One day we got an e-mail from our mate John Walton telling us of a new sprint race series that was starting at Barkston Heath. The difference between this one and the usual sprints that we did there in the Hood was that this one was for 14 year olds onwards. This meant that Joey was eligible, and boy was he excited 
The Juniors were to be restricted to 1100cc max, so we needed to find ourselves a suitable little car for Joey to use.
A while later at the Stoneleigh show (after a few beers) we were telling our friends Babe and Niskha about this exciting new event, when Babe said "Hang on a minute" and got on the phone, within minutes we had made a deal and bought a 1.1 Rover Metro off her friends, Adam and Lorraine. We agreed on £60, later on though as the drinks went down Babe told Joey that if he was good that week at school she would pay half, Poor old Niskha was cringing a few more drinks and we might get the car for nothing
It was J reg and had only done 36k miles.
Here we see Joey with his new toy. Thanks Babe and Niskha !
It did not take him very long to start stripping off the surplus weight.
Now that interior has to go
It's nice to know that we have saved this poor little car from a visit to the crusher !
We got a nice price on a Bucket seat and a set of four point Harnesses from Dr Fox
Thanks James
Looks like he is enjoying "Prepping the Car"
Katie tried out the Bucket seat for size and agreed it was pretty cool
In what seemed like no time at all it was "Race Weekend", The Saturdays event was a Robin Hood event so there was a lot of friends to inspect Joeys new wheels
Here we see Joey showing John Walton the controls. Daren Fasey looks like he has been attacked by a roll of Yellow tape
At the end of the days racing John took Joey out for a "Test drive", Probably would have helped if JW put his Helmet on the right way round
After a session on the Taxiway John was impressed enough to take Joey onto the track for a few laps, I was quite impressed to hear the Metro's tyres squealing like mad on the far sweeping bends, when I mentioned this to Joey later on he said "JW" had been shouting "Foot Down, Foot Down" "Faster, Faster" Once a racing driver, always a racing driver,
Time for home so we parked the Metro and Trailer all secure on the site and went home for a beer or two
Someone who never refuses a Beer is one of Joeys fans Nigel (Longboarder) Thursdan, who kindly stayed over to support Joey in his new career
Next day the Barkston Chief Examiner "Martin Astley" took Joey for a test and he passed with full colours, He then sent Joey out "first" for the Track sessions so he gained experience and then he kindly gave up most of his dinner break to take Joey out on track for some lessons which helped Joey Immensely and his lap times came down very quickly. "Thanks Martin"
He also got a lot of support from the resident Metro boys "Matt" and "Jason" with free tyres and valuble advice.
On the last session the organisers wanted to see how the track ran the other way round, when they were planning this they had to add a Chicane after the first straight to avoid the cars going flat out towards the EWS (Emergency Water Supply), apparently some drivers have even tried to park their "Hoods" in EWS's (Eh Dave )
Joey was given the honour of being the first driver to try this route, here we see Martin giving him some last minute advice. Mind you it looks like he is telling Joey he is going the wrong way .
In the end Joey did as well as Martin expected him to do, Thats my Boy!
On some of the runs Nigel "Bravely" rode shotgun and was very complimentary about Joeys Driving
Fast forward two months and here we are ready to go again, this time we have done some pretty serious modifications to Joeys Baby. The number has been moved for a start
No, in actual fact a lot has been done, we have fitted a roll cage and a centrally mounted fuel tank.
The Metro had the new "Sticky" Dunlops that were kindly donated last meet by Jason and fitted by Steve at Hi-Q, unfortunately one of the tyres had a puncture in the side wall so he has had to keep it a bit longer so he can do a "special" lorry type repair (Thanks Steve)
I asked him about the "Spare" Tyre that we had fitted in the meantime, it looked quite special but were a bit dissapointed to hear that it was only 1 step above a remould
Oh well it can't be any worse than the bulging tyre that Joey put up with on the last Barkston Sprint.
Joey took the car for a quick shakedown run round one of the Loops.
Look there's a Hot Air Balloon!
I have never been "Buzzed" by a Hot Air Balloon before , It was quite a sight it came right down low and glided by then gave it some heat and climbed away "Amazing". Anyway back to the racing.....
There was 2 other Juniors there this time, "Neil" and "Chris" sons of "Billy" and "Martin", the organisers.
It was nice for Joey to have some more "Petrolhead" Youth's like himself to talk to and compete against
Back on track we have a "Solo" Joey doing some early timed runs.
