Club Arnage

Talking recently with another Club Arnarger about the upcoming soon to be marathon, the conversation switched to what freebies or blagging we  had done over the years. For myself it was probably gaining access to the 1000km Silverstone in 2000, after drinking lot's of beer on the campsite by the golf course free entry was gained by arguing on the gate with my fellow comrades as to who had the tickets. The Staff got so annoyed with us that they just let us in. This was followed by walking through the paddock unhindered straight into Dick Barbour's Racing Garage where i think that they must of thought that we were jorno's or something and proceeded by summing us to the front of the garage ready for a pit-stop, Que lot's of photo taking. More walking about which included meeting and having a chat with Don Panoz and Derek Bell amongst others ended with a Bird's Eye view (literally) of Bob Wolleck collecting a trophy on the podium.

Lofty has the photo's somewhere.
Anyhow, Just wondering what Blagging or freebies other bods on Club Arnage have managed to do ?         

Blagged our way in through the main gate at Le Mans, on a Saturday, three years running, said that we were traders, remember setting up camp on an empty MB, as the queue outside the gate was growing awaiting for Monday, morning for the camp site to open.

Pre Bar code scanning at MB.

Getting 35 people in on 25 GA tickets.
Same with the cars.

From '96 till 2000, always got in at student-tarif with card of the Hospital in Antwerp.
It said "universitair" on it, worked everytime to let them believe it ment I was a student at the university ...  Carte d'étudiant monsieur :D.

oi oi pat 1989 of the tracks music festival at the donington farm after 1000km race when jls won the world champeenship (i think) we heard music in the distance and followed our ears to a great night out.the blokes on the door had passed out and we got free entry to a 90 pound night out ace real ale bar.i seem to remember streaking around the campsite after.
i would love to see the mercedes doughnuting on y-tube after the win.bloody good that pinging the traffic cones allover the places.

So it was you that messed it up!  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

I once talked myself into giving me free drinks... I think

>Martini...LB

Back in 86 my dad blag a visit into the pits balcony via a very slight connection with 3m. The following year it lead to a full on corporate venture which included a pre race lap of the track more food than you could imagine and 24 hour access into a suite over the jost garage.

My brother and a couple of friends are masters of gaining access into the pits during practice. Plenty of photos of them with crew/drivers with silly lager grins etc.

Remember the brands rallyx gp?  We got in free by convincing the guy on the gate we were attending a dog show that happened to be taking place in the big plastic tents the same day.

My dad and brother are both pretty good at that sort of thing. Sadly I'm rubbish.

Thought that was 1998 ??? Nice Yoss Sticks though.....

Foolishly I'd gone to Spa for the 2005 1k one year with no warm clothing, and stopped en route and bought this cheap tacky jacket on the way down with pockets all over it - looked a bit like a photographer I suppose. I was watching the start from a room opposite the grandstand (where I probably shouldn't have been) and on leaving went down a spiral staircase and found myself in the pit lane. So I just stood still for a bit, then smiled at the marshal guy, and then over time moved along the pit lane and spent well over an hour there before my camera ran out of shots. The following year JP "borrowed" someone's credentials (GFs maybe?) and we shared a pass for the pit lane. It's quite lively during a race!!

Not guilty!

Sharing a press pass is a very hazardous occupation, and a pit lane pass/vest is doubly so. If you get caught (and it does happen) both lender and borrower will be ejected from the circuit and the lender will be blacklisted for media credentials for at least 12 months.

Me and my friend Jase were the masters of blag. Races, rallies, gigs, festivals you name it,we blagged it.

One of our favourite blags was the RAC rally. We didn't pay for a single stage for almost a decade. We used various ploys. Fake guest passes were the best, a little ingenuity with a chopped up copy of Autosport, some felt pens and once ready into town to prontaprint to make use of their scanner and laminator. 100% success rate year after year.

Le Mans wise, not much to report but we did blag our way into drivers briefing and prize giving at the Classic in 08, made the most of the free drinks and sat staring at Vanina Ickx for an hour or so. Quite impressive when you consider that they used finger print scanning to get in there (but not in the kitchens round the back).

Other notables were some festival in Leeds where we pretended to speak welsh and convinced some knuckle dragger that we were Gorky's Zygotic Monkey and got stuck into their free drinks quota before doing a runner. That same year we got into the 18th birthday party of the daughter of a well known Brummy comedian. Very swish do, with guests seated in an emptied indoor swimming pool. The evening ended with rope swing mischief over a carp pond (catch a fish or drink the forfeit).

Don't know if it's just the inner Yorkshireman, but everything is just that bit better if you don't actually pay for it.

