Widnes-racer Paul O’Neill produced a fine drive in the final race of the weekend to finish in second place behind the works Honda of Matt Neal, a result which handed Team sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed its first Independents victory. Paul also now leads the Independents’ Trophy standings after the first six races of the year and remains fourth overall – just four points behind second placed Matt Neal.

Paul qualified in tenth place at the wheel of his Honda Integra but gambled on dry tyres for the opening race despite morning rain. It proved to be the right call as Paul battled his way up to finish in sixth place but he was forced to settle for eighth in race two after losing time early on following contact from the BMW of Mat Jackson.

The reverse grid draw left Paul on the front row of the grid for the final race and having tried to make a move around the outside of Neal for the lead off the start, had to concede second place to Tom Onslow-Cole. Paul then found himself embroiled in a fight for position with the Ford driver and made his move on lap twelve as he went up the inside at Chapman.

While he was unable to close the gap to Neal out front, Paul took a fine second place and his first Independent victory for the team.

“That was just perfect,” he said. “When we got the reverse grid after the first two races, I knew we had a chance and I had to drive with my head. There are too many people getting involved in contact and taking each other off at the moment – they are handing an advantage to Jason Plato.

“When I tried to go around the outside of Matt at the start, I could see all the marbles on the circuit and backed out rather than risk ending up in the wall. Then I had a battle with Tom and he is a great driver to race against because you know you can go side-by-side with him in fifth gear and it will be a clean fight. On the oval, he had the pace, but on the infield he was there for the taking and he had no reply when I made my move. The result is good but it’s not for me, it’s for the team. People don’t realise how good they are, but to be in a position where I am leading the Independents’ championship against the opposition there is, shows everyone what they can do.”

Team-mate John George had only arrived back in the country on Thursday having been stuck in Spain following the volcanic eruption in Iceland which grounded flights throughout Europe. A wrong call on tyres for the opening race led to John being forced to make a pitstop, which dropped him down to 16th place, while the second race ended in retirement after he was hit in the rear by the Chevrolet of Alex MacDowall.

Despite that, the Guernsey-racer headed into the final race with confidence high before he was forced to take avoiding action to avoid an incident on track on the opening lap. The subsequent spin and stall dropped him to the rear of the field and he took the flag in 15th place.

“It’s a shame I wasn’t able to score any points but it’s still been a good weekend,” he reflected. “Free practice and qualifying went well but I made the wrong tyre choice in the first race and missed out on some possible points. It was disappointing that the contact with MacDowall forced me out of race two, but then again, it’s good to be a position to be fighting with a works Chevrolet! I thought we could have had a good result in race three, but there were cars off in front of me and I suffered a spin trying to avoid them and the engine stalled. I might not have scored any points but the positive thing is how quick the car is. Paul’s podium has shown that again and I’ve got to be confident that more points will arrive soon.”

Paul’s second place finish marked the best result to date for the team, following his third place at Snetterton last season and in the season opener at Thruxton, with the result ensuring the Tech-Speed run outfit remains second in the Independents’ Team Championship and fifth in the HiQ Teams’ Championship.

“We’ve had another good weekend,” Tech-Speed chief Marvin Humphries said. “We were there or thereabouts throughout and it was unfortunate for Paul that he lost out in the second race. However, we benefited from the reverse grid for race three and he drove well again. He had a good, clean battle with Onslow-Cole and we just have to make one more step now to be on top of the podium! John endured some bad luck but he is still pleased with the weekend and we go to Brands Hatch with our heads held high.”

The podium finish was also the perfect end to a tough week for title sponsor sunshine.co.uk, which had seen the volcanic ash cloud severely hit its customers in the lead up to the event.

“From a business point of view, this has been a horrendous week with the Icelandic volcano and this is the first time that I almost didn’t come to the races after the time we have had,” sunshine.co.uk MD Chris Brown said. “I’m glad I did now! That was another fantastic weekend and Paul’s performance in the third race was outstanding.

“To get a first Independent victory is absolutely mega and we’ve again shown that we can fight right at the front of the field. To be fair, Matt Neal didn’t need that victory as he has enough wins already, but our time will come! John might not have scored any points but he drove well again. He is a better driver than some people give him credit for and we just need to coax the results from him.”

