British GT at Knockhill

[Simon M]

Hi Chaps,

Hope this is Ok, but the Avon Tyres British GT Championship is visiting Knockhill this weekend, 8th and 9th May. We will be travelling up from Bristol to represent Lotus for our first ever race at this circuit. It would be great to see plenty of Lotus models around as we try to take the fight to KTM and Ginetta with our little orange 2-Eleven.

Come and say hello if your up there.

Simon

[bingoking]

Simon

Hope you have a good time at Knockhill.

Unfortunately I can't make it as I am heading back from holiday otherwise I would be there as I only live about 20 mins from the circuit.

[Al]

Hi Simon,

I would loved to have come over for a chat as I marshal on the Scottish Motorsport Marshals Club Rescue Units at Knockhill and elsewhere but unfortunately that old bugger work gets in the way and I am out in Brazil for this years round.

Good luck with the weather. You will either get sunburnt or wind burnt and definitely soaked at some point in the weekend due to the infamous localised weather at the track. In fact you may get all 3 in the same day!

Safe racing and the good handling litlle cars always do well at Knockhill over big grunty things.

Al.

[hedgerley]

I'll be there Simon, although I'm not sure which day yet - I might do both if SWMBO has nothing planned for me! I'm 15 mins down the road.

Al's right - the 2-Eleven should be well suited to the circuit. Anything more than half a dozen of those big GTs on track and it gets very crowded.

Hopefully I'll get to park on one of the few tarmaced areas as the Esprit doesn't take to kindly to the grassy slope on the uphill side of the circuit! Whatever, I'll come and say hi.

[hedgerley]

I was there on Sunday Simon, to offer commiserations as it turned out. In the first lap of the first race the gear change cable snapped. I stopped over to say hi at lunch and your 'spannerman' (his words) said without a spare they would just jam into fifth and leave it there for the second race! As it turned out they must have fixed it as in the second race they did really well to get up to leading the G4 class, with a great move on the KTM, but then....

....a safety car with about 3 minutes to go meant the field bunched and at the restart the 2-Eleven got shunted off into the gravel and beached by the Dodge Viper. B******s. I really feel for you guys, that little car was doing so well.

Highlight of the day for me was standing next to Damon Hill in the centre of the infield helping to cheer on his son Josh in the Formula Ford race - he came second. With the Spanish GP on, I guess we can see where his loyalties now lie, spurning a sunny Barcelona for a chilly/windy/damp/sunny (all in equal measure) Knockhill. He even queued with the rest of us for the greasy burger and chips! With today's announcement of the £27m loan for Silverstone I think he's done a remarkable job in securing the future of the British GP.