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We left Sprucefield not long after 8am in the pouring rain to head to Abbeyshrule, Co. Longford for Ireland’s long anticipated first legal drag strip event, run by <em>Flush Bus</em> magazine. Little did we know that 20,000 others were doing the same, and it would turn out to be a waste of time for all.

This event was anything but ordinary. Four hours after leaving Lisburn we had parked up a few miles from the venue and started to walk down from the cars. It reminded me of <em>Slane</em> – masses of people, cars and mile long queues of traffic. It wasn’t long before we were told it was all off. A few minutes into our walk the Guardai told us that the event had been cancelled due to health and safety reasons. Undeterred we headed right on up to the venue, a good 30 minute walk from the car. Hundreds of the finest performance cars in Ireland were parked randomly in mucky fields and going-nowhere queues. The venue looked as if it had been overrun – there was no sign of stewards and we just walked in. Apparently <em>Flush Bus</em> had left, leaving a real mess of these cars and I’m sure 20,000 people milling about. Many had paid €18 entry and €50 to enter their car. People were furious.

There was nothing we could do but turn back and head home. So much for the debut of my new car, the Civic Type-R, which got shit covered on the twisty backroads and sat in traffic for hours on end in the complete bottleneck which was Abbeyshrule and the surrounding area for the rest of the afternoon.

I’m back home now to what seems a totally wasted day, for all of us.

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Andy is the founding member of RMS, and when he's not following motoring events around the UK and Ireland he can be found on the track (sideways, having competed in top level drifting for a decade), or of course he'll be on the forum.