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Yanks Weekend & Gary’s Picnic

At last we have the weather we’ve all hoped for and in return have seen some fantastic track action at Shakespeare County Raceway and some big smiles over the three days of Yanks Weekend/Gary’s Picnic! Unbroken sunshine blessed the event and many personal best times were set on the track, with proceedings only slightly tainted by the coming together of Mick Goulds’ car with the armco that shortened the racing day on Saturday.

Luckily Mick walked away with a few bruises, although sadly the car was rather worse off. Sunday saw the NASC Gary’s Picnic shootout with £500 up for grabs in the eight-cylinder class won by Joe Stevens in his Sunbeam Stilletto. Also over the weekend saw the on-track debut of the newly extended Torment that has gained length in the wheelbase, making its days of looking like a possessed chinchilla as it bounced down the track a distant memory. It ran its best time of 9.1 to the 900ft mark on the track before loss of oil pressure put an end to the weekend’s play. I’m sure there’s a lot more to see from that car!

Andy Fadster was also true to form, his Twister becoming the ’car of chaos’ on his first three runs of the weekend. During run one his wheels were up so high it knocked the dip stick out and sprayed oil along the track. Runs two and three saw hard pulls to the left, both times killing off foam timing blocks as he went. After much head-scratching in the pits as to why the car so favoured going left, it was discovered that the slicks were odd diameters – only two inches – but this would only amplify when on the track. The slicks were discarded and replaced with treads, which saw the car run a personal best of 8.17 seconds @ 173mph, which in anyone’s book is quite impressive on street treads!

The Gasser Circus and Wild Bunch also put on a great show on the track, while the flake on Honky Tonkin 2 dancing in the sunshine made eyes dazzle. The best run of weekend was 9.44 @ 145mph. Wild Bunch saw Team Go Hard or Go Home take the class win, which isn’t bad going after the breakages at Springspeed event. We also wish Mark Coulsell a ‘get well soon!’ after he broke three toes while helping another racer unload a car – the wheelie bars and flip flops don’t always make the greatest combo, but this didn’t stop Mark from running 9.6 on the track!