Donington - The paying customer's view.

Up until the mid 90s, the Donington GP and WSB campgrounds used to be
completely anarchic. I have vivid memories of going to the party in the
hanger, watching Jamie Witham's band play, then staggering drunk back to
the campground where people were crowd surfing the dumpsters. There'd be
people trying to break sport bikes by running them off the limiter in
neutral; Fireworks all night; Hoards of mopeds and scooters cutting
through the campsite like schools of baby sharks; 10 people on a quad
pulling wheelies; Some guy called Dave wandering up to the fire and
wanting to know where Mike was; Glo stick fights; The group with a full
PA playing Rave music down in one corner.

This year was totally sanitised. There were hoards of police everywhere
although a large proportion were identically dressed fakes from a
security company. If you paid for camping (only available with a weekend
ticket) you were packed into "caged" compounds. Gas canisters had to be
left at the gate. The only entertainment was a sort of 50s retro funfair
that shut at midnight. Bizarrely, there was one floodlit compound that
contained a whole lot of portaloo style things marked with the word
"Search" and "Shower" in big letters and again surrounded by loads of
police. As you walked from camp to camp there were frequent choke points
where half a dozen security watched you walk by.

All this conrol worked because there was absolutely nothing happening,
while everybody still seemed cheerful if quiet.

The biggest joke about all this was that the entrance staff divided up
those that had paid for camping and those that hadn't. If you paid you
got diverted to the cages. If you hadn't they sent you off via the car
park fields to a remote exit. So we just drove around a bit, found a
corner of a field where there were a few other tents and just set up
ours as well. We ended up nearer the exit and nearer the entrance to the
circuit as well as in a more friendly environment, than if we'd paid.

I don't really know what's going on here. Is this a reaction to the "War
on Terror"? Surely not. Did fortress Britain just finally knuckle under?
Maybe. Are we just not allowed any more? I guess that's it. I guess the
possibility of having the audience set fire to a van (it happened one
year) is just not good for business.

On race day, Donington disappointed as usual. The only place you can get
anywhere near the bikes was at the Foggy Esses. There seem to be loads
of unnecessary hedges, trees, banks, a railway carriage, fence and so on
that hide the view, and what you can see is miles away from you. Lots of
people just sat in front of the Starvision. You might as well be at
home. Basics like food and loos had huge queues and were revolting as
ever. And all for a £48 entry fee. Most of the crowd seemed to leave
after the late starting MotoGP so the 2 support races afterwards were a
bit of a waste of time.

Now I've heard the 4 strokes, I don't think I'll be going again.

But oh, that noise! The TV coverage doesn't begin to give you an idea of
how downright nasty those things are. In particular the Aprilias and
Kawasakis on the overrun into corners sounded like they were going to
explode. The Kawasakis and old Ducatis sounded most like an F1
SSSHHHRRREEEEEKK. Everybody else now has this really bass rumble that
just goes BAAARRRRPPPP like a WSB Ducati but 10 times louder. Some of
them definitely have work to do on the quickshifter. Huge backfires on
every upchange.

Again, I remember the drive home, along some fantastic roads, being an
un-official race. Nothing too crazy but packs of bikes going for it.
This time, there seemed to be very few bikes passing us and I didn't see
a single example of what you might call "creative" riding.

I think we've all just finally got boring. The sheer weight of
insurance, speed cameras, police and sanitized experience in Theme Park
Britain has finally ground us down. I for one, miss the old days and do
not welcome our new overlords one little bit. Perhaps it's time to move
to Spain, or Italy or the Czech Republic, or...

 

If you miss these old days as you describe just go to Le Mans, specially for
the endurance 24H race. Believe me the guys are crazy. You cannot go anymore
downtown but the camps are incredible. They now make BQs with used cars and
you cannot sleep for 2 days. But it's not going to stay like that for long
time as even our national press made some scandal report at the last
edition.

 

You have _got_ to go to the GP at Jerez next year!
If the Saturday night there doesn't restore your faith in bike madness
nothing will...

Julian Bond wrote:

 

