindy Snelling in the TVR, and John and Anne Walpole from Warminster in a Mazda RX-8. A couple of hours were spent catching up over afternoon tea in the delightful ambience of the comfy lounge, then up to change. The first meal of the weekend got off to a good start, with the excellent quality and beautiful presentation we’ve come to expect from Mummy Bear’s choices of venue. Of course there has to be a down side; the first of Mike’s fiendish quizzes, this one on a theme of Victoria and Albert; there was a reason why but it escapes me. This was won by our table (of course) ably assisted by Mary-Jane and Jeff Ferris, and the Talbots.

Despite all manner of attempted bribes etc., our other table guests the Davies’ could not be cajoled into giving clues; all right and proper of course. Also in our welcome pack was the ongoing quiz for the weekend, in general about our locality and our hotel but needless to say since Fiona had designed it the ideal answers lay somewhere between Machiavelli and Sooty. The Saturday trip took us to Pitlochry and the Tay Forest Park, with a stop at the Queens' View Centre, said view being a breathtaking one of Loch Tummel, all new to us despite living within striking distance for 13 years. Plenty of quiz answers along the way, although unfortunately one of the quiz answers at Queens' View had been “knocked off” – literally. There was also the Saturday Challenge to think about. This involved the purchase of a maximum of two objects with a total price of less than £3, containing as many pictures as possible from a numerous list of items with a Scottish theme. In the unlikely event that you find yourself in this predicament – think tea towels. The recommended lunch stop was the Fortingall Hotel, with the oldest living thing in Europe (honest) i.e. a yew tree, in the churchyard next door – a quiz clue of course but even this was hard to find and required a minute examination of the said tree site. Having fortified the inner man with some excellent sandwiches, we tried to head off to the Scottish Crannog Centre, but our progress was held up for a bit by a small sheep herding vehicle (of Far Eastern origin I think) complete with sheepdogs in the open pickup back, duly herding sheep from one field to the next. That being completed, and having received a charming wave from the (female) driver, we carried on to our main interest stop of the day. This true to life family dwelling of the Iron Age, built on stilts close to the shore of Loch Tay, was brought vividly to life by our young and enthusiastic guide, and I think a good and interesting time was had by all. Well worth the visit. The tour was then supposed to go on to Dunkeld and the Hermitage, but me and ‘er indoors had a look at our watches, checked how far we were away from base, thought about the fairly major task of making ourselves presentable, and decided to call it a day. Tom Tom duly set for Spittal of Glenshee, and, stopping only to fill up the Jag with LPG in Aberfeldy, (definitely recommended for gas guzzler afficionados'), we headed back. Somewhat later, clean, refreshed, squeezed in and fully booted and spurred, we made our way down to the grand reception for the gala dinner. The Nicholsons had arrived, and also David and Jackie Reid, in the very impressive MG SV-R (I have to say that but it’s still an MG!). In true Bear spirit we wetted the Nicholsons' grandson's head during our champagne reception. The dinner was excellent, chaps duly changed places to allow them to bestow their favours on as many unsuspecting ladies as possible. The hotel had kindly presented us (the Bears that is) with a weekend stay as a prize. Mummy Bear of course decided to auction this; banknotes with names on were put in a bucket; Andrew, the hotel manager, drew Mummy Bear's name out, courtesy of an anonymous benefactor, but she decided she couldn’t take the prize and put it back in – what do we do with this woman! I think it was Archie and Liz who eventually won it. Brian Kirkness, wearing the kilt, was judged by Brianna, the hotel owner, to be the best dressed man. The most impressive feat on this most impressive evening was the young waiters’ ability to unerringly fill up one's glass, and that of one's partner, from one's own bottle, even when couples were separated; true service is not dead. Sunday was to be another royal day. First stop saw several loyal Bears at the Crathie church (for Balmoral) car park, ready for whatever royals were in residence. Clearly someone was, judging by the police presence – we had a nice chat with the police on Royal duty; “our” man had come all the way from Stonehaven to stand in the car park. The line up of Bears' cars of course had to be photographed. Right on time the traffic was stopped and HTTT and Camilla stormed across the road and up the hill to the church with barely a wave. After a coffee stop at Ballater Station (now a museum) the main stop of the day was Glamis Castle, pre-nuptial home of “gintonic” as our German friends were won't to call the Queen’s late mother. The route there took us over Cairn o' Mount -now we knew winter was just around the corner. It was freezing in the strong wind, but the view of the Aberdeenshire and Angus coast is excellent. Upon arrival at Glamis there was time for a spot of lunch with several Bears arriving, then another excellent tour with again a very good guide, but this one’s too practised delivery started to wear thin after a bit – but the location is highly recommended. The castle was used as the backdrop for the official line-up photographs of the tour. As usual this took (what seemed like) hours to organise and Glamis is a fair way from Dalmunzie so we tried for the “fastest route” back as opposed to Mike’s tulips. This was especially so since an elite “pathfinder” Bear had reported a road closure on the prescribed route back. Pre-dinner champagne was courtesy of the Nicholsons. Sunday dinner was another pleasant experience; unfortunately we had to have the results of both competitions; of the main quiz and the Saturday challenge. For the Saturday challenge we actually won but were disqualified for thinking outside the box and showing initiative, so Mary-Jane and Jeff carried off that prize, and for the main quiz we were tied first but lost on a tie break question, to Helen and Brian; such is life and well done to the winners! A big thanks was given to Fiona and Mike for all their efforts, and backed up this time with a gift of a quality bottle of bubbly from all the appreciative cubs. Monday started to see some of our number depart, the remainder, including ourselves for once on the last day, routed to Dundee via Glen Isla. The final tour destination was the RRS Discovery, although it would have taxed Capt. Scott to navigate around the cones of the extensive roadworks and avoid the all too easy mistake of going across the Tay Bridge! Another excellent attraction; quite strange and unexpected to see the relative luxury of the wardroom, particularly as Pat and I had visited the SS Great Britain in Bristol earlier in the year, where even the first-class passengers would have had problems swinging cats. But all things come to an end – it had been another great tour, the Jag had performed faultlessly, (apart from scraping her bottom if ill-used) the company had been wonderful, and the organisation of course faultless. Big thank you to Fiona and Mike – no Fling next year but we have the Birthday Bash to look forward to.
 
PRESENTATIONS Brian Short presented a cheque for £1000 to Zoe's Place at the beginning of October. The money was raised at the Polar lunches.
 Fiona had organised a triple presentation -

 SACHD,   Hearts&Minds Clowndoctors  and CHAS.

There were three sportscars to entertain Roddy (and Sarah from Clowndoctors!) -Andrew’s very purple TVR Cerbera, Mary-Jane’s Nissan Fairlady and Brian’s MGB V8. The weather was sunny but cold and we all had a warming coffee, before presenting the cheques. £1500 from Thirlestane was SACHD presented to Roddy for SACHD, another £1500 from Thirlestane to Sarah for Clowndoctors -these had been topped up by the Committee. The final £450 from the Highland Fling was given to Jane of CHAS. After that we all had a “light lunch” prepared by Mike and Fiona -which Clown Doctors was a delicious and generous two courses!

Zoe's Place

SACHD

Hearts&Minds Clowndoctors