Paul O’Neill picked up three top six finishes at Thruxton – including a fine third place in race two – to lie fourth in the overall championship, while new team-mate John George picked up his first top ten finish for more than a season on his debut.

Those results mean Team sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed will arrive at Rockingham this weekend sitting in a hugely impressive fourth in the HiQ Teams Championship standings.

Widnes-racer Paul – now based in Northamptonshire – qualified strongly at Rockingham last season, putting his Honda Integra in fifth place on the grid for the opening race. Despite the fact he will carry extra ballast into the weekend due to his championship position, Paul said he was confident that the Honda will again be strong during the latest three races as he looks to add to his points tally.

“It will be the first time we have had to run with extra weight due to our championship position, but we hope to be quick again despite the ballast onboard,” he said. “I qualified well at Rockingham last season and am confident that we can score more points. We have to focus on finishing as high as we possibly can and scoring the maximum points possible from the weekend. If we could get onto the podium again, it would be fantastic. As everyone saw at Thruxton, the car is running really well at the moment and we have to make the most of it.”

Team-mate John has fond memories of racing at Rockingham, having started the final race of the weekend from pole position back in 2007 after benefitting from the BTCC’s reverse grid draw.

The Guernsey-based racer started this season with the aim of scoring at least one top finish at each of the ten BTCC meetings, and having achieved that aim at Thruxton, he will look to score again at the Northamptonshire circuit.

“I am really looking forward to returning to Rockingham,” he said. “It has some great memories for me after I picked up pole in the third race of the day in my first year racing an Integra. I will always remember leading the field away; it was a real buzz and my foot was shaking so much I thought I would stall the car!

“This time around I am feeling very positive about the weekend. We ran strongly at Thruxton and the more I drive the Team sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed car, the more confident I get. My target is another top ten finish and to get my pace closer to Paul. Roll on Rockingham!”

Leading Independent team Tech-Speed worked hard over the course of the winter on making improvements to the BTC-spec Honda, with the results gained at Thruxton reflecting the progress made during the off-season.

With Rockingham being the scene of the team’s best qualifying performance of the 2009 season, Tech-Speed chief Marvin Humphries said he was confident that the team will build on its results from the season opener.

“We learned some new things on the car at Thruxton and there is no reason why we can’t go well again this weekend,” he said. “We want to build on what we achieved at Thruxton and move forwards. Paul’s confidence is high after his podium and John is also looking to build on his points finish, so we are targeting another good weekend at Rockingham.

“We want to try and keep our position in the standings and score more solid points. We need to keep the pressure on the other teams and show that we aren’t here just to make up the numbers. The competition in the BTCC is strong but there is no reason why we can’t fight near the front again. We’ve started the season well and the whole team is optimistic of a good weekend.”

The Thruxton meeting marked the ideal start to the year for title sponsor sunshine.co.uk, which is based close the Hampshire circuit. Following on from the high of round one, sunshine.co.uk MD Chris Brown said he too was hopeful that the form displayed on home soil would continue at Rockingham.

“We’re looking forward to the weekend as we had our best qualifying at Rockingham last season, although we suffered a bit from tyre wear on race day,” he said. “Tech-Speed has worked hard on the cars over the winter and we shouldn’t see any repeat of those issues this time around. We have to put the demons from last year to rest and try and build on the strong results we gained at Thruxton.”

ITV’s commitment to screening the Indian Premier League cricket will see a change to the broadcasting schedule for the second round of the season.

ITV4 will still broadcast live action from Rockingham, with the coverage including the first two BTCC races. Race three will then be screened in full during a special 90-minute programme on Sunday evening. Check listings for full details.

From seventh on the grid in race three, and with extra ballast in the car, Paul secured a sixth place finish which leaves him in a hugely impressive fourth in the overall championship standings and third amongst the Independents.
 
“We’ve shown we are a force to be reckoned with this weekend,” he said. “Everything I said was possible before the weekend has come true, but I didn’t imagine I’d be leaving Thruxton so high up in the standings. The results in all three races were gained on merit, we weren’t handed anything, and it shows that the car is still more than capable of being in the top six with good preparation – and the team has done a fantastic job with them.
 
