Catch- Up

The last 3 weeks have been a bit crazy hence the lack of blog-age. SORRY!

It all started with Dad’s 500^th GP celebrations in Spain. It was a big surprise and so was lovely to see him genuinely taken a back and appreciative of our efforts to get in the same hotel as him and hang in the paddock all weekend. Virgin’s open-door policy was a real breath of fresh air, especially when Sam and George made us feel so welcome. Having been in the situation where you are looking after ‘guests’ it can be very easy to be a bit ‘robotic’ about the whole thing, but the girls treated us impeccably.

A big shout out to the hospitality company – they used to be called Edwards and in the 90’s served half the teams in the paddock. Their Friday morning Press breakfast at Jordan was legendary (although when I did my Gap Year with the team I had to start eating Alpen due to the quantity available). Its been a difficult 2000’s for them. Many of the teams were taken over by foreign owners and that meant a move away from using a very British company. Of course there is more to F1 and you can find them in WSBK, MotoGP and BTCC and you will always know its them because the food is out of this world. Considering there is only a small team in an even smaller kitchen, the food and service you receive is second to non – if you need epic wedding catering these are the guys to have, I wonder if they can cook in a kitchen thats bigger than cupboard?

The major downer was having our car broken into and all the luggage stolen. Passports, money, ID cards, Clothes the whole lot. The car was only parked outside the Ibis beside the track because we had to transfer our kit to the Holiday Inn next door. Despite blood all over it from the thief the police weren’t to bothered. ‘F1 and MotoGP this always happens around there……’ – well don’t you think you should do something about it? When I tweeted my disgust it was incredible to hear so many stories of the same thing happening to you guys. The story was compounded when we heard of the Lotus Truckie who had his laptop stolen from between his legs as he stood outside the Ibis on the phone to his wife. He managed to get to the getaway car and grab the door handle. Sadly this ripped his hand apart and sent him tumbling to the floor breaking his nose at the same time. He and I were both amazing at just how unhelpful Ibis and the police were.

It was nice to see a lot of old friends out there and makes me even more determined to get to the F1 paddock, even with 21 races on the calendar for 2012

The following weekend took me to Castle Combe, a track I haven’t visited before. I had been invited by Ma5da Racing to take part in their Bank Holiday race meeting in the new and highly competitive MX5 Mk3 series. I have been following the series for a while and felt I could do a relatively good job once I learnt the track. Due to noise restrictions there aren’t many meetings at Combe anymore but when it does occur the circuit really pulls out the stops and due to its intimate setting, the meetings feel well supported by the local folk.

The track itself is mega, really old school and very similar in character to Goodwood – bumpy, fast and very little margin for error. Crash and Die was the first words from our chief instructor on the test day. 25% of all accidents on UK race tracks happen at Quarry, a tricky right hander which is slight off camber but more over has a very bumpy breaking zone that doglegs left. There must be just 2 metres of grass between that and the 2 stack tyre barrier. It’s a great place to watch motor racing. Nowhere have I ever seen cars and drivers so on the edge, making mistakes, spinning or crashing.  Thankfully the Quarry barrier never claimed me, although I did have a very near miss in Race 1.

There are over 100 Ma5da competitors spilt over the Mk1 and Mk3 classes and it makes for a very friendly championship. The infamous Edwards family have found themselves a home with Jim Snr, Jim Jnr and Jade all taking part while Karting stars, Rob Boston, Luke Herbert and Tom Roche lead the way.

The car which I was kindly offered to drive was one of the first to be build, 98 is normally entered as Darth Vader when the driver is unknown and acts as the press car. Its probably had a fair bit of abuse and sadly seems to be suffering, the times just weren’t there, the car lacking serious straightline speed in testing, not good at Combe. Raceday came with rain too and we had already struggled to get the rear to stick in testing so it became hideous in the wet. My reward was a near last qualifying spot. Jonathan Blakes team set about tweaking the rear end but I needed more than a tweak. Race one the car just wanted to swap ends, under braking, acceleration, turning which was not fun when the barriers were so close. It was also amazing how little you could see with the Federal tyres kicking up massive spray. I simply hoped no-one had crashed ahead because I would have never seen them. There was nothing to loose for race two so I got the hard working boys to soften the rear so I could see the suspension travel, so I could lean on it and see it squish.

Race 2 dried off and certainly in the early part of the race I had good pace, the car felt better and I was able to benefit from a 4 car pile up ahead, but as the track dried the straightline speed issue from testing became more and more pronounced. It was a frustrating day, fun to get to grips with Combe but I think the car denied me a chance to get really stuck into a big battle.

And finally the last weekend, Hungaroring for WTCC…. I was a little worried because we should have been heading to Marrakech, a weekend that I loved the last 2 years,  but thankfully Budapest did not disappoint. Firstly there was a crowd of over 75,000people meaning my leisurely drive to the track after warm up became traffic hell. The Boscolo hotel that we stayed at was truly incredible with its underground swimming pool and most of all the drinking session with Bamboo on Sunday night became a proper blow out. The boys were trying to chat up to Law student celebrating the end of their exams….dont ask me what they looked like, no idea! It sounds like Hungaroring may well stay on the calendar so roll on the return!