2005 british grandprix race day review part2(art 28)

Again i got no sleep at all i was constantly trying to get comfy in the tent, if i camp again im bringing an air mattress or something so i can get some sleep!. we got up at 5am id already heard a reasonable number of car doors slamming so knew people were already off to get the best places beside the race track. a quick face wash and change of clothes and we were almost ready to leave, a lady in a caravan next to us in her 50s came and gave me and my friend a cup of tea. very kind of her you meet nice people at car races. i bravely wore shorts though it was still pretty cool but not as cold as saturday morning when id worn dark jeans all day in the 30 degree celcius heat. Looking in the cars mirrors i coudls see i was quite badly sunburnt from being out in the heat all day saturday so i took a large umbrella id brought with me to try and stay in the shade more on race day. we walked to the circuit, most of the camp site looked like the people were still in bed and i could see the constant stream of cars coming into the circuit to a car park that along the back of the pit straight, it was much busier than saturday as 100,000 people would be at silverstone for race day versus id estimate 50-60000 for the satuirday. we went to the same place copse corner which was filling up twice as much as saturday but we still got a good place by getting there at 540am ish. We sat for hours reading the autosport and the rip off £10 official silverstone programme that had less detail than the £2.80 autosport..next time i wont bother buying the official programme there not worth £2. My mate got some nice mini dougnuts for breakfast and we had some friut id brought. a nice woman sitting behind us saw our badly sunburnt faces and gave us some suntan cream from a £14 bottle...why is suncream so expensive? her husband worked on submarines and was a real loudmouth bore i had to put up with his boring conversations behind me all day to a couple of people he was with. 750-820am f1 paddock club walked the pitlane again..i guess a different bunch of guests, fortunatly silverstones tv service comes on about 7am so thet showed the f1 qualifying again which was usefull as you tend to watch the cars for real and not watch the rest of there laps on the big screens placed around the circuit so you can follow the cars around the hole track. 840am gp2 cars pitlane opened so they came out and did a few warm up laps to check there cars out before there 2nd race of the weekend 9-945am the gp2 cars did a 24 lap race which was again good to see from copse corner theyre so fast and loud, but no one spun in front of us or crashed which im sure the whole crowd wanted to see. At 10am the f1 drivers had a meeting the crowd couldnt see or hear then at 1025-11 there was a porsche race for 14 laps a few cars tried overtaking into copse corner so there was some good action to see we could look into the cars windows as they went past and see how much steering effort they were having to put in some drivers were in a real mad battle to get their cars to corner ok, a few cars broke down and slid off at parts of the track, i german driver had what looked like a picture of a burger or haggis on the side of his car a bizarre sight really but got the crowds attention. 1115-12 another pit lane walk for paddock club members was held then 1130 just before the f1 drivers parade a f1 journalist who bet ron dennis the mclaren team manager they wouldnt win another race in 2004 fulfiiled his end of the bet by having to run around the silverstone circuit naked!! this was great the crowd loved a bit of humour bob mckensie painted his body in the mclaren silver colour and had a sporan to cover his willy the airhorns went mad as he went past me and he did it though i saw him collapse as he copleted the lap onto the warm track.think he must have been faking it for entertainment. then the f1 drivers are driven around the track on an open top lorry so the fans can see them without there crash helmets on but there still very hard to make out and go by way to quick i had time to just take 1 or 2 photos of them before they were gone. 12noon-1224 the red arrows do an air display as theyve done for about 24 years at silverstone but i enjoyed it more this year thet are great to watch doing some beautifully choreographed moves, i hust wish they would risk going a bit closer whern they pass each other to make it more exciting!. at 1230pm the f1 pitlane opens and cars can do a few laps befor e the race to check there cars are fine. 1246pm the british national anthem is played by a brass band then there was a 1 minute silence to remember the victims of the london terrorist bombs on thursday 7 july when about 54 people were murdered by british born muslims from leeds in england..scum mi5 and mi6 needs to weed out every radicalised idiot in england and lock them up for ever. 1pm the formula1 race began the 19 cars that left the grid ok screamed past fot the next 90 minutes the cars went around doing there 60 lap race, by now with no sleep for 2 nights and the second