Category: Too Much Racing

2015 Motor Racing Calendars

Since 2011 I’ve produced motor racing calendars in Google Calendar, compatible with iCal and all sorts of other reminder systems. I am pleased to say:

The 2015 calendars are now ready!

Apologies for the delay. I wanted to have the full set released before the 24 Hours of Daytona but time got away from me a little.

Full details of how to get them are on the Calendar subpage of this site along with my methodology: www.toomuchracing.com/calendar/

If I’ve made any errors or failed to spot any changes do please let me know!

June 2015 IWTM Calendar with 21st selected.
June 2015 IWTM Calendar with 14th selected.
Agenda for 21st June 2015
Agenda for 13th June 2015

At the time of writing, the Super Formula and Asian Le Mans Series dates are yet to be released though I expect the latter to come on Thursday when the ACO hold their Le Mans and WEC press conference.

Something of a Return

2014 ELMS start
The first lap of the 2014 European Le Mans Series race at Silverstone. (Photo by P.Wotton)

Apologies for the long periods of silence. I’ve only written sporadically since last summer. Real life intervened. Work became stressful for multiple reasons, then some different reasons. Glad that’s all sorted. At about the same time, and more excitingly, I bought a house. Yay for me. Now all of those stresses are over I can relax and get back to what I enjoy.

August represents the 6th anniversary of this blog and it seems the turn of the month is a good time of the year to start it again.

For those who follow me on Twitter I never really went away. In fact I rarely shut up or stop retweeting. I aim to reduce frequency there and channel more thoughts here, sometimes a 5-tweet string is more appropriately hosted on a blog. And I miss blogs. Nobody blogs any more.

A refreshed blog theme (this one is even mobile-friendly), a different way of doing things compared to recent times and get back to the way it was in 2008 and 2009. No schedules. No weekly commitments. Occasionally long form, mostly shorter, snappier, more frequent. Finding and sharing things. Yes, I know, everyone else is doing the sharing thing now but many are just content aggregators and a few have a problem with source attribution. Tut, tut. I was doing this stuff years ago. Time to stick those elbows out like Marc Marquez and claim some space back.

In the meantime my eyes are going square (or should that be racetrack-shaped) from all the racing I’m watching, magazines and websites and blogs I’m reading, podcasts I’m hearing.

I’m watching too much racing, again

Are you?

Photos – FIA WEC 6 Hours of Silverstone 2013

I was at Silverstone in April for the European Le Mans Series and FIA World Endurance Championship weekend. I took along a new zoom lens to its first motorsport event, and by Sunday I think I was getting the hang of it!

I’ve attended the 6 Hours (and predecessor 1000km) for the last few years, this year it was moved from Autumn to Spring with the expected change in conditions. Saturday’s ELMS was run in torrential rain. Thankfully Sunday was much brighter and was mostly free of rain, but again the thermometers flattered to deceive, and while it was warmer than the day before it still felt much colder than readings indicated. In previous years I did it as a day trip but with the addition of ELMS I decided to stay in Northampton to see both races, and also to attend Sunday’s pit walk.

Saturday – See my post about Saturday’s European Le Mans Series race here.

Sunday April 14th – FIA World Endurance Championship

The first order of business was to get to the pitwalk. This was easier said than done. The free shuttle buses were few and far between and it took a good 30 or 40 minutes to walk from the Abbey/ex-Bridge area to the new Wing paddock complex, as there is no crossing point nearby. All this walking meant I missed the day’s Formula 3 race which happened at the same time, though I did bump into these guys. Was it worth the effort? Definitely.

Continue reading “Photos – FIA WEC 6 Hours of Silverstone 2013”

Photos – ELMS 3 Hours of Silverstone 2013

I was at Silverstone in April for the European Le Mans Series and FIA World Endurance Championship weekend. I took along a new zoom lens to its first motorsport event, although Saturday was a bit of a washout.

Saturday April 13th – European Le Mans

Saturday was very cold and only got colder, until the rain arrived at which point it got even colder but also very, very wet causing racing to be abandoned for the day. I spent the ELMS and WEC qualifying sessions on the grass bank between Maggotts and Village, before ensconcing myself in the Woodcote stand for the 3-hour ELMS race, trying to stay warm. Thermometers may have read 9 or 10C but with windchill it felt like 5C at best, 1 or 2C by the end.

Formula 3 Europe:

I only saw one Euro F3 race but it was good, lots of passing albeit not much of it near me. Harry Tinknell (blue car) is local to me so I was rooting for him, he was leading for a while but fell back to 3rd I think it was at the end.

ELMS:

 

The ELMS race was good as well. I’d call it a traditional race, not the sort you see very often any more. Everyone had slicks for the start but as the formation lap got under way it started raining! Half the field pitted straight away but mysteriously half of them did not, and it cost them dearly as the Safety Car came out. Big gaps then appeared in the field as the conditions worsened but it wasn’t boring – quite the opposite, over two hours a lot of cars went sliding and spinning off, or had drivers uncomfortable with the conditions, so the order was changing quite a lot despite the gaps.


Eventually the rain got so bad everyone was running around in 2nd-gear to avoid aquaplaning, the Safety Car was called out but even after 20 minutes a lot of the field still hadn’t caught up with it, they were being so cautious! After a good 30 or 40 minutes under SC the red flags came out to end the race half an hour early. At the time, freezing in the stands too stubborn to move while the track was live but so cold I wished it ended, I thought it was a good idea. But looking back I almost wish the SC hadn’t have come out let alone the reds flown, everyone was going slowly for the conditions and it would’ve been interesting to see who made the best of it.

I was sat in the stands with Carole @revs_rule, and after the race was stopped we made a beeline to my car and to Silverstone village for a hot meal and cup of tea in the White Horse pub, which were very nice indeed.

More photos from Saturday are at Picasa. As I say, I was still getting used to the new lens and with the cold and rain it was quite tricky anyway!

My next post is about Sunday’s World Endurance race.