Why the Tornado logo on the event write up - quite simple really, following a photo shoot down at Team Storm HQ for the Tornado Team, I joined Andrew at Team Tornado HQ in Sawtry to help get Tornado ready for the event, and was to be a stand in for Dave (who was in Korea at the time).....

Had to do a bit of work on Tornado following competition in Series 6 - just some straightening here and there.  Checked the machine over for any damage that hadn't been spotted, there were a few welds which looked a bit worse for wear, but overall no problem.  Changed the wheels and Armour over whilst Andrew got to work on the 'indestructascoop' - the charity event weapon.

Supplying a bit of Team Storm tradition to Team Torando, I'd booked into a hotel the night before the event, so Andrew, myself and Bryan threw everything into my car, and headed over to Gaydon on the Saturday evening.

We arrived bright and early on the Sunday morning.... after a night of much laddish behavior in the car on the way over.  Met the usual Roaming Robots crew and dumped Tornado and Force X (first public trial of the machine) in the pits.  It was a shame really, someone had parked a load of modified Escorts and Fiestas all over the field that the event was taking place in..... still, you can't have everything now can you.

The day was a frantic scrabble for battle places, with people setting up 2....3... and even 4 way fights on the battleboard in the pits.  Tornado breezed through its fights, with Andrew, Bryan and myself taking it un turns to drive.  Andrew lined up a grudge match with Dantomkia - not sure what the grudge was to be honest.... but Dantomkia broke down leaving Tornado as the winner.  I took the little red brick for a drive against Tetanus 2 and The Stag (I think).... wonderful machine to drive, and a good win for Tornado.  (Ended up putting everyone in the pit after about 30 seconds, but managed to get them out to continue playing with).

Force X was running well, armored with only gaffa tape and only running on 12v it wasn't performing to the best of its ability, and ended up in the pit on two occasions.  Mostly due to me paying more attention to how the machine was behaving than to my driving.... didn't really care where it was going, as long as it was behaving.

At the end of the day we went for a meal with Dantomkia and John Reid (not before I got to play axe operator on TerrorHurtz.... better than drugs I assure you !)....

Took Tornado home, and stopped over at Andrew's as I had to be in London on Monday and couldn't really face a drive back home having driven back from Gaydon followed by a treck down to London from home the next morning.   Went out to see Austen Powers in the evening... the jury is still out on that one !

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