Always Meet Your Heroes

You know that phrase 'Never meet your heroes'? Well I've never stood much score by that. I honestly think that you should always meet your heroes - if you're disappointed when you meet them then maybe they don't deserve to be your hero in the first place. On the other hand, every time I've met one of my heroes, I've been thrilled and all the happier for the experience. This past weekend, I was at the Goodwood Festival of Speed with my Dad. This is a huge motorsport event in the UK, and one of the best places for you to meet your motorsport heroes - something which meant one of my dreams was made a reality on Saturday...

Wednesday - The Shaky Start

The Festival of Speed is spread over four days, with Thursday hosting the Moving Motor Show; a place for manufacturers to show off their latest models. As Dad and I had bought tickets for all weekend, we decided to set off on Wednesday so we could be at the show bright and early on Thursday. We left the house around midday, hoping to arrive in around three hours. As per usual, we took our Range Rover - a car which has served us very well in the eight years that we've owned it. We also decided to take the caravan with us, as there's a lot to be said for having heating when you come back from a long day out!

So, with the Range Rover packed up and the caravan close behind, we made our way towards the motorway and on to Goodwood. However, after only a few miles on the motorway we hit a problem: the Rangey was overheating! We managed to get off of the motorway and into a nearby garage to let it cool down, however this situation was far from ideal. Dad had the idea that maybe the radiator was blocked up with mud from the off road trials. So, once the Rangey had cooled down we set off to a nearby relative's house to clear out the radiator. 

After a long time clearing out the mud, we set off for attempt two of Mission to Goodwood. Once we'd been on the run for 15 miles, we hadn't hit any problems, so we assumed all was well - although we didn't take any chances and stayed well clear of the motorway. A few hours of travel and what seemed like an endless traffic jam, we finally made it to the campsite at around quarter to 6 in the evening. We got the caravan set up, had dinner at the campsite's cafe and got ready for the first day of the show.

Thursday - The Moving Motor Show

We got up bright and early on Thursday, after hearing horror stories about the traffic getting into and out of Goodwood. Luckily, Thursday is one of the quieter days at Goodwood so we got in with no problem. After parking, we wandered over to the aviation exhibition (which was the way to the main gates), where a Lewis Hamilton look-alike was standing at an RAC trade stall. Of course, I posed for a photo before we continued in to the show. 

The first thing that we saw was the huge moving motor show area next to the start of the hillclimb. Inside was where manufacturers (including Ferrari, Mercedes, Fiat, Renault, Honda, Porsche and so many more) could show off their latest models. We had a look around, and so at 8:15 in the morning Dad and I got to sit in not one but two Rolls Royce cars - the Rolls Royce Phantom and Ghost! Now there's an opportunity that doesn't come along that often.

After wandering around the moving motor show for a while, we progressed on to the trade stands and the other manufacturer exhibitions outside. We walked past the Honda stand, where the BTCC car was on display. From there, we walked past Mercedes, which had loads of old and new models all together. The Lotus display was one of my favourites - mostly because they were showing off two Lotus-Renault F1 cars on the corner of their stand! When we went inside, Dad got chatting to a guy who worked for Lotus, hearing about the new technology and development that Lotus had conducted. That's one of the best things about Goodwood - you get a good chance to talk to other like-minded petrolheads without any restrictions. After looking over the Lotus cars, we moved on to the Renault display. Inside I saw my first Red Bull F1 car of the day! Of course, I ogled this car for quite some time before progressing to the other cars Renault were showing - some of them the very earliest models. One thing that did let me down in the Renault display was the showing of their latest electric car - the Twizy. This car honestly looks ridiculous, and throughout the rest of the day I must have seen hundreds being sent up the hillclimb - much to my distaste! All in all, I think I'd rather walk than get inside a Twizy... While browsing the stands, we came across a TVR Tuscan - one of my favourite cars, and one I intend to own some day. As with most exhibitors at the show, the guys at the stand were very welcoming and allowed me to sit in the Tuscan - yet another photo opportunity!

After more wandering around the stands, we headed over to the Goodwood Action Sports Arena; a place obviously for the daredevils among us. In this area, people who have no sense of danger launch their motorbikes and pushbikes over large jumps and perform stunts such as backflipsmotorsport!

