[WEC] 2019 Silverstone WEC, Who is Going/Who Went...?

[GT6]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

We went because we're fans of the WEC and going just for practice and qually was a bit halfbaked for us. Yes we knew the race had been shortened but that doesn't mean we're not entitled to complain about that fact...

Yep in total agreement there, been to the silverstone WEC race each year for many years and i certainly did not want a reduced race, i will always be interested in this type of racing but i still feel the shortening of the race was not welcome by many people.

[hoffman66]

It's a shame it really is.

Even the GT class so full last year with BMW and Ford aswell as the current teams looks a bit thinner.

And please forgive me but as a fan I cannot get massively excited about P2, they sound the same, pretty all look the same. Some great drives int he tv footage I was watching, especially from that Dutch lad (with the worlds richest Dad it seems, makes even Daddy Stroll look cheap)

And Am, again, is OK, but forgive me for saying I want to see the very best all the time, not rich amateurs, I know it has always been a part of endurance racing, but surely they can be in ELMS, where the GT field was very poor.

I went to enjoy crazy cars on the GP track one last time and was impressed, was lucky with weather, but the way the Friday crowd was left out of some things was a little sad.

Will be fascinated to see a Wing bridge, but I am wondering if it might be for guests only, and I also presume that Hilton are renting the land? It is their hotel after all, not Silverstones, why would Silverstone pay for it?

[GT6]

i think it would be very hard for the bridge to be restricted to hotel guests only, have you ever heard of a hotel where only guests are allowed in, how would you register on arrival or even enquire about staying in the hotel, and how would they stop people from the wing going into the hotel, security guards checking everyone. Suspect bridge will be for all and is part of the agreement between silverstone and the hotel

[eps]

Hmmm... I'm sure they could try to stop people accessing it - entry cards or badges, etc.. But hopefully not!

https://www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink...circuit-hotel/

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by eps

Hmmm... I'm sure they could try to stop people accessing it - entry cards or badges, etc.. But hopefully not!

https://www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink...circuit-hotel/

Definitely ‘hopefully not’, but I share your scepticism. I can’t see the hotel being happy with thousands of non residents trooping through the place (during a big meeting, at least), and then using lifts or stairs to get to the bridge level.....

It would be very easy to issue residents and guests with a wristband or something that indicates they have the right to be there. Happens all the time at most meetings I go to, whether it’s to get into the circuit, pit lane, hospitality, get on the pitwall, or even get in a race car!

[Mystery]

Originally Posted by The ginger prince

*Silverstone still needs a tunnel / dunlop bridge to get from the start finish straight / car park exits to the wing though.

Yes this put me off going across to the Wing at all.

My wife who's never been to a motor sports event live before and I went on the Saturday only. Spent most of the morning in the IPS stands, ELMS qualifying around Becketts then back to the start line for the Porkers race and ELMS start, followed by a stroll around the outside of the circuit. I had a brilliant time but wish I'd brought my bike, but my wife found the 4 hours a bit long and has concluded she'd do a race meeting again but not an Endurance event. Fair enough really.

[GT6]

Why did you not use the bus, on saturday there were plenty of them and you also get a great view from the top floor as you travel around

[Mystery]

Originally Posted by GT6

Why did you not use the bus, on saturday there were plenty of them and you also get a great view from the top floor as you travel around

We've been to the circuit several times before including doing 3 half marathons around it, so the view from the bus wasn't really a benefit. We didn't have another reason though other than every time we went past a stop there was a big queue and no sign of a bus.

I didn't really mind the walking though, because we could reminisce about stories from the track before. Such as the line of trees past the Farm Bridge that were used as a very informal toilet (not by me I should add) during the first half marathon we did, and stopping off at the old SnoozeBox hotel for a coffee another time.

[hoffman66]

I personally think Silverstone should have embraced their past a lot more with improvements.

I love the old building int he middle, the rickety old house near Woodgate, they should embrace it all, maybe modernise them instead of just hiding them, or knocking them down.

They have more history than most tracks and we are famed for it, yet it is all hidden away, do more with Bridge corner, for events like this, it was a fabulous bend yet it sits there vacant, doing nothing.

All we are going to ahev is a posh new museum, no doubt costing a lot to enter, to try ad make even more money. I get it, but it's not the same.