day of 30 degree heat were taking there toll and i was feeling tired also we ran out of dring at 11am so in 30 degree heat we hadnt drunk for3 and a half hours! anyway i followed just about every car as it zoomed past me around copse corner i couldnt follow the race on the big tv screens as the cars noise made it impossible to hear the circuits speakers comentationg on the cars positions and the sun on the screens made it harder to see the tvs, my friend used my binoculars to read the cars positions and told me so i knew roughly what was going on, juan pablo montoya drove a great race to win his frst ever race for him at the mclaren team and it was his 5th win over all in f1, fernando alonso came 2nd for renault and jenson button came 3rd in the bar honda.Although the race was fairly processional in terms of lack of overtaking actually being there and getting to see the 20 f1 cars blasting by you every few seconds even though its just 1 corner your seeing them at is still far more interesting than sitting on your arse in front of the tv!. I had to have my long sleeve tshirt sleeves down all day to protect my sunburn and i went under the umbrella quite a bit so if you goto a motor race take my advice and take all the things i did such as umbrellas.suncream.cap, sunglasses, seats,guide to the race eg autosport magazine, food and drink, binoculars,cameras, spare films and batterys, earplugs, mobile phone, radio to listen to track comentators, wallet with enough cash for rip of circuit prices, pen and paper towel to put around you and wet when it get hot and whatever else you may want with you for a long day outside. After the race we quickly went back to the campsite and put the tent away and packed up aour bags and left we saw the big grey vintage biplane flying very low near silverstone circuit again its like the planes people did wing walks on in 1920s or 30s movies, it was very large wingspan with 1 engine mounted in the middle of each wing it looked very boxey shape and must have been very old. Traffic was pretty bad for a few miles but not to bad and i got home in need of a good shower drinks and some sleep!, if you liked my articles on the grand prix or want to ask me anything about the weekend please click on the comments button and leave feedback for me and ill reply as soon as i spot your message, i wrote this for all f1 fans and my friends so they can know what to expect if thet decide to come to the next british f1 race at silverstone next year, watch the rest of the races on tv if your not into f1 start watching the highlights programmes instead as there only 1 hour to summarise the 3 hours coverage the real fans watch 17 or 18 times ayear. Lastly britains just become a victim of retarded suicide bombers ill soon be writing an articler summerising the terrorism the worlds had since september 11th 2001 so keep coming back here and read all my articles there all usefull.

2005 british f1grandprix at silverstone part 1(art 27)

Ive been 3 times before to see the formula1 motor race at silvertone circuit in northampton in 1995 i first went and it cost £63 to attend the race on sunday, iwatched form chapel which leads onto the hanger straight, johnny herbert won in a benetton car from david coulthard who came second in a williams. damon hill crashed into michael schumacher at priory in this year. The second f1 race i saw was in 1997 the sunday ticket cost £75 with a center transfer costing another £20, i watched from priory corner, having slept overnight in a car parked in one of the surrounding grass car parks, a 6am dash to get a good place to view from meant we got right to the front of the viewing area, if you turn up later youll end up viewing from behing a 7-10 deep row of people and you just wont see very much even though the race doesnt start till 1pm!, jaques villenerve won in a williams renault that year, schumacher went out with a wheel baring failure. 1998 was the 3rd f1 race i saw the ticket cost £80 and a center pass was £22 extra, again i arrived about 1030pm on the saturday and tried to sleep in a car followed by a dash to a good viewing spot at 6am, i watched from maggots which leads onto the amazingly fast and tricky beckets complex of turns, the cars aproached me at 180mph defening me with their ludicrously loud engines, you definatley need earplugs if you stand as close to the track as i did that day. Unfortunatly it poored most of the day so we all got drenched, mika hakkinen lead in the rain but spun at maggots which i spotted as it happened then again at bridge so scumacher took the lead and won in very difficult conditions. This year 2005 was therfore the 4th time ive gone to see a british formula1 race ,my friend i went with this time had never been so was very eager to go, i got the tickets by winning an ebay.co.uk auction for 2 3day tickets which saved us alot of money, i got them for £117 when they were worth £270. we quickly bought an autosport magazine which covers all the different types of car racing each week so id get a guide to the race from them and some food for us camping on the friday. as we got