While the cat's away ....

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Gerald is not with us today - he's under the weather - so it's down to Punch and me. The original plan was to make a concerted start on the kickboards but the weather people have got it all wrong again and we just had to work with what we were given.

Heavy rain was forecasted. This would have meant no real track work and plenty of time fro the kickboards. But today it was the perfect spring day - bright sunshine and a sharp wind. Perfect for getting the racing surface in real order.

With rain forecast for virtually every day up until the start of the season we decided that we ought to grade and pack as much as possible. The grading would take out as many of the bumps and ruts as possible while the packing would firm up the surface, bring any existing patches of moisture to the surface and harden up the top to resist any further rain.

Our first task was to dig out the inside of turns 1 and 2. Despite the fact that the new drain is working so well, and no water is puddling on the apex of the corner, the inside is still very spongy. When we dig down below the shale we find a thick layer of wet mud. We dig this all out and then refill the space with new shale and then pack it down hard using the smooth tyred tractor. As we pack some moisture is driven to the surface but is soon dried by the combination of sunshine and wind.

While Punch drives the grader round I start packing down from the inside out. The aim is to make sure that no part of the track is left unpacked and that the speed of the tractor is set so that no material is brought up on the tyres. This means that where a wet patch appears you must slow right down or the shale will peal back and detach itself in great lumps.

Round and round we go, only brought to a temporary halt when Shirley calls us in for a welcome cup of coffee. Punch has been round that many times that he claims he's dizzy. But the track looks good and the surface is hardening up well.

Rosco appears with words of encouragement - much appreciated.

Press and Practice Day is just over a week away and there will be a number of practice sessions on the track in the next 14 days. We need to make sure that the track will be able to handle all of this usage.

By four o'clock we are pretty well finished. The list of things still to be done is still daunting :

Paint the white line all round
Attach the rubber kickboards to the air fence
Clean the air fence
Put up all the advertising banners
Re-assemble the starting gates and mechanism
Finish the painting in the pits
Clean up the junior pits at the back of the main pits
Top dress the track
Tidy up the main drain on turn 1/2 and so on and so forth.

But we don't mind - speedway's coming home! And soon!

Oh, and if you're reading this, GET WELL GERALD!!