Day 33

“Welcome To Silverstone” the sign says, ah yes but the tricky bit is actually getting there….

We set off in the morning for a leisurely drive to Silverstone Raceway and it was nearly so.  When we turned on to the last motorway 4.8 miles from Silverstone we were confronted with a motorway jam packed with cars and trucks all completely stopped.  With nowhere else to go we had to join the mess, turn off the engine and wait, and wait and wait….  After about 15 minutes we moved (about 200 metres) and turned off the engine again.  It had to be an accident blocking the motorway but eventually we crawled to the Silverstone turn off but no, it was just people going to the race meeting, once we made the turn off the highway the last 1 mile was up to speed at 40 mph and no hold ups what so ever – how can nothing bring a motorway to a complete standstill – no accident, no blockage, nothing.

Noting that this was only a “Classic” meeting one can only imagine what traffic chaos the Grand Prix would cause with at least 10 times the number of people travelling!

The only notable thing about the last 4.8 miles was the number of dead old sports cars lining the road, clearly they couldn’t take being stuck in the traffic jam.  We must have passed 20 E Type Jags, AC Cobras, Allards and the like most with their bonnets up and the drivers out discussing how they are all going to get to the track.

Once parked we tried to buy our tickets but the ticket office had run out of children’s tickets.  Which meant no one with children could get in until more had arrived – silly you know, they give you a bit of paper so some yobbo at the gate tears it in half.  Welcome to Silverstone indeed! This was such a contrast to all the other events we had been to, if you had pre booked tickets you could jump the queue and go through another gate, you could here also but as a gentleman found out who stood in the queue for ages his entrance was “over there” but of course was not clearly marked!!

Our first stop was Stowe Corner where Nigel pulled off a fabulous pass to win the British Grand Prix in 1987.  The racing was good but a number of the programmed cars were no-shows so a bit disappointing.  All the Formula One cars for the “Grand Prix Masters” race were from the period 1971 to 1982 and all powered by Cosworth 3 litre engines.  A March 751 won but for much of the race was closely followed by a McLaren MP4 however its engine sounded rough at the end and was passed by a Tyrrell 009.  Best car there in my opinion was the ex Carlos Pace, Carlos Reutemannn Brabham BT44.

Other races we saw were for pre 1966 rear engine cars, Group C Le Mans sports cars, pre 1961 front engined GP cars which were great to watch the drivers sawing away at the steering wheel trying to keep them roughly in a straight line.  The most entertaining driving was in the Masters ‘Gentlemen Drivers’ Pre 1966 sports cars, some of those were really chucked around, the E Type Jags especially.

For E-Type Jaguar freaks it was the 50^th anniversary and over 700 E-Types were on the track during a parade run.

Was it worth it?  Well it was overpriced and there were long gaps between the races, so there is nothing wrong with the Aussie Historic racing which is better priced and (seemingly) better organised.  And no trouble getting to the tracks either.  Cars were good though.

We all got to taste what rally car action is like by a couple of laps each in the navigators seat of a Group N MG ZR car – light weight, 200 horse power engine, big brakes, very sideways, fun stuff.

You can guess who wrote the stuff above cos Caroline would say, race car, four wheels on the ground, very loud but there is nothing like being at the race to enjoy the atmosphere. Braedy said “Boy this is cool much better than watching it on the telly!!” We all concur.

So this is Summer in England? Suzie Quatro was in concert at the race meeting but Caroline was shivering in the cold so we left and missed it. Oh well we did get to hear 10CC for a while against the noise of the Le mans cars.