Beamish or Bust!
This years MX-5 Owners Club Spring Rally was held at the Beamish Open Air Museum in County Durham on Sunday 20 May and as is usually the case was well attended by members of the Eastern Region. A large contingent of members also made a (very) long weekend of the rally, arriving on the Saturday, with some not departing until the Wednesday.
The weather forecast for the weekend was not good, but against the odds the Sunday of the Rally saw bright sunshine for most of the day contrasting with the constant rain of last years spring rally in the Cotswolds.
The rally car competitions this year comprised “ cool 5” and “hot 5” and drew a large number of entrants particularly from the ER. “Cool 5” saw the largest number of entrants and gave club members the most difficult decision as to whom to vote for. The end result however was another victory for us, with Steve Hider coming in first place and Jonathan Elsey in joint third. Congratulations go to both of them.
The “hot 5” competition for some reason did not attract such a large field of entrants and seeing an opportunity too good to miss the Eastern Region track car Project Merlot was swiftly moved from the “cool 5” to the “hot 5” parking area. It had not been the intention to enter the Merlot in any competition but with a quick clean up it looked like a worthy entrant so into the contest it went. It was with little surprise that the Merlot came in first place and received its own trophy, it had never had any opposition!
A complex of holiday cottages located near Barnard Castle were the base for a number of ER members. This proved to be just about the perfect venue for a long club weekend away, the cottages being all together and we had rented all of them bar one. There was great relief, particularly on the Saturday night, that we had decided against the usual spring rally camping trip. The gale that was blowing would have made tent erection an impossibility, and it wasn’t that warm either.
The Monday after the rally saw an Eastern Region convoy head for the Buttertubs Pass, said to be one of the most challenging driving roads in the UK. There was no disputing that claim if by challenging it meant dodging the daft sheep that seemed to enjoy standing in the road. Sheep aside the roads through the valleys and across the moors were brilliant. The day was completed with a BBQ back at the cottages.
Tuesdays plan was to head even further North with Hadrian’s Wall as the destination. We made it to the wall but being car enthusiasts rather than historians the prospect of paying to walk along it was too much and we decided to invest the money in more petrol!
Wednesday saw the last of us finally head for home but promising that we would be back.
A big thank you goes to Tracey Sparling and Jon Esley for arranging the excellent accommodation.
MJC ©