Welcome to Team BugSplat's Site

We are Team Bugsplat, We take part in the Scumrun rally and run the official Scumrunvideo youtube channel

21 Jul 2012

Scumrun 2012 - Extended Trailer

Just to let you know that I will be releasing the Scumrun 2012 Movie through the scumrunvideo youtube channel on 1st August - Here is the extended trailer to wet your appetite!


5 Jul 2012

Scumrun 2012 - Part 9 - Hanging Over with a Pedalow

We pick this up on the morning of the day 3. The beautiful sunrise ebbed over the horizon spilling golden warmth like an overflowing brim of a honey filled jar of happiness...Of course I didn't see it because I was somewhere between a coma and flat-line at that time of the morning!

I woke up like a large grizzly mammal with cranial issues, erupting out of the tent like a blooming flower (ie very very slowly) Feeling worse for wear I may have been but I am nothing if not a professional. I picked up the camera and did the obligatory walk-about.

I stumbled (quite literally) upon the adams family in their hearse, They jubilationiously sang, jovialised and cooked their breakfast in merriment. They either handle their adult beverages in a very robust way, or they were more sensible that I was the night before...

The walk-around continued and I chatted to many other teams hearing their stories from the day before...2am arrivals due to dedication to the avoidance of toll roads, Batmobile bombardment of hailstonegolfball weather. It was all there.

...and this leads me to one of the highlights of the morning...The green audi with a roof box was sat there proud in the su...oh hang on, the audi didn't have a roof box last night did it? On closer inspection the roof box would have appeared to have been pedalow shaped! Someone in their wisdom (I believe in retrospect it may have been the team to which the audi belonged) had decided to place said pedalow on top of the car.
I started to toy in my mind with the reasoning behind this move...then I realised that this was the Scumrun...reasoning was pointless, reason was optional.

This in itself was rather amusing and created fun footag-age but what happened next was a 2 stage embarkation to the pinnacle of scumrunian endeavours in my humble opinion.

Firstly 2 of the lads climbed into the pedalow, while still amount the car.  Quotes of "what the F£$% do we do now?", "How do we get down?" and "Stop moving the bloody thing" echoed from the mad pair...

After finding a way out and pulling the boat off of the roof someone had an idea.  I was withholding judgement on whether it was a good idea or not until after it was achieved or not, and more importantly whether it ended in any fatalities.

They wanted to fasten the boat to rear of the audi and rally around the camp site.

I happened (quite neurotically you may say) to have a heavy duty tow rope in my boot. I duly obliged (purely for Movie production purposes of course) and they hooked up the boat to the audi.

Loaded with its occupants the audi began revving its engines "Nah, just nail it" I heard from the baying crowd.  It was like a bull ring wanting their fill (how appropriate). The audi took it steady at first but soon built up their confidence, swinging the pedaltrailer over the grass like a poorly made cross between a bath tub and a lawn mover.

I'll never forget the noise it made as the boat (at this point travelling at close to 20mph) transitioned from grass to tarmac.

Applause and cheers were swift in coming, loud in approach and well deserved. The guys had made a Scumrun legendary moment.

The day's briefing was had and route cards were issued. Bull Run Time!

We had a shortish drive today to the final destination on the west coast of france but before then we had 2 checkpoints. Both in central Pamplona, The Bull Run (or at least the street where the madness takes place) and the Bull Ring.

We loaded the cameras with power, memory and tape where appropriate and headed off, leaving a few donuts and burn out markings for them to remember us by.

The drive to Pamplona itself was fairly uneventful, a petrol stop and some locals shouting approvals, but there were two highlights within this short 10 mile section.

The first was a glorious set of hair pin corners coming down the hill from the other side of the village we were in. The second was a food fight (or other incendiary) between the bumblebee transformer bmw and the colourful limo. We of course did our best to catch it on film.

We then started to enter the built up area of central Pamplona. The madness was about to begin...

