Night rally

My brother and I made another visit to the local Tempest Rally, usually I'm home in doors by mid afternoon but this year we explored a few stages and stayed till it got dark. Photography was pretty tricky in the pitch black. This is an Escort doing what it does best.

Proper F1

On the way home today we took half an hour out to wander round the Donington Formula One collection. Its the biggest collection of F1 cars in the world and theres some amazing machines inside. Everything for Williams and Mclarens from the last decade to 50 year old cars. The Lotus 49 is a design classic. Engine out the back, British Racing Green with Lotus yellow stripes and not much else.

Racing Sevens

A real last minute trip out today. My brother managed to blag some free tickets to the Caterham Finals at Rockingham. The track isn't the greatest being a vast slightly soulless oval track with an infield. Viewing is limited to a couple of corners up close or the overview from the grandstands, but it was sunny and it was an unexpected motorsport hit.

Kop Hill Climb

First run in 1910 and stopped due to an accident in 1925. Kop Hill was revived as a hill climb for demo runs in 2009. I've never managed to get to it until this year. Hundreds of cars and bikes from all eras along with a Spitfire entertained the crowds. This 4½ Blower Bentley sounded glorious and looked amazing as it powered up the hill.

Gymkhana

A bit of a first for me today. We decided to take part in the Hants & Berks Motorclubs Gymkhana. A cheap and cheerful entrance into the world of motorsport, next stop F1! Its basically an untimed event where you have to travel round a series of tests designed to score your ability to manoeuvre your car through gates and get as close as possible to various points. For a first go I managed an average 65 penalty points in the morning session, by the afternoon I had got into it and dropped that to just 15. The winner scored -3 as he was able to park on the cone and throw hoops over stakes.....he was also half my age!

Pitstop for The King

On route to Bedford today I pulled off the M1 at Toddington services. Santa Pod was obviously holding an American meet as the car park had several muscle cars and in the truck stop a few drag cars on trailers including this replica of Richard Petty's Superbird.

ART DRIVE!

In the build up to the Olympics, the London 2012 Festival is putting on a massive cultural celebration all over the place. From plays and family days to art exhibitions. I'm not normally one for galleries, but when they are built inside an old multi story car park and the works on display are 16 of the 17 BMW Art Cars that are rarely together at the same time, I make an exception. I read about it on Retro Rides and as I had to drive through London to get from Greenwich to Watford I would be passing right by the door. I afforded myself half an hour off to nose around. Really I could have done with a few hours to take it all in but it was enough time to be amazed at seeing these masterpieces in the metal.

Boys day out

I've not been to Castle Combe since the first race of the season. Wet weather and other commitments have got in the way. But this weekend there was a two day event which included the CSCC Special Saloons. A championship for old 70s and 80s silhouette cars and Thunder saloons. My brother wasn't doing anything so we cruised down the M4 in his Vantage and enjoyed some great racing. Sadly the spectacle of the Special Saloons wasn't as great I had imagined. Several of the big name cars were elsewhere.But the other races made up for it and the Carlton ThunderSaloon gave me a glimpse of what the championship has to offer in the future.

Gymkhana 1/64th

In honour of the release of Ken Blocks latest video, Gymkhana V. I decided to muck about with my Hotwheels Fiesta and some daft paintshopping!

I can't live without....

There are loads of things I can't do without. If Heinz Ketchup ceased to exist I'd be quite upset. Kim and Lily are everything to me as well. But as the photo is from today the thing I can't live without is motorsport. I try and get trackside at least one or twice a year, often a lot more(its four and counting in 2012) Todays trip saw myself and Malcs at Brands Hatch for the DTM. 500hp, RWD V8 beasts. It was awesome and reminded me why enjoy racing so much.

Damp days racing

For over a decade I have been going to the season opener at Castle Combe. Kim was at Uni in Bath and we discovered the track in the late 1990s. Ever since then I have been to at least one race meet a year, often several. Today was a wash out, we drove down the M4 in rain and it went from drizzle to downpours every few minutes. It never let up. We bailed out half way through as both us and our cameras were getting too wet to carrying on enjoying it. Heaven knows what it must have been like for the drivers out on track

Formula one spy shots

I was passing Blackbushe airport on the way home from London and decided to try and find the film set for the new Niki Lauda film, Rush. Its on the far side of the complex on an old runway and has a complete pitlane, grid and grandstand replicating 1976 Fuji Grand Prix. I snuck across the common and got fairly close where I could see the set and hear the cars being fired up so I got a sneaky photo of the McLaren race transporter that James Hunts M23 was unloaded from.



*somebody has been far less sneaky and a lot more brazen than me and seemingly walked straight on the set to take photos

Race Retro

Went along to the Race Retro show today, its a classic racing motorshow. Inside they have several halls full of traders and clubs advertising their wares from flat caps to books, oil to spark plugs. Outside they put on a display of rally driving around a small stage and this was the star of the show. Now owned by Jay Kay its a 1971 Porsche 914-6 driven in the Monte Carlo rally by Bjorn Waldegard. He was back throwing it around the stage making an amazing noise. The car must be worth £100k with its history, but after its run it was parked up in the corner of one of the halls with no barriers around.

First motorsport of the year

The end of January for the last three years has marked the beginning of my motorsport year. Brooklands in Surrey is the site of the first purpose built race circuit in the world. Constructed in 1907 its a vast 3 mile oval. The outbreak of World War II ended racing and the place was turned over to the war effort. The museum is situated in the buildings around the remains of the track and today was the Vintage Sportscar Club's Winter Trials, a chance for pre 1930s cars to compete in various test. On a cold sunday I found myself with Brookslands virgin Malcolm at the top of a 1:4 test hill as one of the first cars of the day crawled up. It was a struggle but then again the 1919 Grafton Cyclecar only has a 250cc engine and no reverse so he was pushing it around parts of the tests. I have a month to wait until my next race event. Bring it on.