TT2 | Friday Report | Newcastle - Edinburgh (200 miles)

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TT2 | Friday Report | Newcastle - Edinburgh (200 miles)

I've been looking forward to today. Based on our experiences last year I have devised a route from Newcastle to Edinburgh which I hope will provide an interesting and entertaining drive.

We manage to get up, eat breakfast, check out and meet everyone in the car park as planned. Tom & Kirsty have arrived, having travelled up on Wednesday to stay with Tom's gran. Roofs come off and we line up outside the Travelodge as we wait for Brian & Kay to join us. It's only when I look when I realise we are parked up directly below the Travelodge restaurant and ten or so puzzled faces are looking down on us. One of the Pollards runs up to the car. I let him know I've left the route directions on his windscreen and that leaving at 10am was his plan not mine.

So we head out of Newcastle and almost immediately things go wrong on the one-way system. We get split up from a couple of cars and after some hanging around and telephone calls we regroup at Heddon on the Wall. And then it starts raining. Lightly at first and I hardly notice, then hail. Curiously, the hail bounces off the rear screen and lands on the dashboard - never seen that before! By the time we get to Heddon on the Wall hail has turned into a heavy downpour and we find the rest of the group hurriedly putting up roofs at a petrol station.

So we start the route proper and we miss a turning somewhere because the 8.8 miles to Belsay has taken us more like 15. I hope nobody's noticed but I'm not very happy. We stop for a toilet break and then stop again just afterwards to the ladies can have a toilet break (this pattern is repeated for the whole weekend). As we're waiting, Kyle arrives, fresh off the ferry from Holland. He seems thankful to have come across some Elises. Good job too, seeing as we were an hour ahead of the rest.

We're now heading to Kielder Water, the site of one of the major highlights of last year's trip. The Kielder - Saughtree road was stunning last year, made better by the fact that it was closed due to foot and mouth. On our way there it starts raining again but the roads getting to get better and we're driving along at a conservative pace. I'm in the middle of the pack and am taken aback when I round a gentle downhill left-hander to see one of our cars on the verge with a wheel rolling gently towards it. He has misread the corner and slid to the outside, bounced off a gatepost and ended up neatly parked back on the left hand side of the road. The car is inches from a telephone box which turns out to be a stroke of luck as we cannot get a mobile signal. The driver, although a little shaken is perfectly OK and we're shortly joined by the owner of the battered fence. "We get this every week" she says cheerily, pointing at a brand new section of fence a little further down the road. Sadly, we have to leave the driver with car to be recovered and leave him all our 20p's for the phone box.

We make it to Kielder Water and tell the bad news to those that were ahead of the accident. And now it's really raining. The Kielder - Saughtree road doesn't seem as good as I remember it. The best bit follows a stream as it meanders along but it passes too quickly. There's also a lot of roadwork patching going on which means a lot of gravel and puddles.

We soon get back into our stride and the rest of the drive to Edinburgh is very enjoyable. After lunch at Hawick we cover one of the best bits of the weekend for me. The stretch of road between the Megget and Talla reservoirs was simply stunning. After passing one reservoir we climbed steeply up an extremely narrow track - only about 1ft wider than the Elise. The descent was incredible. On the way down the, other reservoir lay some way below with a hill completely filling my view through the windscreen with no sky to be seen. Simply stunning.

We get to the hotel in Edinburgh at about 4pm with plenty of time to check in and unload the cars before the Knockhill session. After a short rest I don my racing driver socks and pixie boots and prepare for track time! The girls are going to stay at the hotel while we have the briefing etc and take a taxi up to the circuit later.

I remember the way to Knockhill and once off the M90 I enjoy having a clear road ahead and put in a short sprint up to the circuit. I doubt any circuit in the UK has a better stretch of road leading to it. I manage to park next to the infamous N1 TUT, say hello to the man himself and gawp in astonishment at the state of his car after just one year. There is precious little paint left on the front clam (even worse than Tom's) and there are various stickers covering minor body damage on each wheelarch!

Things seem to be better organised than last year and it seems that the briefing is over with quite quickly. The only glitch is that Tut appears to have forgotten his own name, "is David Duncan here?". So I bring the car down to the pits, sign for a helmet (new ones this year) and wait for my session. Like last year, we're running with one fixed session and then open-pit for the duration. My session arrives comes and I find myself behind Jaye in his '49. "Bloody hell, he's going quickly", I think to myself as I do a couple of sighting laps. Last year I managed to go straight on at the chicane after Butchers on my 2nd lap so I'm going to warm up slowly this time. Things are going well and I'm enjoying myself but Jaye has pulled out a lead - I'm not having that! A bit more concentration, brake a bit later, carry more speed, accelerate earlier - I'm catching up. Then I push too hard through Clerks (fantastic corner) and run wide on the exit. I take to the matting and pass the exit cone on the wrong side. Sort it out Liam! After a few more laps I'm back on top of things and I've lined up for a move on Jaye at the hairpin. He sees me coming and lets me past on the exit. I have the legs on him up the straight as he is carrying a passenger. As I drive past I glance over and see that the passenger is in fact Jaye and Andrew Walsh is driving his car. Hehehe! Just as I'm planning on showing Andrew a clean set of heels we get the chequered flag and the session is over. I'm grinning from ear to ear and there's more to come!