But maybe I am showing my age, I would have preferred a lot of stuff that has happened on UK tracks not to happen, for instance I can remember watching bike and car racing at Cadwell right at the bottom of the bank into the Mountain, inches away from cars!

[outnumbered]

Originally Posted by GT6

Why did you not use the bus, on saturday there were plenty of them and you also get a great view from the top floor as you travel around

I'm not convinced there were "plenty" of buses. I waited about 10-15 minutes at the Wing after about 3 hours of the ELMS race, got fed up and started to walk, then 2 buses came along at once.

I noticed the same thing last year during the WEC event, there were about 4 of them in convoy and then a very very very long wait. I think they need some active management, rather than just letting the drivers trundle around all day without any proper scheduling.

[GT6]

Unfortunately buses are like that, a long wait means big queues then vast numbers get on that bus taking time, the next bus arrives no queue so moves off quickly, eventually they appear to be hunting in packs, it happens in every city i have ever been to

[Aysedasi]

We certainly waited for about 15 minutes on Sunday and then gave up and walked to Becketts to watch the start of the WEC race from the (closed) grandstand.......

[B0U170NS]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

We certainly waited for about 15 minutes on Sunday and then gave up and walked to Becketts to watch the start of the WEC race from the (closed) grandstand.......

I was there on Friday and I'm pretty sure there were only 2 buses running 30 minutes apart

[Anyopenroad]

No 2020-21 WEC calendar yet. Current season was announced on 17 Aug last year.

Of relevance to this thread is that the last weekend of August 2020 (which is also the Bank Holiday weekend next year) has MotoGP at Silverstone.

Assuming WEC wants to start in September, that messes up the usual ELMS schedule. ELMS usually announce calendar at the Spa round, which is 21/22 September. I wouldn’t be surprised to have ELMS at Silverstone mid-August and no Silverstone on the WEC calendar.

[PhilClayton61]

A bit of a late addition to this thread I know, but I've only just joined the forum (excuses, excuses I know...).
Anyhow, a snippet of info relayed to us (me and my partner) when we enquired with a Silverstone official as to why Becketts was closed on Sunday..
Apparently they had received a number of complaints (from spectators??) during saturday's ELMS about sight lines etc being blocked by advertising hoardings/banners etc.
Mmmmm we were in Becketts on saturday and although there were banners erected around The Loop it only meant the cars were out of sight for a second.
The second part of this story is that for the WEC race we'd decided to watch from Becketts so after the pitlane walkabout we took the shuttle-bus over and alighted, only to find the g'stand all locked up. So we headed back to the bus stop... on the way we chatted to the young lady at the sole burger bar, she said her boss was livid with Silverstone as they'd told him to set up on of his outlets there and now it looked like they'd get no trade.
Definitely a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was up to methinks.
Despite this organisational b@11s up, we had a brilliant weekend and thoroughly enjoyed both 4 hour races

[SnoodyMcFlude]

They got complaints? I'm calling BS on that. It's a more obscured view if you don't open the stand at all

[Hedley Verity]

On the day they tweeted that it was down to staff shortages, once it became obvious that there was no-one coming to open the stand I made my way round to Woodcote, where as usual they'd opened the one of the Woodcote stands with the worse view, I could see into the BRDC clubhouse though, loads of staff in there to wine & dine those who pay no attention to the racing.
I watch loads of live sport, never been anywhere where I've felt less wanted than Silverstone.

[Mystery]

Have to say I'll be back to watch another time. Preferably without my wife and with my bike

[Anyopenroad]

Better late than never (I have a huge backlog of photos!) here's a big album of pictures from Silverstone:

https://bit.ly/2mbR7YW

First few are of FP3 from National Pit Straight stand, then Qualifying from Stowe Lakeside, then the race from Club/International Pit Straight/Abbey/Luffield.


Enjoy!

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Hedley Verity

On the day they tweeted that it was down to staff shortages, once it became obvious that there was no-one coming to open the stand I made my way round to Woodcote, where as usual they'd opened the one of the Woodcote stands with the worse view, I could see into the BRDC clubhouse though, loads of staff in there to wine & dine those who pay no attention to the racing.
I watch loads of live sport, never been anywhere where I've felt less wanted than Silverstone.

I think I forgot to say that following my complaints to both Silverstone and the WEC, I received this reply from Fiona Miller (a name many will know well) on behalf of the WEC:

Dear Andrew

Many thanks for your feedback in response to our recent event and subsequent newsletter. We are always interested to hear from our fans so that we can each year strive to put on a better and more entertaining event, so naturally we were a little concerned about your trouble in finding food outlets and access to grandstands.

