Getting to know you!

[Craig]

Okay, so I am quite new to this section. It'd be nice to hear a little about who frequents this particular area of 10 Tenths so that I know who's reading and what your interests are.

My name is Craig (obviously), 32, and have been around motorsport since I was about five when I remember going to Wimbledon with my dad and grandad. Used to watch the GP on the telly as far back as 1986 and then started watching BTCC soon after that. My dad started kart racing just before I left school and that got me into the sport in a bigger way and I persuaded him to take me to Brands to see the BTCC (don't remember the year but I remember the two Toyotas taking themselves off the track in front of me!)

Started watching oval racing at Ringwood as soon as I could drive and then kinda lost a lot of interest after Mansell retired and then Senna was killed. Got back into it in 1998 after watching the Mansell Donington race on TV and have been around the sport ever since; primarily BTCC but with a keen interest in Champcar (especially Alex Z and Juan M!) which was, in my opinion, the best series in the world for a few years until they messed it up.

For five years I would be trackside literally every weekend of the season but, in recent years, having now gotten old and bought the obligatory house and car, I find myself bored with the whole Snetterton/Thruxton/Silverstone thing and prefer to do several bigger meetings a year such as Le Mans and a Nascar race or two.

You'll not be surprised to hear then that my interests in 'memorabilia' generally follow my previous involvement in 'real life' motorsport (if there is such a thing)

Despite saying I would never get into collecting model cars I find myself with an expanding collection in the past couple of years. I have three different collections:

1:43 BTCC cars from Super Touring era: I have approx 90 diecasts and kits from this era and am looking for the last 10 to complete my collection (no more were made)

1:18 Le Mans winners: Have 12 models so far (see other topic) and am looking for ways to be afford extras to add to this collection - they are not cheap!

1:18 Ayrton Senna Collection: Have all the models released to date in this scale. This was what first got me into collecting diecasts. Lovely little collection!

Until I developed my interest in diecasts I built up a large collection of videos and DVDs. I have sold a lot of these now but have all the BTCC season reviews from 1987 to 2003 (cba with latter seasons) and all the Mansell videos ever made (for some reason!!)

I also have a huge collection of books - mainly a run of Le Mans yearbooks and as many BTCC books and programmes as I could get my hands on for a website I was going to start several years ago but which never happened after I lost interest in the series.

So... if you've bothered reading all the way to hear you obviously have a screw loose too! Where do your interests lie and why? Tell us and we will use that info to try and develop the forum so that it will be of increased interest to you.