16th 17th August 2008 Knockhill (Scotland) BTCC

I got invited to go as a guest to Knockhill this weekend to see what it was like north of the border. As Audi was busy looking after his new brother, I decided to drag Reno Bear with me, as well as plenty of waterproofs as I had heard that it likes to rain.

Saturday

We were greeted by lots of marshals who pointed is the best direction to view the track from. I started the day by going to the Real Radio Hairpin to watch the Legends.

Qualifying – Legends
There were lots of Legends out on track. Car 2 tangled with another at the Hairpin. There was a red flag as one of the cars stopped on the apex of the corner. The marshals quickly got it moved.

Practice – BTCC
I watched this session from the Hairpin as well. Vaulkard ran wide through the gravel. Bell went into the gravel and was quickly pushed out by the marshals. George decided to then run wide, followed by Stockton going into the gravel and bouncing off the rectocel and being pushed out by the marshals. The marshals had one more car to push out when Jones decided to pay a visit.

Stockton being pushed out by marshals after contact with the wall

Qualifying – Porsches
I was now making my way further round the track to the Seat Curves/Leslies/Scotsman. The Porsche session was red flagged due to a car in the tyre wall.

Qualifying – Seat Cupra
Car 12 spun and came into the gravel at Scotsman quite quickly. I got a bit of a gravel shower. The session was red flagged whilst the car was recovered into the gap that was opposite. The marshals swept some of the gravel off the track before the session restarted. It was red flagged for a second time with another car in the gravel.

Practice – BTCC
Stockton had a spin across the grass on the way into Scotsman. The session was then red flagged as Doyle went through the gravel and stopped. It was then red flagged for a second time as the tyres on the corner had been hit and were rolling down the track. Plato narrowly avoided them. When the session was underway again, George came to a slow stop on the grass, and couldn’t get going again as his wheels kept spinning. Jackson drove through the gravel and skimmed the wall. Stockton went across the grass and Bell drove into the gravel.

Race – Legends
This was a very close race, with a car spinning and carrying on. John Jon Higgins went through to win.

John Jon Higgins takes his first win of the weekend

Qualifying – Ginettas
Car 86 stopped in the gravel, can’t remember where though as I was on the move again. I was now on the inside of the track.

Race – Legends
In this race there were lots of several spinners at the hairpin. Some cars ran wide going through the gravel trap.

Qualifying – BTCC
During this session I walked round to the other side of the Hairpin to watch them come down the straight. I then walked right to the Hairpin. It was good to watch how the slower cars moved out of the way to let the ones going quickly past.

Race – Legends
The safety car came out after the first lap, and then the race got red flagged. I was told that there was an accident at post 4 where a car had barrel rolled end over end. Fortunately, I was told the driver is ok. There was a bit of contact behind the safety car. The race was restarted and on lap 2 the safety car was back out again. Car 70 came past the hairpin and stopped as he was on fire. The marshals were quick to react and the fire was out, and the car moved out of the way

Marshals quick to the fire

Sunday

I was back for more action again today, and was surprised at how many people were there. I decided to start the day at the Seat Curves/Leslies/Scotsman and walk around during the racing, so that I would end up on the infield after seeing the whole track.

Race – Legends
One of the Legends went through the gravel. Cars 25 and 12 made contact (the yellow one hit the green one) and they both went onto the grass. They had the wheels spinning, and they left a nice muddy mess all over the tyre wall. Both of them managed to carry on. I think the chequered flag may have been given to the wrong car as the leaders came round really quickly and the second half came round really slowly with the drivers waving.

Legend spraying mud after an off

Race – Porsches
Car 78 knocked the tyres on the corner. The safety car came out after car 7 had a big shunt at the Seat Curves. He seemed to clip the curving and bounced into the gravel trap and then bounced into the rectocel sending tyres and rectocel everywhere. The doctor’s car was quick to arrive and dr’s went in both sides of the car to tend to the driver whilst the marshals worked to rebuild the tyre wall. The driver walked very slowly and supported by the dr's to the stretcher that had been brought into the gravel by the rescue unit.

