Getting to know you!

[Alx]

Originally Posted by Distant

I'm Alex (female version), I'm 25 and I'm in the middle of a one year masters degree. I used to post at this place years back when I stumbled across it via a website called "Fantasy Formula Renault" - does that place still exist? I can't remember my pseudo back then but it was probably either Alx or Senninha

Oops, that's me... Found myself again looking back through some of the archived posts... sorry guys... mods feel free to delete my Distant account... I feel like a silly moo now!

I blame the old dormant e-mail address of course!

[Aysedasi]

I'm Ayse and I'm trying to work out why I never posted on this thread....

I 'got into' motorsport literally as a babe in arms when my father used to take me to Goodwood. I'm 2 days off 50 now, so that gives you some idea of when we're talking about.....

Later, in the mid 70's when I was about 16-17, my dad and I were BARC members and went to Thruxton for a couple of seasons. After that, my interest in motorsport waned somewhat.

In 1983/84 I was studying in Manchester when a colleague invited me to go and watch a BriSCA stock car meeting at Belle Vue - which was literally just up the road. I was enthralled. I managed to catch 3-4 meetings there until it was time to end my studies and return down South to work. But the BriSCA had rekindled my interest in motorsport. I rejoined the BARC in 1984 (and have been a member ever since) and between 85 and 87 I attended just about every meeting there was at Thruxton, Brands Hatch and Silverstone, including the 'Lotus Day' at Brands in (I think) 1985 when I first saw my motor racing hero, Ayrton Senna in the flesh.....

But my most important motor racing moment came in June 1986 when, as the result of a throwaway invite, I went to the 24 Heures du Mans for the first time, starting an unbroken annual run which still continues and a fascination with all things Le Mans (except bloody Audis....... ). I've run my own photographic website devoted to my Le Mans 'exploits' since February 2001 and, thanks to Ten Tenths which I also joined in 2001, I have met some splendid people, both 'electronically' and at the Le Mans Ten Tenths 'meets'.

As for a collection, well its largely Le Mans and sportcar related. I have at leaast one video of every Le Mans race I've been to, plus many more. All of which I have transferred to DVD. And of course I have the later DVD's too. I have a collection of about 25 Le Mans programmes (86-06, plus a couple of others thrown in for good measure), plus loads of other supplements and stuff particularly relating to my Le Mans trips.

I can be seen at Le Mans each year in a floppy white and blue hat. In the middle of the night, I'll be one of 3-4 people still awake taking pictures in the pits grandstand. So if you recognise the description, come and say hello.

That's me.....

[MikeHoyer]

Ah, I've not posted here either... well, here goes.

My name's Mike, I'm 26 years old, and I got into motorsport relatively late in life. I used to go to stock car and banger racing events in Ipswich when I was younger, but I was never really that interested in the sport. Then, in 1999 I was bored one Sunday afternoon, so I put the TV on just before the start of the British Grand Prix. I'd never watched a GP all the way through (found it too boring most of the time!), but with nothing else to do I decided to sit down and watch it. I was hooked from then, and watched the rest of the races that year.

At the end of 1999 I started buying F1 Racing magazine, and got most of them, until I stopped again in 2004 and 2005. In 2001 I went to my first "real" race meeting, which was the BTCC round at Snetterton (the night race where it rained a fair bit). Despite the rain I was hooked, although we didn't go to another race meeting until mid 2002, another BTCC round - this time at Brands Hatch.

My interest in model cars started at that Snetterton meeting, where I bought my first diecast, Johnny Herberts Jaguar from the 2000 season. When I got a full time internet connection in 2002 I soon discovered ebay and the big market of F1 diecasts, and have since built up quite an impressive collection of 1:18 and 1:43 scale F1 and sportscars (and one F3). I don't really collect models any more though, a) because I have more important things to spend the money on, and b) I don't have the space for them. Most of my 1:18 scale models are currently in the loft at my parents house!

