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Croft Nostalgia
- Aug 6/7th
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Friday 5th was
busy all day with race teams, military vehicles, re-enactors and classic
cars arriving and setting up camp. There were around 600 vehicle and
re-enactor entries booked in, excluding the racing competitors. Mike and
Maurice ( seen below ), organised all the military vehicle and classic
car/truck/bus entries. They worked hard all weekend, allocating display
space, ferrying people around and trying to solve participants problems,
sometimes without much help or thanks. Thanks must also go to the
circuit owner and management team for providing a great venue and
organising all the hidden support such as security, marshalling,
toilets, food stalls etc.
Further event
pictures can be found at www.croftmilitary.co.uk
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Here's a small
selection of pictures from Friday afternoon and evening.
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| Despite
the weather forecast, spirits were high for an enjoyable weekend, and
people were having fun meeting up with old friends. The beautiful
evening sunset disguised the weather to come the following day. |
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| Blue
skies, sunny, warm, were all words that would evaporate away on Friday
evening and be long forgotten on Saturday morning. As with any out door
event in the UK, we were at the mercy of the weather, and unfortunately,
the thunder storm that made a number of passes over Croft for several
hours, messed up several aspects of the planned programme.
So to start
with, apologies. The low cloud ceiling and heavy rain meant that we
unfortunately missed out on the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
Hurricane and Spitfire. The organising team were thrilled to have the
BBMF confirm attendance several months ago, and were very disappointed
that the plans were being washed away minute by minute. Understandably,
the RAF take great care to protect these national treasures, and the
conditions at Croft and around the rest of the country made it
impossible to safely bring the aircraft to display.
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the rain cleared up on Sunday, the volume of water and ground conditions
still continued to cause problems. On Saturday evening, it looked like
the parade laps would have to be cancelled because of the risk of
vehicles carrying large quantities of mud onto the track. The ground and
track had dried out to some degree on Sunday morning, allowing the
parade laps to go ahead. However the circuit manager considered it too
risky to have the halftrack and Chaffee tank churning up mud in the
start/finish field and bringing it back across the track at the fast
corner at the end of the straight. So sadly, we didn't get our rolling
armour or firing displays.
Yet another
casualty was the Jet Provost flying display. By the time the weather
cleared enough for take off, there wasn't sufficient time to transit to
Croft and perform the display before racing began, as there is a no
flying rule while racing is under way for safely reasons.
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wasn't just the flying that suffered. Racing was stopped for several
hours for safety reasons, and once the rain did stop, the qualifying
continued into the evening, trying to make up for lost time. |
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| One
shot taken during the parade lap. There were one or two people who
didn't understand the word parade, and instead thought it meant race.
They were quickly reprimanded for their actions. We are all guests of
the circuit owner, and a little consideration shouldn't be too much to
ask from those taking part in the event. Because it was a parade, the
circuit safety marshalls were also not on duty, another reason for the
swift response to those taking advantage. It is only the second event of
its kind at Croft, and we are still in a learning curve. The event will
be studied over the following months to hopefully enable it to grow and
become a better experience for participants and public alike. |
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| Sunday
was by far the better day. While it wasn't tropical temperatures, it was
dry and we even saw blue sky at times. The military display line
stretched the length of the runway and the classic car field was
virtually full. The damp track also provided plenty of thrills for the
drivers and spectators alike, with several cars needing a little more
work than a bit of buffing to remove the bumps and scratches. |
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| One
of the displays which didn't suffer as a result of the rain was the
Griffon Aero Engine. This was run a number of times across the weekend,
attracting large crowds, and between engine runs, the safety rope was
lowered allowing people a close look at this amazing piece of
engineering. |
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| Croft
Nostalgia 2011, despite the weather, was a great event. The rain
undoubtedly will have affected gate numbers, although on Sunday, there
were still large numbers of people to be seen around the site. There
will always be ways to improve the experience, and we are open to
genuine constructive critisism. It seems common for people to complain
anonymously via forums and Facebook etc, but if the organising team
aren't told of issues, they can't be addressed.
If you have
suggestions for attractions or ways to improve the show for 2012, then
please do contact us at the following email address, and we will do our
best. If you work in the MET office, we would consider setting aside a
budget to guarantee good weather for 2012!!
Mike@croftmilitary.co.uk
Thanks for your
support.
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