RICK @ the RACES ( 17 to 24 Sept 2013)
21 Sept Norfolk Arena , Kings Lynn UK
22 Sept Brafield Stadium (PRIMO INT) Northampton UK
This weeks report covers my trip back to England for the BriSCA F1 World Final at the Norfolk Arena in Kings Lynn and it’s been done as a day by day account. The race is the most prestigious race in European oval racing with a history dating back to 1955. This was my twenty-seventh time of watching.
Unfortunately BriSCA F1, which is one the most spectacular forms of stock car racing, has never been too good at attracting the media coverage it deserves. Since I’ve become involved in the media side of racing, I can now see why ! The powers that be, don’t treat the racing media, in the same way I’m accustomed to in North America. Possibly, another reason is, in recent years the emergence of the ‘dreaded H & S’ . All kinds of ridiculous Health & Safety rules are now in place, one of which, only permits a handful of photographers on the center at any one time. This was going to be my problem over the weekend, because obviously the regular guys had to get first call. So, alas, North American fans wont get to see too much of my work from this one, and the sports major event loses out on some good potential coverage.
Tuesday 17 Sept
After getting last minute stuff done around my home, I left Cornwall , Ontario mid afternoon , on route to the Ottawa Airport. My flight wasn’t until 10-30 at night, but as always I prefered to be there early to relax and take it easy. The flight took off on time and I was able to sleep for most of the journey.
Wednesday 18 Sept
My Air Canada flight touched down at London’s Heathrow Airport at about 10-30 am and by 11-30 , I was at the Thrifty Car Rental picking up my hire car. The pretty Polish girl on the reception was very polite and gave me the good news that I was going to be upgraded to a more sporty vehicle than the basic ‘cheapy’ that I’d booked. Before long I was behind the wheel of a Citroen DS3 heading to my Mum’s place in Toddington, Bedfordshire. Not long after arriving , I laid on the bed and slept for a good 10 hours. I guess , the long hours I’d been putting in at work recently, had finally caught up with me.
Thursday 19 Sept
After breakfast I took mum for a drive over to Felixstowe, a seaside resort, that’s only 12 miles away from our families original home town of Ipswich. We had lunch at the Ferry Boat Inn before returning to Toddington.
Friday 20 Sept.
Mum and I took another drive to the coast, but this time down to Sussex. Our first port of call was to visit my long time friend Lynn, and her husband Brian at her Animal Feed shop in Westbourne.
After chatting for a while over a cup of tea, we headed off for the coastal resort of Worthing. We stopped off for lunch on the way, at a pub in Fishbourne . We spent a while on the Worthing seafront , before heading back to Toddington.
Saturday 21 Sept
Saturday was World Final day, and I’d arranged with my old friends Mick Black, Vic and Amanda Peck to go with them. Amanda had got my ticket and they picked me up in Vic’s Ford Galaxy at 9-30 am in the morning. It’s only about a two hour drive to Kings Lynn, but on World Final day, you need to be there early.
We arrived before mid day and already the place was starting to fill up. A good thing about getting there early, was , it allowed me to get some decent photos in the pits, before it got too busy. With no infield credentials, I knew my photo ‘ops’ would be limited. By poking my camera lens between the mesh fence , I did manage to get some shots of the afternoon time trials of the overseas drivers. North American interest came by the way of Josh Pelkey USA 12 , a sprint car driver from Arizona, driving a Wainman car.
Mick, Vic and Amanda had seated tickets, while mine was only for for general admission. I’d made arrangements to meet up with some old friends and planned to watch the races with them .
Back in the 1980’s while on a racing holiday in the Netherlands, I got to know race driver Willem Boschma and his family. (Check out the RETRO REPORTS from 1986 to 1994 on www.rickattheraces.com). On the two occasions he raced in the BriSCA F1 World Final (Coventry) , he stayed at my place. Many times in the years that followed , he, his wife Anna and daughters Elsje, Marja and Nelly visited me and my family during their UK trips. By the time I’d emigrated to Canada in 1994, we’d become very close friends. We spent New Years Eve of that year at their place in Hommerts (Friesland). That was the last time I’d seen the daughters, and as for Willem and Anna, they paid a visit to my place in Maxville, Ontario in 1999. We kept in touch over the years, and recently, with the advent of ‘Face Book’ we arranged a reunion. Nelly contacted me and we made plans to meet at Kings Lynn. Elsje was unable to make the trip, but Willem, Anna , Nelly and Marja did. It was really great to see them again, and we all spent the evening together on the top of the terracing in the middle of turn 3 and 4.
