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Sunday, 19th of May 2002
Though I have been to Crail a few times before, this was actually my first visit to the Max Power Cruise. I had read the reports and seen the pictures from previous years, but still did not really know what to expect. The one thing that surprised me was that the 1/4 mile wasnıt being run on the Saturday, as I have always associated it with Crail (it was being run on Sunday though). I thought it was an excellent day out (even better if I had been able to stay the whole weekend) and well worth the doortax of £5. This is how the day passed...
During the previous week via word of mouth and the forum, I had arranged to meet up with several cars in the Hotel/Pub Carparks and then cruise through together to meet up with the Edinburgh convoy at the Forth Rd Bridge. Unfortunately nothing ever quite goes to plan and only two of us met up at the park at lunchtime. Maybe the weather put some folks off, others forgot or ran late, or in Stallionıs case just slept in! Not to be put off, Big M, Kim and myself had a brisk drive through and met up with the East coast guys as planned. After some lunch (courtesy of Macdonalds) about 10 of us headed off to Crail under the guidance of Steve_crx. Its always good fun following and overtaking each other. Well done for getting us there in the end mate ;-)
So to the cruise itself. We arrived at Crail just before the official start time of 3pm and there were already plenty of cars about. The entrance to the site was well set up with all cars filtered into 4 entry lanes so no one had to queue too long. The marshals (they did an excellent job all day) then directed us to the parking area where we were able to park up very easily. First thing we did was to go walk about with the cameras where we saw some very tidy cars such as corsas, civics, mx-5s, puntos, novas, scoobys and almost everything else modified to a high standard. As we walked around more and more cars kept arriving and a rolling cruise round the site started to form which was good to see, but we didnıt fancy the 30 minutes it would take to get round and parked again (remind you of strathy anyone?)
After my last visit to Crail, my one fear was the toilet facilities. (Trainspotting had come to mind). My mind was gladly put to rest when I saw lots and lots of shiny, nice smelling and CLEAN portaloos (did anyone manage to christen them?) It would be great if these were to become a permanent feature at the air field. Even by the end of the day they were still in a very usable condition :-)
Apart from the static and rolling cruises, the main feature of the day was the Drifting Ring. This is where stunt shows were performed, cars could show off (or not in some cases!), the burnout/donut competition was held, the jet car toasted a fiesta and of course the Miss Wet Max Thrash competition. The burnout competition was won by the black and white Ocartmanı WRX Impreza which is seen up knockhill all the time. It was putting in some very impressive and smokey stunts all over the ring. The highlight for me was the 4x4 competition which ended up being between said scooby, the Mazda 323 turbo that is seen down the park often (scotland flag on lower grill) and the 11sec black escort cossie. The skills of all drivers was breathtaking and the shear acceleration of the cossie would take almost anything on the UK roads. All cars were spinning massive donuts on the spot, but in the end the Mazda took it for the style and speed he was able to spin at. If you werenıt there to see it, try and find someone with the video!!!!
Before that Jumping Jake Semtex was demonstrating all sorts of trick riding on everything from quads to racing bikes. It was a good display, but most of the crowd noticed that the experienced rider seemed to have a thing for the teenage girls...
Which leads nicely to what most of the guys (and some girls) who had been swigging beers and buckie all day had been waiting for. The Wet T-shirt competition. The man with the mic did a great job of coaxing 15 girls into taking part. At first most were very shy, but as our man Wullie got to work with his hose, the girls grew in confidence (and that wasnıt just their minds). It started with a quick flash from one of the girls and as the large crowd started chanting, the rest of the tops began to disappear. At this point most of the guys were stood with their tongues hanging out and most of the girls were laughing their heads off. All credit to the girls on stage as it wasnıt exactly the driest or warmest day of the year... Eventually a winner was chosen, but some of the crowd thought there should have been a stewards enquiry. Certainly an entertaining contest with some pretty girls that kept everyone entertained.
As the evening drew to an end the jet car came out to toast an old fiesta, which Jake Semtex then preceded to blow up! At this point Kim and myself made our exits as we felt like two drowned rats and didnıt fancy sitting in a traffic jam before the long drive home.
So there we have it. I thought it was a great day out and plenty going on. Some of you will agree and some disagree. I heard some comments about a Olack of atmosphereı, but Iıd put that down to the fact the day was very overcast and pissing down most of the time. If you were at the Drifting ring at the end, you certainly canıt complain about the atmosphere. Some guys even started streaking! Having the stage with the sound system playing all day also helped greatly. The only other down side apart from the weather, was maybe the price of food. £2.50 for a cheeseburger and £2 for chips seemed a bit on the steep side to most people, but I guess this in line with any official event from football to motorshows these days. I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did and to see you all same place, same time next year :-)
Words: Ferg
Photos: AJL, Ferg, Peachy, Fraz and Robert Baxter
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