NASC Gary’s Picnic # 26
Incorporating American Car World Nationals & UK Doorslammers
15th & 16th May 2004

Just one of "Surrey Muscle's" 10 second street cars!

This is the second year we have held Gary’s Picnic at Shakey, last year the weather was absolutely awful, not this year though, the sun was out with vengeance.

The NASC crew arrived early Friday morning to find race cars already setting up in the pits. Gary’s Picnic also saw a round of the Street Eliminator cars, and Steve Pateman and crew were already set up and looking forward to some very quick times from the monster 706cu in ( that’s over 11 litres to you and me!!) Calibra. The Taz Racing boys were setting up at the top end of the pits, Pete Angel preparing his Blown 350 Chevy powered Model A sedan (well emptying the boot of the weekends camping gear and a six pack o Bud’ actually! ) the Skinner brothers Fiats having the wheelie bars adjusted ( and believe me they bloody need them! ) and Kev Prestons A60 pickup, which is now running in the low 10’s.

Russ Hill's Firebird

By the time the bar was open the pit lanes were full to bursting, some late comers having to use the camping area as well, and with having Street Eliminators, NSCC guys, Street Racer Series cars etc along for the weekend, you never get bored of seeing the same cars. We had everything from cars banging on the door of a 7 second pass, to first timers running in the 16’s, such is the variety of an event like Garys Picnic.

Blacktop provided the music on Friday evening, which went on into the early hours.

Saturday morning arrived, and those that weren’t feeling the results of the night before, were ready for the track opening at 10 am. One of the first out on the track was Steve Pateman who promptly ran an 8.86 sec, and set the goal for everybody else. The track was busy all day, the guys at Shakey getting cars up the track at a blinding rate ( well done guys! )

There were prizes up for grabs for the quickest 4, 6 and 8 cylinder cars, quickest commercial ( and no we don’t mean the B&Q advert! ) and for the quickest street legal car ( taxed & MOTed ) there was a £500 CASH prize from Gary’s Shack. To be honest there weren’t that many four cylinder cars over the weekend, not that it would have made much difference to the winner anyway, Lester Blacks 2276cc battered Beetle took the honours on the first day with a 11.20 sec pass, at a terminal speed of 118mph, a very trick Bug with more money in the engine than most of us spend on our cars.

Low 11 second Pop without gas, 10's are just a matter of time!

The NSCC boys were out in force, the Mustang powered Capri of Gary Leece running mid 12’s all day, Bob Ackerman Moyles running into the low 12’s with the Blown 440 powered CF Van, which is even more impressive when you know the van weighs about two and a half tons ( without the driver!! ) Russell Pursley was doing his damdest to get his hands on the £500 for the quickest Street Car of the weekend with a blistering 10.61 sec run at 128.11mph in his Chevy powered Dutton.

We were asked to move the Burnout competition to the Saturday tea time as track time was so short on the Sunday, which caught us all on the hop with only a handful of cars ready for it. First on was Stuart Smith and his red primered pickup which promptly boiled the hides to virtual destruction. Mark Skinner in the Fiat rolled up next, disappearing within seconds in plumes of white smoke, Wayne Allman wasted a pair of perfectly good slicks in about 15 seconds flat, only stopping cos the car was full of smoke, the Nightmares entered Mark Travis in his Silver Cortina, who also disappeared within seconds, there would have been a second entry from the Nightmares with young Jo, but she forgot the key for her Wheel locking nuts!! Picking a winner was more than a little difficult without the Nats crowd to help, but it eventually went to Russell Hill in his Pontiac, telling me later that his speedo was reading 140mph during his burnout.

There was a cruise planned for Saturday evening which was arranged by Jeni Long, she had worked out a great route to a family Pub, with food available to those who wanted it, but a severe bout of apathy, and another cruise being organised elsewhere, meant it was virtually empty. I can only say thanks for all your efforts and sorry for the apathy from others!

The Saturday band however was arranged by Jens other half Wayne Allman, who had booked the Earl Gray band, and they were absolutely fantastic eventually coming off stage at 12.30am. A disco by the Blacktop roadsters kept the evening rockin’.

The track opened at 11am on the Sunday, which gave people a chance to recover from Saturday night. We set the NASC stand up in the Show n Shine field which filled up pretty quickly, with a wide range of very impressive machinery. The track was as quick as the previous day, Pete Angel running a 13.10, Bob Ackerman took fastest commercial with a 12.11 ET at 109.41mph, Ian Walley took the 6 cylinder class with an 11.79 at 118.34mph and Craig McManus snatching quickest street car from Russell at the last minute with a 10.38 at 129.73mph in his 1983 Camaro, and taking the £500 cash prize from Gary’s Shack, Russell went home with the £100 cash runner up prize money.

Steve Pateman ran an 8.63 at 172mph and made it through to the semi, losing out to Splinter, Steve’s second round run was with Wayne Saunders in the Silver 55 Chevy, unfortunately Wayne had a bloody awful accident rolling the car at over 165mph, Wayne was taken to Hospital with some nasty injuries but thankfully none are life threatening, a testament to the build quality of the car. Everyone at the NASC and Shakey hope you get well soon Wayne, and hope to see you back at the track soon.

I’ll be keeping a close eye on Steve and the guys in the Street Eliminator, there’s gonna be a 7 second pass out there soon and I for one wanna be there when it happens!!

Prize giving was at 5.15pm at the NASC stand in the centre of the showfield, Best of Show went to Martin Nortcliffe and his 1939 Chevy, Runner up went to Tony Sheridan and his Chevy, with a special award going to Gary Placy and his awesome Black n Flamed Willys. Trophies were presented by the NASC’s latest sponsor to come on board, Kevyn Boyland of Reality Hot Rods.

A weekend full of Hot cars, Hot music and Hot Weather, it don’t get much better than that.

[ more pictures available here ]

Mark Ashman

top of page