For Christmas 2002 my then girlfriend bought me a season pass for what are now the MSV tracks, so I went to loads of races in 2003. I decided to buy a cheap digital camera to keep a record of it all, and the rest is history... In late 2004 I snapped the Aston Martin DBR9 testt
ing at Snetterton, and got my first photo published. That opened up loads of doors, and I did a load of stuff for various websites and magazines.

At the end of 2006 I won the MSA Young Motorsport Photographer award, and shortly after that was offered a full time job with a photography agency. It would've been stupid to say no, so I moved near to Silverstone in February, and have been here ever since! I still go to races for fun, and can't wait for Le Mans!

[Super Hans]

Hello, my name is Chris and I'm 27.

I first got into motorsport from watching F1 on TV in the late 80s. My first race meeting was British F3000 at Oulton Park in 1991, which was notable for the tragic death of Paul Warwick at Knickerbrook.

I regularly attend meetings at Croft and Oulton Park, and have ventured as far as Knockhill, Mallory Park, Donington and Silverstone to watch BTCC, F3 and Club events. Despite being an avid F1 fan for most of my life, this year's British Grand Prix will be the first I have ever attended.

As far as armchair fanaticism goes, I have a few DVDs and 3 1:18 Die-Cast models (senna Mclaren & Lotus, and erm...a Chad Blount Nascar!). I mainly buy motorsport books, and am currently reading Chris Nixon's Kings of the Nurburgring. My favourite book is Denis Jenkinson's collection of journalism.

I recently vacated the armchair and had my first ever on-track experience at Croft, where I drove a Porsche 911 and Ginetta G20. I wasn't totally hopeless, and I've caught the bug, so it's my ambition to start club racing in the next 2-3 years.

Nice to meet you all.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

No bloody world cup to get in the way next year either V.

I really must get some tickets ordered...

Did you ever get them tickets ordered Knowles?

[Knowlesy]

Did I hell.

No GP for me this year. I made a last minute attempt on Friday for some tickets, but somebody got there before me.

[Charlie]

Originally Posted by MikeHoyer

My name's Mike, I'm 26 years old, and I got into motorsport relatively late in life.

My name's Charlie and I got into motorsport relatively late in life.

I was 45 years old when I had my first race. It was in the Scottish XR2 Challenge and I came dead last.

I'd always been an 'Armchair Enthusiast' and read about and watched most motorsports, 4wheel, 2 wheel, and no-wheel (F1 Powerboats etc). My wife then made the mistake of giving me a 'Motorsport Exprerience' as a birthday present and the bug really bit.

I dabbled with a few Hot Hatch days but finally I had to buy a car and do my ARDS to satisfy my craving for racing.

I'm now 54 and to help fund my racing I now help prepare and build cars for racing and track days.

I am still racing in the XR2's and have raced on most UK circuits in the past 9 years.
I'd like to celebrate 10 years racing next year by taking my first podium position though
PS If you look hard enough you can watch me on the 'Race and Rally UK' Knockhill coverage on Motors TV and Channel 5 (Yellow XR2 No.18)

[chunder]

My name is Rob and my involvment with raing started from the early years with my dad taking me grass track racing in Lincoln and to things at Cadwell PArk to see Barry Sheene etc.

I raced grass trackfor a few years with a mate and was a huge rallycross fan til teh sport went through its transition phase in the mid nineties.

I have worked for the racing media and am currently heavily involved in short oval racing for various websites and productions.

Collection wise I dont really follow circuit racing anymore, I saw the light years ago and relaised how dull and over rated it was. But I do follow bike racing. My collections dont really amount to much as I am not a merchandising person.

But I do have full collections of Road Racer, RPM, Motorcycle Racer and MCN Sport magazines, and am trying to colect a few other short run magazines that are very hard to get hold of.

Used to make model kits but living in a rented house makes it hard coz of the inherent smelliness!!

And I play lots of online games on PS3 and PC which I love.