From there, I caught eye of a large Red Bull logo, and of course I went over to investigate. It was the Red Bull Gridster's area; a place where people could compete in videogames to be crowned the virtual racing champion. In this area, we also saw another Red Bull F1 car (another photo opportunity of course), and the Gran Turismo car designed by the brainboxes at Red Bull as a "What if there were no restrictions" exercise. After staring at my beloved Red Bull F1 car once more, we then watched the hillclimb for a while.

On Thursday, the hillclimb is full of demonstration runs of the newest makes of car. While some manufacturers were showing off the big, shouty-engined supercars, others were demonstrating their electric models. I'm kind of against electric cars. While I understand the ethos of being eco-friendly, I must admit I like the sound of a noisy engine much more. That probably says a lot about my character, but there we go!

When we'd seen enough Renault Twizy cars than we could stomach, we wandered over to the F1 paddock. On the way, we saw the amazing Lotus sculpture outside Goodwood house. The reviews were right: the sculptures outside the house are really impressive! When we got to the paddock, we saw so many F1 cars that I thought I'd died and gone to petrolhead heaven! The contemporary F1 cars on display included Lotus, Caterham, McLaren, Red Bull and, somewhat to my surprise, Ferrari. We also saw F1 cars from every other era from teams including Williams, Ferrari, Tyrrel, Lotus and way too many more for me to list. We also saw other race cars from many disciplines, and even the odd supercar.

Once we'd been overloaded with racing cars, and after we'd watched the Ferrari F1 car being delivered, we headed over to the Cartier Style Et Luxe display to look at the luxury design icons of the car world. To our joy, there were even a couple of Land Rovers thrown in! Directly opposite this display was the supercar paddock - probably one of the most expensive areas of the show. In this area, we saw almost every type of supercar worth seeing, including two Bugatti Veyrons, the Red Bull Infiniti cars and Pagani cars for good measure. As well as the supercars, a third Red Bull F1 car was thrown in! See what I mean about petrolhead heaven?

You might think that by now we'd seen every possible display of cars, but oh no. We walked down from the supercar paddock over to the Cathedral Paddock, where more racing cars were being held before their attempt at the hillclimb on the coming days. We saw contemporary racers, as well as some lovely classics from the very early days of motorsport. It was great to see the evolution of racers, and it's a rare opportunity to see so many cars in the same space.

The day still wasn't over, and so from Cathedral Paddock we wandered back up through the F1 paddock and along the hillclimb to the rally stage. This was the only time we did this walk: let me tell you now that the hillclimb at Goodwood is LONG! On the other days we opted to take the tractor shuttle towards the rally stage - a wise decision I feel! However, once we did get up to the rally stage we were rewarded by being able to see loads of rally cars up close. Once we'd had our fill, we wandered back down the hill, through the F1 paddock one last time (where we saw Alain Prost, but at the time didn't register who it was!) and eventually headed back to the campsite absolutely exhausted!

Thursday photos:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Friday - Our First Stars

On Friday we got up a little later, mostly because of the tiredness from Thursday! Unfortunately, this meant that we caught the traffic and it took us an hour to travel four miles. Still, we managed to get into the circuit for 9:00, giving us plenty of time to look around. When we arrived, we saw the first lot of cars attempting the hillclimb in anger. Even though some people were attempting timed runs, those who were on the hill for show managed to perform some stunts to entertain those of us in the crowd. One person who was performing a timed run who managed to entertain us - Terry Grant, who attempted the hillclimb in reverse!

We managed to wander around most of the bottom section of the hillclimb, before we headed off to the F1 paddock for a second time. While we were in there, we saw a pre-war Mercedes being fired up. In stark contrast to the electric cars, this Mercedes sounded great - although most of the crowd jumped at the noise! As we were walking away Dad spotted an F1 star - Nick Heidfeld! Sadly, Nick disappeared into the crowd before we got a chance to get any autographs or photos, but it was cool to know that F1 stars were still wandering around, even on the main show days.

From the paddock, we headed up to the shuttle tractors to the rally stage. We had to wait a fair while, however eventually we got on to the tractor and up to the rally stage. When we were up there, we managed to catch a glimpse of the Red Arrows display - something which is always impressive. Once the air display was over, we walked into the rally stage to watch the rally cars in action. We walked around most of the outside of the stage, before heading back down the hill. As we were wandering out of the woods, a car crashed into a tree right behind us. This highlighted the dangers of the chalky surface in the stage, coupled with the rain we had on that day!

We watched the hillclimb as we walked back down the hill, seeing cars ranging from F1, endurance racing, touring cars, supercars and many more. I don't think I've seen so many cars from so many disciplines in one weekend.

