Honda F1 Racing Charity Open Day
I had such an incredible day! The whole thing was amazing and so much fun! And I could not believe how open the open day was, and how accessible and hands-on and close up it all was.
It only took an hour and a half to get there and I arrived at the car park (a local airfield was acting as the base for a park-and-ride service) five minutes before it was due to officially kick off - there were already LOADS of cars there and I had to queue to park. I then queued for a further 25 minutes to get on a bus. I had, rather optimistically, worn a skirt and flip-flops, and the airfield was windy and it was a bit chilly; I was a bit cold when I arrived too, but the air soon warmed up and I was fine.
When I arrived I heard and then saw a car driving around a fenced off area of the car park, so I went and watched and drooled. It didn't actually have an F1 engine in, sadly, but the noise it made was still pretty cool, and it was an F1 chassis so I was happy :) The driver has Jenson's helmet on (and, as I saw later, he had Jenson's overalls on too) but it turned out it wasn't Jenson in the end. There was a sign saying that you could sign up for pit-stop practice, so I asked where and promptly went and signed up wanting to beat the rush. About 15 minutes later I was being ushered inside the barriers with 17 other people to be part of a pit crew.
First of all we had a short briefing about what everybody's job would consist of and telling us how the thing would proceed. Alistair Gibson, Honda chief mechanic and the guy who was running the show, stressed again and again how dangerous it was and I was getting really nervous, but I think, to be honest, he was just making sure that we would all pay attention and not goof around. After that we were kitted out with radios, gloves, balaclavas and helmets (!) then we were taken to our respective positions and showed that to do. Then we were able to practice ourselves. First we practiced slowly, taking our time and learning what to do, then we did some static stops (all working together like a real stop but with the car starting stationary in front of us), then there were a few push-in practices (where the car was pushed slowly into the box and we did the stop), then there were some full speed stops where the car came in at usual pit stop speed! After that there was a challenge to simulate a real grand prix - six stops in total to simulate three stops for two cars. Lap, 8 second fuel stop, lap, 8 second fuel stop, 4 laps, 6 second fuel stop, lap, 6 second fuel stop, 4 laps, 4 second fuel stop, lap, 4 second fuel stop, the end.
There were three people on each wheel - wheel on, wheel off and wheel gun - two people on the fuel nozzle, two people adjusting the front wing angle, one person on the front jack and one person on the rear jack. Alistair Gibson was in charge of the lollipop and there was five mechanics around us too, to first teach us what to do and then to supervise and make sure everything was done safely.
I was in the front right wheel-on position, I was worried that the tyres would be heavy but actually they were fine and taking them off wasn't as awkward as I had expected - one time it got a bit stuck but the rest of the time was okay. One of the helpful mechanics was really fit and so I got to flirt with him a bit while we were waiting for the challenge to start, it was fun :)
I didn't realise there would be the opportunity for such hands-on experience and I felt very silly in my flip-flops and skirt, but I was fine. They weren't a problem and I didn't even get my nice light-coloured skirt dirty, despite hauling tyres around.
It was such an amazing experience and totally made my day! I can't believe I had the opportunity and it was so much fun. The mechanics were all so nice and so helpful and really made it a great experience. There was a prize for the fastest overall time for the challenge, which my team didn't win, but I don't care. The experience itself was more than prize enough! More than that, they only had 5 teams in total, 5 teams of 18 - that's only 90 people out of around 5000 who went - I am a lucky, lucky girl. *beams*
After that I went and found myself a program, which perhaps I should have done first! I was surprised to find that it was already half 12. I went to try and buy myself tickets for Jenson's Q&A session and the Experience Centre tour but they had long since sold out - I was a bit disappointed because I would easily have had time to run and buy them earlier while waiting for the pit-stop thing to start, but that was just so awesome I did mind over much. They still had tickets for Christian and Anthony left so I was going to buy some of those. But.... because Jenson's Q&A had sold out so fast and was so popular they scheduled an extra 15 minutes Q&A with him on the main stage. At 1.30 - which was the same time as Anthony's Q&A. So I just got Christian's in the end, and then had to dash off for it because it was about to start.
