A free Thursday - a little bit of luxury and indulgence. After the rushing around and frantic work involved in staging last week's match against Peterborough and then the ill fated televised clash with Coventry on Monday there was a temptation to take this Thursday off. No meeting so perhaps it might be an opportunity to go shopping, do some gardening or even catch up on some of the work rescheduled to allow us time to work at the track on those days.
No chance! Punch and I had decided late on Monday that we needed at least a morning undisturbed by riders etc. to finish off a number of those jobs that are necessary but are so often pushed to the back of the queue when the pressure is on.
We were joined by Roy for the whole morning while Stan Potter and Mick Hunt just couldn't stand being away from the Abbey on a THursday and popped in to say hello.
Punch has been working away over the last few weeks on a small water tanker that could be used during meetings and really wanted two or three hours to get all of the necessary modifications completed. Less than half the size of the Mowlex slurry tank that we use for watering the track, this new one is much easier to manouevre and has plenty of capacity for watering during the heats.
I had two priorities for the morning. One was to check out all of the air pumps and ensure that they were all topped up with engine oil. Those who read the blog dealing with the Coventry match will know that one of the pumps decided to play up during the second half of the live televised clash, switching itself off after random periods of time and helping to keep my blood pressure bubbling until the very end of the meeting. We have had this once before this season and then Paul Gibbs (who's not been at all well recently - get well soon mate) cured it by topping it up with oil. We assumed that it was overheating and cutting out. So my first job was to check the oil levels in all 7 of the air pumps necessary to keep the air fences inflated at Blunsdon.
The second major job was to repair the rather large gash that Mads Korneliussen had ripped in an air bag on turn 3. With our much reported lack of spare bags, any kind of repair that I could make would give us just a little more breathing space.
Roy and I agreed that the grass on the centre green could do with a really good cutting and that we couldn't really wait another week before attempting it. Besides, today there would be no banners to drive around nor advertising hoardings to avoid. While Roy set off on the mower I started the checks on all the air pumps, filling them up with oil and then checking that they ran smoothly.
While I was preparing the repair kit for the air fence I noticed that the wooden kickboards down both straights had not been cleaned completely so I filled up the water tank on the back of "Jemima", the new name for the three wheeler because she sort of waddles, and set off with pressure washer at hand.
All went well for about 10 minutes until I became aware of the whiff of burning plastic. A quick look round at the water tank showed a design flaw which we hadn't considered when we mounted the pressure washer alongside the tank. As long the water level was high there was no discernable problem but as soon as it dropped to a level below that of the exhaust outlet for the pressure washer, the exhaust fumes, hot as they are, started to melt the container. Higher water levels dissipated the heat but with the water level low we had a real danger of dumping several tens of gallons of water on one part of the track.
The solution, a temporary one albeit, was found by Punch. He broke off his work on the water tanker to rummage through he piles of rubbish that can be found at the back of the pits, returning with a metal locker door. Once this was placed between the exhaust pipe and the plastic water tank the problem was solved.
It was while we were considering this problem that we looked seriously at the suspension at the back of Jemima. The water tank, in its present configuration, is off centre, adding to the basic instability of the vehicle and placing too much pressure on the suspension on one side. We have a plan to re-distribute the weight more evenly and make poor Jemima a much safer and stable venture ... but that will have to happen in the future.
Back out on track I located the damaged air panel. Mads had done a good job on it, ripping it along the base along a seam. Patching on its own would not have been strong enough so, for the second time in a week, I found myself stitching the two sides together with a series of cable ties, gluing the seams as I pulled the cables ties tight and then covering the whole area with a massive patch. It should last us until the new fence arrives on turns 1 and 2 when I will have 27 spare bags rather than just 3 to last me through to the end of the season.
Back behind the pits Punch's labours were beginning to bear fruit.
The pump was successfully mounted on a plate and Punch was now working on a pulley system to allow him to open and close the valve that would pump water out of the small tank onto the track via a bar with water jets at the back of the tank while still being able to drive the tractor at the same time. This ability to be able to control the water distribution while still on the move is essential if water is to be spread quickly and efficiently only where it is needed in the short time allocated to grading and track work during the course of a speedway meeting.
With the pulley system in place the last job of the day was to clean out the sand and accumulated detritus that had gathered in the bottom of the tank. My solution was to push the hose from the vacuum cleaner in and suck it all out. But when I returned with the cleaner Punch had disappeared.
I found him crouched down in the tank itself with a dustpan and brush. sweeping it out. Cue a possibility for a caption contest when he stuck his head out of the tank.
We packed up and were gone by 2 o'clock. It had been a perfect day - good weather, lots of important and time consuming jobs completed and no riders, mechanics, team managers etc. to disturb us in our work.
Before I forget, a big thank you to the Music Maestro at Swindon, Steve Gobey, for brightening up my pre match preparation last week. As I sank into a chair outside the Pit Cafe to enjoy a refreshing cup of Rita's tea suddenly I was aware of "I'm a Man" by Chicago playing on the PA system. Put Chicago, Deep Purple and the occasional Rainbow and Whitesnake tracks on and I regress to my youth with a smile on my face. Now, if you're reading this Steve, the odd track by Judie Tzuke would transport me to galaxies of delight.