Ah, "the good old days," when the crowd was actually interested in racing
and wasn't there to 'be seen." Now days it's a "happening" and the racing is
turning into a sideshow. The largest abominations on the planet are Daytona
and Sturgis. And though I haven't been to Sturgis in five years I don't miss
it at all. One thing about Daytona is that the track is one of the least
crowded places in Central Fla. that week. The weekend warrior wannabe's are
downtown standing in line to buy $5 beers! I hope that mentality hasn't
"jumped the pond" and infected the Isles.. But I see it almost everywhere
here in the States with maybe Road Atlanta being the one exception. (I
haven't had a chance to go to Bhm/Vir yet, but will this year) Russell has a
point with the cyclical thing, I remember in the 70's when 'Tona had circus
tents set up for all the people they busted for straight pipes. Hell, in '78
I found myself handcuffed to a stop sign for cruising thru the Steak and
Shake one time too many. Lucky for me that I lived close by, all I got was a
$25 ticket and didn't have to pay for "overnight accommodations" (cell
floor) and a tow truck.. Now days they just tax the crap out of everybody to
fill the County's coffers but don't even think the local constabulary is not
out in force. For every one uniformed cop there are three in street clothes,
which for 'tona is probably a good idea. Those guys you see up on hotel
balconies with binoculars talking to radios aren't tourists!!A saying we
have here is, a guy from Michigan(wherever) loads his bike on a trailer puts
2 large($2k) is his pocket and spends 4 days in Daytona. If he has any money
left when he gets home, he figures he didn't have a good time. Same deal at
Sturgis and to some extent L/S... It's like, if you don't have to stand in
line for 20 minutes to get raped financially it's not worth it??It's turning
into to a Disney thing, sorry to say. By the way, Spain does sound pretty
good, Italy gets a little crazy at times and the Czech Rep. gets real f'ing
cold......

T3

 

I haven't camped at Donington, but I did a few times at Silverstone when
the GP used to be there. I remember being in Towcester (lets see if the
Americans can pronounce that correctly with crowds lining the main
street outside the pubs, all with pints in hand, cheering the bikes riding
through, especially those pulling wheelies. There were police there, but
they weren't pulling anybody, and one of them told us that compared to
football crowds, policing the GP was piece of piss.

On the other hand it could get out of hand. Another year there was a long
wide drive over grass up to the camp site entrance. It was a quagmire
because of the rain (it always rains at Silverstone). People were lined
up on the sides cheering the bikes coming in, booing any cars, and some
people where physically pushing the cars around on the mud. All good muddy
fun. But then some jerks attacked a car coming in with planks, breaking
its lights and then smashing its windscreen. Suddenly the police that had
been wandering around were conspicuous by their absence. As I understand
it, Silverstone got sick of the excesses, and were overjoyed to get shot
of the bike GP.

It is a very poor spectator circuit, isn't it ? But like you say, it
could be better. I remember a couple of years ago they had some grandstands
at Redgate, which gave a good view all the way down the Craner Curves to
the Old Hairpin. But when I tried to book seats in it for this year,
I found out it was only temporary, and wasn't there anymore.

I was very surprised by the lack of bikes on the back roads, both going
and coming back. Do they all just head to the M1 ? What a bunch of lemmings.

Cheers,

 

Bugger, that's correct, foiled again

Cheers,

 

I'll see you..
Folk blitzing aroung on pallets, dragged around by a tranny van
with naked drunken csnts on the top of it.
The amount of out of control bikes/vehicles was *great*
Of course, there was accidents. And out of control tranny van went into
several tents ,and got torched, for his troubles.
Remember the fireworks trying to take the police 'copter down
Remember the huge bottle fight? early nineties.
People actually died, it was that bad. Happy days.

 

That must have been the year we were steered towards the "Family"
camping area.

There's a postscript to this story. The poor buggers who paid for
weekend tickets and camping permits and had to sleep in cages also
weren't allowed out. Stories of 5 hours to leave the circuit. Us cheeky
ones who just turned up, didn't pay, got a better place to sleep and
were closer to the Melbourne loop entrance got out in 20 minutes.

 

I used to think things couldn't get worse, then I went down to the Bol.
Jesus christ...
If there is one race meeting I want to go back to it has to be the Bol
at Paul Ricard. Or Circuit de la Castelett whatever it's called..
That put everything else in the shade.

 

I've been to the Bol at Paul Ricard but many years ago. Sadly it's now
gone. Best memory is driving the hire car to Monte Carlo afterwards. I
was overtaken on a hairpin by a dirt bike cutting straight across the
grass on my inside.

Even further back I went to the Bol at Le Mans. The tent was about 200
yards back from the last corner. I got to listen to the bikes
accelerating up the hill all night. That was the days of the
Godier-Genoud Kawasakis, HRC Hondas, and a mix of Laverdas, Ducatis,
BMWs, Guzzis, maybe even a TZ750 or two.

 

I was dissapointed with Biaggi at Donington though, I was all set with
a titanic battle with him and Rossi and Gibernau..
I even had grandstand tickets (!) It was worth it for the sound of the
things.
Pleased for Edwards though, not before time, I rated him at the start of
the season. He is a champion too.

 

Is the view from the Grandstand any good ? It seems to me that all you
can see from it is the start/finish line and the exit from Goddards,
but I've never actually been in it myself.

Cheers,

 

Colin said "I went to do that American bumping chests thing" So what's
that?!! "and Vale leapt on me". Haha!

 

Heh, Vale might have to get used to Colin on the podium.

 

If I had to explain it to you, I doubt you'd understand.
Wait for the book, then you can quote it with authority, as usual.
Regards,
T3