Christian was lovely! The auditorium was only half-full (and it wasn't big!) which is such a shame because he was great. He was interesting to listen to and really funny too, he had a great sense of humour. He is obviously really focused and has a great love for F1 - I know that's pretty much a given, I don't think you get as far as he has without that kind of passion, but it was still nice to see. Murray Walker was doing the Q&A sessions, and while I love Murray and it was great to see him in action, as it were, he would not shut up! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. I was getting a bit annoyed with him because he kept rambling before asking questions. And I went there to see Christian not Murray. Murray had his own Q&A later in the day so it's not like he didn't have a chance to ramble then. Also Murray asked most of the questions. He'd implied at the beginning that we would also get a chance to do so and we did right at the end when a Honda-in-charge person jumped in as Murray drew breath and offered us the chance and only two people got to ask questions. They were obviously running to a tight schedule because she was very brusque about it. I would have liked it to have been longer and have had more audience participation (like cons) with Murrary ready to step in if we ran out of questions, but it was still fun. Christian was great! An also, Christian is HOT, I'm just saying. (Not that I am shameless in any way.)
When I got out of Christian's session it was nearly time for Jenson's 15 minutes on stage. Luckily we were spat out of the auditorium right near the stage and there was space near the front far on one side so I was close and had a good view. There was a local jazz band playing while we waited - they were set up on the middle and far side of the stage leaving my side of the stage clear, so when Jenson appeared he didn't stand in the middle (no space) but right in front of me! I couldn't believe my luck! He was wonderful, very frank about how this season's been quite crap, but ready to joke about it too and still upbeat. Early on he said something about the bad season and someone in the audience yelled out "but we still love you!" which got an enormous cheer from the crowd ♥ Yes, we do.
When he left the stage I dashed off to the side where he had come in from (pressed in by many other people) to get a photo/autograph - I had a great place, not right at the front, but not far off. He was taking ages (I didn't realise that there were people also wanting autographs around the other side, stupid Lozzy. I had just decided to leave and had relinquished my awesome spot when he appeared! Of course the pack had closed in and I was then five or six people back from the barrier - I managed to get a good way through but it wasn't enough, alas.
By this point I was hungry so I headed to the spit roast and had a buffalo and wild boar sandwich, it was SO GOOD. Mmmmmmm. After that I headed to Tescos which was right across the road because I had stupidly not gotten any cash out yesterday and was down to shrapnel in my wallet so I need to refill.
When I got back into the open day I headed for the autograph lines. The way it worked was that you stood in the autograph queue. When it got to a certain amount of time before the finish time they closed the queue off and everyone left queueing could either go away or they became the queue for the next autograph session. They had people signing for only 20 minutes and only once each so the lines were long - it was madness.
Christian was signing then and I had hoped to get his autograph but they had just closed the line when I got there; the remaining queue was still pretty long. I joined it because Anthony Davidson was up next, but then they closed that about 5 people in front of me! I was so annoyed because the way it was set up meant that basically you got no one's autograph and spent ages queuing for nothing (cons often have long queues but that's okay because you do get to see people - I don't mind queueing for a long time if I at least know that I will get something for it at the end). I did wander down to where he was signing though and get a couple of photos - he was so tiny! And he has such a nice smile.
But, missing out on Christian and then Anthony meant that I was right at the front of the autograph queue and next up was Jenson! And, let's be honest here, he is by far and away my favourite driver of the three and if I could have picked just one guy to see, he would be the one, hands down, no contest. So that was good... only he was signing for another hour and 15 minutes! (And I was rather in need of a bathroom break!) Luckily, I had been chatting to a lady, also by herself, in the queue next to me and when I said as much to her she offered to save my space so I dashed off the toilets and came back. Then she went off to collect a photo and I saved her space so it worked well. It was also nice to have someone to chat to while we waited - the time did drag but not as much as it might have done. I had debated taking a book with me and didn't - foolish in hindsight, but never mind.
