Well, here we are, already into the second quarter of the year, and it has probably been one of my busiest – in terms of motor-racing activity – for twenty years. Of course, I had hoped that I would be too busy to write on the blog, and so it has become, to an extent.
February was relatively quiet, with time to write up race analyses from the Daytona 24 and Bathurst 12 hours, a visit to the Classic Car Show and a family holiday to the Wye Valley, but as March came in, so did plenty of jobs for me to do. All of which meant that writing anything here got fairly quickly pushed down the priority list.
It started off with the British GT Media Day at Donington Park, which saw the announcement of a 38-car grid for the 2019 British GT series – a very healthy state of affairs indeed. Of these, 14 are in the GT3 class, with cars from Aston Martin, Bentley, Lamborghini, McLaren and Porsche joining BMW and Mercedes in the top class. Nine of these were present at the media day (with Barwell’s brand new Lamborghini Evo ending the day fastest, just 0.024s faster than the RAM Racing Mercedes).
The series kicks off at Oulton Park on Easter Monday – surely worth a visit, if the weather is kind?
The middle of March was dominated by the Sebring WEC and IMSA double-header, which I did not attend, but I did pay close attention, and despite misgivings ahead of the event, I certainly had the impression from afar that it was a successful event. It will be interesting to see what elements are kept for next year, and what lessons are learned and changes made.
If nothing else, it would be nice if the weather is better next year.
Following the Sebring weekend, and the various write-ups that I had to do as a result, was a visit to a new circuit for me – Mettet in Belgium, for the opening round of the European VW Fun Cup, about which the less said the better. Then it was a quick dash back across the channel – with thanks to DFDS for making it so straightforward – before getting myself to Gatwick for the flight to Italy for the opening round of Creventic’s European Championship at Mugello, another circuit I had not previously visited.
The twelve hour race at Mugello was split into a three-hour part on Friday afternoon (following a delayed qualifying), which ended at 7pm, with the remaining nine hours on Saturday between 9am and 6pm. The Ferrari 488 GT3 of Bohemia Energy racing with Scuderia Praha was the class of the field throughout, running a faultless race and efficient pit stops to win, three laps clear of Barwell’s Lamborghini Huracan (which was due back at Silverstone on the Monday after the race!).
As always, it was great fun working with the Creventic crew and the TV folks from the 0221 Media Group. It was good to be back ‘in the fold’ of the Radio Show Limited team. Having known and worked with John Hindhaugh, Jonny Palmer, Joe Bradley and Nick Daman for so many years, I regard them very much as family and hopefully that is an impression we can convey to the listeners and viewers of the live streaming (along with some useful information).
I am always impressed at how many of the teams and drivers that we speak to say what fun they have at Creventic races, and Mugello was certainly no exception. It’s as much of a culture thing as anything else, but somehow no-one ever seems to lose sight of the fact that the people that are putting their hands into their pockets to allow the thing to happen, are doing so out of choice. It is a lesson that other areas of the sport could do well to learn from.
As an aside, how many people keep track of the number of motor racing venues they have visited? And do you, like me, have difficulty defining the rules? Do you have to witness competitive track activity for it to count? Does it have to be an active track? Do kart tracks count? Short ovals? What about temporary circuits? Anyway, under most counts, I reckon I am now over fifty, in 17 different countries.
I make no boast of this – I am sure there are many people reading this who can make bigger claims, but it is an indication of the extent of opportunities I have been able to take, and of course I am grateful to all those who have played a role in making it possible!
Yesterday, I had the opportunity for some ‘tourist laps’ around the Nordschleife, something I have not done for around twenty years – and what I found most noticeable (on top of the rather steep hike in the price) was the professionalism of most of those doing so. In 1995, when I last went round, they were proper ‘tourist laps’, with mostly normal road-going vehicles taking part, being driven by ordinary tourists. Yesterday, it was not much short of a full track-day, with more race-prepared cars circulating than anything else, and I would not be surprised to learn that many of them were being driven by people practicing for next week’s VLN race.
