Silverstone MotoGP 2011

The Mission

Three days of Motorcycle Racing
Three days of Camping
Three days of Drinking
Three days of Chilling Out

Tickets

3 day Roving Grandstand Ticket £90.00. If you book early it is a little cheaper, tickets can be purchased HERE.

3 day Camping Pass £35.00 ( I think they allowed access from Wed evening this year)

If you go on your bike you are not allowed to take it into the campsite. There is a controlled bike park at the edge of the campsite where all bikes have to be left. If you take the car like we did then you are allowed to park next your pitch. The main reason we took the car this year was to ensure all those camping luxuries could be brought along, including crates of beer and fridges.

Silverstone Diary

This was my first time at the MotoGP after being recommended by a friend. Having been to the Le Mans 24 hour motorcycle racing several times where there is constant action, I was not sure what to expect from the MotoGP at Silverstone, particularly as we were there for the whole 3 days. My first thoughts were that there would be long periods of time waiting for the next practice / race to take place. Well I have to say that this was money well spent on what was 3 days of full on activities. The time flew past and even the Friday practice sessions were exciting and interesting to watch.

Friday

We arrived on site at around 09:40 on Friday morning. The first thing that was apparent was just how many people were already in the campsite, it was packed. We were directed to a pitch which was in the field by the big top, which is were the evening entertainment takes place. Luckily we were just far enough away to ensure it was not too noisy around the tents. We pitched our tents filled rucksacks with beer and promptly buggerred off towards the track. For the lazy and the bone idle there were tractors with trailers regularly ferrying people from the campsites to the track. To be honest, the walk was not that far and my passion for tractors left me when I was about 5, so we walked.

Once at the track the MotoGP boys were already out on their first practise of the day. We entered the track around "Vale" and slowly walked all the way around to Becketts. A few beers were cracked open on the way as the sun was out on what was becoming a warm day, although 11am is not my usual drinking time. The view at Becketts from the stand was spectacular as you can see quite a bit of the track from here. Village Corner and the Loop are both opposite Becketts and you get a view of these form the grandstand. The Moto2 nutters were out next and their enthusiasm and madness for what is a practice makes interesting viewing. It started to rain so we found some cover and managed to blag a couple of the Silverstone Ear Radio things. These are useful as you can hear all the commentary from anywhere around the track. Silverstone also put on free double decker buses that run around the track, which helps saves the feet a little. This is particularly useful at the end of the day when one too many beers means getting anywhere is a bit hit and miss. As it was raining we jumped on the bus and did a mini tour of the track.

After a full day on the track we headed back to camp to cook some "Man Food", hot Curry & Rice with a side order of music and more beer. After eating far too much food, we packed more beer into the rucksacks and headed for the big top to sample the entertainment. When we got there, the band that was playing were dreadful. They were performing a set of covers and trying to copy the original exactly, which is always destined to fail. Playing slightly out of key with a weak voice will lead to booing. So the crowd started booing! Everyone seemed to be enjoying the booing, even a couple of Dutch dudes who were probably not sure why they were were booing. To be honest they looked too drunk to still be standing but I guess most people were by this time. The second band were much better and could sing as well as play the instruments they had brought along. An American dude singing & playing a Hammond organ stole the show and got the crowd going.

Friday night was quite cold, around 10 C but given a large volume of alcohol and a full day of fresh air a good nights sleep was inevitable.

Saturday, Qualifying day

Woke up early and it was bloody freezing in the tent. Once up and about it felt a lot warmer, particularly once a brew was made. Bacon butty then off to the track for the day. FP3 was a disaster for Cal Crutchlow who crashed and busted his collarbone. He must have been gutted to have done this at his home GP but these things happen.

After FP3 we headed into the middle of the track where the Stowe Circuit was hosting Supermoto racing. Having mainly ridden sports bikes and spent the last day and a half watching sports bikes race, the way these guys were handling their bikesl looked completely alien . No real hanging off, just lots of leaning forward and sticking your boot out like a kung fu kick. Strange but effective. This was followed by quad bike racing, which I have never seen before. I spent the first 5 minutes chuckling, these things just looked completely wild and out of control. However, it was clear that there was a very distinctive style that made some riders much faster than other. This involves some hanging off and sliding while avoiding getting up on 2 wheels at all costs.

For qualifying itself we headed over to Woodcote and Luffield Corners where there was a big screen and a timing board. Qualifying was as exciting as usual with Simoncelli waving to the crowd, popping wheelies and still recording respectable lap times (nutter). Both Scott Redding and Bradley Smith were doing well and it was good to have some Brits to cheer on.

Moto GP - Casey Stoner on pole, closely followed by Sideshow Bob. Very entertaining!