As on Thursday, we wandered back through the F1 paddock before we set off to the campsite. When we were in there, I spotted Jerome D'Ambrosio by the Lotus truck! Just as he was setting off to the driver's club I managed to have my photo taken with him - the first F1 star I met over the weekend! 

After the final wander through the paddock, we went back to look at the Alain Prost display. In here, there were F1 cars that Prost had driven over his career, as well as photos documenting his career to date. What we weren't expecting to see was the man himself! I of course went over and managed to get my first autograph of the weekend. Smiles all round!

Friday Photos:

Part 1

Part 2

Saturday - Meeting My Hero

Now, I'll digress for a moment. As you're probably already aware, I'm a Vettel fan. Sebastian is my absolute hero, and I've been a fan of him for quite a long time. I love his attitude and approach to races, and it's something I have tried to incorporate into my academic career. On Saturday at Goodwood, Vettel was due to attend. As I mentioned at the start of the blog, I've never believed in the 'Never meet your heroes' phrase, and I was desperate to meet Seb in person for the first time. 

We left the campsite much earlier than Friday, something which paid off as we arrived before the gates had even opened! This gave us plenty of time to wander around the trade stands once again, where Dad bought me a Team Lotus backpack (my usual Land Rover bag had been killing my back, so I needed something a little more practical!). Once we'd looked around for quite some time, we headed over to the Red Bull Gridster's area. Seb wasn't due to arrive until 9:45 so, content in the knowledge that this was the place to meet Sebastian, we headed back over to the hillclimb to watch the pioneering cars set off from the start line. 

We stayed at the hillclimb for a while, but knowing what the crowds were like at Goodwood we wandered back over to the Gridsters area to ensure we got a good spot to have the best chance of meeting Sebastian. We arrived just in time, and I managed to get a good place right at the front of the crowd! After quite a wait, I spotted Sebastian standing in the VIP area of the Gristers stand. When Seb had completed his interviews, he headed over to the stage through the crowd. He signed loads of autographs - but walked straight past my Red Bull Haynes manual book! I worried a little that I wouldn't get my autograph after this, but I was still happy that I got to see Seb so close. We stayed for the whole event, during which Sebastian raced the current Gran Turismo champion and gave an interview. After this, I thought that Sebastian would simply head off to his next appointment, however to my joy he came back down to sign more autographs! I got my autograph (the smile was even bigger), and asked whether he'd mind if I had my photo with him. After a nervous second waiting for the answer, Seb replied 'Sure! Just let me sign these autographs and we can take it' - to my delight of course! Another worrying moment arrived though, as a member of Red Bull staff tried to pull him away to his next appointment. Luckily, Sebastian was lovely enough to still let me have a picture together, and he even waited to make sure the photo came out alright - what a guy! I have to say, by this point I was probably the happiest person alive, and Sebastian/Red Bull, if you're reading this, THANK YOU! You've made a motorsport geek very happy! After wishing Seb good luck for the rest of the season, we headed away from the Gridsters, mission accomplished and ready to enjoy the rest of the day.  

 

From this point (still with a large grin on my face) we headed back over to the hillclimb to watch the bikes and F1 cars. Of course, the riders and drivers were keen to impress the crowd, and we saw our fair share of wheelies and donuts - cue the tyre smoke! There really is nothing like the sound of an F1 car in front of you - it's something everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime.

 

 

By this time, it was around lunch and we were both pretty worn out from the wandering of the past few days, so we headed over by the Blackrock Driver's Club, where people were waiting for more autographs. I waited there for a while, not really expecting to meet anyone, but to my surprise Karun Chandhok came over! I managed to get another autograph, and then had a much needed sit down to rest for a while.

After resting, we once again watched the hillclimb. In between stages, we also saw a 'Jubilee moment' featuring cars which had at one time carried royalty. This was accompanied by canon fire, fireworks and the Irish Guards - quite a spectacle, even if you're not a royalist. Saturday also featured another air display - that of the Tornados. Again this was quite something, and honestly it was one of many moments when nobody knew what to look at!

Our final visit of the day was to my beloved F1 paddock, where the F1 cars were returning from their second runs. Vettel was the last F1 car in, and for the second time in my life a Red Bull F1 car performed a burnout two feet in front of me. It was worth the damage to my ears - thank you Sebastian!

