Giving It Some Boot

I (Annie) headed over today to Stourbridge, to join a team competing in the 2015 Club Triumph Historic Counties Run (HCR). This year's challenge is called the "Loop the Loop Challenge". Our team, in car 15, consisted of me, Reg, Jason and blip's very own MartinN - dream team. ;)

The HCR is an annual event, with rules roughly as follows:

- Over around 12 hours, you earn points for visiting specifically listed counties, or specifically listed landmarks;
- You are given at the start a list of the points to visit in the first half, and you have half an hour to plan your route to get as many as possible before leaving;
- You must plan a route through the first half of the run that gets you to the halfway point at the specified time, or penalty points will be deducted;
- At each point you must take photographic evidence of your visit, including your car's team number (car 15 for us);
- After an enforced rest stop at the halfway point, you are given the second half of the points to visit, and half an hour to plan the route before leaving;
- It is not a race; careful route planning is the thing that will win it for you, not brute speed on the roads. Be safe and considerate.

However, the blip shows the very first thing that happens before any of that kicks off: a mini "Gymkhana" event with each of the cars in turn getting round the cones in a specific route as fast as possible. This is our team's car making its run (we were not particularly fast - note in this picture the impressive back wheel spin, but lack of actual motion!).

For those interested, our team chose the following route in the first half (from 6pm to 12.30am):

- Start at the The Old Waggon & Horses, Stourbridge Road, Kidderminster, Worcestershire - +1 point for county Worcestershire
- Drive to Llangollen, Denbighshire, Wales - +1 point for each county of Staffordshire, Shropshire and Denbighshire on the way, and +1 bonus point for Castell Dinas Bran (for optional point, "A castle in Denbighshire");
- Drive west to the A5, A494 junction - +1 point for each county of Gwynedd and Conwy;
- Drive up the A494 to Hope then across to Wrexham and Holt, looking hard for the optional point of "A river sign in Flintshire" - +1 point for county Flintshire, and finally +1 point for the river sign on the River Dee at Holt;
- Drive to Malpas - +1 point for county Cheshire, and +1 bonus point for "A cheese factory in Cheshire" (Reece's Creamery);
- Drive to near Uttoxeter, then down to Sutton Coldfield - +1 point each for counties Derbyshire and West Midlands;
- Drive to the halfway point at Corley Services on the M6 - +1 point for county Warwickshire.

We only really missed out on points for visiting Anglesey, and the bonus points for a racing track in Anglesey. Just not enough time to fit them in - so 4 points missed out on! Still, at the half way point we were on time at 12.30am, and not too bad a score so far. Lots of giggling in the car and silliness.

21 cars taking part (all classic Triumphs) - where will we come?

One loop complete - where next?