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My first time as a hooker
Aug. 16th, 2010 03:55 pmWe were a little sparse on marshals for the British Formula 3/GT championships. I spent Saturday on the inside of the track at Becketts - a post I'd not done before on the full GP track, where we had a little action or which more anon. Sunday was a quiet day at Luffield Out (unmanned on Sat) when we had some more people and could shift me and a few others to be there.
The grid was a little sparse too in the GT. About two dozen cars for three hour long practice/qualifying sessions then a two hour race isn't brilliant, but the racing proved to be very good indeed - particularly as the top 6 or 8 cars were within 15 seconds in the last half hour and various of them started to hit issues. There were some good battles in the "B" class as well between a couple of types of Ginettas, a few X-Bows and a Lotus 2-Eleven.
The F3 was good on the Saturday when the weather couldn't make up its mind so we started with a damp track, then it rained, then it dried out. It wasn't so good in the dry on the Sunday. Processional is probably the best description, but it was the first time I've seen a championship decided.
The support races were variable. A mix of VWs and a Ginetta Challenge were both swamped by the length of the track. They needed to be on the smaller National Circuit or have at least double the number of cars. The Formula Fords were more entertaining. Again we could have done with some more of them, but they're at least fast enough for the full circuit. Best of all was the Ma5da MX5 series. A total of 72 cars who got split in half for two qualifying sessions and then into three groups of 24 who each raced twice - so 48 on the grid for each of three races. Highly entertaining, some good overtaking/repassing going on and my first shot at hooking up.
In Saturday's race we had one novice driver towards the back of the field spin on his way in to Becketts and end up going backwards into the gravel. He was buried too deeply to push out, so we went to "snatch". At which point I'm told to go get the strop from the snatch vehicle and asked to attach the carabina at one end to the car's towing eye (in this case a loop of strong fabric) and at the other to the Hilux. The MX5 wasn't a problem, but it took two or three goes to get the carabina onto the Hilux as it had a twist release that's awkward with gloves on. Still all worked in the end and I spent the rest of the day playing with a carabina to get more used to it. Tick another job off the list as "I've now done this".
The grid was a little sparse too in the GT. About two dozen cars for three hour long practice/qualifying sessions then a two hour race isn't brilliant, but the racing proved to be very good indeed - particularly as the top 6 or 8 cars were within 15 seconds in the last half hour and various of them started to hit issues. There were some good battles in the "B" class as well between a couple of types of Ginettas, a few X-Bows and a Lotus 2-Eleven.
The F3 was good on the Saturday when the weather couldn't make up its mind so we started with a damp track, then it rained, then it dried out. It wasn't so good in the dry on the Sunday. Processional is probably the best description, but it was the first time I've seen a championship decided.
The support races were variable. A mix of VWs and a Ginetta Challenge were both swamped by the length of the track. They needed to be on the smaller National Circuit or have at least double the number of cars. The Formula Fords were more entertaining. Again we could have done with some more of them, but they're at least fast enough for the full circuit. Best of all was the Ma5da MX5 series. A total of 72 cars who got split in half for two qualifying sessions and then into three groups of 24 who each raced twice - so 48 on the grid for each of three races. Highly entertaining, some good overtaking/repassing going on and my first shot at hooking up.
In Saturday's race we had one novice driver towards the back of the field spin on his way in to Becketts and end up going backwards into the gravel. He was buried too deeply to push out, so we went to "snatch". At which point I'm told to go get the strop from the snatch vehicle and asked to attach the carabina at one end to the car's towing eye (in this case a loop of strong fabric) and at the other to the Hilux. The MX5 wasn't a problem, but it took two or three goes to get the carabina onto the Hilux as it had a twist release that's awkward with gloves on. Still all worked in the end and I spent the rest of the day playing with a carabina to get more used to it. Tick another job off the list as "I've now done this".