Saturday Photos:
Part 1
Part 2

Sunday - The Rally Stage

On Sunday we decided to spend most of the day at the rally stage. The tractors weren't running when we arrived, so we investigated more of the trade stands. While we were browsing, we came across some wacky racers - both from the cartoon and some more innovative and realistic versions! We saw real-life versions of the cars from the Wacky Races cartoon, probably one of the TV series from my childhood that got me in to motorsport. We also saw cars made from a double bed and an office (where the steering wheel was actually a keyboard!). Honestly, we saw new things every day.

After we'd wandered for quite a while, we headed up to the rally stage. We managed to wander quite a way in to the stage, seeing the jumps and a load of sideways cars. As much as I love rallying, I'd never actually seen a rally stage in person. After watching it at Goodwood, I still think that if money were no object, I'd happily become a rally driver. 

When the stage had closed for lunch, we headed over to the top paddock, where the cars waited to descend back down the hill after their climb. The F1 cars had come back from their first run, and as we arrived we saw Nico Rosberg giving out autographs. We also heard from the commentators that Nick Heidfeld was up at the rally stage, after asking Skoda whether he could have a ride around. Of course, we didn't want to miss the opportunity to meet yet another F1 driver, so we wandered over to the rally cars. Nick didn't sign any autographs before heading out, but when he returned he happily posed for a photo and signed my programme - thanks Nick!

We had lunch after this, then wandered back over to the top paddock. At the time, it wasn't that full, so I managed to get a spot right next to the fence. This paid off, as the supercars came up next - with the Infiniti cars being driven by Mark Webber and Adrian Newey. I managed to get two photos with each, and my Red Bull Haynes manual gained two more signatures. So, once again Red Bull made my weekend!

We stood around there for a while longer, and watched the F1 cars come back up the hill. I have to say now, that I have never seen so many F1 cars doing donuts in my life. Mark Webber must have gone for the record, with at least seven consecutive spins around. You have to love a bit of showing off!

Once we'd watched the F1 cars for the last time, we headed back into the rally stage to watch some more sliding around and drifting cars. We walked through the stage to get back to the hillclimb before watching the top 20 cars competing for the fastest time up the hill. This was yet another moment when we didn't know where to look, as we could see the rally stage, hillclimb and racing buggies all at the same time! When we'd watched all of the cars, we walked back down the hill and watched the last cars of the day make their way around (including a great few stunts!). We eventually left at 7 after the curfew fell on the show, and headed back to our campsite. 

Sunday Photos:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

The End

So, all in all a fantastic weekend! One last thing to mention was that when we were leaving the campsite on Monday, we passed two Infiniti supercars - one of which was showing off the Red Bull logo. This was pretty cool in itself, but when I looked over to the other Infiniti I looked at who was in the passenger seat. It looked suspiciously like my hero - Sebastian. With that last moment of awe, we drove back home (a much less dramatic journey than getting there!). Same time next year?

I Take it Back

Every race I seem to say this, but the 2012 season keeps delivering the excitement. As you could probably tell from my previous blog post (and probably from one or two others last year), Valencia is typically my least favourite race of the season. It seems to be one of those races which I tend to watch just for the completeness of the season, rather than for any actual racing action. Honestly, I usually find Valencia boring - and I stand by this fact for previous years of this grand prix. However, yesterday I was forced to concede my opinion, as Valencia was actually interesting.

Red Bull approached the race with some fairly major upgrades - this came through in qualifying for Sebastian Vettel, who once again snatched pole position at the street circuit (this in turn meaning that Seb has equalled the career total pole positions of Jim Clark and Alain Prost - not bad for someone only five years older than me!). However, Mark Webber did not fare as well at Valencia: technical issues meant he left the Saturday session in Q1, qualifying 19th. All in all, qualifying was a fairly standard affair, with the only surprises including Maldonado gaining third position in the Williams, and the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa falling out at Q2 - something which clearly did not amuse the boss Luca di Montezemolo. Lotus seemed to have a great qualifying by contrast, and indeed many predicted that we may see a Lotus on the podium, or indeed winning. One final noteworthy performance in qualifying included Heikki Kovalainen's performance in the Caterham. Once again, Heikki made it through to Q2, and ended up ahead of both Toro Rosso cars - perhaps signalling that the Caterham team may soon edge closer to the points finishes.

