Breakthrough

Sorry for the brief silence on the page, I have had a hectic few days, I will not bore you with the details. Great news (for me anyway) this week as I had a reply from the Editor of a website called 'The Checkered Flag' here in the UK inviting me to be a regular contributor to the site. I accepted, obviously, and have been assigned to cover the DTM for the season. I will also be covering British F3 and any other UK series' which are not being picked up by the current editorial team, and which deserve a mention. I have submitted a 2010 DTM season preview, which should go online this afternoon, which I will also post on this blog (unless I am asked not to). The first small step.
I am on twitter: @ifitsgot4wheels and @daimccann and can now be read as a regular contributor on thecheckeredflag.co.uk

Easter Weekend at Oulton Park: Saturday

I have been waiting all winter for the chance to go and see some live action, and this weekend it finally came around as we headed off to Oulton Park for the British F3/British GT openers at my favourite non-F1 circuit. I bought my tickets on the day they went on sale, although due to there being no Sunday action at this meeting, we decided not to camp, but to travel first thing on both the qualifying day (Sat) and the race day (Mon). Christian was almost as excited as I was, and we had no trouble being up at 6.15, so we would have enough time to cram in a McDonalds breakfast and still get there for the first action at 9. Armed with the obligatory camera, autograph book and programme, we started the usual routine of finding a good place to watch then moving after one session either to the paddock, a food stand or the greener grass of a different spectator area. By lunch time on Saturday we had visited every corner of the circuit watching the practice and qualifying activity and decided to go and have a look around the paddock. Christian did his standing on the podium bit and we walked down the back of the pit garages, which for some reason contained the GT cars this year as opposed to the F3 teams which occupied them at last year’s event. There was an unexpected treat there in the form of a road going Pagani Zonda parked at the back of one of the garages. Next stop would be lunch from a burger van, I decided that I would push the boat out and had an £8 burger meal (not a misprint), and as I was putting my ketchup and mustard on it, I accidentally knocked a jug of milk all over some poor chaps food, leading to great embarrassment, I offered to replace the soggy hotdog, but the man insisted that it would be fine as it was. If you are reading and recognise yourself as this person, which is unlikely seeing as my current readership would struggle to form a five-a-side team, I am deeply and truly sorry, not only for the condition which my actions left your lunch, but also for the unpleasant smell which must have followed you around all day from your milk covered jeans, which you had failed to notice as I left the scene, beetroot faced.
Lunch eaten we returned to the circuit and watched the Ginetta G20 race, which this term benefits from a smattering of the new, more aesthetically pleasing G40, which due to its increased weight, and the lack of experience its new owners have of it, struggled for pace against the outgoing G20. We stayed at Old Hall corner for the second race of the day, the inaugural round of the Trofeo Abarth 500 GB, which we had been looking forward to ever since the announcement that the first round would take place on this weekend. It turned into a great race, even though we were deprived of seeing Ben Winrow challenge for honours due to an early retirement. Won by Gareth Howell from the super quick Benny Simonsen, brother of British GT ace Allan, who was contesting his first ever car race, and Charlie Butler-Henderson, brother of Fifth Gear presenter Vicky (which made me think maybe we could have a ‘Brother of a Celebrity’ championship, although this reality TV concept is probably already on the drawing board at Channel 5). Whilst watching the 500’s, it was great to see F3 driver’s Alex Brundle and James Cole mingling with the crowd at Old Hall so close to their championship debut’s, they had come down to watch the action and Christian lost no time in doorstepping his first pedallers of the weekend for autographs (more info in ‘Christian’s autograph book: Part 2’ later). Chapter 1 of the Jean-Eric Vergne show followed, which we were fortunate enough to be watching next to the parents of Welsh F3 star Hywel Lloyd, who seemed to be enjoying the race until their boy was crudely taken out early on by Carlin’s James Calado, leading to some wild gesticulation by Lloyd Sr. This kind of clumsiness has become a bit of a feature in Calado’s fledgling career, as evidenced by the Oulton commentator referring to him as James Collision, and was perhaps explained in a conversation I had last season with the Dad of a fellow Formula Renault driver, who shall remain nameless, who offered the view that Calado could afford to take bigger gambles, and risk accidents, because he enjoyed sponsorship and funding that many of his contemporaries could only dream of. A good day’s spectating was rounded off by the lack of traffic on the way out of the circuit, and we left thoroughly looking forward to the main action on Easter Monday.
Part 2 will follow in the next few days
I am on twitter: @ifitsgot4wheels
Photos will appear soon on our Flickr page: ifitsgot4wheels.