Jenson was just... wow. In person, he is really, really fine... hell, he's beautiful. (See above comment about me not being shameless.) And he was so awesome with the fans. He was really good about making eye contact and for the few seconds while he was signing your item you felt like you were the soul focus of his attention. He made an effort to greet you and say thanks for your support. And god... when he finished signing my program he looked up at me, looked into my eyes and smiled. I looked right back, smiled right back, said thanks and waved goodbye to my brain, which by this point had melted to mush. In the end I queued for just under two hours in the autograph queue. It was so totally worth it for that moment.
After this I went on the factory tour, it was quite late now, nearly four, and I was one of the last people in. Throughout the whole (accessible) factory there were people standing around to answer questions and demonstrate things and I made a real effort to talk to as many people as possible because it was just so damn cool and I wanted to know things - everyone, everyone, was just wonderful. By this point they had been doing this all day long and it was nearing the end and they must have been asked the same questions over and over but they were still really patient and ready to chat. And everyone was so friendly! I was so impressed.
First there was a big room full of machines for making metal car components - they were cool. They were so big and it was amazing how they worked. And the finished products were works of art. There were bits we could look at (and signs saying please do not touch but the Honda guys would practically thrust things into your hands to let you look!) - I was amazed at what they could make, and all out of one single piece of metal. As I said, they were like works of art.
Next was the research and development section where they test various bits of kit - the testing facilities were incredible. Basically they strap some kit onto this big testing rig and simulate thousands of miles around a particular circuit but putting loads and stresses on the car. I think they guy I spoke to said that they had 17 axes or something like that, and they simulate Silverstone, Monaco and Jerez because they cover a wide range of what a component will have to endure.
Next came the carbon-fibre section, where there were small and large chassis parts to admire and poke. I could not get over how light these things were - I picked up the air duct that goes above the driver's head (and is not small) with one hand and it wasn't even a strain. It was unbelievable. And it was so tough too. I remarked to one of the engineers that if some of the edges were any sharper that could cut - yes, he said, we had to be careful and sand them down. Wow.
After that I went into a design room where they had super-clever machines-that-map-components and were connected to CAD programs. The idea is that you plonk component x down on the slab and then you use clever points (tipped with rubies!) to map a point on the component itself to a point on the CAD design so you can get a precise model of your piece and measure distances etc. They also had a laser room where they were making personalised key-rings, it was great! You donated your £1 to charity, told them your name and then you could watch as they lasered your name into a metal keyring. It took seconds (seriously, typing in your name took longer than the laser). It was awesome.
It was getting really late by this point, it was just gone 5, when everything was supposed to close, but we weren't being hurried and there were a couple of people behind me so I went through the rest quite quickly but didn't flat out leave. I did try a cool little steering wheel simulator, it wasn't connected to a visual display just a bunch of computer charts, but it was great to use the steering wheel to change up and down gears and also to use the pit-land speed limiter button. I also saw break discs and pads, and then finally a full race spec car - it will be Jenson's spare in Germany next week apparently. Can't get much more up to date than that, can you! It's like porn but with cars.
By this point it was gone five and so I thought it would be time to leave, but there were still people queueing to see the race trucks so I tagged on the end. It was great - we went upstairs in one of their new high-rises where there's a big open plan seating area/meeting room. The two trucks are set up side by side and then hydraulic systems push the ceilings up and the sides down and they are joined together so the top level of the truck becomes a reasonable-sized room. The guy who told us all about it was really informative and interesting to listen too; he talked about the trucks and then about moving the kit (and people!) in general - how they move it, who moves it, the logistics of getting the trucks to Europe and then what they have to do for the flyaway races. We were the last group in but they didn't rush us, and he kept asking us if we had more questions when he could easily have chucked us out! And they had to pack up one of the trailers then because it was leaving ASAP to go to the Nürburgring as an advance party (as usual), and the rest are leaving early tomorrow morning.
I think they were so relaxed about chucking us out (or not chucking us out as the case may be) because the queues for the park-and-ride were so huge - we would have gotten to the cars at the same time regardless, and this way they could stagger everyone leaving a bit - they were encouraging people to leave early to stagger the leaving but obviously the decided (but didn't announce the fact) to be very unhurried about asking people to leave too. That was really it now though and it was time to go home. I made good time back home again and stopped for take-away curry when I hit Cambridge - yum.
