With that famous quote from one of the legends of Formula 1, Juan Manuel Fangio, we look back onto our final big event that was planned for my trip. When this whole sim racing expo trip first came up, it was all about that, getting to Dortmund, meeting some of the people I have previously only spoken to online, and done some races with. But me being me, of course I found something else to involve in that trip, especially with my friend’s kind offer of staying at his place while actually going to England for that event.
My “research” of all the racing events happening eventually got me to find a British GT event happening at Donington just a week after the sim racing expo, which meant that I would finally be able to go to a race track and see all the racing action and behind the scenes events live. I had a plan to go to a Formula 1 race last year (ironically – you’ll see why – at Silverstone), but (un)fortunately, that didn’t happen in the end. One thing that made me feel better about that was the fact that it rained throughout the majority of that race weekend, so I was glad I stayed home, in a way at least.
However, with some more digging while actually being there, I found an event called Motor Racing Legends, happening at, go figure, Silverstone – that is why I said ironically earlier on. With Silverstone being closer to where I was staying, and the tickets being cheaper, we decided to go for that. Also, because it could have offered a lot more entertainment than seeing modern race cars driving around, just due to these older racing cars being a lot more difficult to handle and get round a race track. And let me tell you, that really was the case! I mean, I don’t have a modern cars race to compare it to, but this was just insane!
I do have to admit that I didn’t really know what many of the cars there were called, at first at least, but that didn’t stop me from just enjoying the experience, taking it all in and having a great day! Even before we entered the paddock, or the inner circle of the track, we were able to hear the cars going round, and boy, were they loud! All of this got me even more excited about the whole thing, and with a quick stop at the Silverstone Megastore, it was time to finally head inside and over to the track.
Those first few minutes were spent in the paddock, where the teams set up their equipment and everything, when Formula 1 comes to town, they also park their hospitality trucks there and it’s even busier than it was this time, of course. But the one thing I’m still not getting my head around, nearly a week later, is the fact that I’ve actually stood in the garages, and almost in the pit lane itself. Events like these offer you that kind of a benefit, as with the F1 circus, unless you have very very deep pockets, none of that is possible.
After those first few minutes wandering about the garages, it was time to move on. My initial thoughts were that we only had one spot from which we would have been able to watch the racing action, but nope, I was wrong! In the end, we pretty much walked all around the track, which was just incredible. When you’re just watching the races on TV, or any other device now, you don’t really get the whole picture of how big the track actually is. And I don’t mean that in a way of the actual racing surface, which surprised me as well, but how long it takes to get from one sector of the track to another.
With the day coming to a close slowly, we found ourselves heading back to the pit lane, or rather the building overlooking it, and watch the start of the final race of the day before getting back in the car and head home. Well, for me it meant catching a train again, get to London and spend one more night in the city before flying back to Slovenia. I’ve decided on doing it that way as it made it easier to get to the airport the next day, and with a couple of hours to spend, I went around and seen a few more things, to end the trip properly!
Blogging with Jure 