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Winter is upon us, the show season seems a distant memory and for most of us it´s a time to prepare for the oncoming events. Our first big show of the year is just round the corner. BigBang/Camper & Bus show has long been one of our favourites.

This year is a little special for us. Firstly it´s the clubs 4th anniversary and secondly we will be welcoming our fellow members from across the water. We are expecting some buses from mainland Europe including a heap load from Norway. As well as being USB members they run a club called ´Slackers Garage´. Myself and Alex were lucky enough to meet them and have a tour of their garage where many interesting projects are being built when we travelled over to race last summer. Expect to see some well turned out and quick buses ;)

These guys and girls know how to party too!

This year we´ve been allocated club camping round in the pits. As well as giving us a firm/dry area to park in, it also means the public get an opportunity to check out the buses during the day. I will be taking our club banners, stickers and some tee shirts and making sure we are seen by all who are interested. All members are welcome to camp with us but if you can´t then please do bring your buses over during the day for the line-up/racing.

We´re really looking forward to this, hope to see you all there.

Chris.

I will be ordering a new batch of club T shirts this month. Good quality and great value! Yours for only £10 plus P&P. So I need to take your orders to establish how many we need. If you could email me your size/quantity/address, it would help me immensely. Thank you.

USB welcomes two new members this month - Steve Marsh and Pete Senneck.
Steve runs a huge 2.4L T4 motor in his ´73 Devon camper and ran a respectable 17.9 at Action earlier in the month, earning himself ´Bronze´ membership.
Pete owns a gorgeous ´68 panel van powered by a 2165cc turbo T1 motor. He recently ran at a RWYB day at Santa Pod with a best time of 15.98 which has taken him straight into ´Silver´ membership. Welcome aboard guys!!

Congratulations to Paul Hamilton!! He has run a 12 second 1/4 in his early panel van. The work that has gone into this van is immense but the rewards must be so satisfying. The engine is a true work of art and it´s a VW flatfour motor too. He drove 250 miles to York raceway (yes it´s a street driven bus!), ran the numbers then drove home. An awesome achievement. Watch out for this bus at VW Action. Now Paul has felt what the bus is capable of, possibly there´s an 11 sec run to come?

We have USB club camping again this year. Members are welcome to join us. Just mention USB club camping at the gate and the staff will point you in the right direction. Racing will be on Saturday, including the famous night sessions. There will be a club line-up display on Sat and Sun so please do support us and pop over. Don´t forget driving licenses! Any non members who have a fast Bay and fancies ago with us, then you are more than welcome. Myself and Alex will be around throughout the day so come say hello.

I´ve been in contact with our USB sector in Norway and it looks as though they will be attending BigBang next year. This is very exciting for us and we hope that as many members as possible will have their buses ready for this one as it´s going to be big! These know how to party too, so you´ve been warned hahaha.

Well we made it to Norway and back in one piece! We had a brilliant road trip with just a couple of small hiccups a long the way but nothing we couldn´t fix. For pics and more info about the trip itself, go to http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17074 Beautiful countries were passed through, the weather on the whole was good to us, the buses behaved very well considering the mileage we covered some days and even the ferry crossings were a chilled out affair.

As for SCC, what an awesome show!! Geared around racing, the track is superb with a huge percentage of people attending there to race. The Norwegians also know how to party big time too, especially the Slackers Garage crew who were kindly looking after us. So many VW´s from so many different countries too, none of them slow either. This show doesn´t do RWYB. All racers have to buy a temporary race license (if needed), wear a helmet and have their vehicle scrutineered. Worrying moment for us both as we´d never had our buses examined in such a way but we both got our racing numbers, happy that it wasn´t a wasted journey.

Saturday we headed down to the startline for a drivers meeting. Once over, it was time to prepare ourselves for the days event. UK v Norway, I heard over the mic, as I was paired up against Jan. Something we´d both been waiting for for many months. It was a very close race!! Jan beating me by 8 hundredths with us running 16.7´s. Alex was happy as he was paired up against a Split and beat him off the line and never looked back. Unfortunately the rain started and gradually got heavier throughout the day, so no more racing for us. Sunday was the complete opposite though. Bright sunshine when we awoke. For some of us it was a struggle first thing, with lack of sleep and sore heads. Plenty of track action all day and some new PB´s broken too.

Alex ran two 16.7´s, beating his PB by a whole 0.4! With a slight tail wind and brilliant traction we thought it might be possible to run faster. Well done Alex, your face was a peach when I told you your times. I was running 16.7´s but with lack of traction and a gremlin with the NOS, I knew I wasn´t going to break any records. Close racing was had though and it was smiles all round. Especially when we witnessed our newest member qualify with a 16.4 and then a 16.3! Ernst (the boss) Eide had his ´68 deluxe 2332cc out for the first ever time and was raring to go after missing out on the Sat sessions due to the rain. Welcome aboard mate. That´s one very clean deluxe with original interior, if you ever get a chance, do check it out.

Now, last but not least, Jan. What can I say. I can see why he´s loved by so many people. A genuine decent guy. Our appreciation and thanks are on the thread above so I won´t go on about his generosity, kindness and pure excitement towards us. What I can say is Jan owns three buses. His race bus wasn´t ready in time for the show but that didn´t put a dampener on things. Instead he took his other two buses. One that he has qualified in already and his daily. A daily with a slight difference though. From the outside it all looks pretty stock but under the skin lies a 2.4 type 4 motor sporting 48 IDF´s. Now this bus doesn´t hang about! Jan´s best run of the day was a 15.91. Straight into silver´ membership! A big pat on the back goes to Jan who now has three buses in the USB! Two of them being silver´.

