We now have a 'brand new' olde motorsport venue (established in 1957 and used in the '50's and '60's) just 8 miles from our front door.
We bought our tickets in advance some time ago so we are hoping we'll be lucky with the weather.
It's just gone eleven and this is the car park which is already filling up nicely.
Our faithful Lancer is somewhere down the bottom of the field.
If we were any further away we'd be on the other side of the M5 (which you can see if you look carefully beyond that hedgerow).
Just walked through the gates at the rear of the Chateau and getting our bearings.
It's amazing how much infrastructure the organisers have put in place for the weekend.
Large TV screens and all sorts, plus metalled roads for traffic to use into the car parks in case it rains, and traffic lights to control traffic leaving onto the A38, and so on.
Sarah Diffey and her Bugatti Brescia at Corbett Chicane.
Proper grandstands and everything.
Eat yer heart out Donington Park Pt I.
It's approaching midday and we've found the Paddock.
Howard is genning-up on how to restore very olde things.
The Regent Exhibition area under a big sky.
Spot Vicky and win a prize.
Well-gone 12 now and we need a cuppa tea.
The shortest queues are in the H&H Auction building.
The tea's not the best but it is very welcome.
Drinking our tea and looking down on the auction.
Don't go down there. You only have to twitch an eyebrow at the wrong moment and you'll be the proud owner of a Chevron B23/M63 sports car worth £250,000 before you know it.
Best head back outside to the paddock then.
Smell the roses and look at the cars in the paddock or
look at the cars in the paddock and smell the roses, you decide.
Olde fella makes a beeline for a Lotus Cortina MkI.
Proper grandstands and everything.
Eat yer heart out Donington Park Pt II.
Jim Payne - Fairley Mercury - at The Paddock Esses.
This nice lady is selling pies, sausage rolls, and pasties and nowt costs more than £2.
It would be rude to pass by without purchasing summat.
So we push the boat out and buy a pasty between us.
And, yes, it was scrummy.
Gas it! Gerrit-gerrit? Eh, eh?
It's now about 1:30 and we're back on the 'outside' of the hill as Nikki Cottrill in her Lotus 51A heads towards the finish line.
We're walking down the hill now towards the food court near the start.
Vicky gets a nice shot of a car speeding past the Chateau but we can't linger long -
we need our din-dins.
We've had a steak sammidge from Checketts of Ombudsley's stall (we are regulars at their shop) between us and now Vicky is proving she can hold two cups of tea and a bag with lemon drizzle cake inside it at the same time as walking in a straight line.
The tea (and cake) was from the Avoncroft Tea Room stall and is vastly superior to the one we had earlier. Something tells us it won't be the last one we buy from here.
A shot of some cars lined up at the start - taken whilst our tea cools down a bit.
With lunch over we decide to walk back up the hill a touch and as we cross the bridge over the River Salwarpe we are pleased to see that Mother Duck and her offspring (we counted 8 in total) appear to be doing well. She enquired whether we had any bread but, as usual, we didn't.
Sorry, just eaten it with our steakwich.
Proper grandstands and everything. Donington Park eat yer heart out Pt III.
It's about 2:30 now and this is Richard Scaldwell in his De Dietrich at Ravens Crest.
700 revs….750 revs….800 revs….850 revs……….into second!
The fire-breathing 'Beast of Turin' (28.5 litre, 4 cylinder Fiat S76 built in 1910) thunders up the hill.
It's driver, Duncan Pittaway, apologised for not having the car set up for maximum flames but I think we can safely say that we got the drift.
At 3:00pm bang-on it's the turn of Rich Goodwin and his Pitts Special S2S 'Muscle Biplane' to entertain the crowds below.
Not being pilots we don't know how skilful flying a 'plane like a crab at 45 degrees is.
Looked pretty impressive to us.
With the time rapidly approaching 4:00pm we've had another cuppa tea and it's time to walk up the hill and back to the car park taking photos on the way as we go.
By the time we get back to the car it is 4:15 and it's just a mile drive to Waitrose for the week's 'Big Shop'.
It's been a lovely day's sport. Fantastically well organised and very spectator-friendly with lovely warm weather (at times too warm). I'm not sure we saw everything on offer but we did our best.
Just shows what can be done when the local council, a local hotel in lovely grounds, and a club work in harmony together to create a veritable mini-Festival of Speed in the heart of Worcestershire.
The date for 2016 has already been announced and, needless to say, it is in our diary.
By just gone 5 we are back home to check up on Emlyn to see how he is progressing and to give him a feed. It's the first time we have left him on his own since his op.
He's making steady progress, we're glad to say.
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