Porsche crash in Seat Curves

Race – Seat Cupra
The Seats had some fun taking out the floppy marker at Butcher’s. The marshals kept replacing it, only for the cars to knock it over again. Car 8 ran wide and went through the gravel. Car 32 decided to go the wrong side of the tyres. Car 12 liked going through the gravel at Scotsman, as he did it several times.

Race – BTCC
Turner was forced through the gravel. Neal made contact with one of the Team RAC cars. The safety car came out as Bell had gone heavily into the tyre wall somewhere on the track. Neal came round with a puncture after the restart, which he changed in the pits. The safety car came out again as Hughes and Doyle were off the track, just out of view at Butcher’s. Turner was also off the track somewhere.

Race – Ginetta’s
I moved round to Butcher’s for this race. Car 8 had a trip through the gravel. Car 28 made contact with car 29 at the Hairpin, 28 had loose bodywork. Car 23 spun in front of us and continued, he then managed to spin into the gravel at Scotsmen and to make his day even better, he was awarded a ten second penalty for a jump start.
During the lunch break it started to rain. Reno and me continued to walk round the track and came to a stop at the Real Radio Hairpin for the first race after lunch.

Race – Legends
The Legends were just as much fun in this race.
We then walked to the infield to watch the rest of the afternoon’s excitement.

Race – BTCC
The pit lane was opened later than scheduled, due to the television schedule. Chiltern went into the gravel at the Hairpin. During the race Stockton ended up with his rear bumper hanging off.

Race – Porsche
Car 42 stalled on the grid. The safety car was sent out as car 60 had spun to the inside at Scotsman. Car 8 and 2 had a bit contact at the Chicane. On the last corner car 2 and 44 made contact, 44 spun went to both sides of the track and continued.

Race – Seat Cupra
The safety car was sent out as a car went off into the gravel.

Race – Ginettas
There was a staller on the grid. Car 55 ran through the gravel with a bit of help from car 15. The safety car made another appearance after car 99 went into the tyre wall. Car 28 lost his bonnet, and the red car that was leading went off.

Race – BTCC
The safety car made an appearance after Plato and Onslow-Cole made at contact coming off the Hairpin. Plato went into the tyre wall, and made his feelings quite clear as the cars came past on the next lap behind the safety car. When the car had been moved out of the way, the race continued. Vaulkard and George made contact, and then George decided to go through the gravel. Cars 24, 70 and 50 came round that close there was slight contact. Stockton’s rear bumper came off again after contact with Hughes. George and Bell made contact, George spun and continued.

Plato crashes out of race 3

Plato showing his anger!!!

John George makes contact with Martin Bell

Race – Legends
Car 95 ran wide through the gravel, and then he decided to spin all by himself. There was contact between two cars, which resulted in car 96 going through the advertising banner.

Legend going through the banners

After the race had finished I walked through the paddock and ran into Alan Taylor. He told me that he had a good weekend, and it was a shame that his gearbox went in the last race. Hope it all gets sorted out for the next round at Silverstone.

Beayrton with Alan Taylor

It was a brilliant weekend, and the weather was better than I expected. Would like to say a big well done to all marshals who worked really well to keep the meeting running as well as it did.

Formula 1 British Grand Prix, Silverstone 4-6th July 2008

I decided to venture to the Grand Prix for the first time at the weekend. I arrived at the circuit on Thursday evening and found my pitch and set up camp for the weekend. Fortunately I wasn’t too far away from the facilities, I only have little legs!!

On Friday morning the sun shone brightly so I got up and got myself ready for my first day. During the first Formula 1 session, Alonso decided to leave some oil around the Stowe corner and retired shortly after. Glock then decided to get a bit twitchy at Stowe followed by Massa hitting the barrier quite heavily. The session was red flagged whilst the marshals sorted out the oil and got Massa’s car sorted out. He was ok.

Renault F1 trucks

Mclaren Hospitality

At lunchtime there was an air display by the Red Devils Parachute display team. It was really good to watch, don’t think I would want to jump out of a plane.

