Brands Hatch,
What a brilliant first round of the British Touring Car Championship, Adam drove out of his skin. We left the first round 7th overall and 4th in the independents a massive achievement to Adam and the mechanics who have worked around the clock for the last 2 or 3 months. We were the best new car by a country mile and there was an issue with the engine, the straight line speed of the car wasn’t the best. The engine has been taken out of the car and sent to the engine builders Swindon for further investigation.
The Journey “down Souf!!” Absolute nightmare, the M6, M6 Toll, M5, M40, M42 and of course the M25 were all closed, it took us hours, I of course didn’t have a map so just enjoyed the countryside, in the pitch black on our many diversions!! We didn’t arrive until well after 3 in the morning and our park up time was at 10, so with the trucks to wash before park up, 3 or 4 hours in bed was enjoyed by all!! It’s all a part of racing though and we all get along so well that we still have a right laugh…. It wasn’t so funny at about lunch time when Adam and I were on the roof of the truck pulling up the roof sheets in the driving snow. I couldn’t even snowball him because he was racing!!
From Friday onwards the weather and the weekend just got better and better. The new hospitality unit looks brilliant although we had completed a couple of practice builds over the winter we were always waiting for new items or upgrades, when we finished the set up on Friday, everything came together perfectly and it just looked fantastic.
We only had about a dozen guests on the Saturday and this was perfect because, we had to get used to working with our new chef Steve Rossi who is ex-navy and Welsh (very difficult!) We have our own catering truck so Steve and his team took control of that and they produced absolutely first class food all weekend, on time every time, to say we are basically in the middle of nowhere! All of Steve’s food is exceptional and he just can’t do enough for you, if the mechanics have to work late, it’s no problem he has a real ‘will do’ not ‘could do’ attitude. He made the mechanics a massive full English breakfast early on race day to keep them going.
Sunday morning brought the traditional ‘buggy run’ which basically means collect 70 odd, VIP guests who will have been sat in traffic! From the entrance as quickly as we can on 15mph 8 seater golf buggies!! Then convey them to the hospitality suite for bacon butty’s and coffee in readiness for the day’s action. It ran like a dream and nobody was waiting for a ride in.
After the first race Adam likes to come to the hospitality, take part in a Q&A with yours truly and then thank all the teams’ guests for attending, unfortunately we didn’t have much time, but he still managed to get round everybody and make it back in time for the second race with 10 minutes to spare. The constraints of live television and three races in a single afternoon can be demanding.
Martyn Bell ex-British Touring Car driver and not the news at ten man!! Has joined the team and his light hearted yet informative grid walks went down as always an absolute treat. Martyn also owns a garage so whether it be, technical or driver technique, you would be lucky to catch him out! We are the only team lucky enough to have an actual been there seen it all driver to take our guests on the grid walks and he really is top craic.
All the WIX Filters Racing guests were a pleasure to host, polite, interested and grateful to the hospitality team for their efforts. I have never had so many thank you notes, texts and emails. I have printed them off for the team to read, our main aim is to ensure that the people who allow us to go racing and their guests enjoy a’ money can’t buy’ experience and a little bit of feedback, positive is always best! goes such a long way.
Personally I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a race weekend so much, good results on track, good company and good food……. Perfect. Donington is only a couple of weeks away and it really can’t come soon enough for us, we would race every weekend if we could.
Thanks for your friendship and support, it’s going to be as Adam says, a “mega” year it has started off on such a positive there is a brilliant vibe throughout the team. Special thanks must go to Wayne and Rebecca from WIX Filters who not only support us financially but do so much more behind the scenes to get this on the road, their dedication, support and assistance is greatly appreciated by us all, especially me and there tenacity has really lifted the team to different level.
Look forward to seeing you all at Donington Park, unlucky if you have to travel via the M25 my next visit to that hell hole will be in October and that’s too soon! Sorry, it’s because I am Northern whippets and pigeons don’t like traffic.
Take care
Norm