It certainly got the juices flowing – although I will be at RSL’s London studio to commentate on VLN-2 with Bruce Jones – I feel much better prepared now!
February was relatively quiet, with time to write up race analyses from the Daytona 24 and Bathurst 12 hours, a visit to the Classic Car Show and a family holiday to the Wye Valley, but as March came in, so did plenty of jobs for me to do. All of which meant that writing anything here got fairly quickly pushed down the priority list.
It started off with the British GT Media Day at Donington Park, which saw the announcement of a 38-car grid for the 2019 British GT series – a very healthy state of affairs indeed. Of these, 14 are in the GT3 class, with cars from Aston Martin, Bentley, Lamborghini, McLaren and Porsche joining BMW and Mercedes in the top class. Nine of these were present at the media day (with Barwell’s brand new Lamborghini Evo ending the day fastest, just 0.024s faster than the RAM Racing Mercedes).
The series kicks off at Oulton Park on Easter Monday – surely worth a visit, if the weather is kind?
The middle of March was dominated by the Sebring WEC and IMSA double-header, which I did not attend, but I did pay close attention, and despite misgivings ahead of the event, I certainly had the impression from afar that it was a successful event. It will be interesting to see what elements are kept for next year, and what lessons are learned and changes made.
If nothing else, it would be nice if the weather is better next year.
Following the Sebring weekend, and the various write-ups that I had to do as a result, was a visit to a new circuit for me – Mettet in Belgium, for the opening round of the European VW Fun Cup, about which the less said the better. Then it was a quick dash back across the channel – with thanks to DFDS for making it so straightforward – before getting myself to Gatwick for the flight to Italy for the opening round of Creventic’s European Championship at Mugello, another circuit I had not previously visited.
The twelve hour race at Mugello was split into a three-hour part on Friday afternoon (following a delayed qualifying), which ended at 7pm, with the remaining nine hours on Saturday between 9am and 6pm. The Ferrari 488 GT3 of Bohemia Energy racing with Scuderia Praha was the class of the field throughout, running a faultless race and efficient pit stops to win, three laps clear of Barwell’s Lamborghini Huracan (which was due back at Silverstone on the Monday after the race!).
As always, it was great fun working with the Creventic crew and the TV folks from the 0221 Media Group. It was good to be back ‘in the fold’ of the Radio Show Limited team. Having known and worked with John Hindhaugh, Jonny Palmer, Joe Bradley and Nick Daman for so many years, I regard them very much as family and hopefully that is an impression we can convey to the listeners and viewers of the live streaming (along with some useful information).
I am always impressed at how many of the teams and drivers that we speak to say what fun they have at Creventic races, and Mugello was certainly no exception. It’s as much of a culture thing as anything else, but somehow no-one ever seems to lose sight of the fact that the people that are putting their hands into their pockets to allow the thing to happen, are doing so out of choice. It is a lesson that other areas of the sport could do well to learn from.
As an aside, how many people keep track of the number of motor racing venues they have visited? And do you, like me, have difficulty defining the rules? Do you have to witness competitive track activity for it to count? Does it have to be an active track? Do kart tracks count? Short ovals? What about temporary circuits? Anyway, under most counts, I reckon I am now over fifty, in 17 different countries.
I make no boast of this – I am sure there are many people reading this who can make bigger claims, but it is an indication of the extent of opportunities I have been able to take, and of course I am grateful to all those who have played a role in making it possible!
Yesterday, I had the opportunity for some ‘tourist laps’ around the Nordschleife, something I have not done for around twenty years – and what I found most noticeable (on top of the rather steep hike in the price) was the professionalism of most of those doing so. In 1995, when I last went round, they were proper ‘tourist laps’, with mostly normal road-going vehicles taking part, being driven by ordinary tourists. Yesterday, it was not much short of a full track-day, with more race-prepared cars circulating than anything else, and I would not be surprised to learn that many of them were being driven by people practicing for next week’s VLN race.
It certainly got the juices flowing – although I will be at RSL’s London studio to commentate on VLN-2 with Bruce Jones – I feel much better prepared now!
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