Claire & I camped Saturday night. It was nice & relaxing, as there was no hurry all day!
However, we had to be up bright & early, as racing started at 8.30am. The team dogs were Beano, Ollie, Meg, Tosh, Beau & Badger (on stand by!). At 8.15am, Rachel had turned up, but we were panicking about Kevin, Pete & Wendy. But they were all hidden under the trees at the far end of the field.
We had an extra team in our Div (makes a change, usually we get less, not more racing!), so giving us 6 races in total. We were seed 6 of 7!
Race 1: Hotdogs 'v' Molton Monarchs - Ollie stood out on this one, so we were jumping 14" in our first race, and not later on. We usually have close racing with the Monarchs, but today we went in and beat them 3-0, comfortably. Best time 19.54
Race 2: Hotdogs 'v' Podlets - Kevin decided to stand Beano out of this one (so he could go and get something to eat!!). Again, another comfortable win 3-1, having lost one leg to a faulty pass (or was it when Pete had 40 winks before releasing Meg?!) Best time 19.71
Race 3: Hotdogs 'v' Northern Bytes - Tosh stood out. Anne stood by the lights, trying to hide Tosh around the back of the awning. Which was fine, until Beau come racing down to the line, slowed right up to look at us, before carrying on. Oops! Even got 'told off' by the line judges & Wayne! So went to the back of the ring! And we lost that one! Then Kevin had a little nap, which gave the opposition a 45' head start!! So lost that one, and finally to make up for lost time a double false start! (And we've all done it, haven't we Dave!) Lost 3-0. Best time 20.66
Race 4: Hotdogs 'v' Nuneaton Flyers - Meg stood out. We won the first two races although they were close. Beau then started to ogle, so lost the next two narrowly. So in comes Meg. We had to 'go for it' now. And we succeeded, winning 3-2. Best time 19.03
Race 5: Hotdogs 'v' Crazy Comets - Beau stood out. We have never raced this team before, so didn't know what we were up against. We won the first race, just, and lost the second, just! In the third, as I released Tosh he didn't seem to move off, but he did go eventually. And somehow we won. So in the 4th race, as he stood with tail between legs, as though something had upset him, I thought he would do something similar but he went off as normal and I thought I got a light. To my amazement, it was virtually spot on, and we had in fact won 3-1. Best time (of the day, and with these 'babies') 18.97.
Race 6: Hotdogs 'v' Molton Metals - Badger played in this one, as the Metals were running slower than usual. He ran with Beano, Ollie & Tosh. We won 3-0 comfortably. Best time 19.79 So over all we were 2nd in Div 4, best time 18.97, but we were achieving low 19's during the afternoon and managed to record sub 19 twice, when the weather was hot! We had some excellent close racing, and an excellent new box loader!! Thank you Wendy!