A trip to Yeovil from Portsmouth saw us at The Great Mini Meet at the Haynes Motor Museum in Sparkford.

Organised by Yeovil Mini Club this can by no means be called a big show and for that reason I really like it. This is a show that’s about the cars, meeting and catching up with old friends, ogling at the mass of classic vehicles in the museum and throwing your car round the test track. In some cases that means not turning the corner and piling into the tyre wall at the back of the circuit:

Damn!

The poor kid that was driving this had only passed his test six months previously, this was his first car. Thankfully he walked away with only a bruised wrist and pride. The car? Well, as you can guess, it’s a write off. The marshalls that pulled the car out said that it was rusty and rotten underneath the gorgeous yellow paint. Still, gotta be gutted for the bloke. The organisers had a whip round the show to help pay for a lorry to get the car home. Unfortunately I don’t know how much they raised. Folks - Motorsport is DANGEROUS!

From this photo you can see the whole show in the background.

Haynes Mini Show

Only five traders were there and one of those was the burger van! Lots of tidy little cars around, a fantastic GSXR bike engined Mini at its first show, and of course lots of my mates.

Apart from the temporary removal (theft) of my mobile phone (I found it thrown in a bush) I had a great day. The weather was fantastic too. The only major downside (apart from the crash) was that about two miles into to 100 mile journey home the car in front of me flicked up a stone which cracked my windscreen.

GTNige of WPMininuts and P&SMOC fame very kindly took me round the track in his Clubby and I (badly) videoed it:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtD5a9N0aiQ]

As soon as I have processed them I will get some more pictures on the web. This is of course dependent on Flickr sorting my account for me!