Bob & Betty go British

A day at the races

Brought to you by Robert

Decided to travel to Silverstone today to watch the World Superbike races. Was pleasantly surprised by the weather as the sun came out and I actually got sunburned a little!

The entry ticket (40 UKP) gets you a grandstand seat, none of the malarky at Phillip Island where the only way you can get a grandstand seat is to pay for three days entry. It's a much more civilised way to watch the racing as we were under cover and mostly out of the wind.

We managed to get seats just at the beginning of the main straight so we could see the bikes from when they come under the bridge and into Priory, through Luffield and into Brooklands (chicane) onto the main straight. A big screen (admittedly not very close) allowed us to keep track of what was happening on the other side of the track.

From our position we saw quite a bit of action and lots of push and shove as the guys tried to gain position for the drive on to the main straight. There were some very close calls!

The atmosphere in the stands was very good. Lots of home town support for the Brits in the pack and they cheered and honked their horns whenever one of their guys came past.

The races were brilliant, with Troy Bayliss stamping his authority on both races after dicing with Nitro Nori. James Toseland did a pretty good job of making his way from the forth row in each race to be on the podium. Seems like he's found a bit of speed. Would have been interesting if he'd managed to start on the front row.

Troy Corser was having a bad day. He didn't finish race one due to losing the front through the chicane (right in front of us!) and in race two he only managed to come sixth. Still at least he got some points.

The only thing I found a little frustrating was that all the professional photographers lined up in front of us to take photos, getting in the way of us taking any!

For those reading from Australia, it seems that the police take a much more relaxed attitude to speeding. Most people were doing around 75 - 85 mph on the motorway (speed limit is theoretically 70 mph). A significant number of people seemed to be travelling at greater than 90 mph (140 km/h!) with impunity.

People actually move over for faster traffic so things moved along quickly with no problems. In Australia the police would be telling anyone who would listen that these speeds were sure to result in death and carnage (blah blah blah).

Roadworks were the only thing that caused any problems as they tend to put speed cameras in these areas so everyone actually slows down!

(sorry just having a soap-box moment ;-)

Anyway, can't wait for the next race!

posted by Elisabeth @ 9:50 PM