The Builder's Birthday Present

here it is, Saturday morning and off we are heading at quite an early hour to Prestwold to the Everyman Racing Driving Experience, where Jeanette and Matthew have bought a racing car experience for The Builder for his birthday.  I have no real interest in driving fast cars fast, but went along anyway, for the (not so fast) ride.

Ready to go

If you drew a triangle with Derby, Nottingham and Loughborough as the three points, Prestwold (I keep wanting it to be Prestbury, which is in Cheshire and doesn't, as far as I am aware, have a driving circuit - just as well I didn't navigate us there!!!!), would be inside it, down towards Loughborough and it is much closer to us than I had thought. Moreover, on a Saturday morning at half past eight there is very little traffic on the roads, even on the M1. So we called into one of the services for a stash of cash. And we managed to take a wrong turn at one point which added a few minutes to the drive time - and, incidentally, took us through some very pretty countryside!  Even so, we arrived extremely early for The Builder's 11 o'clock appointment.

The instructions had said to come an hour before time, so we weren't *that* much early. And he went off to register and to sign all the paperwork and to do the various things that he had to do before he went a-driving. And I sat outside in the warm sunshine and the cool breeze, by the American Style diner-in-a-tin-hut, and wiled away a bit of time.

They went round 4 times

All of a sudden - there was The Builder walking across the car area accompanied by other people who also looked as though they were going to go out driving.  I checked the time. It was only ten past ten!!!!!  So I grabbed all my stuff and dashed away from the diner-in-a-tin-hut and up the grassy hill to a viewing area so I could watch and take photos and videos.  The only problem with this was that I didn't actually see which car he had got into!!  So I took pictures of all of them. (I also couldn't actually see what I was photo-ing or videoing for the sun was shining on the view screens - so I more or less had to make it up!)

I did it!!!

There are other cars to drive as well

So off they went. A white lead car, and three little sporting numbers following in procession. And they whipped around the circuit four times, getting faster and faster each time. The cars were only tiny - and The Builder, as I'm sure you've noticed, is not a small person. So they had taken the seat out of his car and he was sat on the floor of the chassis, knees and shoulders all scrunched in so that he fitted into the tiny car. It must have been extremely uncomfortable - and he had a FABULOUS time!!  He really loved it.  Had we thought about it, we would have bought him something else to do while we were there.  But now that we know that it's there and that you don't actually have to pre-book - we might go back one day and let him have a play with some of the other circuit drives!

We came back not along the motorway (so he wouldn't be tempted to vooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom along and get into lots of trouble with the motorway police). We would have stopped and had lunch somewhere along the way - not at the circuit itself because there was only the diner on offer, but at one of the local pubs. But he had had his drive so early that it wasn't lunchtime! So we went to The Nettle instead as a continuation of the birthday festivities.

So that was an excellent birthday present.  Many thanks to Jeanette and Matthew who organised it all. He really had a great time :-)  (And I had quite a fun time too - to my surprise!!)

Post-drive lunch back at The Nettle

And here are some videos