Euro Weekend at Northampton

What fun we all had at the racing this weekend! It was the perfect antidote to all that stress and overwork suffered by our humans. And was it a weekend of excitement, testosterone and rufty-tufty racing? Absolutely. And while it wasn't all good news for Frankie, he was on great form, had everyone on the edge of their seats with excitement (or dread, depending on whether or not you support him) and was definitely not a muppet, which is what the person beside us called him :-)

Anyway, what happened at the Euro Weekend at Northampton? Well, firstly, Gordon Moodie was on top form in the F2s, and despite being positioned 20th in the pack, had made it up to 10th after a lap and was in 3rd position by about halfway through the race. We were in a bit of a quandary, as he was chasing Mick Sworder, our local hero, but we were also rooting for Gordon to win (our Scottish hero). Mick hit the lead car, taking it out, but in doing so lost momentum and Gordon slipped past him to take the lead. Despite some superb driving from Mick, he just couldn't catch Gordon, and Gordon took the chequered flag with Mick second. What an excellent result!

Then the F1s came on, and naturally, we were rooting for Frankie. Frankie started at the back of the pack along with Andy Smith. The first lap was utter chaos with a massive pile-up on the 3rd bend, so there was a complete restart, with drivers and mechanics allowed 5 minutes to fix their cars. Frankie had a substantial amount of damage, but managed to get the car back out on the track again. He and Andy raced really well, and spent several laps exchanging 3rd and 4th positions. We suspected that Andy was just biding his time and planning to take Frankie out on the last bend, which is what he tried to do - he hit Frankie really hard, Frankie crashed into the bottom fence, but the momentum carried Andy into the fence as well. Frankie's car was badly damaged, but he still powered the car (minus any steering by this stage) along the armco fence (everyone was now on their feet shouting either for Andy or Frankie) and managed to cross the line in 3rd place, with Andy a close 4th. The race was won by James Neachell (322), with young gun Ryan Harrison (197) in 2nd place, and Frankie 3rd.

We immediately rushed round to the pits to see the Frankie's car, which was in a terrible state - the nerf rail that hit the fence was almost folded up against the car, and bits were broken off the front of the car from the impact on the fence and the earlier pile-up. But, undeterred, Frankie's team and other drivers rallied round to get it fixed for the next race. Frankie looked a happy man, and Paul congratulated him on a superb piece of driving!

The whole weekend was a brilliant display of driving from the Dutch, Belgian and British drivers in all formulas - Rebels, F2s and the F1s - and we had a great time sitting in the sun (Saturday) and the rain (Sunday) drinking cider, cheering on our favourite drivers and wandering round the pits. All in all, a wonderful and therapeutic weekend.