Thoroughly enjoyed the round trip, it did rain, boy it did rain, but we had a large brolly and walking boots, what more do you need.
First surprise was rolling up at the Tunnel ticket lane and being directly behind an FRP. What are the chances of that.
This one, 0423 who was off to Paris.
Driving through Belgium, this as taken half way down the hill.
The local weather was either raining, or low cloud. Occasionally the sun did break through to tease you to take your brolly down only to be dumped on several minutes later. Photos were taken in the dry patches so it looks sunnier then it really was, lol. The footwear of choice was wellies just like at a festival in typical British weather.
Found this sign (one of a few dotted about we passed).
Recognise this...
This was taken on the Friday, and yep a rare hour of sun.
Lost count of the number of times saw this car going out.
I suspect with the weather being so bad it was the reason that the Ring was much quieter then when I had previously been back in 2007. The Ring attendants are a lot more evident now, and they kick arse if they notice anything they do not approve of, be it a camera mounted, lol one motorbike had a cam on his lid sticking out about 6 inches, that sure was spotted. A car (ropey rat thing) tried to get through with a barrel tied onto the roof rack. Even the great... a Ferrari (according to Alan a F430 challenge stradale) got pounced on and turned away, could not work out why in this case. Also saw noise testing going on to and people trying to sell their lap tickets as they had been refused.
Friday night is pissed hard with rain.
The day of the meet started promising and on arrival at sign in received a goody bag.
This contained some sponsored gifts, info for the weekend and also the meet sticker for the event, I was numbered 81. Not yet stuck it on my car, though will be once I can work out how to get the previous one off intact to be able to relocate it.
Found where Mike was parked up, the Dutch club kindly shared their super gazebo tent so we had somewhere to sit/be when it was raining.
Parked next to Mike and rolled out the PP banner.
Later Barry arrived. Yey three of us.
Mud, did I mention the mud yet. Some places where worse then others due to some enthusiastic driving, lol.
There were a lot of Pumas which was fab to see and plenty standard and even more had been modified from just wheels right up to serious amount of work.
Pumas from around the corner to as far a field as the one above, Moscow and even further there was one from Portugal though not got a picture specifically of that Puma.
There were lots of events planned for the weekend, but the weather scuppered a lot of them, there was going to be a tug or war, lol with the mud that might have been funny, and a quiz and other stuff. On registering we said which competitions we wanted to add our Puma too and consequently had voting paper to use, walked around and voted for Pumas we liked in the various categories, lol this was a dive out from under the gazebo to carry on with where one had got to.
Saturday late afternoon was the parade lap on the Ring, this was an amazing achievement I feel to have pulled off, 106 Pumas on a dedicated lap led and tailed by the Ring pace vehicle.
The queue out from the campsite stretched a long way!
Snaked around the field.
I took a video of this standing at one of the Ring viewing points, once crunched down I will share it.
Sunday was awarding for the various Puma competitions.
Each country voted for their best one and then there was a vote with our feet of the final Pumas lined up. The final choice was between these two.
The winner, FRP #0095 got an enormous trophy, it was about 14inches high, a real wow statement.
This one was for best UK Puma and is shared really with Barry.
Home time, taken on on the Monday about 60km away.
Did 882.6 miles and averaged 42.23 miles per gallon which I am very happy with. Spent £127 on fuel which for the vent and where we went I thought that was not too bad.
There are plenty more photos
here.
Now considering about going to the next big meet that is in September.
will check again for the 100th time later, lol it might have changed.
Video link
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