So, with qualifying decided it was time for race day - and I have to confess that I was still sceptical of an exciting race. Questions were raised as to whether we'd see an eighth winner, or if not then who would be our first double winner of 2012. At the start of the race, Sebastian pulled his usual trick of streaking away into the distance (of course, prompting smiles from myself), pursued by Hamilton and Romain Grosjean. Fernando Alonso, despite an abysmal qualifying session, managed a fantastic start in the race, and was soon closing in on the top runners. For a while, the race ran without too much close action (Vettel having pulled out a 20 second lead over Grosjean), however Jean Eric Vergne changed all of that by crashing into Heikki Kovalainen (later leading to him having a 10 place grid drop for Silverstone and a 25,000 Euro fine), prompting the safety car to intervene while the officials cleared the track of debris. After a while behind the safety car, the restart ran as normal, with Vettel again leaving the other runners in the dust.

While it seemed as though Vettel had the race in the bag, disaster later struck as his RB8 suddenly lost drive owing to a failed alternator. For the first time, we saw Vettel showing his frustration as he threw his gloves while walking away from the stricken car. However, in later interviews Seb claimed that while he was disappointed at losing the race win, he was encouraged by the car's pace - hopefully something we'll see at Silverstone.

Alonso had great luck at the safety car restart, managing to pass Grosjean after passing Hamilton earlier in the race. So, with Vettel out of the race, Alonso took the lead. Grosjean pursued Alonso closely for a few laps, when his luck also ran out with the same alternator problem as Vettel. No doubt Renault will be receiving some questions from both Red Bull and Lotus this week! Hamilton thus took over in the podium positions, and looked set to bag a great number of points. However, a collision caused by Maldonado meant that he too was forced out of the race.

So, with the top runners retiring, who was left to occupy the final spots on the podium behind Alonso? Well, those who predicted Lotus would be on the podium were correct, with Kimi Raikkonen taking over second place. While both Alonso and Raikkonen had amazing drives, perhaps my driver of the weekend has to go to the third place man: Michael Schumacher. Words cannot describe how great it is to see Michael back on the podium, and back where he belongs. After the huge amount of bad luck he's had this season, no doubt Schumi will relish this position and look forward to more podiums.

A final driver of note has to be Mark Webber. After qualifying 19th, the race didn't look like a promising prospect. However, as ever, Mark managed to pull something out of the bag and drive through the field to eventually finish fourth. Hopefully next time out Mark will have a better qualifying session and will too end up on the podium.

So, there we go. I take it back: Valencia was exciting. While I'm still not 100% convinced that the European grand prix should be held at this particular circuit every year, 2012 did show that the track wasn't completely a lost cause.

If you've not seen the race yet, I of course urge you to watch it - or at least catch highlights. While you're at it, it will be worth watching the GP2 races held at Valencia. If anything, these races were even more exciting than the F1, and it's great to watch the future F1 stars at work.

This weekend I'm heading off to the Goodwood

The Checklist

Over the past few years I've attended a fair few motorsport events. Last year, I saw my first F1 race in Germany, and this year I'll be going to the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Belgian grand prix in Spa. Attending big events like this is a must for anyone who is into motosport, and so I've been thinking of writing out a list of events which are a must for petrolheads of all kinds. Most of these are my personal choices, although a few friends and family have suggested events to include. If you're reading this and think of any others that belong on this list, drop me a message on Twitter.

Formula 1

First up, I'll start with my personal favourite: F1. If you follow F1 regularly, you probably understand the ins and outs of the sport. However, there are some things that you simply don't get unless you attend a race in person. When I went to the Nurburgring last year, I was hit by the sound. Yes, you know that F1 is loud, but until you actually go you don't appreciate how loud the cars actually are. Now when I watch F1 on TV, all I can think of is that we're getting an impression of how the cars sound only. If you think back to 2011, there was also the issue of the off-throttle blown diffusers, which caused an odd noise when the drivers lifted off the accelerator. This was one of the most surprising things when I attended the Nurburgring: the noise was nothing like on the television, and was incredibly loud! So, if you like the noise of a car, you have to go to an F1 race.

The second reason why you should attend F1 is for the atmosphere. With many sporting events, you gain a sense of community and motorsport is no different. I often discuss races with other like-minded petrolheads on Twitter for example. When you go to a race, you actually feel the sense of community. At the Nurburgring, we got to chat with the others around us (of course, with friendly banter between me and the Hamilton fans!), and could feel the atmosphere generated by large numbers of people with a common interest and understanding. This is something that I would highly recommend experiencing at least once in a lifetime.

