WEC Round 1 - Silverstone

[TartanPaint]

Great weekend.

Camping was wet, muddy and very cold, but quiet and pleasant enough. Very convenient.

Saturday was OK after a snowy start. I had a hangover from hell anyway.
The unticketed pit walk wasn't crowded. A few drivers around too.
Porsche race was rubbish. No action, not enough cars for such a long track. And they don't look that fast compared to the main events.
ELMS race was excellent and the rain held off in the afternoon.

Side-show stuff was pretty poor, but there weren't the crowd numbers to justify anything better, and I wasn't interested anyway.

Food/beer trucks were plentiful. Don't think we queued for anything at any point.

Grandstands were empty. Plenty time to wander all the way round.

The sun came out on Sunday for the race. Hypothermia and sunburn all in one weekend!

The Fords are horrible sounding things. Really nasty. Still, they brought 2 cars home. No small achievement.

Webber was in another league with his exit from Club in the first stint. You could SEE he was going faster, not just on the stopwatch. Very impressive. Shame Hartley binned it.

Overall, a great weekend of motorsport. I'll be back every year and hope it builds in popularity. Top-teir motorsport on our doorstep for hours at a time, with less crowd than a typical BTCC meet? Heaven. OK, lacking in the atmosphere and polish of an F1 event, but absolutely nothing lacking from the teams and cars on track. Very quick and impressive stuff, and plenty time to enjoy it from all angles. F1 you kind of sit in one place for 1.5 hours. WEC, you can see the race from every corner if you want and still have time to get back to your fav seat for the end.

I wonder why it's so poorly attended? I hope a sprinkling of F1 names helps in the next few years.

See you all next year!

[Craikeybaby]

I wouldn't say it was poorly attended! I think it was 30,000 in 2014, 45,000 last year & 52,000 this year!

[monamimate]

Xaero said:

Shame Silverstone is a big naff for viewing live, they really need more TV screens around the circuit to see what's going on, only a few spots have that.

If you can make it, I'd recommend Spa. Numerous spots with really great viewing, and of course, the dramatic circuit itself.

Bring good comfy shoes!

[TartanPaint]

Craikeybaby said:

I wouldn't say it was poorly attended! I think it was 30,000 in 2014, 45,000 last year & 52,000 this year!

I'm surprised by that. 52,000 is about 1/3rd of F1 attendance (140k last year?), but it "felt" like much, much less.

Glad to see it increasing steadily too!

[onomatopoeia]

Was the busiest I've ever seen it, I went in 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2015 before this and each year the attendance seems higher. The place looked deserted in 2008, when it was still LMES before the WEC started, but according to wikipedia there were 53,000 spectators. I think that was the year one of the manufactuers (Peugeot perhaps?) were giving away tickets at their main dealers so there may have been that many tickets in circulation, but I'm convinced the actual attendance then was closer to 10,000.

[Muska]

Had a brilliant time there Sunday, first time I've been and certainly not the last.

Managed to snap a few pics too:









(Couple more in this album if anyone cares https://flic.kr/s/aHskyrsU1L )

Very impressed with the facilities/access, I looked at going to the F1 there last year and the price was astronomical compared to this. Pit walk was great too with all teams and drivers around to chat/sign things.

[GrahamG]

TartanPaint said:

I'm surprised by that. 52,000 is about 1/3rd of F1 attendance (140k last year?), but it "felt" like much, much less.

Glad to see it increasing steadily too!

One reason that it looks that much less crowded is that because it is a longer race lots of people travel around the circuit, something that is much, much more difficult for F1 with the ticketing being very much less 'roaming' in nature.

At the start the main grandstands from my comms box were full, and the buses running around the perimeter were well used too - After the start it was clear that there were lots of people at most of the major corners

[cailean]

I think 52,000 was the weekend attendance, not Sunday.

[Alex Langheck]

Is 52,000 over the weekend a good figure? Considering the WEC seems to be the Motorsport 'flavour of the month' at the moment.
I still think the British WEC round should be over B/H weekend in August - you would probably get a better crowd - and you could lay on a post race party/ concert on the Sunday night with Monday being the Bank Holiday.
The on track action is first class - now they need to push their promotion of it.

[TartanPaint]

cailean said:

I think 52,000 was the weekend attendance, not Sunday.

Now THAT I could believe.

[TartanPaint]

Muska said:

[pics]

(Couple more in this album if anyone cares https://flic.kr/s/aHskyrsU1L )

Very impressed with the facilities/access, I looked at going to the F1 there last year and the price was astronomical compared to this. Pit walk was great too with all teams and drivers around to chat/sign things.

Some nice shots there. I like your style of panning though the fences. Everyone spends so much effort trying to find the holes in the fence, when actually with your style they add a lot of visual interest. Good stuff!

[dantournay]

Alex Langheck said:

Is 52,000 over the weekend a good figure? Considering the WEC seems to be the Motorsport 'flavour of the month' at the moment.
I still think the British WEC round should be over B/H weekend in August - you would probably get a better crowd - and you could lay on a post race party/ concert on the Sunday night with Monday being the Bank Holiday.
The on track action is first class - now they need to push their promotion of it.

Seems pretty good to me considering the clash with the first Round of British GT at Brands and the BTCC at Donington.

[evilmiyagi]

indigorallye said:

I had a great time. Keeping up with the race was the toughest part of the day.
I was fortunate enough to have been a VIP guest of Aston Martin Racing, so I must thank them for their hospitality.

How did you manage to blag that? I was in the G-Drive garage for a bit which was immense and then roaming for the rest of the time...

[Muska]

TartanPaint said:

Some nice shots there. I like your style of panning though the fences. Everyone spends so much effort trying to find the holes in the fence, when actually with your style they add a lot of visual interest. Good stuff!

Thanks

[sirtyro]

Seems Audi have decided not to protest the result which gives Porsche and Toyota a nice lead.

[realjv]

Another shot from Sunday on the pitwalk.


Focus by realjv, on Flickr

[leglessAlex]

That's a great shot realjv, makes it sort of look like a Cylon or a Cylon Raider kind of thing.

[realjv]

leglessAlex said:

That's a great shot realjv, makes it sort of look like a Cylon or a Cylon Raider kind of thing.

thanks

[jurbie]

Here are a few of my pics from the weekend. A larger selection can be found here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jwbphotog/albums/721...

FIA World Endurance Championship

FIA World Endurance Championship

FIA World Endurance Championship

FIA World Endurance Championship

FIA World Endurance Championship

FIA World Endurance Championship

[monamimate]

jurbie said:

Here are a few of my pics from the weekend. A larger selection can be found here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jwbphotog/albums/721...

FIA World Endurance Championship

FIA World Endurance Championship

FIA World Endurance Championship

FIA World Endurance Championship

FIA World Endurance Championship

FIA World Endurance Championship

OK, I'm depressed now. No hope I'll ever take photos this nice.
Superb.

Anyone interested in a couple of Nikons and lenses..?