“The podium at Snetterton last season was special as it was the first one for six years, but I really felt I deserved my third place this time around. We’ve been one of the top teams this weekend, the boys have worked to the maximum, and we have to try and build on it at Rockingham.”
 
Team-mate John enjoyed a solid debut in the second Honda Integra, with an impressive drive in the opening race seeing the Guernsey-based racer score his first top ten finish in over a year. Having started at the rear of the field, John showed impressive pace throughout the race to bring his car home in ninth place.
 
An error at the final chicane in race two left John with a 17th place finish and while he was forced to retire in race three with a gearbox issue, he was happy to have achieved his pre-race aim of bringing home points for the team.
 
“I’ve had a brilliant weekend,” he said. “Ninth in the first race was my first points finish for over a year so it was a great way to start. The car was strong all weekend and I really enjoyed working with Paul; it’s been great to have a team-mate for the first time. It was little bit disappointing that I had the gearbox issue in the final race but my times have improved throughout the weekend which was my main aim. I’m looking forward to being back in the car at Rockingham.”
 
The results over the course of the weekend were just reward for the work carried out by leading Independent outfit Tech-Speed during the winter, with older BTC-spec Honda Integra showing it is still more than a match for more modern machinery on the grid.
 
“We came here thinking a podium was possible after the work we did over the winter, we worked on the set-up and it was kinder on its tyres,” Tech-Speed chief Marvin Humphries said. “The cars worked well on track and the boys did a fantastic job with them. We’ve shown that we can still get decent results with an old car. John did a good job throughout the weekend and fitted in well, although it was a shame that he had the gearbox issue in the final race. As for Paul, what can I say? The podium in race two was a great result and he drove well all day – the boy done good!”
 
The results during the course of the weekend – a weekend which marked the home event for title sponsor sunshine.co.uk – means the team sits fourth in the overall teams’ championship and third in the Independents Team Trophy.
 
“We had a suspicion we were going to do well here and Paul said a podium was possible – and that’s what happened,” he said.” We have proved to some of the doubters that an old car can still be competitive and that the team is more than capable of fighting near the front. Seeing both cars in the top ten in the first race was phenomenal and John did an excellent job to get into the points. In the second race, I felt physically sick for the final two laps and Paul did us proud to get onto the podium – if anything he was unlucky not to get through to second. I need to find a copy of the points standings so I can frame it, and I hope that we can now carry on as we have started.”

The opening three races of the 2010 campaign will mark the home event for title sponsor sunshine.co.uk, adding extra excitement to what is already a hotly anticipated season for the team.

The corresponding race meeting last season saw fans favourite Paul O Neill make his return to the BTCC, and the popular Widnes-racer came close to securing a dramatic victory before suffering an unfortunate puncture while battling for the lead in the final race.

Paul heads into the weekend hoping to once again fight near the front of the field, with solid points from the opening weekend being the main target.

 We ve got to be confident heading to Thruxton after the way it went last year   we just need to hope we don t have a repeat of the tyre issue we suffered in race three!  he said.  I m sure we ll be qualifying inside the top ten and hopefully we can knock on the door of the top six.

 Three top six finishes on race day has to be the aim with at least one of those being a podium finish. It won t be easy but we can certainly do it.

New team-mate John George will be making his debut for the team in what is the closest thing to a home race for the Guernsey-based racer.

Having lapped strongly during the recent media day test, John makes the trip to Thruxton hoping to enjoy his best weekend to date at the Hampshire venue.

 I m really looking forward to the weekend,  he said.  It s only a 300 mile trip so it s the closest thing I get to a home race! At Brands Hatch last week I was able to match my previous qualifying times despite running on old tyres during the morning, and that was without doing many laps during the afternoon as I was feeling under the weather.

 That was really good news for me and I m feeling confident that I can have my best weekend at Thruxton to date. The car suits the circuit and working with Paul has been great so far, he s been really helpful. I m keen to see what I can do.

Leading team Tech-Speed has worked throughout the winter to improve the Honda Integra, with O Neill and George both encouraged by the performance of the car during testing at Brands Hatch last week.

After running well last season at one of the quickest circuits on the calendar, Tech-Speed boss Marvin Humphries said the team was hopeful of again battling towards the front end of the field.

