Chivenor 2009 produced a cacophony of sounds when nearly 500 rampant pistons were let loose on the open plains of the airfield – from the deep-throated power-grunts of the Jaguar and Ferrari, the banshee-like screams of the bike-engined brigade, through the impressive crack of the Imprezzas to the rather more mellow sounds of the road legal equipment. 

There were sights not to be missed too – the beautifully turned out Mini of Daniel Hope and Paul Finch’s pristine Mexico.  Watching Kevin Jones off the line with the Noble was awesome, although, surprisingly he was not the quickest to cover the 64ft to the first time beam – that honour went to the Audi Quattro of Andy Trayner with Scott Cleverdon and Simon Neve a very close second and third with their Mitsubishis. They went about their business in a relatively more sedate manner and their success was not apparent until the times came up on our screens. 

But the car that has stuck firmly in my mind is the little Nissan GTiR  of Den Conibear – it shot off down the runway like a rocket-propelled yellow road-runner on heat and posted consistently quick times for the first quarter mile – in fact those times were well ahead of any other “tin-top”.

Congratulations to Roy Sims on his FTD – of course, we are all convinced he would have still got it even if he hadn’t had those 25 practise runs (well alright, it was 5 practise runs, but at commentary it felt like 25 - some of us were getting tired). All that aside, it was a well deserved victory and what a great run from Andy Potter to take second overall in the little Jedi by a mere 8 tenths of a second – what his car lacked in grunt, it more than made up for in nimbility (a cross between nimble and agility, made-up word it may be but it certainly paints a picture)

The whole event was well-planned, well-organised and well-run by the usual very experienced team and to prove the point, when trouble did begin to raise its ugly head, it was quickly beaten back with a big stick and the rest of the event ran like a well oiled sewing-machine.

From a personal point of view, I had a cracking time. Because I am out of practise – I now seem to be doing just one event a year – I made a conscious decision not to do an all-day commentary, and with just a few interjections during practise, the voice held up well through the three and a half hours of the championship runs. With the capable help of young car enthusiast Kevin Tucker, our department ran like clockwork too. Mind you, I have to say that with the commentary, the timekeepers and race control radios, the commentary box sounded something akin to the families of jackdaws that I have shared my chimneys with for the last 32 years – a constant cackle.