The Norfolk Arena, or Kings Lynn Stadium as it used to be known, had by now become packed with race fans for Europe’s most important oval race .
Unfortunately the big race, was a bit of anti-climax after a front stretch crash as the green flag dropped, put out a couple of the big contenders. In my opinion a complete restart should have taken place. A caution with a single file restart took place, and resulted in a pretty uneventful ‘follow the leader’ type of race. Nevertheless , Tom Harris # 84 was a worthy winner with Craig Finnikin # 55 second and Ryan Harrison # 197 third. Once the racing was over I said my farewells to the Boschma family and rejoined Mick, Vic and Amanda for the drive home.
We had to wait quite a long while before leaving the track, due to the large volume of the crowd, and when we did finally get out of the parking field opposite, we were forced to take a long detour through the Norfolk country side.
We found out the reason for the detour the following day. Sadly , a female race fan from the Netherlands tragically lost her life, after being struck by a motor vehicle after leaving the track.
My thoughts and sympathies go out to the family and friends of the young lady concerned.
Sunday 22 Sept
I was dropped off in Toddington at about 2-00 am on Sunday morning and after sleeping for a few hours , I was up and about, ready for my next bout of racing. At about 10-30 am , I left Mums place in the Citroen rental bound for Brafield in Northamptonshire. To me and most people who’ve been going there for plenty of years, it will always be known as the Brafield Stadium, but like so many of the stadiums these days, it’s now got a new name PR1MO International ??? which I believe is the sponsors name.
In the past I’ve been lucky and had infield access at Brafield, but with this event being the traditional ‘day after the world final’ European Masters, the quota of photographers was already oversubscribed. I did however get access to the media/guest tower balcony to get pics, as well as Victory Lane.
The racing turned out to be a lot better than the night before, with a more relaxing atmosphere where I got to meet a lot more of my old friends. While wandering the pits, I managed to get a good pic of new World Champion Tom Harris beside his car with his trophies.
The two big races of the day were the aforementioned European Masters for BriSCA F1’s and the ‘Gold Roof’ race for the, under 16 year olds in the Mini Stocks which was won by # 411 Ryan Fairburn.
The F1 race was a really good one where 2012 World Champ, Lee Fairhurst # 217, pushed out long time leader Robert Broom # 41 on the last lap to take the checkers. Veteran driver Mike James of Cornwall, came third.
I didn’t stay to the end of the program, so missed out on the BriSCA F2 Final. I decided to take off early so I could be back at Mum’s in good time to take her out for a Sunday evening supper.
Monday 23 Sept.
Monday was my last day in the UK and I was up early to take Mum to the hairdressers. Later in the day we both had the funeral to attend , of Pam Shirley, my sisters Mother in Law. Pam, who I’d known for many years sadly passed away a week ago, after a long illness. Following the 1-00 pm church service and some food at a local hotel, Mum and I went on to the nearby Milton Keynes shopping centre before returning to Toddington.
Tuesday 24 Sept
It was a foggy morning when I left Toddington for Heathrow, so instead of using the congested M1 Motorway, I used my old ‘back lanes’ route via Wendover, Amersham, Beconsfield and Slough to the Airport.
I dropped the Citroen off at the Thrifty Rental at their Sheraton Hotel base , and was shuttled bussed to Terminal 3 . I was there for midday and my Air Canada flight took off on time at 3-15 pm.
As usual the on-board meals were nothing special, so on arrival in Ottawa I was ready to eat. After picking up my car from the Park and Ride, I was soon heading for home. I then stopped off at the Maxdiner on Hwy 417 where I met my friend Lisa , who’d been looking after and checking out my house while I was away. We had supper together before I made the final leg of my journey, back to Cornwall.