[Andy77]

My name is André but i`m usually called Andy and I was born in November, 1977.
The racing bug caught me in 1982 when my dad took me to a race event at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife where a guy in an overall who always seemed to smile crossed our way. I got an autograph but was too young to even imagine who he was so the autograph got lost. In 1983 dad again took me to the Nordschleife for the WSC 1000km race. After qualifieing dad mumbled something like :"there, your autograph is on pole..."
Well, pole was taken by Stefan Bellof in fantastic blow and the fastest lap ever. I got to be a fan of this driver until his way too early death at the Spa 1000km in 1985. Since this day I never was a fanboy of a driver again but started to watch more and more different racing since we had skysports and eurosport via analogue satellite TV during the mid to end 80s.
I started of with Sports Cars (Porsche 956/962, Group C) and F1 but became a C.A.R.T. and 500ccm Worldchampionship (todays MotoGP) fan too. Today I like almost all sorts of 4 wheel racing (except rallye) and 2 wheel racing (road racing).
My armchair enthusiasm for racing crosses with two other hobbies of me - reading and history. I mainly have books , some editions of Germanies main weekly motorsport mag and a couple motorsport related videos&movies. Aside from this i gotta be a virtual racer with the releases of Grand Prix Legends and Sports Car GT in the late 90's. With not much success i have to admit so I connected another hobby with computers,history,reading and virtual racing. I started to create and convert racing circuits to the game sports car gt. This new hobby made me to learn english again since not one guide was in german and my english knowledge was in a really bad state.
My most favourite book currently are the Stefan Bellof biography by Rainer Braun and S.S. Collins' Autodrome - The lost race circuits of Europe. I love the first edition of this book and am really disappointed with the german translation of it.

Nice to meet you all,
Cheers

[Matt]

Hello everyone.

My name is Matt, and I am 17 years old. I have been into motorsports for all of my life. Starting with waking up early on Sundays to catch ESPN's coverage of the Formula One races. Trust me, waking up at 7:00am when your three, that's extremely early. I then started getting into NASCAR, as, that is what my family was into very much. So, a Sunday would turn into, waking up at 7:00, to watch the F1 race, after that was over, we watched the NASCAR race at 12:00. I now currently make it out to 1 NASCAR race a year, either New Hampshire, or Dover. Oh, I forgot to mention, every year, I'd watch the Rolex 24 as well, so, I was also enamored into sports car racing. Then, when the US decided to get into the SuperTouring era, we got a touring car championship. Called the NATCC, it was a total flop, with the factory Dodge team pretty much destroying everyone. However, it bit me. Touring Cars is my favourite form of racing, anything from the BTCC, WTCC, DTM, V8 Supercars, etc etc etc. My favourite era was the SuperTouring one though, and I still am sad to see it not around anymore, as I would have loved to been much older when it was in its heyday. I will love to start collecting diecast, books, and videos, I have gotten a job now, so, I will be buying some soon.

I also have cousins that race, so, I will eventually start racing myself, within the next five years or so I believe. Local short track racing.

Cheers,
Matt.

[d-b]

hi there

as others are doing it i thought i'd have a go

i'm Dave,born 1971

i am crazy about anything with an engine in it

i like cars,buses,diesel locomotives,and prop planes(don't like jets)
i really like the sounds of them & i would love it if i could go to the Reno air races

i have owned about 36 ish cars all various British & American with 1 BMW in there

my earliest motorsport memory is banger racing in the 70's,also saw bangers at Pembrey(before it was a race track)
i started going to Slick 50 races at Mallory Park in 1989 and fell in love with it(dad had a Rover V8 at the time & i always liked Capri's)
Slick finished in 1996 but i still see Rover's & Capri's in Group 1 etc

now i have moved to Kent & my job precludes me from going racing usually
i watch what i can on tv

i have a collection of Rover SD1's & Capri's because i strip the models & repaint them into the colours of the cars i photographed at the meetings

i have been to Le Mans (1993) but i like club meets best(very friendly atmosphere in the pits)

i will love engines till i die(complete petrol head)

thats all for now

d-b

[Dutton]

Originally Posted by Matt

Trust me, waking up at 7:00am when your three, that's extremely early.

Tell that to my parents!

Apparently, I used to get up at about 5am every single day until I was about 10/11 yo.