Finally, in attending an F1 race you get to experience the history of the sport. Legendary tracks such as Spa, the Nurburgring and Silverstone allow you to get more of a feel for the sport than you would if you simply watched a race on television. While not all circuits are accessible to all people due to distance and cost, if you plan a trip well I'm sure that most will get to visit an historic race track for a high profile event such as F1. The Nurburgring was an amazing experience, and hopefully Spa will be just as great as well. I can't imagine that watching an F1 car at Eau Rouge is anything less than amazing!

More information: http://www.formula1.com/

Le Mans

This weekend sees the annual Le Mans 24 hour race. If you're on Twitter, you'll have noticed how this motorsport event has completely taken over the most talked about topics, giving you a hint of how popular this event is. I've never actually attended Le Mans myself, but it's on my list of things to do in the next couple of years. It seems as though this event is another one with a fantastic atmosphere - and with 24 hours of racing you're sure to get your money's worth!

More information: http://www.lemans.org/en/

Bathurst 1000

The Bathurst 1000 comes in as a suggestion from Brenton Holden (Twitter: @Bjholden1). The event is a 1000 kilometer touring car race taking place in Australia, and regarded as one of the most spectacular motorsport races. The cars themselves are V8 supercars - so again if you like the noise of a car, you should probably put this one on the list! Another epic, which is definitely worth watching if you're lucky enough to be in Australia!

More information: http://www.bathurst1000.com.au/

Motorsport Shows

Next up on my list is attending big motorsport shows. I've attended loads of these in the past couple of years, from Top Gear Live to Autosport to the Festival of Speed in a few weeks. At events like these, you get a chance to be up close to the cars, and if you're lucky to the people who drive them. While nothing really compares to watching racing in person, if you're interested in seeing the cars up close then you should attend a motorsport show. 

Top Gear Live was one of the first motorsport shows that I attended. The main focus of this event is supercars, although at the first show there was an awesome classic car display too. There are a lot of stands there where you can buy pretty much anything and everything to do with cars, although if you're buying stuff be prepared for a spending spree! The other feature of Top Gear Live is the show itself. Presented like the BBC series of the same name, you get to watch Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond playing around with cars. Expect lots of fireworks, stunts and general entertainment. 

More information: http://www.topgearlive.co.uk/

The Autosport International show is another great one to attend. Dad and I have visited this event in the past two years, and every year there's loads to see. The focus of this show is more motorsportAutosport has its own live show, based on Fifth Gear. In this show, we get to see demos of various race disciplines, as well as the ever popular stunts. Definitely one to attend if you like your racing!

More information: http://www.autosportinternational.com/

One of the clear greats in motorsport shows is the Goodwood Festival of Speed. I've wanted to attend this one for a few years now, and this year I'm finally getting my chance to go! This event is a whole weekend of action, with a moving motorsport show on Thursday, followed by the chance to see a whole load of racing cars and supercars in action on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This is one of few events where most F1 teams are in attendance, and you really get a chance to meet drivers from pretty much every discipline of racing. Of course, you can expect to see me blogging about the show when I return - only a week and a half before I will be in attendance!

More information: http://www.goodwood.co.uk/festival-of-speed/welcome.aspx

Live Racing at Local Circuits

Of course, if you're into motorsport you probably don't need me to tell you that you should go and watch live racing at every opportunity. While big events such as F1, Le Mans and so on may be expensive and require long trips, watching club events at circuits close to you is a great way of getting involved. I'm lucky enough to live not too far from Brands Hatch, and so whenever we can we go and watch the racing. Some notable events that I've attended at Brands include the DTM, the BTCC and the Historic Master's Festival. Unlike larger events, attending races at local circuits gives you much better access to the cars. At Brands for example you get to go on pit walks, and the paddock is almost always open. The prices are often lower than for massive events, so this is a fantastic way to get close to the racing! Of course, it's up to you what you consider a local circuit, but it's worth looking around to see what you have on your doorstep.

More information: http://www.motorsportvision.co.uk/

This is by no means an exhaustive list of motorsport events to attend, but rather it's a selection of events that I consider to be absolute musts. Overall, if you're a fan of motorsport the best thing is to simply get involved in anything that you can. Of course, motorsport is often expensive, but even if you can't compete you can still be involved through spectating or even marshalling at events! As I said earlier, if anyone has any other suggestions of what should be featured on this list feel free to let me know. Also, expect lengthy updates when I check off more items on this list - next stop, Goodwood!