Overall it was an incredible day, I absolutely loved it and would totally do it again in a heartbeat. There were things, though, that they could have improved. The park-and-ride queues were just silly. There were no signs anywhere so it was really hard to tell what was what and where was where and the map wasn't overly helpful either (it took me 10 minutes to find the toilets and I had to ask three people!). Even the programs weren't very obvious - I missed them when I first got in and it might have been useful to have one from the start, and still that didn't tell you where to buy tickets for things or what needed tickets and what you just turned up for. There was a lot of queuing too - some of it was a necessary evil but some of it could have been avoided. The Q&A's and autographs were a bit disappointing too - they were VERY limited, but then I am used to cons where the (amazing) guests sign for hours and hours (and even end up having to bandage their hands because they are rubbed raw from sliding across so much paper - Kate in Blackpool).
The guy doing the race truck tour said to us that they had been overwhelmed by the response and I had heard already that they had sold nearly 5000 tickets. He said that they had been talking about reducing the number of tickets sold to maybe 2000 and charging more for them (the aim of the game is to raise money for charity here so they're not being money-grabbing bastards!). I personally think that would be a lot better - as it was, today I felt like there was so much to do and not enough of me to go and do it. I did get to do the "best" bits, there was still loads I would have liked to have done but didn't have to time to do (like simulators) or didn't get tickets for (Q&A's and Experience Tour) or queued for but missed out on (autographs). Also I think higher prices would bring the focus back to the real fans as well. I think lower numbers would have made it an even better day and I would happily have paid more for such an amazing day.
The people though, I cannot fault them. They were so incredible! Everyone I spoke to was so friendly and helpful and eager. They were so passionate and enthusiastic about what they did and that really came across as you spoke to them; they were approachable and easy to speak to. And everyone there today was volunteering. Truly amazing. My love for this team has gone from 'yeah, cool' to ♥ ♥ ♥.
So between the ultimate in car porn, the pit-stop experience and Jenson "brain-meltingly sexy smile" Button, I had an awesome, awesome, awesome day! It was incredible.
It only took an hour and a half to get there and I arrived at the car park (a local airfield was acting as the base for a park-and-ride service) five minutes before it was due to officially kick off - there were already LOADS of cars there and I had to queue to park. I then queued for a further 25 minutes to get on a bus. I had, rather optimistically, worn a skirt and flip-flops, and the airfield was windy and it was a bit chilly; I was a bit cold when I arrived too, but the air soon warmed up and I was fine.
When I arrived I heard and then saw a car driving around a fenced off area of the car park, so I went and watched and drooled. It didn't actually have an F1 engine in, sadly, but the noise it made was still pretty cool, and it was an F1 chassis so I was happy :) The driver has Jenson's helmet on (and, as I saw later, he had Jenson's overalls on too) but it turned out it wasn't Jenson in the end. There was a sign saying that you could sign up for pit-stop practice, so I asked where and promptly went and signed up wanting to beat the rush. About 15 minutes later I was being ushered inside the barriers with 17 other people to be part of a pit crew.
First of all we had a short briefing about what everybody's job would consist of and telling us how the thing would proceed. Alistair Gibson, Honda chief mechanic and the guy who was running the show, stressed again and again how dangerous it was and I was getting really nervous, but I think, to be honest, he was just making sure that we would all pay attention and not goof around. After that we were kitted out with radios, gloves, balaclavas and helmets (!) then we were taken to our respective positions and showed that to do. Then we were able to practice ourselves. First we practiced slowly, taking our time and learning what to do, then we did some static stops (all working together like a real stop but with the car starting stationary in front of us), then there were a few push-in practices (where the car was pushed slowly into the box and we did the stop), then there were some full speed stops where the car came in at usual pit stop speed! After that there was a challenge to simulate a real grand prix - six stops in total to simulate three stops for two cars. Lap, 8 second fuel stop, lap, 8 second fuel stop, 4 laps, 6 second fuel stop, lap, 6 second fuel stop, 4 laps, 4 second fuel stop, lap, 4 second fuel stop, the end.