In the 2nd Formula 1 session, Trulli hit the barrier at Stowe after losing a rear wing. Nakajima had a bit of a spin near the Bridge and hit the wall. He limped back to the pit lane.

On Saturday morning it wasn’t quite so sunny as it was raining. I went into the circuit and found a dry spot to watch some of the drivers arriving. Kimi Raikkonen arrived in a really nice Maseratti. He dropped his bag as he got out the car and then went into the Formula 1 paddock.

It stopped raining and the sun came out which was nice.

During the Porsche qualifying I got a lift to the Stowe/Vale areas so I could see a different part to the track. It was a long way.

The Formula 1 cars were really good to watch around the corners during their qualifying session.

Suring the GP2 race, a red car stopped on the green flag lap. The marshals were able to get it shifted before the cars got back to the grid so the start was not delayed. On Lap 2, 2 cars hit each other and 1 car spun on to the grass. They both kept going. A blue car then spun going into the chicane and carried on across the grass. 2 cars decided that they wanted to get so close that they tapped each other going around the chicane, they both carried on. Someone then went off a further along the track, closer to Stowe, as all I could see was a green flag. The JCB was sent to recover it by going on the track in the spectator area. Car 22 out braked himself and went across the grass, he rejoined two places down. Another car went off closer to Stowe; all I saw was a big dust cloud and another green flag. The JCB went down to recover it. It was and exciting race.

On Sunday morning it was a bit damp. I ventured out to the circuit and just as I got there, the heavens opened. The day started with the Formula BMW’s and then the GP2 again.
The GP2’s must like causing trouble. Two cars stalled whilst leaving the grid at the start of the race, the marshals managed to get them moved without any problems. On the first lap there were spins and on the 2nd lap there were even more spins. On the last lap one car came in without a rear wing and another followed missing a front wing and nose.

The Porsche race was the first race to see the Safety car being used, as it came out after the first lap, despite the cars being given 2 green flag laps due to the weather conditions. There was a bit of a coming together between a few cars at Abbey, one car came into the pits and had a very angry driver as he was throwing his gloves everywhere. There were some spinners behind the safety car.

Then came the driver’s parade, a 2-seater demonstration with the car driven by Top Gears – The Stig, and then a display by the Red Arrows. Unfortunately the Red Arrows display had to be altered slightly due to the low cloud and the rain. They did a few flyovers down the pit straight which was nice.

Jenson and Nico

Rubins and David

Alonso

Then came the main event, the Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix. On the first lap a couple of drivers spun including Webber who started in 2nd place and Coulthard who ended up parked in a gravel trap. Massa also ended up quite far down the field. Hamilton managed to get past his teammate and kept the lead and won the race. Well-done Lewis.

The day ended with a really big grid of historic saloon cars. They put on a good race, but were going a lot slower than the cars we had just seen.

When I got back to the campsite, there was already a queue of people trying to leave. I managed to get my tent down nice and dry, as it had stopped raining and then enjoyed a nice bbq whilst waiting for the traffic to start moving.

It was a really good weekend, just a shame about some of the long waits between sessions but they are to be expected due to the television coverage. It was also a shame about the traffic getting out of the campsite.

Well done to all the marshals who worked really hard to keep the racing going.

Donington Park, Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th September 2007 The Renault World Series by Renault 

Saturday

The day didn’t start off too well as we started 10mins late. The first qualifying session was red flagged, unfortunately I don’t know why. It was really interesting to see the teams conducting the pit stops, as they were really quick and precise.There seemed to be a lot of single seaters on the program, there were 3 different types. The World Series, the Eurocup and the British Formula Renault. Other than the single seaters there were Megane's and the UK Clio. It looked like it was going to be an interesting weekend, as there were various track demos as well.

Qualifying session 2 was the World Series again; they had been split into two groups to qualify. One of the cars had a bit of a slower pit stop as the team seemed to be unaware that the car was coming in. The session ended on a red flag. 

