What a great few days! Out on the 14.30 Swift service by Irish Ferries which saw us arrive at our hotel in Chester circa 6pm. Dinner was in our usual 1539 Restaurant washed down by some beverages and an early night for an early start the next day.
Friday dawned frosty and foggy and the cars needed to be de-iced prior to take off at 07.35hrs. They start the drivers briefing dead on 08.30 at Oulton and the door is closed promptly, thankfully we all made it and signed on. The sun came out and first on track was Neil closely followed by Aidan and Sean. GD used the 993 RS Cup for the morning and ran the new 991 RS in the afternoon. It really is a superb venue, even in its slightly shortened format due to earth works at Shell corner. Track length in this Island format was 2.2 miles with lots of ups and downs and only one chicane (Knickerbrook) used in this layout.
Lunch is a sociable event and a time to catch up with old friends (Paul Howls of 991 RSR and Symonds Yat fame and Melv Spear of the ex Larini 964 Cup were just two) and to meet new friends. We finished about 5pm and enjoyed a spirited run along the A55 and A487 to our hotel in Caernarfon.
There’s a superb Chinese called Fu’s nearby where we had dinner and after that we retired to our usual haunt The Castle bar but it was closed, so we wandered up the street to another called The Albert. Cheap beer and lively but we hadn’t reckoned on the fight! A poor unfortunate was floored by a haymaker punch to the face right in front of us, and health and safety saw the bar woman out with her mop and bucket to mop up the blood and sweep away the teeth from the floor!! We considered entering our PCI Champion Kick Boxer Pete Minerva in the next round but decided against it. It was so bad it put us off our usual kebab on the walk home.
Next morning after breakfast we all made the 11.50 hrs Swift service to arrive in Dublin by 13.40 Saturday. A superb PCI turnout with 19 members (two flew over on Friday) and thanks to Donal Daly who made the long trek from London to support us.
Report by – Dave Whelan. PCI President