Well, I'm safely back from Silverstone, if not quite home yet and will be out of the country by morning much, no doubt, to the relief of some CA members!
I cannot thank enough the gallant Tom Tondeuse who spent his Friday afternoon and evening chasing around and about on my behalf and making frantic phone calls when I managed to lock my keys in the car.
I got locked out wearing only jeans and t-shirt with the wheelchair, all my papers and my phone, plus my house (the tent), all my money, credit cards etc, two centimeters from my nose but impossible to get at. Happily help came from a security chap who fetched Tom from the KSM pit, and the kindly chap running the bar behind the Pits grandstand. Finally we gave up waiting for the breakdown people (called by my insurance agents via a call from Tom's work colleagues as their phone no was in the car....) and smashed the rear quaterlight. Thus I finally got on my way to Whittlebury with the car sporting a very fetching Tesco's carrier bag where the window once was...
Next up, Tom and Ade kindly pitched my tent in the now-dark Whittlebury campsite whilst I gave the kiss of life to a bottle of fizz which Ade had brought specially for me (
).
After that a great weekend ensued including a drunken Saturday night - great to see 2 Melans, Barry, Landman (and family - my, your two were a relief after the hideous family who had installed themselves within 2 feet of our tents in the row alongside
), Brad, JDS and mini JDS, and of course Werner and HGB - just sorry I didn't get to spend more time with you.
Sunday was a better day thanks to the fact that the guy on the gate pointing out the fact that there were mobility scooters for hire (something which the Silverstone management had told me was not going to happen for the race when I e-mailed them in advance to check. The first one broke down when I was half way across the bridge on the way to the autograph session thus making me miss it completely.
I was sorry about the McNish Audi - not because I wanted them to win but because I think it robbed us of a potentially close race. The result was fine by me, although I'd have liked an Oreca win. On the Saturday I entered a competition for a visit to their garage during the race - on my way home (at 7 o'clock on Sunday) I received two text messages which had been floating around in the ether since lunchtime, one to say I'd won the competition and the second to say I was too late and they'd given it to somebody else. Somebody had it in for me this weekend, I'm sure - let's just hope I can get home without any more disasters.
Anyway, as per, thank whomever for CA and all you lovely guys and gals - without you I would be feeling very, very peed off by now. Autoglass have fixed my window and I'm £200 worse off but what the heck - I saw a couple of T70s and listened to the lovely Saleen roar past again and again, and spent a weekend with a bunch of great mates around. What more can a girl (oh, OK an old bat) ask for?