The Megane’s were the forth session on the track. I haven’t seen them before and they looked really cool. They had big rear wings on the roof, and were lower than the road version. They were also split into two sessions, like the World Series and the Clio cup cars.

After the Megane’s, the Eurocup Renaults came into the pits. There seemed to be loads of them, as they filled the whole pit lane. They came into the pits before qualifying and all queued up along the garages with the noses sticking out towards the fast lane of the pits.

After the Eurocup had finished there qualifying, the Formula 1 car came out to do a few laps. It was a really quick car, and the driver, Jonathan Cochet, was able to do a practice start and some donuts on the track. After the demo, the team allowed me to go and give Jonathan a hug. He did almost treat me like a rugby ball, with a big grin on his face, but never mind. He did give me a hug after.

Beayrton with Jonathan Cochet

As I was walking back up the pit lane, one of the teams asked me whether or not the pit walk was going to take place. I said I didn’t know, and then the driver, James Walker saw me. I was allowed to go and sit on his car and have my picture taken with him. He was nice. After that there was a pit walk, and I was fortunate enough to see Pippa Mann. She agreed to hold me so I could have my picture taken, unfortunately she wouldn’t give me a hug though. Never mind, she was still nice.

Beayrton with James Walker

Beayrton with Pippa Mann

After the last qualifying session, for the Formula Renault UK the racing began. It was a pit stop race for the Renault World Series. 

Race 1 – I have no idea how they all managed to get around Redgate with out incident. It didn’t last though as the Safety Car was sent out. The teams were very quick during the pitstops. There was nearly a collision as one car was released a bit early. The two cars avoided each other, which was good. The Safety car was sent out for a second time. Whilst the safety car was out, the Red Arrows flew over with the coloured smoke coming out. Car 20 had some damage to the nose as the team got ready for a new one, but it didn’t come in so guess it wasn’t that bad. When the race finished all the cars came in the pits, and car 20 did have slight damage to the wing. 

There was a Historic F1 demo on the track next; one of them was nice enough to leave some oil on the track. The marshals dressed it with cement powder.

Race 2 – Megane Trophy. This race had refuelling pitstops, which seemed unusual to me, as it was only a 40min race. One car came really slowly across the finish line. It crawled to a stop closer to post 1. Another car then joined it, and then a third stopped just after the finish line. The driver got out and climbed over the pit wall Think they must have run out of fuel. After the race, the car was pushed down the track by the marshals 

Race 3 – Eurocup. The last car on the Eurocup grid was all the way around Goddard’s, so the marshal at post 39 had to act as a repeater for the lights so they knew when to start. They all managed to get away ok from the grid. On lap 2, 2 cars came a bit wide on the exit of Goddard’s. Car 22 lost his front wing and stopped opposite the top blue gate on the pitlane. The marshals pushed the car closer to the wall. The other car carried on. Think one of the drivers must have torn off a tear off during the race, as the cars seemed to have fun moving it along the track. 

The Formula 1 car came out for another demonstration. I didn’t think he was going to do any donuts but after nearly coming to a stop by the team, he performed them.

Race 4 – Clio Qualification Race A. The Clio’s put on a good race with a few battles going on through out the grid. Unfortunately in ended on a red flag with a car in a dangerous position.

Race 5 – Clio Qualification Race B. This race got red flagged, I believe there was an incident involving several cars as quite a few came into the pits with dodgy wheels and making funny noises. 1 car went on the grass from the restart; someone told me that one of the cars had gone along on two wheels at one stage. There was quite a close battle for 2nd place, and the cars kept swapping places. It was great fun and really entertaining.

Sunday

Arrived today and there was a bit of a problem going into the Coppice tunnel. Don’t really know what was going on, but we managed to get onto the infield a bit further around at Post 15. When I reached sign on I was asked to do the same job as I did yesterday. 

Race 1 – Formula Renault UK. Think there was a coming together between two cars somewhere on the track on the first lap. It was very close racing at the back of the grid, but they did soon spread out.

