Quote:
Originally Posted by Sodemo
The irony is that we had 7 weeks of scorching hot weather but not one race weekend fell during that period.
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Thruxton, Oulton and Croft did. That's three race weekends.
Snetterton came about three days after the end of the heatwave!, (Saturday was very sunny but not that warm - very breezy indeed). Sunday was just ****-poor, (although the sun came out for the first time all day, about half an hour after the final race of the day - the 60th anniversary race!). I went to Snetterton too as it's my local track - this part of Norfolk really is located within the driest part of the UK, so it was very unfortunate that the meeting happened just after the heatwave ended. I went to a club meeting there about three weeks before and that was run under glorious conditions - conditions made for circuit motor racing. The bad weather at the BTCC meeting did seem to affect the attendance on the Sunday - thought it was really low, personally.
I have never liked the summer break, mind you. Britain doesn;t have the best of weather for much of the time, as we all know. So why take a month out during the time when you are most likely to get the best weather? Season ends too late in my opinion and starts too early. First race of 2018 at Brands was later than in 2017, at least. I went to Donington this year and last. It's too early in the year. I love the flowing track where there are plenty of great viewing spots. But weather has been poor both years - really cold in 2017, and even worse in 2018, (bitter weather with plenty of rain mixed in too). I'd run the season between May and September only.
I went to Thruxton. Very, very hot there - I got very sunburnt and that is what motor-racing should be about. Enjoying the sounds and smells of internal combustion engines in the heat.
I'd rather be sunburnt at Thruxton than wet too. Mainly grass banks there and I'm sure there would be real problems with cars getting bogged down on the ca-parks if it was really wet. All grass, and it was chaos exiting the car parks in the dry!
I like Thruxton though- it has a real old-school feel to it. A total contrast to the Jonathan Palmer run tracks. They do have too much of a corporate feel and track-limit rules get on my nerves. If you don't want people to run wide off corners to get the best lines, put a real disincentive in. Such as sausage kerbs or gravel-traps. Not that I think it is a real problem anyway - so what, if drivers leave the track limits? Doesn;t matter at all, really.