Hi All,

Another one for the funny books.

I was at my first ever race accross and there was an orange jacket crew at their very first meeting. Was at a two dayer at Aintree by the way. The passenger was looking a little nervous and the driver had a smile of anticipation all over his face. You could tell he'd had long nights in the garage for week after week, and the chance for a run out in anger had finally come. We have all been there.....

We said to them that we were new to the circuit as well and were going to follow someone to learn the course and to tag on the back of us. As the morning went on they were both getting more and more confident with the course and the look of worry and constant running to the toilet was overtaken by wider and wider smiles of enjoyment.

At the lunch break we popped over to them and asked how they were getting on and to see if there was anything we could help them with. The passenger took me to one side and asked how I got on with back protectors.....I said fine no problem... he looked a little confused and worried and shook his head... 'I carn't get on at all with mine' he said 'its really hurting me and I carn't raise my head to check out where we are'.

I asked him to show me what was wrong and he came back carrying the back protector, it wasn't a fitted one .. he put it on and immediately it became apparent what was wrong and why he was struggling so much with the dammed thing..... he had it on upside down..... the part that goes round the coccyx (Tail bone) was actually digging straight into his neck.

After getting myself off the floor from laughing so much I showed him the right way round he just said ... 'ohh no flamin' wonder'.

We had a beer at the local pub that night and you could say the poor fella had a hard time of it.... especially after we told his driver, girlfriend and all the crew that were with them.....but he took it all in his stride and laughed through somewhat gritted teeth. It was even worse though for him as the course commentator/announcer... who was also apparently in the pub that night got wind of it and mentioned something about it at every opportunity the very next day.....
We became friends after all that and regularly recounted that day for years after when we saw them accross, it was just part and parcel of what racing is all about, it really felt like a family ... I miss it like hell....