[WEC] 2019 Silverstone WEC, Who is Going/Who Went...?

[GT6]

Originally Posted by eps

Yep, will be there for 3 days Can't wait to see some of the new cars on track and up close!

@Truckosaurus won't be going as he's a lamer

No Guy, this year? what has he done

[Greem]

I'll be there Saturday and Sunday, either waving flags at cars or wandering round a bit with a clipboard. Hopefully I won't get given the track limits bingo board this year!

[Truckosaurus]

Originally Posted by GT6

No Guy, this year? what has he done

The change in date to September confused me and I made alternative arrangements for this weekend.


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[GT6]

OK just leaving home so see you all there sometime over the weekend.
Simon

[B0U170NS]

Had a great time at Silverstone today, even though I was only there in the afternoon for 3 and half hours. For the first time I managed to get around the whole of the outside of the track - I've never watched from copse to club before and it was definitely worth it! I can't understand how some people spend the whole day at luffield with their cameras?

[Anyopenroad]

Originally Posted by B0U170NS

I can't understand how some people spend the whole day at luffield with their cameras?

Luffield is a great place to get photos - several angles, cars are slow, can shoot over the fence. If I only had an hour, I'd spend it there.

But yes, there are other good places to view and photograph from all around the circuit. The great thing about this weekend is that some of the best grandstands - Club, Becketts, Abbey - are open, have unallocated seating and aren't busy.

[JoeW04]

Enjoyed today walking round the perimeter of the circuit with a long in the paddock on the way round, probably the best day value wise only being £15 for a full day of action where as Sunday is £45 for just Carrera Cup race & a 4 hour WEC

FWIW they have left a bench near vale which you can stand on and look over the fence, spent most the first session there this morning

[hoffman66]

Any

There were not a lot of stands open today actually. But fair play, they ran the buses all day. Thogh I did not use them, bloody phone walk app was in overdrive!!

[eps]

Originally Posted by JoeW04

Enjoyed today walking round the perimeter of the circuit with a long in the paddock on the way round, probably the best day value wise only being £15 for a full day of action where as Sunday is £45 for just Carrera Cup race & a 4 hour WEC

FWIW they have left a bench near vale which you can stand on and look over the fence, spent most the first session there this morning

Thanks for the FYI about the bench I tend to get the 3 day ticket, but we're only 25 minutes away from Silverstone

I do like Club and then the Loop.. but any unhindered view of the track is usually good

[eps]

Originally Posted by Truckosaurus

The change in date to September confused me and I made alternative arrangements for this weekend.


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It's August at the moment BTW... #lamer

[Greem]

I'm one of the flaggies at the exit of Copse. If you're passing, do say hello

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Greem

I'm one of the flaggies at the exit of Copse. If you're passing, do say hello

I hope your waterproofs are good.

[Greem]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

I hope your waterproofs are good.

Pah. That was just a sprinkle.

But yes, they are

[Aysedasi]

The non-sun wasn't so bad. We were standing in front of the disabled G/S at Club (as no G/Ss were open at Club) and we were shielded from it, but it didn't last long. The forecast seems to be for no non-sun today.....

[Alfaholic]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

The non-sun wasn't so bad. We were standing in front of the disabled G/S at Club (as no G/Ss were open at Club) and we were shielded from it, but it didn't last long. The forecast seems to be for no non-sun today.....

I did something similar at Copse on Saturday - the (closed) grandstand provided enough of a shield from the rain, but I could still get a good view of the track.

As for the last part - how wrong you were. Walking down the Wellington Straight I'd seen the shower coming towards Luffield and tracked it on a weather radar app, so got to the Woodcote grandstand in good time

[Greem]

We had plenty of time at Copse to prepare for the non sun. It arrived at Club first then tracked diagonally across the circuit to us.

I changed to full wets with about 10 minutes to spare

[Adam43]

Were your colleagues at club snot so lucky?!

[GT6]

Well great weekend, meet most of those i expected at the circuit over the 3 days, racing was good although as stated a little lacking in actual races, however plenty of action in all three, porkies, elms and wec. Most give a thumbs up to the vintage wall of death show in the fan zone, brilliant and to see a vintage set up with all the shaking and noise as 1920's indian scouts ran feet from you was amazing. Weather was kind the guys in the white vans were brilliant on friday and saturday taking us about although on sunday the same vans just stat around and were not prepared to do anything. Hope everyone who attended also had as good a time

[eps]

Originally Posted by GT6

Well great weekend, meet most of those i expected at the circuit over the 3 days, racing was good although as stated a little lacking in actual races, however plenty of action in all three, porkies, elms and wec. Most give a thumbs up to the vintage wall of death show in the fan zone, brilliant and to see a vintage set up with all the shaking and noise as 1920's indian scouts ran feet from you was amazing. Weather was kind the guys in the white vans were brilliant on friday and saturday taking us about although on sunday the same vans just stat around and were not prepared to do anything. Hope everyone who attended also had as good a time

Definitely a great weekend, although I somehow missed seeing you Simon, sorry! I did bump into a few of the usual crowd though I had my youngest in tow and a friend of mine with his two youngest and they struggled slightly in terms of interest - so I managed to miss quite a bit of the racing, but did do quite a bit of the fanzone stuff which was interesting and all free! :O So in that sense it was a very relaxed race meeting for me. We did see most of the WEC race and quite a bit of the ELMS race but I missed large chunks of the early sessions.. We were lucky enough to get ELMS paddock passes which seemed a bit of an anachronism but they were via G Drive and JEV (my eldest son entered an instagram competition and won them on the Friday - he was very stoked!) and so we gained access to their garage and the grid walk! I'll post some photos later on today.