There were three people on each wheel - wheel on, wheel off and wheel gun - two people on the fuel nozzle, two people adjusting the front wing angle, one person on the front jack and one person on the rear jack. Alistair Gibson was in charge of the lollipop and there was five mechanics around us too, to first teach us what to do and then to supervise and make sure everything was done safely.
I was in the front right wheel-on position, I was worried that the tyres would be heavy but actually they were fine and taking them off wasn't as awkward as I had expected - one time it got a bit stuck but the rest of the time was okay. One of the helpful mechanics was really fit and so I got to flirt with him a bit while we were waiting for the challenge to start, it was fun :)
I didn't realise there would be the opportunity for such hands-on experience and I felt very silly in my flip-flops and skirt, but I was fine. They weren't a problem and I didn't even get my nice light-coloured skirt dirty, despite hauling tyres around.
It was such an amazing experience and totally made my day! I can't believe I had the opportunity and it was so much fun. The mechanics were all so nice and so helpful and really made it a great experience. There was a prize for the fastest overall time for the challenge, which my team didn't win, but I don't care. The experience itself was more than prize enough! More than that, they only had 5 teams in total, 5 teams of 18 - that's only 90 people out of around 5000 who went - I am a lucky, lucky girl. *beams*
After that I went and found myself a program, which perhaps I should have done first! I was surprised to find that it was already half 12. I went to try and buy myself tickets for Jenson's Q&A session and the Experience Centre tour but they had long since sold out - I was a bit disappointed because I would easily have had time to run and buy them earlier while waiting for the pit-stop thing to start, but that was just so awesome I did mind over much. They still had tickets for Christian and Anthony left so I was going to buy some of those. But.... because Jenson's Q&A had sold out so fast and was so popular they scheduled an extra 15 minutes Q&A with him on the main stage. At 1.30 - which was the same time as Anthony's Q&A. So I just got Christian's in the end, and then had to dash off for it because it was about to start.
Christian was lovely! The auditorium was only half-full (and it wasn't big!) which is such a shame because he was great. He was interesting to listen to and really funny too, he had a great sense of humour. He is obviously really focused and has a great love for F1 - I know that's pretty much a given, I don't think you get as far as he has without that kind of passion, but it was still nice to see. Murray Walker was doing the Q&A sessions, and while I love Murray and it was great to see him in action, as it were, he would not shut up! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. I was getting a bit annoyed with him because he kept rambling before asking questions. And I went there to see Christian not Murray. Murray had his own Q&A later in the day so it's not like he didn't have a chance to ramble then. Also Murray asked most of the questions. He'd implied at the beginning that we would also get a chance to do so and we did right at the end when a Honda-in-charge person jumped in as Murray drew breath and offered us the chance and only two people got to ask questions. They were obviously running to a tight schedule because she was very brusque about it. I would have liked it to have been longer and have had more audience participation (like cons) with Murrary ready to step in if we ran out of questions, but it was still fun. Christian was great! An also, Christian is HOT, I'm just saying. (Not that I am shameless in any way.)
When I got out of Christian's session it was nearly time for Jenson's 15 minutes on stage. Luckily we were spat out of the auditorium right near the stage and there was space near the front far on one side so I was close and had a good view. There was a local jazz band playing while we waited - they were set up on the middle and far side of the stage leaving my side of the stage clear, so when Jenson appeared he didn't stand in the middle (no space) but right in front of me! I couldn't believe my luck! He was wonderful, very frank about how this season's been quite crap, but ready to joke about it too and still upbeat. Early on he said something about the bad season and someone in the audience yelled out "but we still love you!" which got an enormous cheer from the crowd ♥ Yes, we do.
When he left the stage I dashed off to the side where he had come in from (pressed in by many other people) to get a photo/autograph - I had a great place, not right at the front, but not far off. He was taking ages (I didn't realise that there were people also wanting autographs around the other side, stupid Lozzy. I had just decided to leave and had relinquished my awesome spot when he appeared! Of course the pack had closed in and I was then five or six people back from the barrier - I managed to get a good way through but it wasn't enough, alas.
