Gold Cup - minutes silence

[O'Schumacher]

I had the pleasure of attending the wonderful Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park over the bank holiday weekend, but one thing appalled me.

Commentators Mike Cookson & David Addison made several announcements that a 1 minute silence would be held as a mark of respect to Holly Wells & Jessica Chapman, but despite these very public announcements, the silence was APPALLINGLY observed.

I'm not critisising everyone. The Marshalls were especially poignant as they bowed their heads in tandem, but in the paddock, the noise was comming from many of the rich playboy car owners who clearly don't give a damn, and can't even observe a single minute of solice.

It put a dampner on the whole weekend.

[bolide]

I think you'll find that all the drivers - and particularly the rich playboys, if there were any - would have been as quiet as anyone else, had they been able to hear the commentator. It was impossible to hear anything in the paddock as most of it has no PA speakers

The HSCC has possibly the most friendly and generous racers you'll ever meet, and many, many of them had their children with them. Had they known there was to be a minutes silence - and there was nothing in the timetable or instructions to that effect - I'm sure they would have been the first to fall silent

A similar thing happened at Angouleme last year and it likewise left a nasty taste in my mouth. The organisers there, though, recognised the problem and called for a second minutes silence (for September 11th) when they realised that many hadn't heard the original call. The ensuing silence was quite chilling, and very moving


Nick Froome
www.bolide.co.uk

[TimD]

Remembering the layout of Oulton Park, that certainly does ring true. In my experience, competitors, especially privateers, are very responsive to requests to observe official silences.

I recall last year in the paddock for the Goodwood Revival, three days after September 11th, you could have heard a pin drop during the remembrances.

However, I did recall the complete disregard for the silence requested for Her Majesty the Queen Mother at Brands Hatch earlier this year amongst the members of certain single-seater teams. In this case, those individuals really had no excuse, as they were lined up in the paddock area near Hawthorns, and thus close to the Paddock Hill loudspeakers.

[O'Schumacher]

I'm not critising either of you two, or the historic racers as a whole, but I know what I heard and saw, and they were wearing racing overalls, and it was in the paddock right next to the pit garages.

[calcium]

Totally different at Cadwell Park (British Superbikes) There were thousands of people there and the place fell so quiet, it was very upsetting and brought it home to me that it had really effected everyone in the country.