The Trend Continues

A while ago, Jenson Button was quoted as saying that he didn't think the fact that the first six races of the season brought six different winners was a good thing. In fact, Jenson believed that having such variability was off-putting to us fans. Well, he'd be disappointed with the race we saw in Canada - a race that brought us our seventh different winner of seven different races!

Canada is always an interesting circuit. The infamous 'wall of champions' on the main straight has claimed many victims over the year - last year catching out Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in the final practice session. Luckily last year this didn't seem to affect Seb too much, as he went on to grab pole position. This year, it was Heikki Kovalainen who suffered during the practices, although this incident happened on Friday practice, and sadly didn't lead to a Caterham pole! Pastor Maldonado however was caught by the wall during qualifying, and although he did his best to try and complete his lap with only three wheels, this was clearly a strategy that didn't pay off.

I think we can say that we had a pretty exciting qualifying session overall. It was a genuine mystery as to who would grab pole position. Red Bull had earlier suffered controversy once again over the holes in their car. Last race, a hole in the floor at the rear of the car was controversial, and between the races was deemed illegal - even though Red Bull had previously asked for clarification and were deemed legal. F1 in the last few years is a bit notorious for its sudden changes of mind on aerodynamics (in fact, I'd argue that this is perhaps the more off-putting to fans, rather than having different winners). So, in Canada another controversy arose with the Red Bull holes. This time, holes in the hub were deemed illegal for providing an aerodynamic advantage, and had to be changed before qualifying on Saturday - but whether this would disadvantage the drivers is another story.

Hamilton was perhaps one of the more favourited drivers for pole position in Canada - the circuit which granted him his first win. Q1 saw the Caterhams of Petrov and Kovalainen out-qualify the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne - quite an achievement for the team! Q2 was fairly straightforward, with the usual suspects (McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, the Lotus of Grosjean and the Force India of Paul di Resta) making it through to Q3. So, with the final part of quali to go, we were still no closer to understanding who would be on pole. Vettel set an early time in the low 1:14s, and took pole. However, the McLaren of Hamilton was still in with a good shot, as was the Ferrari of Alonso. Button seemed to opt for a race-strategy, choosing the soft (rather than super-soft) tyres, leading to him finishing in 10th. With the first runs out of the way, the leaders came back out for their final qualifying lap and we got our answer of who was fastest. While fantastic times were set by Alonso and Hamilton, Vettel took his 33rd pole of his career, with a 1:13.7! So, despite the controversy of their car, it looked as though Red Bull had the advantage in Canada.

Race day was another exciting affair - something we're all getting quite used to now. In the early stages of the race, Vettel did his usual trick of flying off into the distance at the start. However, he was swiftly followed by Hamilton and Alonso. When the first round of pit stops came up, there was a lot of switching around at the front. Hamilton took the lead after Vettel pitted, only to be replaced by Alonso after his own pit stop. With the top three still Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel, we could expect a fair amount of close racing. However, the leaders tended to bide their time during the second stint -possibly waiting for clues on each others' strategies. Tyre degradation was such that Hamilton was forced to make a second stop, although on the team radio he did ask whether Alonso and Vettel would also take second stops. As he was assured of the second stops of his rivals, Hamilton pitted. However, it seemed that Alonso and Vettel did not want to stop, having gained the advantage over Hamilton at last.

With this fact in mind, the team were back on the radio to Lewis and asked him to push as much as he could. Of course, the circuit of Montreal is much more suited to the McLaren of Lewis than it is to the Red Bull of Sebastian, and with much fresher tyres the move on Vettel was easily made. This prompted Vettel to pit himself, and eventually Sebastian finished the race in fourth place. With Vettel out of the way, Hamilton only had to pass Alonso - often easier said than done. However, the gamble of Ferrari to only one-stop did not pay off, and the pass was easily done with the aid of newer tyres and DRS. Hamilton thus became our seventh winner.

Things went from bad to worse for Alonso however, as due to his crippled tyres he was passed not only by Hamilton, but by Lotus's Grosjean and Sauber's Perez - people who had otherwise had fairly uneventful races! Now that Vettel was also on fresher tyres, Alonso was easily passed by the Red Bull, and Alonso eventually finished fifth. All of this in the final five laps of the race!

Someone else who has been suffering with a bout of bad luck is Michael Schumacher. Although he managed to qualify in the top 10 once again, SchumacherDRS failed in the open position - something which isn't meant to happen at all! I'm really hoping that Schumi's luck starts to pick up, as he has been showing more promise lately after his pole position a few races back.

