touring cars oulton park

[a boardman]

going to touring cars at oulton park on 6th june, couple of quick questions if anyone can help.

do you need to get the early (is parking and entry to carpark bad) in order to do the pit walk.

best place to view the racing.

any other recommendations

thanks.

[SoliD]

I have only ever been to Oulton once, and camped but always good to get there early to get the pick of the seating positions, I sat at the knickerbrook banks, so you can see te cars coming down the hill and round, not sure which circuit it is being used, presume it will be island circuit, so you will then be able to see them come back round the chicane and off up the hill, generally a fair bit of action at those few corners too.

[snorkel sucker]

if the weather is looking nice, it will be RAMMED so get there aearly.

Best place for viewing, for me, is up towards shell oils hairpin on the outfield side of the track. Head over the bridge at the top of clay hill and keep walking left. Touring cars is the island circuit but you will have a top view of the cars coming down towards cascades and round knickerbrook and back up the hill so you will see plenty of action

another fave is druids - watch them come up over the crest and into druids head on - you may even see a cheeky overtake or maybe an incident or two...

[MonkeyHanger]

a boardman said:

going to touring cars at oulton park on 6th june, couple of quick questions if anyone can help.

do you need to get the early (is parking and entry to carpark bad) in order to do the pit walk.

best place to view the racing.

any other recommendations

thanks.

Oulton is surrounded by country lanes and on a big day (BTCC/BSB) it is always absolutely packed, so get there nice & early.

Be prepared for a long wait on the way out too.

[chevronb37]

I attended every BTCC meeting at Oulton from the late-80s until the demise of Super Touring but decided to make the effort last year as I'd never seen Giovanardi in action. I'd been to Silverstone the day before for AMOC and in my hurry, I didn't check the timetable for the BTCC. I thus arrived at 8.00am to stake my claim to a piece of prime Knickebrook real estate. Turned out the racing didn't start until after lunch (probably ITV scheduling) so I had 5.5hrs of sitting around doing not much as the paddock and spectator banks were deserted and my intended companion for the day was at home incapacitated. My advice is take the back lanes from Eaton down to Knickerbrook (email me for directions if you need them, I grew up 8 miles from the track) which avoids the queues and consult the timetable to avoid boredom and sunburn! Best spectator spot is probably Knickerbrook, but Cascades is an awesome spectacle and does provide a good photography spot if you're at the front.

[fergus91]

it is the island track they use
best place to watch is on the big bank overlooking the cascades, short straight and chicane.
if its nice weather then yes it will be rammed and expect to sit in traffic for 30 mins to get in. when we were there back in 2008 with the ginetta they had a btcc weekend all time high with 36,000 people there, but that was a heatwave day

[Crafty_]

Timetable: http://www.btcc.net/pdf/ci_3.pdf

Pitlane walkabout is 10:35, Get to the circuit for say 9:30, grab a coffee, have a browse at all the tat for sale then go to the walkabout..

[MHM]

chevronb37 said:

Turned out the racing didn't start until after lunch (probably ITV scheduling)

Its actually for the local church, engines on tick over only 10 mins before, warm them up 5 mins before iirc. Not a problem for us last time I was there as the poxy engine snotted itself on whilst cranking !!

[chevronb37]

MHM said:

chevronb37 said:

Turned out the racing didn't start until after lunch (probably ITV scheduling)

Its actually for the local church, engines on tick over only 10 mins before, warm them up 5 mins before iirc. Not a problem for us last time I was there as the poxy engine snotted itself on whilst cranking !!

Is that a recent development? I only get to 5 or 6 meetings a year at Oulton these days and not often on a Sunday so not particularly familiar with the ecclesiastical activities in the area.

[lord summerisle]

they are only allowed 4 race days a year on a sunday which are split 2 for cars, 2 for bikes. So the BTCC and Gold Cup are the cars days (and yes, at the Gold Cup there is no action until 12:30/1ish.
Bikes, i know one is the BSB meeting.

[chevronb37]

Well that makes sense - nothing I've been to this year has been on a Sunday. Even F3/GT straddles the Sunday on the Easter Bank Holiday. You learn something new every day...

[IainW]

If you're there on qualifying day, go to the inside of Druids to see some flat-out commitment. It was newly-opened last year, I went up there on the Saturday and really liked the spot. Got some decent photos too. You could hear Turkington's BMW screaming it's head off coming up Clay Hill, quick downchange and flying round the corner.

Edited by IainW on Friday 28th May 15:16

[North West Tom]

Last time I went, I was a bit late, and they'd run out of free Dunlop caps

[Crafty_]

cracking pic Iain !

[IainW]

Cheers. It's probably the best spot on the circuit for that.