Moto 2 - Marc Marquez on Pole, with Scott Redding in 2nd. What a result! Unfortunately Bradley Smith ended up 28th due to some problems with his bike.

After qualifying we headed for the "Arena main stage". This area is the "heart of the action" according to Silverstone's brochure. Around the stage area there are plenty of places to get food and beer or just sit around and chill. The bands on this stage seem to be of a higher calibre, so we stopped to listen for a while. This was followed by rider interviews on the stage with the MotoGP riders. It was good to hear their thoughts on the track and the usual banter. Colin Edwards was probably the most entertaining, I think he was completely pickled in vodka to kill the pain of his broken collarbone. He also seemed to get away with insinuating that the Jorge Lorenzo was 'Gay'.

With the rider interviews complete people started drifting back to the campsite for the evening. Silverstone is a big place and after a few beer it is not the easiest to navigate. Once we had realised that we were walking the wrong way, we tried to blag a lift on a golf cart from one of the marshals. He did not seem to be that keen for some reason. Anyway, he pointed us in the correct direction so we started the long walk back. As we were passing the new Silverstone Wing building, we decided to try and get a closer look at the track and the new pits. It looks very impressive but you could not see a lot from the fence, which is on the other side of the track. There still seemed to be one bike being revved, everyone else had obviously gone to the bar. We then noticed that one of the gates in the fence was open, which gave us a prime opportunity to get onto the track and get a closer look at the pits. The track looks fantastic, I think a "track day" here, will be on the cards soon. Looking over the wall into the pit lane we noticed that one of the teams had left a clipboard on top of the wall. We could not help ourselves but take a look. .Unfortunately it was all in Italian so for all we know, it could have been a spaghetti recipe. Oh well, no tips available here, so we put the clipboard back.

On the way back into the campsite we stumbled upon the Flat Tracking racing, so stopped to watch. When we turned up the stunt riders were out on some insanely large ramps doing stunts that would require a parachute for us mortals. The racing started after this display but it is not something that I would go out of my way to watch, so we continued on our way back to the campsite after a couple of races.

Back at the campsite the same band were playing that we saw on Friday night but we stayed for a while, then the Disco started. The disco was a stereotypical DJ playing unrecognisable drum and base while waving his arms up and down like some demented bird trying to take off. Perhaps I am just getting old as most people seem to be enjoying it. Time for us to head back to the tents for a few quieter beers around a warm fire, as it was starting to get cold.

Race Day

Woke up early, well actually not sure if I was ever asleep. It was so bloody cold during the night that I seemed to be wearing all the clothes I had brought with me at the same time, just to keep warm - Failed! Weather looked a bit moody but OK, this did not last long. By the time we had made a brew and a Bacon Butty, the sky looked grey and heavily laden with rain. As soon as the tents were packed up it had already started to rain.

In order to get a good seat in the stand of our choice (at Woodcote), we set off for the track early. By the time we arrived at the stand there were only a few seats left and this was 08:20 in the morning! Luckily we still got a good seat ready for the mornings warm up sessions, which started at 09:00 for Moto2. The weather was getting worse and by the time the MotoGP boys came out for their warm up it was a very soggy track. Strangely, after telling everyone that he preferred the wet, Rossi crashed during the warm up session

The Moto2 race started at 11:15 and produced some exciting wet racing. Bradley Smith had a cracking race and finished 2nd behind Stefan Bradl. Scott Reading finished in 5th, so overall a great result for the British riders.

The day seemed to be wizzing past despite the bitterly cold weather. By the time the MotoGP race started we were almost hypothermic. Even the coffee was cold by the time it took to walk into the stands from a nearby stall.

Casey Stoner took control of the race and given the conditions was riding extremely hard. Dovisiosa was over 15 seconds behind Stoner at the finish of the race, which gives you some indication of how fast Stonaer was managing to go. The most remarkable feat of the weekend was Colin Edwards finishing on the podium despite breaking his collarbone only one week earlier. On top of that he was only 21 seconds behind Stoner. In comparison, Rossi finished 6th but was over 1 minute behind Stoner. Rossi had slowed down dramatically by the end of the race in what became a points conservation ride, rather than a race.

After the MotoGP we decided that it was just to cold to stay and watch the 125 race. We had already had a good 3 days of motorcycle racing, so now was time to get back to the warm car and head home. Silverstone is notorious for the traffic jams getting out of the track and this was no exception. What made matters worse was that everyone seemed to have the same idea and tried to leave at the same time. In the end it was not too bad, took around 2 hours to get out of the track which is expected.

Conclusion

Brilliant weekend, already thinking about booking for 2012.