Motorsport Breakfast
A sleepy, Nottingham industrial estate, cut off by on-going tram works, was shaken into life on Saturday 21st March by the sound of engines. V8s, V4s, flat-6s and 4-cylinders, all singing a different tune than Trent Vineyard Church would normally hear echoing around its auditorium, all there for a motorsport breakfast organised by Christians in Motorsport and Trent Vineyard.
The Trent Vineyard auditorium for the Motorsport Breakfast.
Over a hundred people enjoyed a full-English breakfast before hearing from the Jesus Saves Racing team about their return as a motorsport team in the UK. Adriano Medeiros won the Classic Formula Ford 1600 championship in 2013 and Leandro Guedes won the Rookie championship in the same series in 2014. After breakfast, Gary Thomas revealed his newly liveried Jesus Saves sprint and hillclimb car, a carbon-fibre, Suzuki Hayabusa-engined Force PC.
 Full-English breakfast – a good start to any day |
 Gary Thomas’ Force PC Hillclimb & Sprint car. |
With appetites satisfied, our guests could explore the auditorium. An eclectic range of cars and bikes were on display for people to admire, sit in and dream of racing. Everyone was given a ‘C’ sticker that they could place on the car they deemed to be the coolest. There was no dissent when the coolest car award was presented to the beautiful Lancia Fulvia. From time to time a mysterious figure would be seen stood among the cars. Some people think he is the Stig… but we know him as the Stig’s East Midlands cousin! 😉
 The Stig’s East Midlands cousin. |
 Outside car display |
For our more adventurous visitors, there was the pitstop challenge. Against the clock, teams would have to change the wheels on the Force PC, get their driver into their race overalls and helmet, then strap them into Nick Grahame’s mad Lexus V8-engined Mazda MX5. There were some valiant efforts, but none of the teams quite matched the slickness of a Le Mans pitstop, though these were much more entertaining to watch!
 Wheel change |
 Driver change |
Our third competition was for fastest driver of the day. The ‘health & safety’ brigade wouldn’t let us tear round the car park in our real cars, so we had to make do with some 1:32 scale fun. Christians in Motorsport brought out their new 6-car digital Scalextric set, complete with Audi R8, Mercedes SLR and Porsche 911 GT cars, for a series of endurance races. The driver with the most laps in 3 minutes would lift the trophy, with victory going to a young lad who managed 35 laps.
 Fastest Driver Challenge |
 Talking racing |
The event was a great success with many people asking us if it was going to be a regular event, so we may be persuaded to make a return visit next year. Trent Vineyard were really happy to see the variety of people that came in to their church through the morning and we hope that something of what they experienced will have got them thinking. Many thanks to all those who attended, brought vehicles or helped in any way with the event.
(Images courtesy of Gary Thomas)
