Today was spent at Donington racetrack. This was my first taste of 'live' motorsport and I can firmly say I intend to go back. I'm not entirely sure I how I've managed to avoid attending all these years, but finally managed to make it to an event. It was the first meet of the season for the British Touring Car Championship, and after starting off at stupid o'clock in the morning, we managed to see most of the days events. I even caught a bit of sun. Which is nice.

Rolling Start

We were being "hospitalised" (not hospitalised) by a stairlift supplier to my uncle's company, which included free tickets, free canapés and a free trackside box. We also were treated to free magazines and inside one I found this photo.

The caption reads "Rolling Start. Stephen Campbell attempted a novel way to leap through the John Cooper Challenge pack at Donington. Sadly for all concerned, it failed." Most of the time this would jsut mildly amuse me, except I actually know Steve (my only link to the motoring world). He's a university friend of mine and used to have a tendency to be very quiet and go unnoticed, hence we nicknamed him "Psycho". Ironically, something has since occurred which we didn't bank on, which is Steve has actually began living up to his role, which is very amusing. The guy is hilarious.This wasn't one of his crazy stunts however.

Steve races Mini Coopers (respect) and is actually pretty goddamn good. Unfortunately for him he managed to roll his car (see photo) at a recent race at Donington. Being the holidays, I didn't know about this, and so when I discovered the picture I was most amused. Poor old Steve. If you are worrying - he wasn't injured, but his car was in a pretty bad state (see the photos here) Even so he raced the next day and finished a respectable sixth.

Aside from this discovery, back at Donington, I was pleased to watch Matt Neal seal two victories and several other trophies. Not that I can possibly have a legitimate reason to do this after one race, but my father plays golf with his father, so that's my excuse for supporting the winner.