Donington Superstars-dinner break, what dinner break

[Slipstick]

Originally Posted by thepits!

Exactly, we do it because we enjoy it.

Those that don't enjoy their hobby please go away and do your moaning elsewhere

I do enjoy my hobby. Which is marshalling at places and for clubs where marshals aren't treated like something the cat dragged in .

E.g. good day at Oulton. Good grids, good racing, a lunch break and a curfew that concentrates organisers minds so we finish at a sensible time. It can be done .

Steve

[Greem]

Well, that was a hell of a day (with a lunch break).

I've put the red out today more than I have all season put together. I've dressed more oil today than I have in two seasons (from post 39 to the end of the pit wall), and we had it easy!

Auto GP cars in tyre walls, inverted Legends, GT cars beached on kerbs or in gravel, Superstars cars breaking down and stopping in silly places, CNC Heads cars on fire in the pits... All in all it was a busy day round Donington today.

And we're all back for more tomorrow, right?

[M Greenslade]

Originally Posted by David Owen

Cadwell Park = Lunch break

That is all.

Excellent David, that is why us Southern Softies travel so far and long may it continue, here is an example, a positive example of voting with your feet. See you for the 750MC meeting......can't wait, one of the highlights of the year.

Bladders...

[Johansen2000]

Well, that's the day done! A pretty good day if u take out the gt's!!

As for the lunch break matter... The time table ran to time and the gaps before the superstar events were so long u could have taken 4 lunch breaks on a normal club meeting!

Oh and the bacon roll was great!! :-)

[grantp]

No Stamins you lot.

The Zoo Festival Disco thing drummer stills seems to be going strong after 3 days of almost 24 hours each day. Some stamina! Respect!

Mind you the selection of people I passed heading in and out of the village (I assume they were Zoo people rather than racing people) did look young enough to stand the pace. Battle of Britain fighter pilot age mostly I would guess.





Watched the MotoGP3 race this afternoon. 2nd and 3rd on the podium too young to be allowed to spray alcolholic beverage but behaved impeccably when interviewed. Makes you think. Especially as the majority of the riders on all podiums seemed to be from Spain.

[lynxlad]

as david said Cadwell pit-lane lunch

[Dave Brand]

Originally Posted by Greem

CNC Heads cars on fire in the pits...

Whose car was it?

[Greem]

Originally Posted by Dave Brand

Whose car was it?

Good question! My programme is at home and I can't find an entry list online.

So far as I recall, it was red, and I *think* it was a Volvo underneath the skin. It wasn't a problem for long as it came back out for race 2.

[Greem]

Originally Posted by grantp

No Stamins you lot.

Are they legal?

[Greem]

Sunday, it turned out, was just as good as Saturday *if* (as James mentioned above) you ignore the 8 and a quarter car entry for the GTSprint series. I say "a quarter" as the Giudici Ginetta only ran until he was about to get lapped and retired in both races. They weren't the most enthralling of hours, either of them, although it was quite good fun seeing the difference between the Pro & Am/Gentlemen drivers in the cars that ran with two. Richard Westbrook was blisteringly quick as you'd expect; his partner rather less so.

The Legends were entertaining as they always are - three action-filled races with loads of position changes, if a little rumbustious towards the end of race three.

The two AutoGP races were brilliant (from my vantage point on post 39). Really, really quick - 1m17s on the GP circuit - and really, really, REALLY loud. Great to see Karthikeyan take a well-deserved victory in race 2 after romping away at the start.

The HRDC Allstars manages to put on a massive grid - 32 or 34 cars of all shapes and sizes, providing some good dicing and great cornering. Shame that the Mustang lost a wheel and ended up in the Redgate trap though.

And then there were the Superstars themselves. Oil galore round the Melbourne hairpin, one car (the Camaro) taken out on the start/finish line after biffing the attacker up the rear round Goddard's. I glanced at my pad to write the numbers down of the initial biff, and then looked up to see the Camaro going sideways on the grass!

Still, before race 2 Siri (the driver of the Camaro) despite having no car came out to sit on the grid and do a full pre-race procedure. With a steering wheel. And nothing else. The team cleared his visor, tightened his nuts (yes, those ones) and much laughter was had. It certainly made light of a potentially awkward situation.

So yes, it was two long days; yes it had a series racing that should really have had double or triple the entrants; no, we didn't get a formal lunch break on Sunday. But it was a good weekend - and the quietest weekend several of us could remember at Goddard's - the guys over in the Cage at 38 had only a single pull-off to deal with all weekend!

[deadsquirrel]

Thanks to the crew on post 29 both days, it was enjoyable spending time together through some pretty tedious GT Sprint sessions.

We dealt with a violently ill Superstar car (it was relieving itself of most fluids) and my trainee marshal got to drive it (I swear he dumped the clutch on purpose to see if it would start!) back to the pits, despite only confessing to not having passed his test when firmly ensconsed in the car!

The much vaunted lack of lunchbreak wasn't actually a big issue in the end, we did have 15-20 minute gaps during pre-race / tv catchup but it wasn't always clear when these would be.

I hope Donington didn't pay for Superstars to visit - and if they did, I hope they ask for their money back. When the whole program talks about cars that aren't attending, it makes a mockery of us all.

Thanks to Chris Hobson for taking time to visit us on post, appreciate stewards doing that!

Oh, and full marks to the Legends, legendary races every time they came out, showboating on their slow down laps, waving to us all, and amazing feats of car control to race hard, but largely fairly, avoiding what would be easy contact incidents. Well done!

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Greem

Are they legal?

No idea. What is and isn't legal seems to change daily on a whim these days. Along with which of my fingers decides to tap which key on the keyboard and in what order.

[grantp]

So much for the racing - what about the Disco stuff? Did you all enjoy that? I fear they may have been too far from the campsite for most of its residents to have the energy to go and visit.

3 days and nights and they were still going strong well into last night ... especially that drummer ...

[thepits!]

I'm glad you had an enjoyable week-end, which after all is the main point

Originally Posted by deadsquirrel

The much vaunted lack of lunchbreak wasn't actually a big issue in the end, we did have 15-20 minute gaps during pre-race / tv catchup but it wasn't always clear when these would be.

At least you had time for a pie

Originally Posted by deadsquirrel

Thanks to Chris Hobson for taking time to visit us on post, appreciate stewards doing that!

It obviously wasn't raining then?

[kipper]

Originally Posted by deadsquirrel

When the whole program talks about cars that aren't attending, it makes a mockery of us all.

When the series organisers resort to entering the safety car driver in an imaginary car in order to meet obligations as to the number of entrants, you know there are one or two issues.

[Chigley]

Thanks to Chris Hobson for taking time to visit us on post, appreciate stewards doing that!

Did anyone bend his ear about the stupid new flag consultation ideas.

[JimW]

Originally Posted by grantp

So much for the racing - what about the Disco stuff? Did you all enjoy that? I fear they may have been too far from the campsite for most of its residents to have the energy to go and visit.

3 days and nights and they were still going strong well into last night ... especially that drummer ...

Our doctor was going to go on Sunday night!

Jim

[Terrible-Tones]

Originally Posted by kipper

When the series organisers resort to entering the safety car driver in an imaginary car in order to meet obligations as to the number of entrants, you know there are one or two issues.

Yeah, Nina had to report him for starting out of position....