[Mr V]

Where about's in Kent do you live d-b?

Like your sig and have to confess that the best car i have ever driven was my mates Turbo Technic's 2.8i Capri, what an animal of a car

[COLIN STUBBS]

As my misses is going to be late home tonight here goes...
My interest in racing started in about 1965 when my dads mate used to take me off to all the Northern tracks racing in the special saloon car championships at Cadwell.Croft,Rufforth,Oulton,Aintree,etc and the occasional treck down south.Racing Minis at the time. Then I went solo and did a bit of drag racing and street racing in the early seventies with a Rover V8 Capri.Started helping a local guy name of Roy Gibson with his Minis/GTM in the Northerns and also Mark Collins with his Standard 10 in pre 57 classics.Did a bit of F2 stock car racing with my cousin [changing diffs in the back of the bus at 70mph down the A1 going from one meet to another in the middle of the nights no joke!!]Joined CTCRC or CSCC as it was known then,in 1985 and began racing in the new pre 65 series with a Vauxhall VX4/90 Got divorced in 1990 and built a Capri 3000GT for post historic and run it on and off until 2004,and after more bloody women trouble sold it and decided either to retire or get something cheap and reliable.Bought a Rover 216GTi cup car and never had so much good cheap fun!!

[d-b]

hi there

i live in Broadstairs

Colin,does Phil still race his Capri? & did you sell your one to Alan Daffin?

thanks

db

[Blue Brazil]

Greetings all. My name's Kevin. I'm 26 years old and live in Scotland where I work as a professional drummer. Music is only my second love though, after racing. My first racing experience was some local stock car racing but I really got the bug when my dad took me to Silversone in 1992 to see my idol Ayrton Senna. I used to race karts a bit when I was younger but nowadays I'm more interested in motor racing history and am forever buying memorabilia, much to her annoyance My favourite drivers are Francois Cevert, Tom Pryce, Gilles Villeneuve, Rene Arnoux, Elio de Angelis, Ayrton Senna, Schumi, Felipe and Kimi.

I also quite like football and follow Cowdenbeath FC home and away. They're a Scottish 2nd division team with an average crowd of 400-500. It's a bit of a strange obsession which has led to me buying a minibus which transports a group of us to away games. Their nickname is The Blue Brazil, hence my username. Incidentally, Rene Arnoux has a personalised Cowdenbeath top!

Apart from that I like humour and beer.

[luke]

welcome to tt blue brazil!

[nycuk]

Well it's taken me a while to post on this thread as I don't normally scroll this far down the menu page! Anyway...

I'm Paul, just about to turn 38, and I live in Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK. I've been interested (obsessed?) with motorsport since the late seventies when I can remember watching Alan Jones win the '77 Austrian GP on TV. I then followed the 1978 season from start to finish and have never looked back. The interest comes from my dad, who visited the early British GP's in the early '50s with his dad as a boy, as well as LeMans regularly in the early 50's - mid 60's too. My first race meeting was the International Trophy at Silverstone in 1978, and as well as the rain I recall meeting Ronnie Peterson and Patrick Depailler as highlights. Since then I've attended many GPs in the UK and abroad, and seen every televised GP since 1978 (except two - Spain 2005 as I was in NYC and Monaco last year as I was at the Indy 500!). My interest is limited pretty much to single seaters, and I've never really had a great interest in tin tops. F1, GP2, F3, IRL and CCWS are what I follow religiously, whilst keeping an eye on all the other junior single seater formulae. As well as motor racing I love photography and travelling, and my other lifes passion is music.

Armchair wise.... not a great deal to be honest. I went through a phase of collecting 1/43 scale cars but ended up selling a lot of them, likewise my lifes collection of Autosports. I used to subscribe to both Autosport and F1 Racing but don't any more as I became disillusioned with the quality of both, though I still sometimes buy Autosport over the counter. I buy Motor Sport magazine regularly too, which is consistently excellent. I also used to tape pretty much everything motorsport related on TV and keep them... All gone now too I'm afraid. I have however kept the program and ticket stub for every race meeting I've ever been to and find that these serve me well as souvenirs. I have lots of 'self gained' autographs of F1 drivers which are irreplaceable. I obtained these at various Bristish GP's when paddock access was free and easy (pre '83). I'm not so bothered with autographs these days, and prefer taking photographs (candid paddock shots especially) at F3 and other junior formulae meets where access is free and easy. And that's me!

