KNOCKHILL MOTORFAIR 2009

 

After East Fortune the lorry went to get painted black by Philip MacDonald with materials generously sponsored by MacGregors Industrial Supplies. As usual we were cutting it fine for time and as soon as the paint was dry we were off for a jaunt to Manchester to get fitted out with our new Awning Co made to measure awning sponsored by Digby Brown Solicitors.

 

We set off on Tuesday 5 May at 8 am with the aim of getting to the factory before 5pm so that we could get an electrical hook up for the overnight stay. We had a good run down the road and with only a few brief stops and some old fashioned navigation arrived in Bolton just after 4pm.

 

We got parked up and plugged in and asked the workshop manager if there was anything to be seen locally – not exactly was the reply so we settled for a carry out Chinese in the back of the truck before crashing out with exhaustions from the long drive.

 

We were ready for fitting first thing, but when they said they would take a day to do it, they meant a day and we didn’t get back out of the workshop till after 5. With a long road to drive we managed somehow to navigate back on to the M66 then the M6 to the North. We arrived home at 1 am with the help of Red Bull!

 

No sooner were we up the road but we had to reload the bike and set back off down it on the Friday night to the Knockhill Motorfair. The Scottish Sidecar Racing Club had been asked to put on some display laps and have some outfits on show. When we got there on Friday night we tried to put up the new awning with the help of Adam Brownlee and Craig Nicol from the club. It was all going reasonably well until the breeze picked up and on the utterance of ‘I’m struggling to hold this’ from Craig – it was immediately wound back in. Those of you who know our previous history of awning tragedy will understand.

 

Unfortunately the weather on Saturday was appalling. It poured with rain and was cold and miserable but we still managed to put on two displays for those who braved the elements. Even Jet Pack Man managed a soggy lift off! Sunday was much better but Jen didn’t make a very good job of re-attaching the under tray and Kerr had to make a rapid pit stop after one lap before he lost his toes! Luckily we got an extra session at lunch time and put in some flying laps. Over the course of the afternoon lots of people came over to ask questions. The final display was scheduled for half four and just as we prepared to go out the heavens opened and we got soaked again. Some hardy souls had remained to watch although I’m not quite sure how much they could see for spray. We packed up quick and headed for home having had some valuable extra track time we were looking forward to coming back for the next race meeting.