close to silverstone we saw new signposts for stowe corner and a new aproach road to the track but as we wanted copse we went by and ended up having to drive a few miles around to get to roughly the right place...silverstone needs to impprove their signposts so before you get to the track you see a few signposts saying which corner of the track your close to. We got to the campsite which was very poorly signposted in the silverstone village area and paid £15 a night for 2 nights so we could put up our tent in a grass field near to copse corner the corner of the race track i thought we would watch the racing from. the campsite was pretty packed by 6pm when we arrived, it advertised as having toilets and showers but we found out on saturday night there was just 1 shower for men and 1 for women between a ste of 1000+ people id guess so we didnt have a shower as ques were big. the loos were basically portable cabin loos adaquate but nothing special. We had a barbeque of sausages and bacon in rolls with onion and ketchup which was lovely, we were constantly seeing kids on mini motorbikes screeming around the campsite+ a few quad bikes, when we wanted to sleep in our tiny 2 man tent the pissed up f1 fans decided to let off loads of fireworks! we also had endless sterios blaring out music, so as wellas uneven ground i found uncomfortable we had chavs partying into the early hours, id say the campsite wasnt quiet till 2am at least , and we were planning to be up at 7am as you need to get to the track as early as possible to get a good place if you havent bought a grandstand ticket giving you a fixed seating position. iI got no sleep at all then got up at 7am into a freezing field of wet grass to get dressed. We packed all our cameras and walkmans to listen to silverstone radio commentating all day on the races wed see as well as everything else wed need into our rucksacs and walked the 10 minutes up the campsite to the gates of silverstone circuit. we got there about 745am and set up our fold up seats at the outside of copse corner opposite the last 2 pit garages the minardi and jordan formula1 teams were using, we coulds see the cars as the rounded woodcote corner coming up the pit straight towards us at 180mph before going down just 1 gear and flying around the 90 degree right hand corner called copse at about 160mph a quite amazing sight id guess a road car would struggle to go round this corner at 80mph.Ill brifly try to explain the silverstone race track layout for you and the speeds the cars do at different parts of the track.. the start finish line is on the pit straight the cars go up towards copse corner at 180mph before going down 1 gear and going around cthe 90 degree corner at about 160mph, they then go straight up to 180mph before turning left at maggotts down to 165mph then right in beckets at 125mph and left again at 115mph before going straight out of chapel along the hanger straight where they get to 190mph before going 90 degrees right around stowe corner at high speed, they then go to 170mph to vale and take this left right corner at just 55mph, coming around club corner at 125 mph towards farm at 175mph then slowing for the abbey chicane taken at 65mph then fast to bridge where they go under a bridge that takes traffic to the center of the circuit, they pop out going right at 150 mph and enter priory corner a slow tricky section a left left right right curve to luffield then the cars accelerate as hard as they can out of luffield around woodcote corner and go over the start finish line at about 155mph by the time there at copse theyre doing 180-190mph and thats 1 lap of silverstone. We paid £2 each for a cup of watery coffee was the start of our being ripped off for the weekend from the catering units around silverstone but it woke us up a bit. 8-845 am f1 paddock club members walked around the pit lane to see the f1 cars in the pit garages being prepared..this is for sponsors of the f1 teams and vips so we just sat about smoking and reading. at 9am-945 the f1 cars came out to practice the poorer teams came out early as they need all the laps they can get to tune there cars ready for qualifying later in the day and the race on sunday, about 20-25 minutes into this session most of the cars came out for a few laps, a great sight to see them again, 1 car spun exiting copse corner it was a renault so fernando alonso or giancarlo fisichella all the crowd went hurray as we all love spins and crashes. 1015-11am was the 4th f1 practice session ( the first ans second practice sessions for the f1 cars were on friday) this time all the cars used this time fully to practice how to go as fast as possible around silverstone, the crowd were photogaphing the cars and blowing their air horns too often for my liking but the enthusiasm of the crowd is great. 