If you´ve never been to this show then I highly recommend you go. It´s a more compact show than many of the UK ones which in a way gives it such appeal. Everyone´s very friendly and there´s no worries about leaving vehicles unlocked or items out whilst away racing. Thanks to everyone involved for putting on such a cool show and giving us some great memories. Hope to be back next year.

I´d like to welcome our latest member to the USB. Mark Thatcher (no he hasn´t a famous mother) has run a 17.33 in his ´76 Viking conversion. This is a great achievement and I know he´s aiming to lower his times with a few modifications in the future. Mark has opted for a slightly different engine than the usual options on the market. A 2.8L motor from a Chevrolet Corvair! Look out for his bus at VW Action as he´ll be round with us at the line-up and out on the track.

I will start with the sad news:

2009 has been a year for retirements.

Kev Donlon and Andy Joyner have sold their buses but kept their engines. Shane's bus will be up for sale soon, Lee is busy with his Beetles and Dan has decided to go back to a stock engine.

I'd like to say a big thank you to all of you for your support, commitment, enthusiasm and some great memories. If it wasn't for people like you then the club would never have been formed and prospered. Good luck in the future, especially for those who have other plans/projects in the pipeline. All the best and hope to catch you pit side in the future.

And now for some good news:

I'm hoping to be out racing very soon. Engine mounting problems have sidelined me this year but fingers crossed the bus will be back out at VW Action (firstly Alex and I have a little task of representing the club over in Norway).

Russ has a new and bigger engine in the making and is hoping to be ready for next year. Brett has been very quiet for some time after selling 'Stumpy'. I can't say too much but his latest bus is going to be mental with a capital M! Cant wait to finally see the end product dude.

The club welcomes its first lady member this month. Congratulations to Lisa 'The Shmoo' Donlon. BugJam was her racing debut and after a few runs she ran a best of 17.42!! Excellent driving! We all know how difficult this can be, especially on your first attempt but I'm not sure about the driving gear? Racing whilst dressed as a fairy!! Yes I said fairy ha-ha.........let's hope this doesn't catch on though.

Mark Prosser was out testing his latest Early Bay which looks great! 16.0 sec ¼ mile with a strong head wind is good going; is there a 15 to come?

Our Norwegian member, Jan, flew over with a friend to experience BugJam and see some great track action. Shame about the British weather though and sorry I missed you guys over the weekend. I have heard that you're both party animals and I'm looking forward to meeting you guys in August.

Our next meeting will be at VW Action, to me the best RWYB 'track action' event of the year, with night racing being the highlight. Hope to see you there in the line-up round in the pits. We're going to try to entice some of the Norwegians to come over too.

Thanks to all who attended the line-up at Big Bang and a big thank you to the organizers of the event who gave us and the other clubs such a decent area to show our vehicles. Another great success, the racing was entertaining and even the sun shone down for us! For anyone who wasn't there and has been asleep for a week, you missed a world record this weekend too. The 'wheelerdealer' barndoor bus ran two 12 second passes!! Hats off to the guys and to think this was using a N/A VW engine, an awesome achievement indeed.

Lisa couldn't quite get her bus road legal for this weekend but no doubt she'll be out playing later in the year. There was some good news though and i must say congratulations to the following people:
Firstly to Steve 'two benders' for winning 'fastest Bay' of the day at the RWYB - well done dude!

And secondly congrats and welcome to the USB to 'Dixie' who after just a few runs made it under the 18's with firstly a 17.9 and then bettering that with a 17.6. Top work. I did have a smile when I saw you lighting up a celebratory cigar!

I've spoken to a few people over the weekend and the interest in fast buses is growing, so look out in the future for possible new members as they strive to run quicker times.

Yes indeed, you read correctly. Will 2009 see our first female member to qualify? I have a feeling we'll be welcoming a young lady onboard later this year.

Lisa (Shmoo), helped by her friends and fellow member/brother, Kev, have been busy over the winter months preparing her new bus. I don't want to do a 'Murray Walker' and jinx her........ but im sure she's going to do brilliantly and knowing that her bother and Co have been fettling in the engine bay this is going to be one fast bus! Good luck.

Where has the time gone? USB is 3 years old this month!

To help celebrate this, I'd like us to have a club line-up at BigBang this year. Last year we did this and it was a great success.

The BWA will also be there plus a new bus club will debut too.

T.O.R.Q is a racing club for Type 4/5's. I don´t know all the rules yet as apparently they will be finalized during the weekend as no-one really knows the kind of times they'll be capable of etc.

Looks like we've got some newbie's to beat then! More the merrier I say.

On a different note, watch out for Alex's bus at the VolksWorld show. With its all new paint and trick bits, Alex will be displaying with the AutoTechniks crew. I have to say his bus is looking great and will add a little 'bling' to the racing this year. Sadly, i hear, the 'special page 3' curtains have been retired and will not be making an appearance.

Alex and I are representing USB in Norway later this year. Of course others are welcome to come along if they can. Andy & Paul are maybe's at the mo and we've already got our ferry tickets booked. This for us is the highlight of the year. A road trip and a half! I don't suppose there's many vw's that drive from the UK to Norway, race and then drive back again. We'll make sure we take plenty of photos so we can do a diary of the trials and tribulations along the way. We're not the only USB members to be racing at the SCC though. We will be meeting up with our newest member, Jan, who owns the quickest Bay window in Norway at present. Wish us luck!