 The boys can be proud of the work they have done on the cars over the winter; they have been busy working to improve them and the new livery has come out looking great,  he said.  The competition is strong but we are taking a positive attitude into the weekend. We ran well at Thruxton last season and hopefully we will again this year. We ll be giving it our best shot.

Added incentive to impress comes from the fact that title sponsor sunshine.co.uk is based just 40 miles away from the Thruxton circuit, and managing director Chris Brown said he was excited to start the season at a venue where the Honda will be a strong package.

 We re looking forward to seeing what we can do this weekend after Paul s performance last season,  he said.  Tech-Speed has worked hard on the car over the winter and Neil Brown has been working on the engines, so we are looking forward to seeing the impact that those changes have.

 It s nice to start the season with our home race and at a circuit where the car will be strong. We know it will be quick round Thruxton and we can show what we are capable of. We are starting the year at a circuit that really suits the Honda and it would be brilliant if we can pick up some top five finishes. If we can get on the podium, it would be even better!

The BTCC’s season launch at the Kent circuit saw the sunshine.co.uk Honda Integras of Paul O’Neill and John George hit the track for the first time in their new-look liveries for the season ahead, with the two drivers making the most of the testing time available to examine developments made to the car by the Tech-Speed team during the winter.

Having made his BTCC return with the team last year, Widnes-racer Paul is back for a second season and enjoyed a solid day of testing, posting the eighth quickest time during the morning and again running in the top ten during the afternoon. That left him in a solid ninth place overall, just half a second behind the pace-setting Chevrolet Cruze of 2001 title winner Jason Plato.

“The car was really good but personally, I feel I could have done better,” he said. “The time we set was good considering it was on older tyres and I didn’t really get the most out of the newer rubber we put on the car, but setting times wasn’t important. It was all about looking at some developments Tech-Speed have made to the cars over the winter and they worked really well. The car has had a full rebuild over the winter and it’s in much better shape than it was at the end of 2009. It’s in top shape and should do the business this season.”

New team-mate John George joins sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed this season having run with his own team for the past three seasons. Despite feeling under the weather on the day, he was able to end testing little more than a second off the quickest time and heads into 2010 looking to enjoy his best BTCC season to date.

“Having a team-mate who is prepared to give me a hand will be a huge help this season – I haven’t had that before,” he said. “I think I will learn a lot from Paul during the year and in the morning session I went quicker than I ever have before, and on old rubber, so I think that says that I can do a lot better than I have in the past. I’d really like to score at least one top ten finish from each round and I feel that would be a massive improvement for me. There are no mugs out there and it will always be difficult, but I feel we can achieve that aim this season.”

The 2010 campaign will mark the second season that the sunshine.co.uk Hondas have been run by leading privateer outfit Tech-Speed. Having enjoyed a fine year in 2009 – capped by a podium finish for O’Neill at Snetterton – the team has worked hard to improve the Integras over the winter and will now look for more impressive showings during the year ahead.

“Testing went well, we had a productive day and everything went to plan – and it was good to see what our rivals are doing,” Tech-Speed boss Marvin Humphries said. “Paul had a good day in the car and wasn’t far from the pace, but John was feeling under the weather and didn’t do as much running as he planned to. Overall though, he has fitted in the team well and he and Paul are working well together. We really want to help John try and move up the grid this season.

“We tried a few things out on the car that we have been working on over the winter and we have made some steps forward. It’s difficult to judge the opposition until we get to Thruxton but we are realistic with our aims and are hopeful that we can build on last year and have another strong season.”

2010 will also see sunshine.co.uk involved in the BTCC for a third successive season and its second as title sponsor of the Tech-Speed team. With a year of running the Honda now in the bag, sunshine.co.uk MD Chris Brown said he was confident that the team will once again impress during the year ahead despite the Integra being one of the oldest cars on the BTCC grid.

“We’re really looking forward to the season,” he said. “Tech-Speed has put a lot of hard work into the car during the winter and they looking stunning in their new livery. We have a full year behind us now running the Honda so we have to look to build on the success we enjoyed last year. I’m confident we will do well, especially after Paul’s performance in testing where he set some good times on older tyres and with more fuel in the car. John has also been lapping well and has settled into the team quickly, so we’re confident for the year ahead.”