[nic.v814]

Im nic ,22 ,living in perth australia at the moment but going home to new zealand this year.

I grew up with a fascination for everything to do with the military and wars i read every book from my local library.

I didnt really get into motorsport until i was about 16 when i saw greg murphy racing on tv and i havent stopped since every year i seem to add another series to the list of series i follow but mainly i stick with the ones with Kiwi drivers in them.

[TilkeWannabe]

Hi, my name is Dale, I'm 18, I live in Geraldton in Western Australia (it's a BIG place, can't miss it.) Finished Yr 12, working in a supermarket, planning on going to TAFE to get into the Building & Construction industry this year or next.

Motorsports wise, I've been into it since I was 7 when I started to watch V8 Supercars (Ford fan allll the way!) By 2000, I was following F1, Ferrari and Michael Schumacher was and still is my favourite driver. Even when Schuey won almost everything in 2002 I still followed it. That year I bought my 1st issue of Autosport magazine and it broadened my knowledge, understanding and diversity of the other many categories around the world. Later on I got into GT Racing to an extent when I sorta lost interest in F1 (2004-5). TBH, I'd be interested in just about all the categories in those Autosport mags, they were new and very interesting, even if I never followed them.

Nowadays, I mainly follow F1, again (Ferrari, Webber, anyone but McLaren), V8 Supercars (Ford), MotoGP (Stoner, Vermuelen), Dakar Rally (Volkswagen)

Memorabilia wise, I have 2 treasured, framed pictures of Michael Schumacher from 2000, Craig Lowndes' autograph, (on a Ferrari hat!) F1 season reviews of 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, also own 50 Years of Formula 1 On-Board and Lap of the Gods (both AWESOME DVDs!). Hope to add to the rather small collection in the future, especially with model F1 cars.

That's about it for me.

TW

[Matt]

Nice to know more about ya mate. Shame you like those bloody Fords though. :P

[Craig]

I live in Geraldton in Western Australia (it's a BIG place, can't miss it.)

I'e been to Geraldton -- didn't seem very big to me

Jut a quick welcome to those recent newcomers to this forum. Welcome and look forward to conversing with you soon!

[david5]

Hello everyone, David from Australia. I live in a small country town called Coonabarabran in NSW. Were about 460km Nth West of Sydney.

Been a motorsport follower since I can remember( I can recall watching Bathurst in 1973) and participated at a club level & karting for a few years.

Now Im married with one son & a mortage Ive reverted back to spectating. I like to attend as many events as possible & so far this year I went to the 12 Hour production car race at Bathurst, its just 3 hours down the road.

I follow F1 on & off as well as V8Sc but Im mainly interested in historic touring cars of the Group C & Improved Production car eras.

My main thing is model cars & I do buy the odd piece of memorabilia & old Race mags.

Cheers David

[ECW Dan Selby]

Why hello there people. I'm Dan from Harlow, Essex. I'm 22 years old and have been into Formula 1 since 1998.

I never used to hold an interest in motorsport whatsoever. My mother and father just simply wern't into it. The only person in my family who was, was my Uncle. He used to live with his mother (my nan) until about the age of 25 (I think!), and any time i'd go over to my nans, my uncle would be in his room playing on the Playstation/Megadrive, depending on when! I'd always be interested in this, then he'd inevitably have to turn it off, due to the F1 being on. At this point, i'd normally spend some time with my nan in the living room and leave him to watch it. Then came the turning point - My uncle purchased F1 '97 for the Playstation (classic!). I had a little go and found it all a little bit different. All these driver names, all these real life tracks, and these crazy looking cars. As I began to learn some of these names, I couldn't help but want to give watching an actual race a go... I tried, and many times I failed to last the whole duration. But the point remained, I had broken into motor racing I then started to watch these races off my own back (as my uncle had left by that point), began learning all the names and who they drove for, as well as information about the various tracks. I started to really understand the appeal in it.. the speed, the determination, the danger. I'll never forget my uncle telling me about the happenings of Imola 1994. It really moved me, and I had to find out more. I then went on a quest to learn exactly what happened that weekend, and more importantly, why. Due to the tragic circumstances, my respect for these guys just rose and rose..