A great season opener but a real shame that Ginetta seem to be behind the curve again - especially after all the pre-race bluster that was posted and their big push for 'fan access' and doing it for the fans. Although they did seem to find their feet around 2/3 way through the race. They ended up with one decent position at the end of the race but it could have been so much more. They need to be quick to keep the Rebellions honest.

All the LMP1 cars were so quick through the corners but the Toyotas just seem to defy the laws of physics!! They seemed happy to overtake round the outside or inside of other cars on track.

Now I feel that I should be trying to go to other rounds of the WEC, but work might get in the way of that...

[Le Vieux]

Yes, a good day yesterday, although I left with an overall feeling of having been cheated - only four hours and it seemed as though the race ended when it was only two-thirds of the way through. I didn't expect to miss the extra two hours, but I did.

Precipitation - barely significant and it wouldn't be Silverstone without a little of the wet stuff and/or wind.

Didn't see anyone - a lthough I think I spotted Andrew at around 2.30 at the picnic tables on the approach to Luffield. That hat's a giveaway!

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Really enjoyed the weekend, in particular the end (last 45 minutes or so) of the ELMS race where we stood at the gate on the rx track side of the Loop, plus the Sunday Porsche race on the outside of Stowe. Dan Harper had bags of pace and was great watching him come back through the field...both times!! Acceleration of Toyotas is mind boggling, plus how flat they can corner and deal with traffic.

My second visit to Silverstone and both times I've been glad of having a bike to get around as much of the track as possible without having to wait for shuttle buses. In particular was glad in the WEC race as enabled us to make a quick break from Becketts (where the stand was closed?) up to Woodcote. Dragging the beer trailer around was hardwork into a head wind though, think I may need to investigate hybrid assist!

One frustrating thing is the stands they have open vs where the screens are. Why open the one they did at Woodcote instead of Luffield? Was difficult to make out much of what was on the screen, even at the right hand end of the stand.

[Aysedasi]

Well, I had a very enjoyable weekend, mostly in the company of Bentley03, but also with some other friends whose itineries didn't always match with ours. Generally lucky with the weather (actually got a bit burnt on Friday). Spent a surprising amount of time in the very pleasant little disabled viewing stand overlooking the end of the Vale/entrance to Club (as the Club grandstands weren't open until Sunday (and then I think only a small part of them). Managed to avoid Saturday's ELMS non-sun by keeping our backs to the front of that G/S and Sunday's non-sun by nipping into Woodcote G/S.

I still love Silverstone (I know many don't) but they really need to up their game and think about the fans. There were no food or drink vendors at all apart from near the car park entrance and at the Wing for most of the weekend. There was finally a (much in demand) vendor at Woodcote and another just round the corner at Luffield on Sunday (great chips) and another vendor who we thought was going to save our bacon (literally) at Becketts on Sunday drove off and we found them eventually repositioned at Club where there had been nothing on Friday and Saturday. It seems that Silverstone have no real understanding of fans not wanting to spend all their time at the Wing in the 'fanzone'....

Talking of Becketts, the stand was open there for ELMS on Saturday but closed on Sunday. Having walked all the way round specially for what is the best view anywhere (in terms of what you can see from there), finding it closed on Sunday at the start of the WEC race when it was billed as being open was a bitter pill. I messaged Silverstone and got a reply this morning apologising but giving no explanation.

And where did the big screen at Club go? (Or did it disappear last year - I can't remember).

And a 4 hour race? As I left I also felt cheated - as if I was leaving early. For 24 Hour diehards it felt like it was over before it had barely started. Disappointing.

So overall, an entertaining weekend with friends and with very good curry on Friday and Saturday night. But hoping for better from the FIA/WEC and Silverstone next year.

Oh and Greem - I should have read your post more carefully - we must have walked past you at least twice during the weekend....

[Anyopenroad]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

But hoping for better from the FIA/WEC and Silverstone next year.

I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a next year for Silverstone and WEC.

Sunday felt like everyone just going through the motions. We know ACO didn't want to be there and the 4-hour thing feels like pure petulance om their part. I very much doubt Silverstone were thrilled with having two hours cut off on Sunday with no additional support races and I suspect they couldn't cut the ticket prices because their costs for the weekend are exactly the same for a 4-hour or a 6-hour race.

Club being closed on Saturday and Becketts on Sunday, contrary to what had been promised, is just petty penny-pinching. Silverstone take a very risk-averse approach to health & safety rules and believe they need staff in every open grandstand and (presumably) additional insurance they (or WEC) aren't willing to pay for. They ensured that the stands along the start/finish straight were full for the ceremonies though, which makes the TV pictures look good.

The whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth tbh.

[SnoodyMcFlude]

I wouldn't be surprised if having people to 'man the stands' is a requirement of their insurance cover. What surprised me was the stands they chose to have open, e.g Becketts being open on Saturday but not Sunday.

I wouldn't say it left a sour taste, there was still a good amount of track action over the weekend, made it tricky to decide when to do the 'non-track' stuff like wandering the paddock etc. The main down time was yesterday after the Porsche race, but that was a perfect time to head back and drop the tent.

In amongst all the comments on getting less value for money on the 4hr race, I'm surprised more people don't mention the very expensive camping, especially with a number of the showers not working and toilets not being kept overly clean (in particular the 's**t explosion' cubicle yesterday morning

[Aysedasi]

They had staff (one man) in the whole of the Becketts G/S on Saturday..... so why not Sunday? (and he was only watching in case anyone lit up a fag).

I didn't camp and my TL room was booked 10 months ago so was pretty cheap.... Suited me.