Belfield, North Dakota

Finally a good night’s sleep, helped by an adrenaline charged day yesterday and a late night. We did arrive at our motel until about 10pm, tired and hungry a healthy tip to the lady in the kitchen of the bar secured us Pizza and fries, which went down nicely with a couple of beers.

Having now been with Todd for five days you actually start to remember what he is telling you – he is an excellent teacher. One of the first things you look for in the morning when you wake up is cloud cover. Cloud cover is bad for storms and you have to get out from under it to stand any chance of seeing some action. Based on this we headed south.

After a few hours it was becoming clear that chances of seeing any storms today were low, however we persevered. Our route south had us sat in a side road just outside of Rapid City for just about an hour before it was decided today may just be a wash out. We drove east for another 10 minutes and came across an oasis, which was disguised as a gas station, sold beer as well as fuel and had a few high tables inside with a few bar games and even a crib board. After a beer and few jokes with the local cowboys, Todd informed us that our home for the night would be Wall, just an hour’s drive east.

We arrived in wall drug very early evening, the skies were blue and the air still warm. We all unloaded our bags from the SUV and Todd asked us to be back down in 15 minutes as we were going to head to the Badlands – only 8 miles away – and watch the sunset. The Badlands National park is actually somewhere I never thought I would visit but you really should try and put it on your ‘to-do list’. Sadly the sunset was spoilt by and storm cloud drifting in over the sun – typical. It was then back to Wall Drug for food and a couple of drinks before hitting the hay.

Just a point worthy of note, the motel we stayed in tonight… Sunshine Inn !

Keystone, South Dakota

Today I learnt that waking up at 5,000 feet above sea level with a hangover isn’t the greatest feeling in the world. I headed off to breakfast in the hope that the fried food and coffee would settle my stomach and stop everything from spinning. It didn’t, which was unfortunate, as today was my turn to ride in the back of the SUV. This was a job for my trusty travel sick pills – Kwells.

First stopped of the day was Starbucks! Or as Todd put it, our last chance for a real coffee until we start coming south again. A quick caffeine and cash point/ATM stop and we were back on the road again, heading north towards North Dakota and into west Montana.

During the course of the week Todd had been telling us about a town up in these parts where bikers from all over the USA converged each summer for a weekend of music, beer and apparently, drunken nakedness. So as it was en-route, we made a dive off of the highway into the town of Sturgis, South Dakota. It certainly was a biker town, I have never seen so many Harley Davidson’s in one place at the same time. A quick visit to a ‘real’ bikers bar and we were off again.

The target area for today was just inside Eastern Montana, around the town of Baxter. The forecasts were good for some isolated supercell activity, and with us chasers so far being completely storm deprived we were ready for some action! It was around about 4 in the afternoon when we arrived in Baxter. Another snack/fuel/toilet break and we were heading north towards some very dark looking clouds. Inside the car we had a laptop set up which was always showing live Doppler weather radar and this storm was starting to grow with certain parts being covered by red squares (see image), which indicated thunderstorm warnings. However, what we were looking for was icons indicating cloud rotation and purple areas, which would show a tornado warning.

Without warning Todd pulled into the entrance of a dirt road and said we would be waiting for a bit to see what happens. Being our first proper storm, we all clambered out of the SUV and intently all stood staring at the sky. It was like something from a Sci Fi movie. Todd knowing better stayed in the SUV watching the radar and weather warnings. Ten more minutes and he announced we were going to get closer. Another, roadside stop and we actually saw our first wall cloud. It was about 3 miles away and moving to east. Once again we piled back in the SUV and drove another mile or so north. Now things were getting exciting, the radar was not only show strong rotation – which we could actually see now, it had just pinged up with a tornado warning! The sky was really darkening now and you could clearly see the clouds rotating and sucking in more clouds from around it, the core was also visible no more than a mile away and closing, Todd pointed out that what we could see was the hail falling from the core, which was about 2-3 inches in diameter. After about 30 minutes the wall cloud was no more than ¼ mile away and because the rain was starting to fall a bit heavier, Todd decided to move us back south away from the approaching hail.

