Bruntinthorpe on your Marks

Hi Andy, If you are in contact with the organisers, please pass on our thanks for the opportunity to participate. The event has clearly grown every year to something really special. I do think that something needs to be put into place to control the gates just a little more as all the gates were realesing cars as soon as they were ready and this resulted in significant bottle knecking and queing with motors over heating and tyres getting cold. the second half of the afternoon session and to some extent the second half of the morning did improve.

Significantly as the lorries and JCB's use the outside of the track and taxiways they do need to cross the circuit around the last corner and at the end of the gates at the start. The start was managed brillently by the marshalls but there were a number of times it supprised you to see a lorry crossing as you got to the last corner, given that these are not being driven by experienced lorry drivers, it is less than ideal.

More radical but I wonder if there is a potential to get the Royal Engineers/TA to deploy a bridge for the event so that either the lorry/JCB or the gates could be placed on the inside of the track but away from the grass runway thus elliminating the need for a crossover???

Thanks for the feed back...I have already thanked John on your behalf....I have told him to pop on here so he should see your feed back...........If you want to contact him direct he is on this thread somewhere so you should be able to send him a PM...

Thanks again...

sorry i only got a few pictures.

The JCB was utterly amazing, setting of the car alarms in the car park!! I want that exhaust note..

The marshals overall did a great job, but i would say that they needed more in the lines, the girl with the orange hair did a stirling job but on her own so could not control all the cheeky buggers who drove down the pit lane to get to the front of the queue. Im happy to give anyone feedback.

one last photo, there was a photographer on the last bend so i wonder if we can see if he has any pictures?

Great pics...is there a collective noun for a bunch of Maseratis?
Cheers Wattie

Wattie said:

Great pics...is there a collective noun for a bunch of Maseratis?
Cheers Wattie

Click to expand...

"A splendour"

It should be a "growl"

Great day out, thanks Andy for making us aware of it. Good to put a few more faces to names as well. Loved some of the comments from passengers, most of them were surprised we were using our own cars for some reason; and it's not often I get to make young ladies squeal and giggle nowadays.

The looks on some of the "wishes" kids - especially when slamming the anchors on at the end of the straight, with the car squirming under the braking effort and then going sideways into the last corner - was well worth the fuel and wear and tear cost! We had some people queue for 2 hours to get a 2 minute ride in our cars, there will have to be more masers for next year - definitely more popular than the evo's! Oh and we'll need car seats or boosters - some of the smaller kids couldn't see out the front.

Didn't get many photos of cars but got some good ones of the air displays. We had a real grandstand seat - not often you get that close to the flight line at a display. Didn't get to see anything else going on - far too busy driving (or queuing for the track) for the whole day.

One last photo gleaned from Alex when he was queing for the GT40...

Looks like a great day sad I missed it

It was. As Newton said there were a few little annoyances primarily the queuing both for passengers and the cars. The lorries I got used to after lunch, just had to make sure you were looking far enough ahead through the corners and picked a safe line. Not ideal but toward the end of the day they added that extra bit to think about on what would have become a boring circuit as it was so short

Well I can only echo the comments from the others.

What a superb day was had by all on Saturday. I was buzzing all weekend and i now just about come down. Awesome, bl00dy awesome.

Thanks to the girls for manning the gate and keeping the queuing customers informed during their 2 hour, yes 2 hour wait! They played a blinder. A real testament to the broad appeal of the Maserati brand as I had expected the younger teen crowd to lean more towards the Evos that shared our gate but that was just not the case.

A number of passengers thanked me for participating in the event. I felt like a right fraud and explained that blasting around a track all day was really no hardship to me!! We really were a lucky bunch.

As mentioned above we were limited by the number of passes available but in practice i don't think the track could have taken any more cars it appeared to be at full capacity. I agree that the Artics were a worrying distraction after the long straight, they certainly gave me a couple of interesting moments.

Andy, thanks for making us of aware of this fantastic day, it really was a credit to you and the organisers. Book me in for next year pleeeease !


James & Vicky

Sorry, I forgot to say thanks for the girls on taking the money and organising the queues (long ones) as they did that without asking and with hot bothered punters. They didnt get a track lap either as the marshals closed the gates just as they were about to go out, I had even stopped the brake fluid boiling so wanted to get that last run and try to beat that first top end on the straight, never did mind!! Just 100 yards more.....

Next time, first out...

Frank

found 1 video, just 2 of us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSAfusOP4e0&feature=channel&list=UL

Love it...that Lotus Exige is there every year.......Bloody loud....

Newton....there was something you forgot to mention.........Speaking to one of my team leaders today he said you gave him a ride around the track. He also said that when he was waiting the lady said you will be going with the next car which is Newton...With that you came around the bottom corner and had a little spin....back end round and all that...........My team leader was pooing his pants thinking you were going to spin again....

FCZ...by all accounts your GT S was the most popular with the biggest wait.....Everyone wanted a piece of you...............

Last corner was fun Andy, someone right there at the end of the circuit taking pictures or videos - there'll be a few good shots if you know who it was.

Andyk said:

FCZ...by all accounts your GT S was the most popular with the biggest wait.....Everyone wanted a piece of you...............

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Yep - 15 min passenger wait for the rest of us - 2hours for the GTS

The car of the day.....

One day itll be mine

Just got this email from John...May explain some of the gate issues..



Hi everyone

In the first instance I would like to apologise to all the car gates, especially Steve from the London Tunnelers whom I badly let down , ,

it all started when Subaru came in on the Friday night and took out the cones between car gates 5 & 6 without us knowing to make one large Subaru gate with Roger Clark racing in it ( instead of separate gates ). That meant when allyou car clubs arrived, you counted down the gates. Gates 1,2,3 and 4 were ok but after that everyone was in the wrong gate and this had the major impact of Steve and the London Tunnelers not having a gate and causing a little conflict between themselves andthe GTR0C club.

Because of this the Tunnelers were without table, chairs, awning, etc which took us until 10:00 am before we could get the track underway.

Also because the Big Thunder track marshal Steve was taking his time letting the cars out onto the track, this caused a back log for you guys.

We realise now we had too many aircraft landing which to be fair should have been in a 5 minute window but the planes pleased themselves when they arrived.



Going forward we will try our hardest to not have any planes landing at all next year and the air show will be done in the air without landings.

Pat Jackson, the old track marshal will be back with us next year and he will keep things going.



Please again accept our sincerest apologies, especially Steve and the Tunnelers because this is the 1st time this thing has happened in the last 11 years and we will make sure it is the last.



Regards,

John and Chris.

Thanks Andy

That explains the gate debacle. I arrived first of our crew and no-one seemed to know what was happening. Even something as simple as a laminated number on the fence next to each gate would have helped.

Anyway, looking forward to next year an some pics and video to follow a bit later on today.

D

Great Dave..look forward to that...