By this point I was hungry so I headed to the spit roast and had a buffalo and wild boar sandwich, it was SO GOOD. Mmmmmmm. After that I headed to Tescos which was right across the road because I had stupidly not gotten any cash out yesterday and was down to shrapnel in my wallet so I need to refill.
When I got back into the open day I headed for the autograph lines. The way it worked was that you stood in the autograph queue. When it got to a certain amount of time before the finish time they closed the queue off and everyone left queueing could either go away or they became the queue for the next autograph session. They had people signing for only 20 minutes and only once each so the lines were long - it was madness.
Christian was signing then and I had hoped to get his autograph but they had just closed the line when I got there; the remaining queue was still pretty long. I joined it because Anthony Davidson was up next, but then they closed that about 5 people in front of me! I was so annoyed because the way it was set up meant that basically you got no one's autograph and spent ages queuing for nothing (cons often have long queues but that's okay because you do get to see people - I don't mind queueing for a long time if I at least know that I will get something for it at the end). I did wander down to where he was signing though and get a couple of photos - he was so tiny! And he has such a nice smile.
But, missing out on Christian and then Anthony meant that I was right at the front of the autograph queue and next up was Jenson! And, let's be honest here, he is by far and away my favourite driver of the three and if I could have picked just one guy to see, he would be the one, hands down, no contest. So that was good... only he was signing for another hour and 15 minutes! (And I was rather in need of a bathroom break!) Luckily, I had been chatting to a lady, also by herself, in the queue next to me and when I said as much to her she offered to save my space so I dashed off the toilets and came back. Then she went off to collect a photo and I saved her space so it worked well. It was also nice to have someone to chat to while we waited - the time did drag but not as much as it might have done. I had debated taking a book with me and didn't - foolish in hindsight, but never mind.
Jenson was just... wow. In person, he is really, really fine... hell, he's beautiful. (See above comment about me not being shameless.) And he was so awesome with the fans. He was really good about making eye contact and for the few seconds while he was signing your item you felt like you were the soul focus of his attention. He made an effort to greet you and say thanks for your support. And god... when he finished signing my program he looked up at me, looked into my eyes and smiled. I looked right back, smiled right back, said thanks and waved goodbye to my brain, which by this point had melted to mush. In the end I queued for just under two hours in the autograph queue. It was so totally worth it for that moment.
After this I went on the factory tour, it was quite late now, nearly four, and I was one of the last people in. Throughout the whole (accessible) factory there were people standing around to answer questions and demonstrate things and I made a real effort to talk to as many people as possible because it was just so damn cool and I wanted to know things - everyone, everyone, was just wonderful. By this point they had been doing this all day long and it was nearing the end and they must have been asked the same questions over and over but they were still really patient and ready to chat. And everyone was so friendly! I was so impressed.
First there was a big room full of machines for making metal car components - they were cool. They were so big and it was amazing how they worked. And the finished products were works of art. There were bits we could look at (and signs saying please do not touch but the Honda guys would practically thrust things into your hands to let you look!) - I was amazed at what they could make, and all out of one single piece of metal. As I said, they were like works of art.
Next was the research and development section where they test various bits of kit - the testing facilities were incredible. Basically they strap some kit onto this big testing rig and simulate thousands of miles around a particular circuit but putting loads and stresses on the car. I think they guy I spoke to said that they had 17 axes or something like that, and they simulate Silverstone, Monaco and Jerez because they cover a wide range of what a component will have to endure.
Next came the carbon-fibre section, where there were small and large chassis parts to admire and poke. I could not get over how light these things were - I picked up the air duct that goes above the driver's head (and is not small) with one hand and it wasn't even a strain. It was unbelievable. And it was so tough too. I remarked to one of the engineers that if some of the edges were any sharper that could cut - yes, he said, we had to be careful and sand them down. Wow.
After that I went into a design room where they had super-clever machines-that-map-components and were connected to CAD programs. The idea is that you plonk component x down on the slab and then you use clever points (tipped with rubies!) to map a point on the component itself to a point on the CAD design so you can get a precise model of your piece and measure distances etc. They also had a laser room where they were making personalised key-rings, it was great! You donated your £1 to charity, told them your name and then you could watch as they lasered your name into a metal keyring. It took seconds (seriously, typing in your name took longer than the laser). It was awesome.