To be continued...bullishly

4 Jul 2012

Scumrun 2012 - Part 8 - lumps, sumps, beer, and a little too much mansausage

We pick this up having just 'given it some beans' across the mountains and on the home run to the camp site.

This was just south of Pamplona. As we approached we were a combination of relieved, self righteous and joyous about the fact that not only was it NOT raining (for once) but in fact the orb of deiteous light that I forget the name of as it had been so bloody long since we had seen it, was making itself known in glorious splendour. By this point we had the roof down, sunglasses on and had even picked up a little of the old rose tinted nose burn. We must have looked like a cross between a hair dressers day out, the only way is Essex (only the ugly ones) and the cast of the fast and the furious trying to go undercover in Birmingham town centre.

We arrive at the entrance to the camp site down a long gravelly bumpy drive through some fields with rolling hills on either side of us and beautiful scener....CRACK! SMASH! CRUNCH!

All of this beauty was overshadowed by the Fwapping Great Speed Humps!

Next year I'm suggesting to our esteemed scumlord that a smoothness factor should be considered in the routing. This was the second occasion in thus many days that my undersides had been attacked, harassed, scraped, scratched and altogether shaggerated by the concrete nemesis of the lowered car brigade.

Why have such a low car I hear, Hark! I reply...This is the Scumrun my friend... Why not?

After the dual to the death between the surface layer of the aggregation of pointless lumpy tarmac and my exhaust where the tarmac lost but left their scars...we were met by 'da crew' at the gate. The turquoise event van sat with pride welcoming the scumrunners into the bosom of the northern espagna temporary chaotic party land...Let the fun begin.

We rolled up and positioned the bug quite centrally in middle of the camping area. As was now the drill it seemed, Andy jumped into action setting up camp while I headed off with the camera affixed on my shoulder  looking for some stories from the day. What I actually realised was our so called detour over the mountains was not so much of a detour after-all.  Turns out we had arrived around 20 somethingth and hardly anybody was there yet...Those that were there gave me the impression that this was in fact a bit of a lull in the madness.

It's fair to say that the drive that day had been long and challenging, which on top of the first long day meant that people were feeling just a smidgen, a tad, a sprinkle of the old scumrun buddy...fatigue.

This lasted only as long as until the beer started flowing.

I made a conscious decision that tonight, was the night, for feeling alright, we'll be making l...oh hang on that's something else isn't it...  Tonight, quite simply, I was going to relax, and most probably get completely mullered.

This presented a problem...Filming when drunk does not tend to lead to quality footage...

So the plan was. Take the big camera to the party early on, get enough good shots to set the scene, then take the camera back to the car, switch to iphone and hit it hard...

This seemed to work well as a plan, especially as the second half of the plan seemed to be the same as everyone elses...

You will need to watch the final edit of the video to understand really, but kareoke started to ensue. This turned rapidly into Mentaloke and gradually descended into Armaggedonoke.  All accompanied by some of the most energetic rampant arm flinging, leg jostling and arse wiggling I've ever seen.

Along with all this chaotic beer fuelled madness was a running theme of fundraising for the charity (Sparks)

One dude (with more money than sense, or more generosity than money, or just really really loved Ed, or perhaps had been stalking him for years and that was the reason he had attended the scumrun anyway) procured Ed's event jacket for £500.

As wonderfully admirable as this was, I can't help but think that it was a rather extreme way of keeping warm.

Some other highlights included a memorable performance of...something or other unintelligible while doing a 'full monty' from 2 members of scumrunerphanalia.  My favourite part of the whole night. Not because I had any particular desire to see their mansausage but because of the looks of disapproval, disbelief, and almost revisiting their dinner in a less than social friendly way that appeared on the audiences faces...As respect for embarrassing ones self for charity goes, they deserved it all.  Lucky I had my Iphone...you can check it out for yourself soon...sorry lads.

To be honest, I don't really remember the rest of the night. I woke up in the tent, so I must have made it back ok. Genuinely have no recollection of getting there though.

To be continued...hungoverly