The next stop is one of the memorable ones of the trip. We had positioned ourselves about 1-2 miles away and we could now see the storm cell that we had been stood under in its entirety. It was a monster. We spent 20 minutes enjoying the view and still hoping that the Tornado warning would come to fruition, sadly it did not. It was while watching from this vantage point that Todd suddenly ordered us all in the SUV before he took off down the road at break neck speed. He said that the hail – now showing as baseball size = was wrapping around us and if we didn’t get out from under the storm we would be cut off by some rather large chunks of ice falling from the sky.

As the storm moved southeast it was weakening on the radar and was become less dangerous, however the Arcus Cloud that had formed in front of the storm was a sight to behold. Todd decided to position us so that the storm could come towards and pass over us, with the aim being that the now weaken core should drop its quarter size (10 pence) size hail on us – we would be in the car of course. When it hails out here the temperature can go from 80f+ to low 50’s very quickly and the landscape is left looking like it has a fresh dusting of snow, which is sometimes inches deep. The core missed us, so we were off to chase it down. Having been pelted by the hail, rain and wind we made a beeline for North Dakota. Our most northerly overnight stop in Belfield, North Dakota was to have us just a couple of hours drive from the borders of Canada.

Today had been long day, that wasn’t helped by the late night before, however we had one last photo stop to make. As we drove north with the sun setting to the west and the storm moving east, we were presented with the most glorious sunset I have ever seen. The pictures really don’t show how orange the sky was – spectacular.

We were all now officially bitten by the storm chasing bug but we only had a few more days left to hunt down the holy grail of storm chasing – the Tornado.

Chadron, South Dakota

I woke up early again… 5:30am today. It’s ok though, I can attribute that to the group of bikers that started up their Harley Davidson’s right outside my motel room window, however the sun was shining and I knew we had a sightseeing day planned, due to the lack of storms that day. First thing to do was to get myself breakfast before meeting with the others at 9:30am.

As mentioned, today was a ‘non-chase day’, so order of the day was sightseeing! Despite having come to chase storms for only six days, I was quite excited about doing some sightseeing. After all it would be a shame to come all this way and at not see anything other than paved roads and fields of grass and cattle. As our target area for the next day (Day 4) was Eastern Montana we were going to be heading north through the Black Hills of South Dakota, which is the home of the Wind Cave National Park and more famously, Mount Rushmore.

The Wind Cave National Park was the first stop of that day and it turned out to be one of the most memorable, non-storm, parts of the trip too. The caves themselves have an interesting history and are well worth a visit if you are ever in the area. Our tour guide – bless his heart – was a nice young lad, who it appeared, was still training to be a ‘Cave Ranger’. The talk he gave during the tour was very informative although his philosophical tone was the cause of a few sniggers during the hour we spent inside the caves. His opening line of “Imagine you are a 16 year old boy…” was one that stuck with us for the rest of the week.

Next stop on our whirl wind tour (yes, that’s a joke) of the Black Mountains was Mount Rushmore. The mount has the faces of four former American presidents carved into it. The faces, which are each over 60 feet in height, represent the first 150 years in the history of the United States. As with every stop we were asked to meet back at the SUV at an allotted time, in this case, 45 minutes later. Whilst waiting for the others to return,  I enjoyed watching a storm pass through the valley below. Watching it shed its load of rain and discharge its lightning was quite surreal as I was stood in the blazing sunshine hoping I wasn’t getting burnt, no more than a couple of miles away from the downpour.

Our home for the night was the town of Keystone, South Dakota, which was only a few miles from Mount Rushmore.  However before checking into our motel for the night Todd had one more stop planned. As we passed through Keystone, the ever knowledgeable Todd pointed out suitable drinking holes that would require a visit that evening. Last stop of the day was the Big Bear Country USA wildlife park. If you had ever been to Windsor Safari Park then you know what to expect here.  It was a drive through Wildlife Park. The main attraction of the park was obviously the Bears, however there was much more to see as you drove though.  Elks, Reindeer, White Wolves, Mountain Goats, Leopards and Bison were all roaming free. At the end of the drive through, there was a kind of mini zoo where the main attraction was the baby bears. The bears are kept here until they are big enough to fend for themselves in the main enclosure.