We followed up with Silverstone Circuits, who control the number of grandstands open, and below (in blue) is their response. It must be said that very many of the grandstands around the circuit that are in place for the F1 Grand Prix are not opened for other events – each one has to be marshalled and have security and there are not the hundreds of thousands of fans present that make this viable. However, we fully recognise that Becketts is a very popular area for fans to watch from, and we have taken careful note of this for the future.

There are food areas in 11 different locations around site during WEC – National Pits & Paddock, Fan Zone, Becketts, Club, Abbey, National Pit Straight, Inside Copse Tunnel, Luffield, Pit Stop Café and Hall 1. So this is 30 outlets around site and a further 3 for our own catering. We work closely with our partners who supply our food outlets to strategically place food outlets in the places of highest footfall, based on historical information and site knowledge, as well as by as many open grandstands as possible, which won’t compromise the food vendors or the customer expectation.

Becketts grandstand is the one at the top of the map – a section of which is open on the Sunday only.

Despite your specific comments, we very much hope that you enjoyed the WEC weekend’s racing at Silverstone, and we look forward to seeing you there again in the future.

I did reply pointing out the various inaccuracies in the info provided to the WEC by Silverstone, including blatant lies about the Becketts grandstand and the food outlets. I didn't get a further reply....

It was of course kind of Silverstone to remind me where the Becketts grandstand is located. I'll lay odds-on that I've been to that location more often than the member of staff who provided me with the information...

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Makes me more annoyed that they've outright lied about Becketts, almost makes me want to find photos to show how not open it was. Makes me glad that I won't be going next year due to it clashing with Wiscombe Hillclimb, a venue which knows how to look after competitors and spectators (albeit on a much, much smaller scale )

Also it's all well and good giving a number of food outlets, but the majority are the main pit straight and behind the wing, so pretty f-ing useless for anywhere else in the circuit.

[Aysedasi]

That was it though, on Friday and Saturday there was literally nothing around the circuit. On Sunday there was an outlet at Club, most of the rest of the circuit other than around the pits and the few open grandstands was a haven for dieters..... The simple fact is that Silverstone didn't want anyone wandering around 3/4 of the circuit.

[PhilClayton61]

Originally Posted by SnoodyMcFlude

They got complaints? I'm calling BS on that. It's a more obscured view if you don't open the stand at all

I trust that's meant to be the Silverstone angle was BS, and not my anecdote
I'm assuming it was spectators that allegedly complained, it could've been whoever was screening the ELMS for TV/Internet ????
What I should've also added was that the young lady we spoke to (I should point out that it was my partner that spoke to the official, Sandra is from Glasgow and when she's irate, as she was at this point, its in the officials best interest to give a proper answer...or suffer the verbal consequences ) was opening up the stand at Club that hadn't been open for the Saturday.
It was the same story in '18. They opened Copse & Becketts on Saturday and shut them Sunday.
No flamin' consistency.

And as for their comment about the food outlets... I can only imagine the response of the owner and staff when they found out that Becketts was closed to th epublic but they'd been told to set their pitch there....

Also, never understood why Silverstone Six on the infield isn't open for this weekend. It is for Blancpain GT (but then loads of outfield stands aren't).

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Originally Posted by PhilClayton61

I trust that's meant to be the Silverstone angle was BS, and not my anecdote

Absolutely, sorry! The idea that spectators would complain about the perfectly decent view from Becketts to the extent that Silverstone decided not to open it? Pure BS.

Is Silverstone Six the one between the Loop and Maggots? Would've thought it's a good one as has good visibility of the track and quite small so doesn't need many people to steward it.

nb. Gotta love a Scottish accent (particularly Glaswegian) for letting people know you're serious. I remember a mate of mine going to reason with some student neighbours of his who had kept him awake most the night, his opening line was "Look, pal...". The poor kids turned white

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by PhilClayton61

And as for their comment about the food outlets... I can only imagine the response of the owner and staff when they found out that Becketts was closed to th epublic but they'd been told to set their pitch there....

We saw them at Becketts briefly with their trailer and thought at least we were going to be able to get some food, even if we couldn't get into the closed 'open' grandstand, but 5 minutes later they drove off and we found them at Club towards the end of the race.