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CWC3 began with a strange air of suspicion, and it quickly became clear why. The
Police presence was heavier than
normal; according to the press 10 extra officers had been drafted in to
‘monitor’ the event. An unmarked car was present (see the pics) and two officers
carrying a video camera were unsuccessfully attempting to blend in with the
crowds. As you can see from the picture the bloke stood out like a paedophile in
a toy shop!. If anybody does get any hassle
from Police armed with video evidence, you know who to blame, so give the guy a
wave next time you see him.
People soon began to relax when it became evident that the Police were not going
to cause any trouble. An estimated 250 to 300 cars turned up, filling the
Halfords and B&Q car parks completely. Quite a few cars had to park on the
Safeway car park. As you can see from the pics, there were some superb vehicles
on display. BatCars once again set the standard for paintwork, but there were
also plenty of awesome custom body kits and boot installs. There were quite a
few Q cars as well, no flashy bodywork just modified engines and raw horsepower.
The usual West Cumbrian and Carlisle crowds were enhanced by a number of cars
from Dumfries, Newcastle and from as far away as Manchester and Crewe.
A number of
people were stopped by the Police (30 if you believe the press) but none of
these happened on the car park. 14 prohibition notices were issued (fix it or we
fine you), mainly for tinted windows. A little heavy handed perhaps, but at
least they didn’t start anything at the venue.
CWC3 made the front page of the News & Star the next day, and CFM also gave us a
mention. CFM got it laughably wrong, ‘Late night gathering broken up by Police’,
’30 drivers dealt with’. Maybe they were at a completely different cruise in
some other town. The News & Star wasn’t so bad, the front page headline was
‘Car-Crazy kids invade Safeway’, but the rest of the article was at least
reasonably accurate. According to the article, the Police “had information that
they were going to measure off a quarter mile section of the road and were going
to use it to race”. Looks like the Police rented a copy of 2 fast 2 furious and
it went to their heads. Surely no one would believe that someone would start
street racing at a cruise. Everyone knows the Police are always going to arrive
10 mins after the first cars and stop anything remotely naughty from happening.
But they had to justify the large overtime claim somehow, and it looks like the
Chief Super bought the story…..
The next day the News & Star had an interview with BatCars Richard Batey, which
was also reasonably good, though they did steal pictures off the CWC website
without asking. Thursdays Whitehaven News article promised a clamp down on ‘Boy
Racers’ in the town, so it looks like anyone female or over 18 can drive as
irresponsibly as they like…….
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