My favourite race of memory has to be Nurburgring 1999. I was in USA at the time on holiday and was upset that i'd be missing a race (I'm sure I could have found it out there looking back..), and asked a "friend" (I didn't really trust him tbh) to record it for me. Unbelievably, he did! I had never seen such a topsy-turvy race up until then, and that was the moment I realised I was hooked.

I've also heald interests in MotoGP, and to a less degree British/World Superbikes. I have been to numerous WSB/BSB Brands Hatch meetings and have enjoyed them thoroughly, as well as seeing DTM at Brands last year (along with Lewis).

I shall be attending both the Monaco GP and British GP this year (F1).

I absolutely love go-karting and it pains me that I didn't take my uncle's advice to start karting earlier. I don't recall a time i've ever lost (genuinely...! There was 1 time when I was about 15 racing with some friends at Colchester that apparently my friend had somehow finished ahead of me, without actually overtaking me... work that out!)

My other passion is professional wrestling. I've immitated wrestling since I was at Primary School, then went on to do it outside of school and set up various "Sunday league" promotions. I've actually been on a feature-length Channel 4 documentary called (wait for it..) "Lock Up Your Sons" about the "backyard wrestling" phenomana that had swept the UK. I (along with a partner) now part own a wrestling company that's looking to launch in a few months based in Essex.

Erm, I guess that's almost everything

Selby

[Megan]

Hello Everyone, I’m new here and seeing as this was the only ‘introduction’ thread I could find, I thought I’d introduce myself properly

My name is Megan, I’m 15 and I live near Leicester in England. One of the main reasons I joined this forum, other than my obvious love for all things with four wheels and an engine, is because I’m admittedly the odd-one-out in my group of friends at school. Absolutely none of them have any interest whatsoever in cars, and none of them seem to appreciate my obsession with them either. It’s not the nicest situation to be in when you get back to school on a Monday morning and all you want to talk about is the previous weekend’s racing So, this is the reason you find me here, simply to meet some like-minded people and hopefully make some good friends.

My love for cars came from about 6 or 7 years back when I started watching Formula 1 on a regular basis. Now I am hooked and can’t get enough of it. Single Seaters have since been by far my favourite racing category and I try my best to follow as many series as I can. I have also started to follow the Red Bull X-Fighters FMX series recently just for a bit of fun, even though I’m not really into motorbikes. My favourite drivers are Lewis Hamilton (what a surprise ), Sebastian Vettel, Heikki Kovalainen, Jack Clarke (Formula 2), Brendon Hartley (F3 Euro Series), and Levi Sherwood (Red Bull X-Fighters). Rather embarrassingly I have to admit that I have a bit of a thing for racing drivers. Even if some of them aren’t the best looking guys I’ve seen, there’s just something about them that I love

So, back to the real world. I am currently about to start my second year of my GCSE’s, and after that I plan to do maths and physics A level (I must be crazy). I’ll need it though, if I want to get the job I want, preferably some sort of race car design/engineering - I haven’t quite decided what yet. So far I have been lucky enough to do a week of work experience at the Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines factory at Brixworth where they makes the F1 engines for McLaren, Brawn and Force India. That was quite possibly the most exciting week of my life so far. I could go on about how brilliant it was all day if I wanted to

I enjoy a wide range of music, I like to draw and I also love photography. I only wish I could be better at it myself

There is a lot more I could tell you about myself, but this introduction is already long enough. I’m sure I’ll get another change to continue it some other time. Thanks for reading this far

Pleased to meet you