24hr 2016

[88racing]

I've signed up to race in this in one of two Rogue Motorsport Toyota GT86s. My first 24 hour, first night racing, first time racing a GT86.
http://88racing.co.uk/24-hours-of-silverstone-for-...

Timetable is now on the website:
http://www.24hseries.com/24h-silverstone/time-sche...

Chris.

[Jon280]

Anyone got any info on how or when I can get tickets for spectating this event. Never been to a Creventic organised race, and can't see anything obvious on either their or Silverstone website.

[Stuart Thompson]

88racing said:

I've signed up to race in this in one of two Rogue Motorsport Toyota GT86s. My first 24 hour, first night racing, first time racing a GT86.
http://88racing.co.uk/24-hours-of-silverstone-for-...

Timetable is now on the website:
http://www.24hseries.com/24h-silverstone/time-sche...

Chris.

No support races?

[88racing]

Don't know - it might not be up to Creventic to arrange them. I seem to remember in at least one past year the Porsche Club Championship ran on the same programme.

[kybo]

88racing said:

I've signed up to race in this in one of two Rogue Motorsport Toyota GT86s. My first 24 hour, first night racing, first time racing a GT86.
http://88racing.co.uk/24-hours-of-silverstone-for-...

Timetable is now on the website:
http://www.24hseries.com/24h-silverstone/time-sche...

Chris.

Chris,

Good luck with this.

I've applied to Creventic (no reply yet) so I may be able to get some shots for you.

Cheers,
Scott

[88racing]

Stuart Thompson said:

No support races?

The new Dunlop Production Series will have their first races on the Friday and Saturday. There are Caterham and HRDC Touring Greats races too.

https://www.silverstone.co.uk/events/24hr-at-silve...

[ukaskew]

Fantastic event so far, disappointed that the rear of the garages are shut as this was a great part of the experience for spectators at the Britcar 24hr previously, but thankfully the infield Loop is open so track photography is made a lot easier...

Silverstone 24hr by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

Silverstone 24hr by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

[Truckosaurus]

ukaskew said:

...disappointed that the rear of the garages are shut as this was a great part of the experience for spectators at the Britcar 24hr previously...

Glad it wasn't just me that thought that. As every garage was closed I thought there might have been some regulation saying to keep them closed to keep the punters out (Health and Safety/insurance/etc).

A promising start to the new series and 'new management' for the 24hrs, although the cars themselves were not as interesting as the more GT oriented fields of previous years.

[ukaskew]

Truckosaurus said:

Glad it wasn't just me that thought that. As every garage was closed I thought there might have been some regulation saying to keep them closed to keep the punters out (Health and Safety/insurance/etc).

A promising start to the new series and 'new management' for the 24hrs, although the cars themselves were not as interesting as the more GT oriented fields of previous years.

They made a fairly big deal of the pits being 'open' to spectators, so I assumed it would be the same as before, not just the opportunity to access the Paddock Cafe and Bar and wander past some motorhomes and lorries! Britcar put a lot of work in for the spectators (I remember garages with PopBangColour, Gadget Show, Microsoft Xbox etc previously, fairground stuff etc) which was very obviously missing this time.

Good event anyway, I didn't miss the big GT stuff as much as I thought I would, and if it's the only way to keep 24hr racing going in the UK then I'll take it as is.

[88racing]

I can promise you we only kept them closed to keep any heat in/rain out, not to keep fans out - but to be honest a garage is sometimes a pretty busy place and not somewhere for fans to be wandering about. Other than having clear doors or doors with windows, I can't think of a good solution.

[ukaskew]

88racing said:

I can promise you we only kept them closed to keep any heat in/rain out, not to keep fans out - but to be honest a garage is sometimes a pretty busy place and not somewhere for fans to be wandering about. Other than having clear doors or doors with windows, I can't think of a good solution.

Fans didn't (generally) actually wander into the garages before, just viewed from the entrance (I think quite a few just had rope across).

[Truckosaurus]

88racing said:

... Other than having clear doors or doors with windows, I can't think of a good solution.

I attend a NASCAR race last year and they had a setup that had a viewing area on the roof of the pit complex and you could look down (through a window) into all the garages.