Not quite a total blag, but back in 2008 I fancied a trip to Spa for the 1000kms - SWMBO agreed as long as it was less than £100 (so basically, not possible, or so she thought). Blagged a free ferry crossing, rough camped and blagged entry to the circuit for the whole weekend and did the whole weekend for under £92 (fuel and food), I was faily happy with that  ;D

to get in the pit straight grandstand at le mans me and nerk used to follow sign for the sebring resturant inti the paddock then all the way to the last flight of steps up down yada yada into the disabled area over the handrail and voila free seats.
my uncle and his mates were outside the pits near the end of the race and picked up coil of cable and tool boxes waiting to be loaded onto lorrys and wanderd up the main pit building stairs.ended up on the gantry joining the control tower and the grandstand for the podium presentation.
who dares wins.i got in the playboy grid girls changing room at imola carrying a box of hair removal wax at the 6 hour race.

The most successful 'blagging' (if you can call it that) I have done, has involved getting to know the security guy patrolling the place you want to be. It is amazing what you can get away with if you befriend the man who could say 'non'.

My favourite tale of getting a person where they don't have permission to be happened at Sebring in the '70s. Al Holbert and Michael Keyser won in 1976 in a Penthouse sponsored Porsche. Photographer Bill Warner was given the task of escorting a notable Penthouse 'pet' Anneka Di Lorenzo from a hospitality lounge to the podium ceremony. When they got to the gate of the pit lane a security guard asked to see their credentials. The guy was a 'gentleman of a certain age' rather than a strong-arm and insisted on seeing a pass. Bill was OK but the lovely Anneka had nothing. "Can I see your credentials", the guy asked .... so she lifted her blouse and showed him her assets. He was so stunned that they just breezed past while he regained his composure.

Here is the lady in question...
(http://content8.flixster.com/photo/11/80/99/11809926_gal.jpg)

The ELMS race at Silverstone a few years ago, where some gentlemen of this parish did a lap, post race, of the circuit after a few sharpeners...
Who were they ? Me, didn't see anything Your Honour... ;D

I also managed to blag a Whammy bar from my friends air guitar once on BJ i think it was, He was soooo ming monged that he still does not know that i put it in a secret place in his van........

Tee Hee ;D

a couple of years ago a few of us went down to the inside of indy.i left my ticket in the van but i gave the geezer on the gatea can of chicken and he let me in.the power of english beer.l

It's a good job she didn't hitch her skirt up instead. Holy snappin alligators! A quick look on google proves how little "hedge trimming" went on in the seventies. It's like a buffalo's forehead.

Or as a friend once said to me, ' She looked liked she had Don King in a leg lock'

Plenty of the blue 6ft roll material with the 24 logo emblazoned on it now graces the walls of 2 garages in North Lincs and Hertfordshire. Oh and not forgetting the very wet night when Vavina Ickx let me dry out in her trailer before continuing my long treck back to Houx.

I was nearly thrown off the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club enclosure at Houx Annexe when they saw me with 10 meters of this rolled up under my arm. It is also now proudly displayed in my garage in Lincs as a backdrop to the Scalextric!

Don't forget the roll from Silverstone LMES.

You were in a terrible state, it looked like you'd been eaten alive. We could only speculate:

"Oooh Monsieur Steve, take those wet things off and lie down on the velveteen banquette... pfft does it* always swell like zis when it gets wet? Let me dry it out... Ah donc! Ooooh lala!! Monsieur Steve! Sacre bleu!"





(*refering to his Lordship's string vest)

Lucky, lucky Barstool.....

Hi Steve,
            You keep telling that Vavina story as though it is true  ;D ;D
Phil

British Grand Prix - 1994.  Damon Hill had just claimed his only British Grand Prix victory.  When the racing finished, the marshalls buggered off, leaving the circuit open for people to walk around if they wanted to.   As we entered the track at Luffield, there was a small window during which the pit-lane was unguarded.  So my old man and I hot footed it across and had a look round. 

Sauber in those days, weren't overly reliable, and in that race, I think both cars had gone out fairly early doors.  They'd cleared up, and left their garages open.  So we walked through.   

That evening, I met Damon Hill, Mika Hakkinen, Johnny Herbert, Our future mate at Le-Mans Jay Kay, Murray Walker, Patrick Head, and had a rather unfortunate conversation with a man who my old man thought was Gordon Murray.....It wasn't - but that didn't stop me asking for his autograph..... 

I was 13 in 1994....as a massive fan of F1 at that time, this was essentially all of my dreams blagged, in one foul swoop........

Phil - Do you doubt me my friend? She wasn't going to let me stay in her trailer (I did beg) nor did she fancy walking back to Houx with me. Shame really, my tardis-like 2 man tent was just the ticket!

Made a very fetching curtain that did Ade.