It was getting really late by this point, it was just gone 5, when everything was supposed to close, but we weren't being hurried and there were a couple of people behind me so I went through the rest quite quickly but didn't flat out leave. I did try a cool little steering wheel simulator, it wasn't connected to a visual display just a bunch of computer charts, but it was great to use the steering wheel to change up and down gears and also to use the pit-land speed limiter button. I also saw break discs and pads, and then finally a full race spec car - it will be Jenson's spare in Germany next week apparently. Can't get much more up to date than that, can you! It's like porn but with cars.
By this point it was gone five and so I thought it would be time to leave, but there were still people queueing to see the race trucks so I tagged on the end. It was great - we went upstairs in one of their new high-rises where there's a big open plan seating area/meeting room. The two trucks are set up side by side and then hydraulic systems push the ceilings up and the sides down and they are joined together so the top level of the truck becomes a reasonable-sized room. The guy who told us all about it was really informative and interesting to listen too; he talked about the trucks and then about moving the kit (and people!) in general - how they move it, who moves it, the logistics of getting the trucks to Europe and then what they have to do for the flyaway races. We were the last group in but they didn't rush us, and he kept asking us if we had more questions when he could easily have chucked us out! And they had to pack up one of the trailers then because it was leaving ASAP to go to the Nürburgring as an advance party (as usual), and the rest are leaving early tomorrow morning.
I think they were so relaxed about chucking us out (or not chucking us out as the case may be) because the queues for the park-and-ride were so huge - we would have gotten to the cars at the same time regardless, and this way they could stagger everyone leaving a bit - they were encouraging people to leave early to stagger the leaving but obviously the decided (but didn't announce the fact) to be very unhurried about asking people to leave too. That was really it now though and it was time to go home. I made good time back home again and stopped for take-away curry when I hit Cambridge - yum.
Overall it was an incredible day, I absolutely loved it and would totally do it again in a heartbeat. There were things, though, that they could have improved. The park-and-ride queues were just silly. There were no signs anywhere so it was really hard to tell what was what and where was where and the map wasn't overly helpful either (it took me 10 minutes to find the toilets and I had to ask three people!). Even the programs weren't very obvious - I missed them when I first got in and it might have been useful to have one from the start, and still that didn't tell you where to buy tickets for things or what needed tickets and what you just turned up for. There was a lot of queuing too - some of it was a necessary evil but some of it could have been avoided. The Q&A's and autographs were a bit disappointing too - they were VERY limited, but then I am used to cons where the (amazing) guests sign for hours and hours (and even end up having to bandage their hands because they are rubbed raw from sliding across so much paper - Kate in Blackpool).
The guy doing the race truck tour said to us that they had been overwhelmed by the response and I had heard already that they had sold nearly 5000 tickets. He said that they had been talking about reducing the number of tickets sold to maybe 2000 and charging more for them (the aim of the game is to raise money for charity here so they're not being money-grabbing bastards!). I personally think that would be a lot better - as it was, today I felt like there was so much to do and not enough of me to go and do it. I did get to do the "best" bits, there was still loads I would have liked to have done but didn't have to time to do (like simulators) or didn't get tickets for (Q&A's and Experience Tour) or queued for but missed out on (autographs). Also I think higher prices would bring the focus back to the real fans as well. I think lower numbers would have made it an even better day and I would happily have paid more for such an amazing day.
The people though, I cannot fault them. They were so incredible! Everyone I spoke to was so friendly and helpful and eager. They were so passionate and enthusiastic about what they did and that really came across as you spoke to them; they were approachable and easy to speak to. And everyone there today was volunteering. Truly amazing. My love for this team has gone from 'yeah, cool' to ♥ ♥ ♥.
So between the ultimate in car porn, the pit-stop experience and Jenson "brain-meltingly sexy smile" Button, I had an awesome, awesome, awesome day! It was incredible.