[jurbie]

ukaskew said:

88racing said:

I can promise you we only kept them closed to keep any heat in/rain out, not to keep fans out - but to be honest a garage is sometimes a pretty busy place and not somewhere for fans to be wandering about. Other than having clear doors or doors with windows, I can't think of a good solution.

Fans didn't (generally) actually wander into the garages before, just viewed from the entrance (I think quite a few just had rope across).

It's amazing how cold a garage can get when both ends are open but the spectators have also always shown a bit of respect with regard to viewing in the garages so you can be sure if the weather had been warmer then everything would have been open. You need to lobby Silverstone to put the event on in the summer however it's unlikely to happen as that is when they get the most complaints from locals who are trying to enjoy their gardens in the evening or having to sleep with open windows.

[88racing]

ukaskew said:

Fans didn't (generally) actually wander into the garages before, just viewed from the entrance (I think quite a few just had rope across).

Quite true - the vast majority of fans are very sensible - but a small minority are daft enough to walk straight through a garage, across the live pit lane and onto the pit wall. And teams can be held liable for accidents.

There's got to be a way that we can better involve the fans who take the trouble to attend - attendance was noticably down on last year and the 24 is supposed to be one of the great attractions in Silverstone's race calendar. We should do the autograph session with an open pit lane, for a start - like British GT.

Edited by 88racing on Monday 4th April 15:25

[normal bloke]

When my team wandered off to the caff for lunch on Saturday, I manned the tent inside our garage. Loads of folk wandered in, asked questions, took photos and stole nothing. A pleasure to have them in being interested. To be fair anyone who turns up in early April to an endurance meeting is hard core and deserves all the access they can be allowed. It was a pleasure to meet you all

[ukaskew]

88racing said:

There's got to be a way that we can better involve the fans who take the trouble to attend - attendance was noticably down on last year and the 24 is supposed to be one of the great attractions in Silverstone's race calendar. We should do the autograph session with an open pit lane, for a start - like British GT.

There was also no promotion this year. Most years previously have seen some pretty aggressive pricing/offers for early birds, I didn't notice anything this time around and as I mentioned there was pretty much nothing to do and nothing to see in the paddock during the race itself...people can only watch racing for so long.

As you say, it's a great attraction and deserves an awful lot more support/attendance, if they could get people through the gate I'm sure they would love it with a few tweaks.

[stewartm]

After last year ('official' camping moved 20 mins walk out to Whittlebury - which seemed a little ironic, bottom half of the circuit closed to spectators during night qually, all stands closed overnight on race night in the hammering rain, unless you knew about the little stand on the inside of the Hangar Straight or the stand on the inside of Vale, until the BRDC kindly stepped in, etc), which was the culmination of a deteriorating trend, plus the loss of the GT cars, we finally gave up attending this event, despite loving it very much.

I had hoped that with the Creventic takeover that things would have improved for those spectators choosing to attend, but it looked from the telly coverage that it was more of the same, and that largely from the organisers/Silverstone's POV, they are really not interested in having spectators on site. I presume that small attendances are hard to justify ploughing many resources into, but equally it is exactly that lack of resources that will always keep the attendances small.

And yet in a couple of weeks, it will be the exact opposite for the WEC event which I can't wait to get to. (Of course WEC is a much bigger event, but the 24 is special in its own right and I don't see any reason why it should not be able to pull in a decent, albeit not quite on the same scale, crowd)

Anyway, watched & enjoyed the great coverage on Motors with the Radio LeMans team doing the commentary. Congrats to all the teams - as ever, a wide array of amazing performances from drivers & crew alike, together with the usual dash of cruel luck, that always makes these events so special.

[ukaskew]

I attended the Castle Combe Action Day before heading up to Silverstone on Saturday. Despite not being that much cheaper and basically being a glorified track day the attendance at Combe was probably 10 times that of the 24hr, that's just madness.

So many little improvements that could be made that are so, so easy. A coffee/burger van in or near the public car park would have made a killing as plenty of people understandably slept in their cars, as it was we had to walk to the paddock and back.

Invite car clubs, get PH involved (perfect opportunity for a Sunday service). It's almost as if they don't want spectators.

[DoubleD]

I've been to a few of these events. They are great fun and I've had some great access. But it's on at the wrong time of year. I probably won't go to another if they can't put it on in the summer.

[stewartm]

Oh forgot to say, @ukaskew: That is an absolutely fantastic couple of pictures