Race 2 – Eurocup. One of the cars managed to spin on his way to the pitlane from the assembly area. The grid was just as big as yesterdays. There was a 1st lap incident somewhere on the track so the safety car was deployed. The front-runners slowed down quite quickly and some of the drivers further down didn’t see the flag as soon, so unfortunately there was a bit of an incident on the startline and the race was red flagged. The race was restarted, and the red flag was brought out again. This time a car had rolled; think it was at the hairpin. Car 6 came back into the pits with a puncture. As the drivers were waiting on the grid, several decided they needed a comfort break, and used a Renault advertisement sign to relieve themselves. It was decided to give the cars a rolling start instead of letting them go from the grid. They went off for the green flag lap behind the safety car did a lap and then the race began. Car 37 came round Goddard’s slowly, looked like he was going to pit, but then he sped up. He did this on the next lap as well, he didn’t come round again so maybe he should have pitted.

Race 3 – Clio Cup Championship Race. There was complete chaos on the grid, as there was suppose to be a demonstration but it got cancelled due to the problems in race 2. The Clio’s didn’t come to the grid in the correct order, and as the grid girls were on the grid it made it a bit hard getting cars to the correct place. We succeeded which was good. On the green flag lap, Car 8 decided to spin after post 1 and take out one of the corner markers. He managed to get going before the cars returned to the grid. The start was then delayed, the union jack was shown to the drivers and they went round on another green flag lap. Think there may have been a light problem. Car 8 then tried to rejoin in his original grid position. The other cars squeezed him out, so Dorothy went onto the grid and sent him to the back. There was another green flag lap and then the race began. Several cars came back round from the first lap with rearranged rear ends. Car 16 was shown the black and orange flag, think it was for a tyre rubbing or something as his back end was just as bad as some of the others. Car 38 stopped at the pit entry with a wonky wheel and a bit of a leak. 

Next on track was the first Formula 1 display. I was able to go and look at the car at the pit exit. The team were nice enough to let me sit on the nose cone. Shame Reno wasn’t with me, as he would have liked to as well.

Beayrton gets a sit on the Renault F1

Race 4 – World Series. One spun from the start, and took out another of the Redgate corner markers. It could have been due to contact as they were all very close. Car 23 came into the pitlane for a drive through penalty. The safety car was sent out during the race, I think this was due to someone with a broken gearbox. Car 25 was shown the black and white (naughty boy) flag. After only 1 lap of green the safety car was sent out again. Someone locked up going into red gate on the restart. James Walker, who I met yesterday one his first race, Pippa didn’t finish. Lots of cars came back on the back of the recovery trucks in various conditions. There was then a Renault collection of historic cars on track.

Race 5 – Megane Trophy. I noticed that car 12 had a smiley face around his front grill, and he had little teeth too. The race involved another pit stop. 1 of the cars made heavy impact into the wall on the inside before Redgate. A wheel fell off, and a recovery truck was sent to recover the car. The safety car was sent out for a different incident after the car at Redgate had been recovered. Car 21 lost his bonnet somewhere. The Formula 1 car came out and did its last demonstration of the weekend. Jonathan threw his gloves into the crowd after he finished the session.

Race 6 – Formula Renault UK. This was the last race of the day. The safety car was called after the first lap. Car 3 darted into the pits across some of the other cars. Car 22 limped into the pits with a puncture. An old plane, think it was a hurricane did a fly over. 

It was a very good weekend with lots of exciting racing. Would like to say thank you to all the marshals I worked with, and all those who were out on the circuit as I think they did a good job in keeping the meeting running smoothly. There was some traffic getting out, and I think the security did a good job in trying to keep it moving. I am looking forward to next years World Series event. 

Resting after a tough day

The alternative GP weekend

The report for this weekend is slightly different to normal as Audi and I managed to end up at Longleat Safari Park instead of Silverstone where the Grand Prix was taking place. Guess my navigating isn’t that good, we thought that we would enjoy ourselves and have a weekend doing something different.

