While packing for Croft on Friday morning, I had a bad feeling. Something wasn't right, but I couldn't put my finger on it. "Jessie" was on the end of the drive, with the trailer behind. "Hope" was still in the garage while both Jeeps and the trailer were loaded. Time to get "Hope" out of the garage and shut the door ready to go. The engine turned over, and over, and over and apart from a brief cough, no signs of life. Everything looked ok, wires on, plug leads etc., but upon pulling a plug, no spark. No spark at the points either. So I found two old 12 volt coils. One had the wrong terminals for a test, but the other had screw terminals. It was wired up and I tried to start the Jeep again. It coughed and spluttered like the timing was all wrong but wouldn't run. Hmmm, perhaps the original coil was the problem, so I thought I'd have one more test and wired it back up again. Pressed the starter and the Jeep fired up as normal!!! I was confused, but while it was running, decided to set off on the 40 mile trip.
Three quarters of the way there, there was a moment of panic when the usual route was closed due to road works and our little convoy had to trust the diversion signs through Darlington. Fortunately we didn't loose each other on the diversion and got back onto the route to the circuit. Trying to keep the weight down, we had the smaller tent and no display items. We were set up with Maurice's Hillman staff car, plus a tractor with two bomb trailers, one of which carried a 4,000 pound "cookie". There were meant to be other vehicles which didn't show, so the Jeeps were moved around on Saturday morning from their Friday positioning. Generators running all night meant I had virtually no sleep, leaving me exhausted on Saturday. I was too shattered to go walkabout with my camera until mid afternoon on Saturday.


The beginning of the military display started with a Home Guard and French Resistance display. My Jeeps and the RAF stuff came next.


After that, there was a mix of World War Two and modern vehicles, some of whom were camping and had tents set up while others were day visitors. This mix of eras continued up to the REME display of modern vehicles including trucks, Land Rovers and large recovery vehicles.



Beyond REME were more mixed types of vehicles with Jeeps, Dodges, Land Rovers, APC's etc. Having the vehicles mixed keeps the interest for me, rather than having a row of 50 Jeeps, followed by 30 Land Rovers, where you loose interest after the third or fourth similar looking vehicle.


A few more vehicles led to the military bikes section with a mix of motor bikes, a para-bike and a folding para-cycle. An entry closing date for military vehicles around D-Day, meant many were focused on the Normandy 75th Anniversary celebrations rather than show entries. While it was later extended, entries were down by 35 vehicles over previous years.



Next up was the impressive German North Africa Corps display and field hospital with a large variety of equipment and weapons on show. A few more Jeeps from the Yorkshire area came next.


	Patrick Smart's Hercules aircraft engine was at the end of the row. Our Jeep waits for the parade.

Due to being so tired, I had a brief wander around the classic car display, bought a spare 12 volt coil from one of the traders and headed back to the tent. There was a band on in the marquee on Saturday evening, playing far too loud for the size of the marquee. Most of the evening was spent outside where conversation was almost possible. My Saturday night was once again tortured by generators - different ones from Friday. I was more zombie like on Sunday and didn't watch any of the racing. I had a bit of a wander around the military display again as one or two different vehicles turned up, but I didn't take my camera. Throughout Sunday there were the track parades for classics and around 2:30pm, it was the military parade. While Lynne and I were both driving the Jeeps, my daughter took over the camera and snapped a few shots from our position marshalling the end of the convoy. For much of both laps, the front of the convoy was half to three quarters of a lap ahead of us.



The new 60's/70's Retro theme brought in my the new circuit manager took much of the atmosphere away from the event. Hardly anyone was dressed up in period clothing and the best dressed competition was a bit of a joke. People who were there for the first time seemed to enjoy it, but those who had attended over the previous nine years all agreed there was something lacking this year. The bands who played across the afternoons each day were loud, and not as popular as the 1940's entertainment of past years. I'm a very light sleeper and a butterfly breaking wind can wake me up. As a result, the generators causing a lack of sleep was the killer for me and as a result, I'm unlikely to camp there again. In previous years, we've had two or three vehicles on show, and a reasonable diorama. For the future, we are more likely to only visit on Saturday with one vehicle. It's a shame, but the various changes brought in by the new manager has ruined the feel of the event. The "bad feeling weekend" finished with Lynne really scaring herself on the drive home. She wasn't going particularly fast, but took a roundabout with adverse camber and felt like she was about to roll the Jeep over. When turning from one direction to the other, the Jeep does roll on its suspension and combined with the adverse camber, it was enough to cause a real scare. We did however get home ok, clocking up two milestones on the way. About one third of the way home, "Hope" clocked up 1,000 miles since the restoration and with just a couple of miles to go, "Jessie" clocked up 16,000 miles in my ownership.