Duncan Coutts is a Kiwi overseas, living his dream of visiting as many MotoGP rounds as he can while touring around Europe in a borrowed campervan. With Le Mans offering highs and lows – he crashed his van but also got to witness what happens to 120,000 fans when a Frenchman wins his home GP – next stop was Silverstone during the English ‘summer’…
Words: Duncan Coutts Pics: Duncan and teams
Corr blimey, summer in Old Blighty. Summer was on a Tuesday last year.
I found myself unwittingly prepared for a venture into a motorcycle grand prix weekend in England in May.
I’d flown into Manchester Airport, which is a jump back in time kind of experience. However, it did have modernish toilets which used sensors for the flush feature: you know, when you get off it flushes automatically.
The only problem being that the sensors were very sensitive to movement and when I moved on the seat the toilet shot a flush of cold water onto my dangly bits causing me to jump abruptly and quite high. The next two squirts weren’t unpleasant as I was prepared but I needed to stop wriggling on the seat if I was to get off without needing a towel.
The weather forecast for the weekend was mid-teens Celsius and possibly some rain. It might have technically been summer but the temperature was causing the body to scream for fat; get some lard on lad. A full English or at least a bacon buttie to kick off the day. Ah, the wafting smell of cooking bacon, distinct to race day at Silverstone.
Silverstone is hard to get a handle on as it covers a huge area. It’s the longest track on the MotoGP calendar. The circuit is rooted in World War 2 where it served as a bomber station called RAF Silverstone. It had three runways in a triangle format and following the war it was converted into a racetrack based around its airfield layout. It hosted its first car grand prix in 1948 and its first motorcycle grand prix in 1977.
Brexiteers may have hoped to stop mass immigration but if you’ve recently visited Britain you’ll know that horse has bolted. England is now a giant melting pot: population 60-70 million. The Silverstone MotoGP exemplifies that diversity both on and off track – diverse nationalities and accents bumping together but politely. My Uber driver that morning was from Kashmir. My takeaway dinner had come from a Lithuanian restaurant. The landlord at my scruffy but cheap digs was Jamaican.
Traffic to the GP wasn’t busy and there was a distinct dearth of motorcycles. The speed limits change frequently and it’s very hard to keep a handle on them as I found later when I received in the mail two tickets for doing 35mph in 30 zones. 100 quid per ticket. Ouch.
The English are big on fair play and generally not rule breakers. They are as a nation possibly the best drivers in the world and while they do not speed, I noticed they drove at high speed to get to the speed limit. Beware if you find yourself in the wrong lane at the multitudinous roundabouts, you will receive the horn: ‘How dare you come into my lane without a proper invitation?’
Despite population numbers rising steadily, attendance numbers have been steadily falling at the Silverstone MotoGP and this was the first time in a decade where weekend numbers fell below 100,000. The Isle of Man TT was beginning and the Monaco F1 race was running concurrently so those could have been factors. They got 500,000 fans at the F1 at Silverstone last year.
The irony and the bonus was that while much of England appeared overcrowded, those attending Silverstone could have all the space they wanted and pick any number of fantastic viewing points. You could practically have a grandstand to yourself in some areas.
You could say God played a part in this year’s Le Mans Gran Prix with bizarre weather causing mayhem. Gods of weather were about at Silverstone too and this being the GP of diversity we had quite the weekend of weather. The Hindu storm god Indra. Fujin: Japanese god of wind. Vajrapani: Buddhist god of rain. And not to forget, Thor: Norse god of thunder and lightning. They all came out to play.
The cold track and gusty wind for the main race created havoc. Alex Marquez’s front ride height device caused him to throw the bike down the road while Fabio Quartararo’s rear ride height device saw him retire while leading the race by miles. Those who chose soft front tyres found themselves with grip although no grip towards the end of the race. Those who chose the medium compound found their bikes steering as if on ice.
As VR46 racer Franco Morbidelli said, it was like Quentin Tarantino had written the script.
Faces I Met On The Way
While checking out the racing at Silverstone, Duncan caught up with a few of the people behind the scenes that make events like this work.
Robin Tuluie
Robin Tuluie was Head of R&D at Renault F1, and his innovations helped the team win back-to-back World Championships. He worked at Mercedes F1 as its Chief Scientist and Head of R&D. At Ducati, he developed the mass damper and ride-height adjuster for its MotoGP bikes. He currently works with Ducati.
The German-born ex-astrophysicist built his own race motorcycle, the Tul-Aris, and was mates with John Britten.
Yet he arrived at the Silverstone MotoGP in a pre-war Austin.
Peter McLaren
Peter McLaren’s dad is a Kiwi. He’s part of the Bruce McLaren dynasty.
Peter was born and bred in England, but he also holds a Kiwi passport. He doesn’t really follow F1, he’s not much interested. However, he’s passionate about MotoGP and has worked at Crash.net for 20 years, helping set up the website. During his time, he’s seen 500cc two-strokes give way to 990cc four-strokes. Then 800cc and now 1000cc four-strokes. He’s reported on the careers of Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, among others, and now covers the current generation.
Barry
Barry is 77 years old and runs Carpark 1 at Silverstone.
Anyone who’s anyone knows Barry. Even the Silverstone GM stops for a chat with Barry.
Barry worked as a butcher for 53 years. He retired at 66 and found himself ‘going spare’ with nothing to do. So, he signed up as a volunteer at the Silverstone circuit.
He gets up at 4am on race day, rain or shine.
Track Marshalls
Sue and Colin are track marshalls for the MotoGP at Silverstone.
They work Farm Curve, which is the high-speed transition from Abbey Corner into the tight Village complex. The ‘kitty litter’ is deep on the section they work. They describe moving through it as like trying to run in sago pudding.
