First time at Silverstone this weekend

[KingJeff 4th]

Bonjour my fellow PH motor sporters

Its my first time at silverstone this weekend at the Renault World Series. Been to plenty of other tracks over the years but never here.

Can you recommend a good place / corner / complex to head to? I have these free tickets that have been mentioned a few times, so i dont know what sort of access that gives me to the stands? is it grass verges only? Any protection from possible rain?

Any advice much appreciated.

[dpbird90]

Not my first time at Silverstone but my first WSR event if I go (friend has just let me down). I think I'm right in saying that its pretty open so we should be able to get to go everywhere, I went there for a classic MG weekend last year and it was pretty good sat on the inside of Copse, also the main grandstand on the main straight. Although I'd imagine that you'll get a good view at the end of Hangar.

[SystemParanoia]

i like bridge personally.

might be a good idea to bring a micro scooter.

bloody miles to walk round everywhere lol

[scoobydude]

KingJeff 4th said:

Bonjour my fellow PH motor sporters

Its my first time at silverstone this weekend at the Renault World Series. Been to plenty of other tracks over the years but never here.

Can you recommend a good place / corner / complex to head to? I have these free tickets that have been mentioned a few times, so i dont know what sort of access that gives me to the stands? is it grass verges only? Any protection from possible rain?

Any advice much appreciated.

It's got to be Maggots and Beckets every time for me (I seem to remember they used the full GP track last time, and assume they will again)

[RJB_666]

If they are using the full circuit i would recommend walking to a few different spots. The Maggots Becketts complex would be my first choice. Excellant to see cars change direction through there. Next up i would say club, really hard breaking point from the hangar straight followed and excellant corner. It will deafen you if your there when the F1 car goes round, they don't half put the foot in on that apex. If you've got time get down to the luffield woodcote area, this will be great if it is the grand prix circuit or the national. Slow tricky corners, you will see a lot of the cars here. Some drivers seem to struggle on the final turn as well there.

[jo3_C]

outside of copse for me.
Big screen to watch in the infield, Plus cars are at full tilt into the corner.
x

[lewis1]

jo3_C said:

outside of copse for me.
Big screen to watch in the infield, Plus cars are at full tilt into the corner.
x

which means no overtaking, no spins no action once your past the speed aspect.. walk around if you can. Maggots outside is a must if you want to scare yourself. Abby will be good as usual same with bridge and priory.Luffield is a good spot to see them as there slow and you get a lot of viewing time so to speak. Club is quite good because of vale creating some good overtaking opportunities. hth

[KingJeff 4th]

nice one, thanks all. Much appreciated.

[Nick M]

RJB_666 said:

If they are using the full circuit i would recommend walking to a few different spots. The Maggots Becketts complex would be my first choice. Excellant to see cars change direction through there. Next up i would say club, really hard breaking point from the hangar straight followed and excellant corner. If you've got time get down to the luffield woodcote area, this will be great if it is the grand prix circuit or the national. Slow tricky corners, you will see a lot of the cars here. Some drivers seem to struggle on the final turn as well there.

Agree with all of that, but would add that if it's the full circuit and if access is as free as it was at the FIA GT meeting then the following spots are worth a try:

- from the bridge over Hanger Straight - look down on the cars from the banking on the inside of the circuit - you can see them flowing out of the Maggots Becketts complex and tearing down the straight

- the head up the access road behind the driving school in the direction of Copse. If you aim for the grass banking on your right you should eventually find a section of un-fenced armco where you can see the cars going through Maggots Becketts and get some good photos.


Bridge is also worth a look - the speed cars go through there is pretty damn impressive !!

[dpbird90]

Looks like I'm not going, all my friends seem to be letting me down

[MElliottUK]

they only allow access to half the circuit, well they did last year, im off again tomorrow

[Allyc85]

MElliottUK said:

they only allow access to half the circuit, well they did last year, im off again tomorrow

Thats rubbish and very much not true!! I and many others watched from the whole circuit on both days last year!!

[MElliottUK]

Allyc85 said:

MElliottUK said:

they only allow access to half the circuit, well they did last year, im off again tomorrow

Thats rubbish and very much not true!! I and many others watched from the whole circuit on both days last year!!

Ive really got to stop posting on forums! I thought they didn't and i was there last year!

[motco]

I went on Sunday and have been to all of them so far, but I always forget that because it's a 'free' event the Great Unwashed turn up in their thousands - complete with numerous brats. Many are obviously bored silly having been bamboozled by the F1 publicity machine and think motor racing is wall-to-wall crashes and non-stop action. There were periods of inactivity of an hour or more yesterday, especially if you weren't on the International Circuit because the Renault Heritage parade used only that piece of the track. I don't think I have ever seen so much food consumed as a diversion by so many people in my life: burgers, chips, sausages, pre-packed Tesco 'Spicy Chicken' wings, sweets, buns and rolls, plus gallons of fizzy drinks and beer. It doesn't matter how much tyre smoke there is, the smell of fast-food overwhelms it all!

