The infamous Söderquist Chevrolet Suburban Crew-mobile. Could 13 people & luggage fit in it? Apparently so.
Travelling to the track:
The journey to Mantorp was quite exciting and we hoped that our technology combination of our trusty laptop and our good old (Nokia 6310i) mobile phone internet connection (ho ho ho!) would come together (as technology predicted that they would) in order that reporting would commence from Mantorp on Friday morning. I bet if it hadn't come together, there would have been lots of shouting, bad language, laptop smashing, mobile phone squashing and generally a lot of running around destroying all available crockery!
I was intending to leave Derby at around mid day on the Thursday, but my phone was really sizzling, even before daybreak. Thus; when I did get going, I was already about an hour and a bit behind schedule. I was trusting that my knowledge of the camera locations on the route was up to date, as I maintained my steady 70mph (Ahem, officer!) all the way down the M1, A14 and M11 to Stanstead. I was a tiny bit stressed by the time I had found a place to dump the car and queued for the bus to take your author to the Airport Terminal. I could see no sign of anyone familiar, except for one chap who thought I was Russell Grant and kept insisting on asking for my autograph, regardless of my protestations that a) I wasn't Russell and b) The potentially compelling evidence that he's 2 feet shorter than me and about the same amount wider than me!
"You're overweight, Sir" quipped the lady on the Ryan Air reception. "Don't be ridiculous, Madam, I'm seriously overweight! Hehe". An icy pair of eyes stared back at me as she adopted her humourless 'Im-Olga-from-the-film-From-Russia-With-Love' stance: "Mmm; That'll be (sixty something) pounds, Sir. You may pay over there and then re-join the queue". 'Aha, I can see that my childish sense of humour is going to open countless doors for me at Ryan Air', I thought, so I shuffled around to the excess weight desk to pay my dues. Once I was through the check-in process, I was beginning to feel a little more relaxed in so much as 'the baggage has gone - let's party!' and I soon saw one or two regulars and exchanged words. I happen to use glasses for driving and computers and if I have had them on all day and I've just removed them, it takes a little while for me to focus properly. I was wondering around the shops and bars in the departure zone, in a fairly aimless fashion, when I became aware of a person who was clearly burdened with all sorts of personality disorders. His behaviour quickly degraded into some sort of manic waving session, just at the periphery of my vision. I deferred my eyes, as not to encourage him and politely looked away. Returning to my vision, this chap's thrashing and lashing had become even more frenzied and he now appeared to be approaching... alarm bells were beginning to ring and I hastily looked around for a bolt-hole to dash to. Now this poor chap's protestations were being intermingled with "Jeez!" and a faintly familiar "For ****'s sake!" and as I carefully peered from behind the Ladies Underwear counter (a perfect disguise, of course!) I could see that it was none other than Nitro hero, Gary Page, looking a little grumpy that I had been intentionally ignoring him and positively running away for the last few minutes. I was completely embarrassed at my attempts to avoid this "mad-man" and the tirade of insults (mostly rude, mostly extremely funny and all of them completely unprintable) were received with good nature. It was with little surprise that I stumbled upon a whole bunch of more familiar faces in the bar, enjoying copious quantities of mineral water, juices and other such non-alcoholic beverages (ahem!). Yet, the time rapidly approached for us to board and we shifted our positions to the gate itself. Boarding the aircraft quickly turned into complete boredom at our lack of progress and the static queue sent our minds wondering towards the refreshments bar, just behind us. Within moments we were ensconced at the bar and various beverages and munchies were ordered and were being enthusiastically consumed. At last, it was our turn to board and we joined the end of the queue. I opened a bottle of Strathmore sparkling mineral water and was a little startled when it decided to fountain the contents upon my person from head to foot. Infectious laughter soon prevailed which was instantly silenced as I attempted to "hold on" to the 'Volcanic' top, which then liberally covered anyone within a 45 mile radius of me. I find it difficult to understand how such a small and incredibly pricey drink could soak so many people to the skin!
The flight proved fairly uneventful, but for a huge bounce as we landed at Stockholm Skavasta airport and we soon disembarked and were collecting our belongings in the collection lounges. I had been kindly offered a lift in the trusty Suburban and eagerly awaited its arrival with my impressive pile of cases and rucksack. I gathered that as I surveyed the rest of the eager travellers heading in the same direction, that my extensive selection of luggage was not looked on with favour. I peered around the others and couldn't help noticing that they had all pretty much come with 4 days clothing, wash facilities and sleeping bags all carefully packed into the area of a packet of 20 Benson & Hedges. I sheepishly loaded up my things, dispensing with 'It'll never fit' and 'Why couldn't you bring 1 small bag like the rest of us?', and crammed them on board before taking up a position pretty well-sardined on all sides by the others.
We arrived at the track at around half past 10 on Thursday night. One of Micke Kagerad's crew members had driven down to pick us up and, despite not having the correct credentials, or even a single ticket, we were waved into the circuit after a quick impression of the Swedish Chef on the Muppet show. As the Suburban growled its way through an impressively busy pits - Sharkman dived for cover at one point, we arrived at the pits to find that Gary, Terry and Mark - all regulars on the Jöran Persåker dragster - had travelled ahead and had started servicing the car ready for the morning. What morning? It was nigh on already morning!
You can pick up on matters by clicking on the Friday report, just here!