1125am -1210pm porsche supercup cars practiced, its amazing how quite these cars are compared to f1 cars though theyre still fairly quick cars..all identical machines with differnent sponsors on them they look just like the lovely road cars you see rich people driving around in. 1215-1245 was another paddock club pit walk. 1230-1245 the blue eagle helicopter display team entertained us doing loop the loops..in a helicopter!!!!! and flying close in formations, flying backwards and more it was very good to see. 1pm-2pm the f1 cars do their 1 qualifying lap each they each come out of their garage up the pit lane and come onto the circuit were copse corners exit is so from where i was sitting i could see each car as it came out onto the circuit, they warm up there tyres and brakes as much as possible as there brakes need 4-500 degrees centigrade to work well as theyre made of carbon fibre. When they get out of luffield corner they start going flat out to cross the start/finish line at full speed and do 1 lap as fast as possible whoever is the fasted car gets pole position so they start the race from the grid with there car parked at the front of all the other cars, whoevers slowest starts at the back. alonso got pole. 225pm gp2 cars start coming out to warm up there cars ready for there race starting at 245pm-345 these cars look similar to f1 cars and sound similar thet rev to 10,000 rpm and have 600bhp compared to the 8-900 bhp f1 cars have(brake horse power) the average road car has about 70bhp, the people driving these are trying to get into f1 or other top car racing series so theyre all tring very hard and the racing is close but like f1 there not much overtaking as the cars arnt designed to handle well enough when they get close to the back of another car so overtakings very hard..something the fia motor racings governing organisation must change to bring excitement back to the racing. This race was followed by the crowd well as the fans were here to see these single seaters( racing cars with just a single seat!) 415-455 there was a maserati race of lots of identical maserati coupe gransport cars, they dont look anything special really just like a nice shaped road car exept they have 420bhp,Included in the drivers line up was jodie kidd the model and johnny herbert the ex f1 driver, me and my mate went off to look at the merchadice stalls behind the pit straight so we missed all but the last couple of laps of this race but i didnt mind id sat and stood in the same place since 745am till 415pm so we needed to move to see the other stuff at silverstone as by sunday we wouldnt have time to go see the merchadice stands, theres a huge amount of merchandice you can buy for the different f1 teams from tshirts & shirts, caps, model cars, airhorns that blow compressed gas making a loud noise lots of kids seem to like doing when there favorite driver goes past them, there is cigarette booths.. seeing as f1 is about the last main way tobacco is advertised theyre always heavily involved at race circuits. ferrari had a life size f1 car on display so i got real close up photos of it, mclaren also had 1 and 1 of there mclaren mercadez slr sports cars that cost about £600,000.. lovely machine if you win the lottery this is 1 car to consider getting as it has near f1 car capabilities! if your filthy rich and want to buy me 1 just email me( yeah right but let me dream!), toyota had one of their f1 cars displayed too and were giving away ther magazine on there racing activities as well as postcards of there f1 drivers and posters but they had run out of posters when we got ther late in the day unfortunatly. after a nice look around at all the merchandice we went and watched the end of the maserati sports car race from luffield corner a slow part of the circuit at the start of the pit straight we can see the cars exit the bridge area then turn right then left then right in a tight slow section of the track before accelerating hard around woodcote curve onto the start/ finish straight. 530-6pm historic sports cars came out to qualify.. mostly cars from the 1950s and 60s..very old looking shapes..old jaguarts/ferraris/lotuses etc i cant believe howe many of the spun at the luffield section it was amazing they simple couldnt help themselves form spinning, i must have seen a doxzen + spins in this 30 minutes quite entertaining and to see cars four wheel drifting through woodcote was great, modern cars have so much downforce on them from the wings on them you dont see them slide anymore which is another thing the fia need to sort out. After this we walked back and bought a pasty for £4 youd get in a supermarket for about £1 but it was hot an filled me up back at the camp site. we unloded all our bags to sort out our belongings and sat outside and relaxed in the lovely summer evening as the sun was slowly going down.It was more peaceful than friday night i spotted a hot air balloon coming towards silverstone and it must have landed in a field right near our camp site before blasting its gas to take off again a lovely sight to see on a summer night but the fireworks and loud music began as we wanted to sleep around 10pm as again wed need to be up even earlier on sunday morning to get a good place for race day. thats the end of part 1 of my silverstone weekend review so now read article 28 my second and last article on the british grand prix 2005.