The on-track action was pretty good, though, and we were even treated to a couple of laps by Nigel Mansell in his son's Formula Renault 3.5 single seater. At one point it seemed as if he'd stalled it after a doughnut display, but he did manage to move off again with some more tyre smoke, and at least he kept it on the track, unlike Greg, his son! All-in-all a good day - especially as it's free...

The Big Problem, as ever, is access and exit - an hour of jostling with others for the fastest queue to the way out and then very busy local roads to the motorways. Better than Donington in that regard though.

[KingJeff 4th]

motco said:

I went on Sunday and have been to all of them so far, but I always forget that because it's a 'free' event the Great Unwashed turn up in their thousands - complete with numerous brats. Many are obviously bored silly having been bamboozled by the F1 publicity machine and think motor racing is wall-to-wall crashes and non-stop action.

Totally agree, i couldn't believe the number of pikeys at the event, very off putting. But as I mentioned to my missus, everyone loves a freebee.

All cheering at the crashes, barely noticing if there was a skillful overtake.


Thanks for the advice earlier guys, we had a great day out. We ended up at luffield in the end after a good wander around to pick a spot. Loads of photos, most crap, but will post the (few) good ones

[RJB_666]

KingJeff 4th said:

motco said:

I went on Sunday and have been to all of them so far, but I always forget that because it's a 'free' event the Great Unwashed turn up in their thousands - complete with numerous brats. Many are obviously bored silly having been bamboozled by the F1 publicity machine and think motor racing is wall-to-wall crashes and non-stop action.

Totally agree, i couldn't believe the number of pikeys at the event, very off putting. But as I mentioned to my missus, everyone loves a freebee.

All cheering at the crashes, barely noticing if there was a skillful overtake.


Thanks for the advice earlier guys, we had a great day out. We ended up at luffield in the end after a good wander around to pick a spot. Loads of photos, most crap, but will post the (few) good ones

I didn't notice too many of these. They were probably at copse or pit straight. I sat at Luffield for a while. During the Megane race (on sunday) the crowd always cheered on the bloke in last place. I thought the Clios were fantastic as well, usually used to seeing them crash a lot. Watched them at club corner and couldn't believe how well everyone drove through there, not one incident for quite a few laps. And this was with them trying to go through club 3 abreast. We left before the last clio race. The sun had caught us well and just got the stage where we could barely stay awake. Managed to miss a bit of traffic as well.

[dougc]

Never again.

Pikeys everywhere.

[MickC]

motco said:

The Big Problem, as ever, is access and exit - an hour of jostling with others for the fastest queue to the way out and then very busy local roads to the motorways. Better than Donington in that regard though.

Yep we went on the Saturday it wasn't too bad to get in, probably about 45mins queue at about 9:10 to get in and get parked, then we walked round the whole circuit sampling each stand that was open (only a few were not). Good day with the various displays, qualifying and a couple of races too.

On the sunday though, got down about the same time, queueing on the a43 was mental, nearly stationary for more than an hour, by 11 we gave up and turned round, looked like about 2 miles of stationary queue on the M1 too on approach to A43, not good. If it continued like that, would have been nearly 1pm by the time we actually got in, and another hours to get out again, then another 2 hours home, it's just not worth it.

Not sure what was going on, maybe an accident or just the wrong time, but we followed the example of a yellow chim with PH sticker on the back and turned round at the same point you did (took 15 mins to advance 30 yards to the gap!)

I'm thinking of asking Renault for my money back

[FPC]

I went with the family and had a great time. I had absolutely no access problems at all - I used the Dadford road and parked in the 'West' car park, just behind Club. I live about 10 miles from the circuit and from my house to sitting in the grandstand took 20 min each way.

[UncappedTag]

dougc said:

Never again.

Pikeys everywhere.

I'm glad I was not the only one to notice this. I've been to countless events at Silverstone and this was my first time to the Renault event/free ticket event. The amount of gypos was astonishing with their pikey kids.

I was sat at Woodcote at the back of the stands taking photos and was sat next to a family made up of 8 kids, Mum & Dad and their parents.

They were jumping in between seats screaming etc, adults smoking in the undercover seating (is this allowed?) and one of their kids spitting over the back at people walking down below. I was appawled.

Never again for me either just attracted too many lower class types who obviously are too common for me