2010 British F3: Oulton Park – Round 1

The new British Formula 3 season kicked off this weekend at Oulton Park sporting a new three race per meeting format, but it was a familiar story as the Carlin team took both pole positions, three fastest laps and all three race wins. This seasons Red Bull backed entrant, Parisian, Jean-Eric Vergne, lived up to his billing of pre season favourite on Saturday by first securing a double pole position, and then winning the first race later the same day from Fortec’s Ollie Webb and Carlin team mate Adriano Buzaid. Vergne would have surely completed a clean sweep of the weekend were it not for the revised format which now incorporates a BTCC style reversed grid for the shorter race two, whereby the race one winner draws a number from 6 to 10, on the podium, to decide which of those race one finishers will start from pole, the rest of the leading group then have their positions reversed, for the half points race.
The first such draw of the season saw Hitech’s Gabriel Dias, 2009 national class runner up, on pole (below), alongside Double R’s Daisuke Nakajima. Nakajima made the better start, and on lap 2 Dias attempted to get back through by taking the outside at a damp Old Hall, the move sending him spinning down the field and eventually into retirement. Two laps later the Japanese was passed, again at Old Hall by series debutant Rupert Svendson-Cook in another Carlin machine. The young Briton managed to fend off his more experienced competitor to take a very impressive win, followed by Colombian Carlos Huertas and the Carlin duo, Buzaid and Vergne.
The 40 minute feature race was somewhat processional, with the top 10 positions remaining largely unchanged throughout the 40 minutes, Vergne won from pole, followed closely by the impressive Formula Renault UK graduate Webb and his compatriot Svendson-Cook.
Vergne, Webb and Svendson-Cook were the obvious stand out drivers of the weekend, although there were some encouraging signs from the likes of Malaysian Jazeman Jaafar and home grown talent Will Buller and Alex Brundle, all new to the machinery. The most disappointing showing was comfortably that of 2009 Formula BMW Europe champion Felipe Nasr of Raikkonen Robertson, whose crash on his first flying lap in qualifying left him languishing at the back of the field all weekend, and according to paddock sources, struggling to motivate himself, maybe he has been taking some lessons in that department from Kimi.
Most experts had tipped Vergne to go well this season, although few would have thought he would dominate in the fashion he did, great news to see, however, that it will be the British contingent that will now be considered his main rivals.
Follow me on twitter: @ifitsgot4wheels

Christian's autograph book: Part1

You may have already noticed what I am trying to achieve on these pages, or you may not. If you are looking for a comprehensive motorsports results service, you are probably looking in the wrong place. If you're looking for a detailed analysis of the impact Red Bull's pull rod suspension has on lateral graining on Bridgestone's Super-soft tyre, again, I will be found wanting. What the blog is about is a) trying to give a unique slant on motorsport, particularly British motorsport, and trying to promote some of the best series' that the UK has to offer, and b) for as long as I have the editorial freedom to write what I like, I will insist on boring you with some of the mundanity that comes with being a motorsport fan, and wannabe motorsport journo. This is the first such instalment.
As I travel the circuits of the UK and beyond, watching the best that the sport has to offer, I will more often than not be accompanied by my Son, hot shot photographer, Christian, 7. Accompanying him to all events will be his digital camera (I will post his photo's, along with mine, on a soon to be created I.I.G.4 W. Flickr page), and his autograph book. I will be compiling a dynamic list of the autographs that he collects, along with any observations that we have about the person in question. I will first make a list of the few that he has collected prior to this season.


Oulton Park April 13th 2009
1. Daniel Ricciardo, British F3. (Comfortably Christian's favourite non-F1 driver, made a big fuss over him, Christian calls him his 'mate')
2. Max Chilton, British F3. (Looking bleary eyed by the Carlin transporter, after jumping the start from pole before the red lights had even come on, leaving him point-less)
3. Daisuke Nakajima, British F3. (Closest he has come to meeting an F1 driver)
4. Oliver Oakes, British F3.
5. Carlos Huertas, British F3.
6. Walter Grubmuller, British F3. (Christian refers to as Walter Grumbler)

Oulton Park May 30th 2009
7. Tim Harvey, Carrera Cup GB, 1992 BTCC champion. (Brought back some memories for me, I met him at OP at about the same age. Had a good chat with him, genuinely nice chap)

I'll post about my childhood experiences travelling around Europe with my Dad, watching mostly F1 soon. If only I could find my autograph books from then. F1 was a different ball game then with reasonable access to the stars, my autograph book included, to name a few, Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost, Sir Jack Brabham, Eddie Jordan, David Coulthard, Mika Hakkinen, Damon Hill, Martin Brundle, Derek Warwick, Rubens Barrichello, Riccardo Patrese, Andy Rouse I could go on all day, and I probably will one day.

Part 2 of Christian's autograph book will come early next week, after this weekend at British F3/British GT at Oulton Park.

The strength of British motorsport

I have been checking my inbox, but no reply yet from aforementioned motorsport website editor (give him a chance). I received my tickets for Oulton Park's Easter weekend meeting this morning, and checked the weekend schedule, it's a great offering at one of the best spectator circuits I have ever visited. Alongside British F3, which is now more than holding its own against the Euroseries, and British GT, there is the inaugural round of the Trofeo Abarth 500 GB Championship, the VW Cup, Formula Ford and Ginettas. It got me thinking about the strength of motorsport in this country, and has spurred me to look further into two of the series' in particular. Keep watching the blog today for previews of the Trofeo Abarth and the VW Cup.