For once my brakes are holding up well. I'm able to get on the brakes for the hairpin much later than a lot of other cars and there's no hint of fade (yet). I give them 15 minutes to cool down and stand by the pit wall to watch the action. The girls haven't arrived yet which is a shame as I want to take Hailey out on the circuit. She was very nervous about risking the car on track at the start of a weekend's driving but I'm hoping to put her mind at rest. On the circuit Steve Butts is starting to close up on Tut. Two highly modified cars and Steve's is putting out in excess of 200bhp. They sound awesome as they power up the main straight, Steve's oval exhaust acting as a megaphone for the already very loud soundtrack. But that's not the best noise, Willie (owner of Crail airfield) is driving his Noble M12 on the track and it sounds like a jet fighter (looks quite similar too). The M12 is a seriously quick car and this one's been breathed on further. There's a metallic howl as it tears past the pit wall, a lot quicker than anything else.

I'm getting itchy feet and the girls still haven't arrived so I ask Milan if he want's a passenger ride and unsurprisingly he does. What normally happens when I carry a passenger is that I overdrive the car and show them a not very impressive, scrappy few laps. I remind myself of this and things start off well but adrenaline gets the better of me and pretty soon things are starting to get out of shape. I try to keep it nice and smooth through Duffus and MacIntyres as the right line is critical but we end up getting sideways which makes me try harder and then make more mistakes. I show Milan the wrong side of the exit cone at Clerks (again!) and I hope he's not regretting the ride. I manage a couple of clean laps and then take to the pits while the going's good. Sorry Milan.

When I get back to the pit wall the girls have arrived after managing to find the only taxi driver in Edinburgh that didn't know where Knockhill was. Hailey agrees to take a passenger ride so she signs in as a passenger and collects a helmet. My left front tyre is starting to overheat so I drop a couple of PSI to match the front right. Other than that, the car is performing very well and still no sign of brake fade. We roll out onto the circuit and after a couple of gentle laps to get Hailey used to the circuit I wind it up and for once in my life manage to keep it all together for lap after lap. We keep closing up on Iain (yellow S2) but not far ahead of him is a queue of cars. I don't fancy having to move through that much traffic so I back off for half a lap and then put the hammer back down. I do this two or three times before pulling back into the pits. Had I known Iain was filming everything I would have gone past!

Back in the pits I look over to Hailey with a look asking "was that OK?". She's really enjoyed it (phew!) and tries to get the rest of the girls to go out. But time is running out. I have time for one more session but I don't want to push my luck (or the car) much further so I decide to call it a day and take a passenger ride with Tom instead. On our first flying lap we head towards Duffus and as Tom turns-in I'm thinking "too fast, too fast, we're going off". Somehow the car just changes direction and we're heading towards MacIntyres without any drama. It's not until we're approaching Clerks that I realise that Tom is running LSS - the extra speed he's able to carry into each corner is incredible. I've got to get me some of that! Tom is driving much faster than last year and we're passing people with some regularity. I have a small moment into the hairpin as the rear wheels lock under braking as Tom changes down to 2nd. Locking the rear wheels terrifies me but everything is in a straight line and there's no problem. Must get that heel and toe sorted Tom! It's not long before the chequered flag falls to mark the end of the event. It's whetted my appetite for track driving again. Two hours just isn't long enough at a place like Knockhill.

Back in the pits there is talk of another accident. It seems that on the way to the track someone has been involved in a head-on collision. There's not much information at this point but it transpires that whilst making a low-speed overtaking manoeuvre, the car hit a stationary (or very slow moving) vehicle in a hidden dip. The driver and passenger have been taken to hospital with cracked ribs and the driver with a damaged foot from standing on the brake pedal at the moment of impact. But no serious injuries, thank goodness. The car involved had been driving with just one other - Georgie! It's really not turning out to be a good weekend for her.

Back at the hotel we just have time to get changed and it's up to the restaurant for dinner. I'm already pretty tired and after a good meal and a few beers I'm fit for bed. It's been an eventful day.