When we got to Longleat, we decided to go for a boat trip on Half Mile Lake first. We had fun watching the Sea lions, and even got a chance to throw some fish for them. Buster, the male, was very noisy. We got to sail past Gorilla Island, where we saw Nico playing. His house has its very own satellite dish. We also saw a pair of Hippos sticking their heads up out of the water.

After we had been on our boat trip, Audi suggested going to see the Parrot Show in Pets Corner. It was really good as the parrots, Matilda, Jake, Bobby, (have forgotten all of the names) were really clever. They all had different tricks that they performed, these ranged from waving, being bats, to playing football, going shopping and roller-skating. It was brilliant and well worth seeing; the keeper who worked with them really knew his stuff. We then went and looked around the rest of pets corner, where we saw lots of small animals. There were guinea pigs, rabbits, a tortoise digging a hole as well as ants, snakes and spiders. Think these are a bit creepy though.

After a spot of lunch we went on our trip around the Safari Park.

First on the tour were the Giraffes, and they had a couple of young ones. The youngest was Harry. I couldn’t believe how big they were; they towered over Audi and me. We then went on a walk through Wallaby Wood; they were much smaller and a lot more bouncy. Then there were some Giant Turtles, before getting back into the tour vehicle to carry on with the tour.

We saw an Ostrich sitting on her eggs, and some Zebra in the first section. They were in the same area as the Giraffes. We then went into an area where there were monkeys; they liked eating windscreen wipers from cars. One of the monkeys had not long given birth to a baby monkey. There were already several little ones hanging on to their mums. We then saw some rhinos enjoying the sun, in another enclosure. There were also some Ankole Cattle with big horns, some camels, David’s Deer and Scimitar Horned Onyx.

Next we found Lord Bath’s favourite animal, the Tapir. They had a baby one, which looked like a humbug. His big brother was looking him after as his mum and dad were sunbathing.

I think we saw the vultures next, before going into the deer paddock where we were able to get food to give to the deer’s. There were some Sacred Ibis birds, some Ducks and some Pink Flamingos in a bird enclosure.

We were able to see Winston the Rhino in his house; he wasn’t out as the other male was out. If they were together they would fight.

Then we went into the big cat territory. The first was an enclosure with tigers in. They had recently released 3 new tigers from quarantine, one of them has established herself as a trouble maker, and was trying to stop the keepers from refilling the pond. There is now only one of the three old tigers and she was staying in through choice.

We then met Charlie the Lions pride, fast asleep in the sun. In the next enclosure was Kabirs pride. One of his daughters was stuck up a tree when we got there. It looked like all the others were watching from a distance. When the little one got down, all the others welcomed her back and went off as a family group.

Last on the tour was Wolf Wood. We were able to see the baby wolves being looked after by the parents.

After the tour, we enjoyed some cream tea and scones before going back to the hotel for the night.

On Sunday we went to Longleat again, so we could have a chance to see the things we didn’t do yesterday. We started the day by having a ride on the Longleat Railway. It’s a miniature version of a real steam train. We were allowed to go and have a look in the engine and say hello to the train driver.

Next, we had a look around Longleat House. It was really nicely laid out, and some of the stuff was really old. After viewing the house we went on a tour of Lord Bath’s Murals. They were really impressive, and not like any art I have seen before. Most of them were really bright and colourful; some were done to describe a darker time of his life.

After a picnic lunch, we went and found the maze to see if we could get lost. We managed to, but after a lot of walking and climbing trees to see where we were we managed to find the centre and then find a way out. It was good fun, even if it was very green.

After the maze we went and into the Butterfly House. I never knew there were so many different types. They came in a range of shapes, sizes, and colours. It was very humid and hot though. It was worth it to see them all, there were even several caterpillars but they were harder to see as they blended in quite well with all the plants.

After the Butterflies we went on to the Motion Simulator to have the Gorilla Experience. This was fun as the show was about us travelling through the wilds to see some gorillas before being chased away and returning.

We then went and explored King Arthur’s Mirror Maze. There were lots of me, and a lot of Audi bears there.

Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go into Old Joes Mine to see the bats. Hopefully we will be able to visit again at some point. It’s definitely worth a visit if you want to try something different.