Massa was driving an amazing race at the start, however a spin on lap six meant that his amazing form wasn't continued into a higher result. He did, however, recover from his spin to finish 10th. It seems as though Massa is having a second chance at the season, and hopefully we'll see more improvements from him as the season goes on.

So, overall another fantastic race. The next time out is at Valencia - surprisingly one of the races I rarely look forward to, largely because nothing ever really happens. However, the way the season's been going we could see a change in this trend, and maybe we'll end up with an eighth winner! The week after Valencia I am also happy to report that I will be attending the Goodwood Festival of Speed! So, expect a very long update when I return.

Motorsport, or: How to Survive the Thought of Six Exams

I'm at the end of my penultimate week of my second term of my second year of university. In this time, I've had a hell of a lot of ups and downs and a phenomenal amount of coursework and revision. Over the past couple of weeks, it's been pretty intensive. We've had written coursework, as well as exams crammed into the last two weeks. It's honestly felt that I've had no life outside of university. So, how do I still have a shred of sanity left? The answer: Motorsport.

I have to admit that in the week before the first F1 race in Australia I was going completely mad. I was writing up an essay for cognitive psychology, I was working on another essay for social psychology and I was writing a practical report for statistics. I was also revising for the two exams, and trying to plan my revision for the summer exams. The only thing that kept me from going mad was the thought of having a weekend off at home watching the race. I also think that the F1 race helped me massively with my organisation, and consequently I'm now finished with all of my coursework for the year. I know it seems incredibly random, but the reason for this is simply that to justify having my F1 weekends off, I had to finish my work early.

So, now that my coursework's over, I'm looking towards the six summer exams. It's going to be pretty intensive over April and May, but I'm not worried at all and I have a huge motivator. Namely, that in the summer my Dad and I will be going to the Grand Prix in Spa, as well as the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Having motivators like this is a huge help I find. If I don't have anything to look forward to in the summer, the work seems kind of wearing and drags along. However, because of the thought of these trips I know I'm going to increase my preparation and work especially hard, just because it feels as though I'm working towards my holiday and my motorsport trips. Of course, the race weekends over this time will be of massive help, so that I actually remember to have some time off and relax a little. If I didn't have those weekends then I know I would just work almost 24/7 and end up more stressed and wound up than Massa when he's being told to let Alonso past...

With this in mind, let me give you an overview of the trips Dad and I will be taking this year. Firstly, we'll be going to the Goodwood Festival of Speed at the end of June and start of July. I've wanted to go to this for the past couple of years, but financial constraints have often been a bit of a barrier to this. However this year the festival have introduced a young person's ticket, which is half price of a full adult ticket. So, if you're under 21 and can prove this then you're allowed this cheaper entry. A big attraction of this festival is the sheer proximity to the cars and drivers. At other shows and events like Autosport or even F1 weekends you're fairly closed off from the cars and drivers, however at Goodwood everything's made more accessible and you are allowed just a bit closer to the elite world of motorsport. This is a particular attraction for me this year, as Red Bull Racing will be in attendance with both drivers of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, as well as Christian Horner and Adrian Newey. Hopefully soon we'll get the tickets booked up, and you can definitely expect an update when I've been to the race!

The second big trip this year is another F1 weekend away. Last year, Dad and I went to the Nurburgring to watch the German Grand Prix. It was the most amazing weekend I've ever had, and it still brings a smile to my face to remember it, and honestly I don't think you can have a more vivid memory than standing next to the circuit's fence with Schumacher's Mercedes passing by you at eye level! This year, we're heading to Spa Francorchamps, one of the most iconic races on the calendar. I booked the tickets last week, and we've got access to most of the circuit. We've also got camping booked, so we'll be staying just outside the circuit itself. If the atmosphere at the Nurburgring was anything to go by, it should be another amazing weekend!

So now that I've given you an overview of where we're going and what we're doing, it should give you a bit more of an idea why motorsport is such an important feature in my life. University work is hard, I don't care what anyone says. To some people, having nights out in clubs or bars is what they do to relax and (possibly) motivate themselves. Personally, I don't go anywhere near the archetypal student stuff. Instead, my motivation and relaxation comes from watching cars zoom round circuits, or occasionally driving in off road competitions myself. When I go on big trips to F1 races or to shows like Goodwood, it reminds me that the work I did throughout the year was worth the effort, just to get to this break. Hopefully there will be many more trips in the future!