Back to Keystone and Todd had one more thing planned for us – this guy never stops – right next to our motel, the Super 8 in Keystone was the Presidents Alpine Slide. Another attraction I actually remember being at the Windsor Safari Park before it was turned into Legoland. The Alpine Slide is a toboggan ride where you can control the speed of your sledge as you ride 2km down the side of a mountain, more info on their website. We rode to the top of the hill on a chairlift, and after a beer at the top it was time for speedy ride back to the bottom!

What a day, and there was still one more thing left to do… hit the bar for a well earned beer or five…

Denver, Colorado

I woke up early today, really early. Considering the long day I had yesterday I was actually worrying about oversleeping and missing our 9:30am departure. However, I had needn’t have worried, as I was up and awake at 04:30am. Hmm

At 9:30am we were all ready at reception waiting for Todd and the SUV to arrive, everyone asked politely how each had slept. A quick seat selection for the day – we are expected to rotate where we sat in the SUV to give everyone a chance of riding up front, being the first day and the only person travelling  alone, I got shotgun. The front seat afforded a great view of the onboard computer with live weather and satellite data.

Our first stop wasn’t as far away as I thought it might be – ½ mile down the road to the Village Inn for breakfast. Breakfast  consumed (French Toast & Maple Syrup) we were finally away. As we set off Todd explained that we were going to be heading firstly to Northeast Colorado and then North in to Nebraska. The plan was to head towards a developing storm front in western Nebraska.

One of the first things that struck me about this part of America was that it was big, really big and very flat and very often with nothing to see for miles, apart from rolling pastures.

As we neared our first ‘storm’ everyone was pretty excited and a toilet break was suggested. We parked up right next to the KFC and as we stopped as we spotted a huge truck trailer selling fireworks. Now I am not normally drawn to this kind of thing but the two lasses from Maine were excited, very excited! Fireworks are illegal in Maine and this was their chance to go buy some fireworks to let off when the opportunity presented itself, which happened to be about 30 minutes later on a side track at 4pm in the afternoon, in the daylight.

Our first storm actually never amounted to much more than a lot of heavy rain and thunder.  We  watched the first part of the storm pass by us before moving to the north side of the next incoming thunderstorm, again not much to report.  When we were waiting for the first storm we had parked up at the side of a dirt road next to a field of maize. Whilst waiting, all of us could hear a cat meowing and it sounded like it was in pain. With the possibility of snakes living in the long grass where the noise was coming from, none of us dared venture in to check it out. We later decided the cat had probably been bitten/eaten by a snake as it went quiet while we were still stood there!

The rest of the day was taken up with driving ever further north. As most of the storms for the next week were forecast in Western Montana, Eastern North Dakota and South Dakota, Todd decided to get the worse of the driving done that day. Having left Denver that morning, we had done a large circuit into Nebraska and the then north into the state of South Dakota. I have to confess that I wasn’t very sociable on the first ‘chasing’ day. All the travelling the day before and the early start had left me somewhat tired, add to that the motion of the car and I was affectionately called Sleepy Head when I woke that evening, having slept through the last 150 miles of the 550+ miles we had covered that day – there is alot of travelling/driving involved.

Tonight’s base was the town of Chadron, South Dakota. After checking us in and watching the awesome sunset, Todd informed us that we would meet by the car in fifteen minutes to go and get some dinner. Fifteen minutes, to freshen up and get changed into some jeans – the evenings are cool. Unfortunately I had neglected to drink enough liquids during the day and I had a massive headache. I took some Paracetamol , put on a brave face and headed out for dinner – Pizza Hut.

On the way back to the Best Western Motel, we were booked into, we passed another roadside fireworks outlet, but this one was massive. A marquee selling a huge array of fireworks, the girls were very excited! We just caught the owners as they were shutting up for the night and we all made a few purchases. Now then, it was time to find somewhere to set these babies off. An empty parking lot was located and what proceeded was the funniest firework lighting session I have ever seen. Great fun was had by all and it happened to be a really good ice breaker.

Another long and exhausting day was over and we headed to bed, somewhere around 11pm I think. Hopefully time for a nice long deep sleep…