The sound of 3.5 litre engines filled the Northampton countryside on Saturday and Sunday as the World Series by Renault rolled into Silverstone for the first time. As a motorsport fan this is an opportunity to get to an event that is a series racing series without costing the earth. The Renault event is totally free! What is even better for me (and my dad who came with me, because he was driving) is that we are kindly given full press access, which means that we can stroll down the pits and get into areas where spectators aren’t normally allowed, of course this is at our own risk because motorsport can be dangerous!
What made our weekend even more special was not the direct access that being part of “the media” allowed, but something that happened because we went to a press conference. Renault Sport and Motorland Aragon chose to use the Silverstone Event to present details of a new track in Spain. Following the press conference there were sandwiches which, with extortionate food prices at the track, would be much appreciated. We went and the track and idea that was presented looked absolutely fantastic! Not just a race track but a whole load more including hotels, technology centre and all sorts of facilities. Not just one race track either as there are multiple possible configurations. The idea is that this will be like living city where people will work, stay and also watch races. It’s a huge project with multi-million euro investment. The announcement being made was of an official link and commitment to the project by Renault World Series who will be racing there at the end of the 2009 series, givng Motorland roughly 18 months to finish everything off. To find out more about motorland then head to their website at www.motorlandaragon.com. With all this announced it was tme for the sandwiches and coffee! What I haven’t mentioned is where the press conference took place, in the Stadium Suite in the Brooklands hospitality building. If you haven’t been to Silverstone then this won’t mean much to you, but it looks out over Bridge, Brooklands and Luffield bends the last corner complex before the pit straight, offering a fabulous view – the kind of view that costs a lot of money on a racing weekend. Whilst there the Press officer for Renault World Series said we would be welcome to stay, so we did enjoying the hospitality and a view we could never afford! As the afternoon went on we got chatting to the hospitality hosts and the our actual hosts from Motorland (who gave us some very posh Olive Oil as a present) and we were invited back the next day.
The next day we arrived early as the roads were going to get busy around the circuit very early on, thankfully parking wasn’t a problem for us as we were able to park in the centre of the circuit. We went into the pits, but there wasn’t much happening as the first race was for Formula Renault 2.0 UK and they don’t use the pit lane for anything other than stops, they don’t have garages and the cars are brought onto the circuit at Brooklands. So we went to the Media Centre but it was busy up there, so we headed around to Brooklands by the track to watch the racing from right behind the barriers in front of the BRDC, catching some nice photo’s. (you can see all the photo’s on facebook here and here)
After this we went across and joined one of the Marshal’s for the Renault Clio race (which got very spread out due to the nature of the circuit and was actually probably the most dull race all weekend) at Maggots. Then there was a break in proceedings while they paraded the Histoire et Collection so we had a wander and ended up back at Brooklands suites, so we headed inside and were greeted warmly.
What struck me as funny in that afternoon in the suite was the first time the Spanish guys got really excited about motorsport was when they were watching the MotoGP on TV. The World Series cars were getting ready outside, but Dani Pedrosa was on the front row for the Spanish Grand Prix and our new friends were incredibly happy that he took off into the lead. After it was clear that, failing any major problems, Dani would win there was a lot of concentration on Rossi. I watched the race with them and despite a huge difference in language we shared the international language of Motorsport! Sharp winces and inhalations as farings almost touch, we all knew what we were talking about!
So thanks to Motorland for giving me an excellent Birthday present and all their hospitality was really appreciated – and if you want to fly me to Spain and put me up for a few nights at your new complex in 2009 for the Spanish leg of World Series By Renault then I’m open to offers!
Tags: Motorsport, racing, renault, silverstone, world series by renault
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