I was there on Sunday, up at 5:30am as we collected my other half's dad as it was a birthday present for him, only his mate couldn't go, my girlfriend didn't fancy going on her own with him, so I got a free ticket to go too!
This was the first MotoGP race I'd been to since the 2008 race at Donington, and prior to that I used to go with my dad on the back of his bike to countless BSB, WSB and MotoGP races in Britain. The first MotoGP race I attended was the 2001 event where Rossi won on the Nastro Azzurro Honda and I was busy cheering on Chris Walker and Leon Haslam on the Shell Advance Hondas. Incidentally that was Walker's last race for the team after which he went back to Superbikes, the poor bastards had a terrible time on those Hondas, they were way out of their depth. I have a load of photos that I took from that race, of all the fans running on the track afterwards, Rossi riding round with an Italian flag, and Noriyuki Haga having to take to the grass as there were so many fans on the actual track!
Anyway!
As we'd left at stupid-o'clock with me hungover from a few beers the night before with some lads from work, we were there ridiculously early and in time for all the action, including the warm-up sessions for the three main classes. I can't remember whether I've ever been early enough to any of the previous MotoGP races to have seen the warm-up sessions, or whether they're a new thing, but it was nice to get an extra opportunity to see the bikes and get some more photographs. They should definitely re-introduce a session like that for F1 having been at the GP earlier this year.
Despite Silverstone attracting a record 150,000+ fans over the three days it was fairly easy to get some good vantage points, even though we only had bog-standard General Admission tickets that didn't allow us into any grandstands. Incidentally that 'record' must be for MotoGP at Silverstone - this isn't an outright record, at least for a modern bike race in Britain as I vividly recall Brands Hatch pulling in 100,000+ on the Sunday alone for WSB races around the time of Bayliss/Edwards/Hodgson circa 2001/02. That was nuts for a place like Brands - people everywhere!
The difference to the F1 however was that the terraced sections around Luffield and Copse which are normally restricted to specific ticket holders on the Sunday for the F1 were completely open for the MotoGP which was a nice sight, as the section at Luffield is a fantastic place for photographs as there isn't a catch fence in the way - as you can discover below! As I said, the place wasn't anything like as rammed as it was for the F1, despite the heightened interest from home favourites Crutchlow and Redding and I'd expected it to be busier than what it was, so it was relatively easy to get about, even between the feature races, which is virtually impossible for the F1 if you want any chance of seeing anything. For that you have to get a spot as early as possible and stay there all day.
So we were on the terrace at Luffield for the three warm-up sessions and afterwards moved around the circuit. We went round to the entrance of Maggots on the outside where the track is only a few metres away from the wall on the outside, so with the bikes at full chat you can get really close which was great for some close-up photos which were very, very hard to get with the bikes going so fast! We stood there for the Moto2 race, and you could count the number of people within spitting distance of us on one hand - loads of room! It was great for Redding to win, and with a really good performance as well - no-one crashed out or handed him the win, he led from the front apart from that brief moment towards the end, and it meant that I'd been lucky enough to witness both of his victories on home soil after his record-breaking win in 125cc in 2008 aged just 15!
Another bonus of the MotoGP was being allowed into the infield - for the F1 it was all closed off for everyone below Silver ticket holders which I felt was very unfair, but this time it was open to all, so for the MotoGP race we went up to the bank in between Maggots/Becketts and the new Arena section. Beyond that through the narrowest bit was off limits, but where we were was still a good spot. Having two great vantages points at different times in the lap was something new! Crutchlow had a disappointing race but seeing the front three right with each other till the last lap was brilliant, real close, hard racing, and watching those last few corners was unreal.
It wasn't even 2pm when the MotoGP was finished, so we stuck around for the Moto3 and watched it from the outside of Wellington Straight on the grass bank looking back towards the Arena section. There were two more support classes after that but with a long journey ahead we called it a day and joined the mass exodus. Traffic was a bit slow, but nothing like the nightmares of Donington, for which I was very grateful.
All in all a cracking day out, and here are some photos below! The full set is on my Flickr page as usual, here is the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crackers250/sets/72157635348750163/
Nicky Hayden and Andrea Iannone, both Ducati Desmosedici GP13 by
Crackers250, on Flickr
Scott Redding, Kalex by
Crackers250, on Flickr
Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha YZR-M1 and Marc Márquez, Honda RC213V by
Crackers250, on Flickr
Cal Crutchlow, Valentino Rossi, Yamaha YZR-M1 by
Crackers250, on Flickr
Isaac Viñales, FTR-Honda M313 and John McPhee, FTR-Honda M313 by
Crackers250, on Flickr
