Brands Hatch Superbikes

We thought we'd let you know what our trip down to Brands was like, so you could compare it to last time.

We had a good trip out to Brands Hatch this Sunday. Originally we wanted to stay Saturday night there to ensure an early start, but Mike had lots of work to get through, and the weather was rubbish. So, we decided on an early Sunday morning departure.

The alarm went off at 7am, after a late night for both of us. Mike worked until 10:30pm, and I went out for dinner and a movie with our friend Simon Hayley. So, it was a slow start. But we were packed, showered and ready by 7:45am. We loaded der Bus with our provisions, and left.

Last time we had negotiated the South Circular with Theresa and Richard, but we decided on the M25 route for a change. So, we hurtled down the M3 and had a very easy drive out to Brands. We got the junction 3 of the M25 by 9am. So, although it was 100 km compared to 50km down the south circular, it was about the same length of time. An interesting comparison. The M20/A20 junction wasn't even blocked, and we drove to within a km of the track immediately.

Still, the Brands Hatch car parking fiasco was in full force already. There was a policeman asking every car whether they wanted the public car park or not (90% did , so a sign would have sped things up). As it had been a bit wet, we were concerned about getting bogged. And there was good reason. As we entered the paddock, cars were driving across the slightly oozing paddocks with abandon, but der Bus immediately made wheel slipping noises. I waved frantically at oblivious pedestrians to get out of the way as they held up our rapidly dissipating momentum. Till, we were stuck. Ooops. Bogged on the way in! Did not bode well. A helpful, but completely mad man started giving instructions to Mike on how to extricate ourselves, while the guy wanting to tow us out looked on with a bemused look. As the towie hooked der Bus up, the mad man realised he wasn't needed, told us Aaron Slight was out of a ride for ]next year (devastating news), and wrapped his Foggy (Carl Fogarty) flag around his shoulders and wandered off. The towie took us to the side of the paddock and we locked up and left.

We had £68 in our pockets, and the tickets cost us £66 so I was glad we had packed lunch. We found a possie on the South Bank and ate instant noodles for breakfast. The day was quite nice, with partly cloudy weather and about 16C. The track was damp however, and Slight and Edwards gambled on intermediate tyres which did not pay off. I think Slight was 13th in race 1, and Edwards got up to 4th before he came off in front of us. But the really bad part was, he got back on, and still finished well in front of Slight. Not much call for flag waving. A local, John Reynolds, won the race.

We ate lunch (leftover vege lasagne) on Anja's snow foam she left us on her last trip. The SuperSport race started. Then, we wandered around the track at this stage, as there was a smaller crowd than usual. We could see some racing from different spots and chose our spot for the next Superbike race.

We watched the Jaguar fighter display, and the Harrier jump jet (so cool!). We were in the trees for the Tornado display, but it sounded amazing. The next race Slight did a bit better as the track had dried out completely. Edwards won in fine style. I'm sure Slight saw our flag as he came past slowly in his cool down lap. I hope he gets a decent ride for next year, and makes a good fist of it.

We watched a little of the side cars from pit lane straight. The Castrol team was posing for photos as Colin Edwards had been crowned Champion on Thursday due to Haga's ban. Slight had accolades from the Brands Hatch circuit to endure (the ODT said he was peeved at being dropped).

At 4:45pm we got back to the car. We read the newspaper for a while, hoping the crowd would ease. An hour later, it was as thick as ever. We joined the queue at the front of our bonnet. 7pm we got out onto the street (A20). We were not impressed, as usual. We were going to retrace our steps back round the M25, but a huge tailback at junction 4 meant we hurtled off into Orpington and negotiated our way back through the streets of south London. We got home at 8:30 or so, after travelling 50kms in 3 hours. Just like last time.

Although we like Brands Hatch circuit, the entry and especially the exit from the track is difficult to tolerate. We might have to investigate alternatives next year.