As you can see he was in good company, here we can see Joey approaching the first chicane and next one lining up was this Gorgeous sounding Subaru Impretza, Now this is what all Impretza's should be doing not just posing round the town centres
As you can see the boy was pushing his Metro to the limit.
Another fast lap over Joey winds his way skilfully round the cones,
in the background we can see "Chris" in his quick Hillman Imp.
As you can see from the timing sheet Joey did well, in the end he improved his lap times by 8 seconds from his morning times. (And was not last) pretty good for a novice driver eh?
After the day was ended slightly prematurely after young Neil stuffed his Toledo into the tyre wall, Joey took Bethanie for some lessons on the Loops, she did really well and Joey commented on how well she did.
Now she wants to buy shares in the Metro for next year. Her and Katie Both I think
Now we are into October and we are kindly invited by Martin and Billy to have some practice on the second track at Barkston, so while the Tiger meet was going on on number 1, Joey had full and exclusive use of the number 2 track and boy did he make use of it!
Throughout the day The Metro Ran well, the only problem apart from a rapidly balding front right tyre was a fuel problem where our Fuel cap was not venting and the whole lot was pressurising and causing the car to stop!!!! a quick notch in the fuel cap seal soon sorted this and a F1 style tyre stop soon swapped the balding front with the virtually new rear
Damn and blast it, the one spin the little bugger had and I was not videoing it at least I got a photo though !
And at the end of the day Joey had improved his lap times by nearly 6 seconds, and he had really boosted his confidence in his car and his driving!
Many thanks again to the Barkston staff for giving us this opportunity to practice like this.
"Plum Pudding"
Now on a Sunny December day we have the "Plum Pudding" meet, the last one for this year and as usual there was a good turnout of cars. The track started wet but quickly dried out as the cars did their rounds, Joey was really going well on his new Toyo F1 Tyres although it was not an official timed meeting we did our own and Joey managed to knock at least 10 seconds off his last visit.
He was in good company, look whats in front of him! Martin's Gorgeous Jaguar "D" Type.
And the cars behind him included "Billy Fletchers "fast "Hornet".
During the dinner break Martin asked Joey if he would like a go in his Jaguar "D" Type? Joey thought he meant a passenger ride, but no he was given the opportunity of a lifetime for a 15 year old he was going to drive the 320Hp Racer!!!!!
One happy looking lad, but is that "Fear" or "Panic" on Martins face?
Off they went, Wow what a noise. Any idea that this was to be a slow drive soon went out of my head as he went roaring down the track, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and even reaching 4th gear before hitting the brakes "Martin said later that he had gone well over 100mph
after a good long test it was time to park up, you can almost see the grin on Joeys face from here! He loved it. Martin had asked me if it was OK to let Joey do this because he wanted to reward him for having such a good year.
Well I have to say Martin that is some "Reward", We will both remember this reward forever, what a thrill. Thanks again Mate!
After Dinner there was a presentation ceremony laid on for this years competitors, Can you imagine Joeys face when Billy mentioned the Juniors series and how well they had all done and then this slide came up!!! Brilliant!
Joey was no longer a "Junior" he was a "Graduate" so he can contest the series properly next year, excellent news.
Here is the proud lad with his Trophy, (Picture taken by a very proud Dad by the way!)
Happy Lad as you can see !!!
And here we have the official Award winners photo shoot.
"Many Congratulations to all of you its been a very good season. and great fun too"
Joey and I both look forward to more of the same next year!
Back to the track and the action started again, here we see Chris Astley (Martins son) taking Irene (Female Hoody) Maguire for a wizz round the track, she was very impressed, She is definately a "rear wheel drive" person!
Oh well a few laps round Landow in the 2.5V6 Mondeo should sort her out
OK I won't argue with her this time about rear wheel drive, here she has another ride round, this time its in the "Star Car" the Jaguar "D" type, afterwards she was "speechless" which for those of you lucky enough to know Irene will know is a "Rare Occasion"
OK I will get my coat!
And so we came to the end of this, "Joeys" first season as a racing driver. What a fun time we have all had and we are really looking forward to next season (Might even have a go myself
). Joey has now got another Metro to get ready to race this time its a GTi so it should be a little faster and might even suprise a few "Hoodies" on the owners club track days .
We would both like to thank everyone involved in making this event happen especially Martin Astley, Billy Fletcher, "All" the staff and marshalls at Barkston, the RAFMSA for positively encouraging all this to happen, John Walton for telling us about it in the first place, The other Metro Drivers "Matt" "Jason" and "Brian" for all their help and advice, and all the other competitors for making us feel so welcome.
Look forward to racing you all next year
