essentialatom's Britcar pics! (This is 56k hell)

[essentialatom]

(Not sure if this is necessarily the right forum section, please move it if it should be somewhere else )

I was down at the Britcar 24hrs from Friday to Sunday. I didn't have the best camera in the world (I'd have liked to have taken my dad's, he's got a great camera), but I thought I'd show you my snaps anyway

I also got a lot of photos of the cars I saw in the car park - I'll leave those for another thread, when I get the other CF card from my friend.

First, the garages. I took these on the Friday evening.

Apex Motorsport's Jaguar GT3


Buddha Motorsport's Aston Martin N24 V8


RJN Motorsport's Nissan 350Z, driven by Evo journalists


Windrush Motorsport's BMW M3 E36, and their to-do list



Team Top Gear's garage! Sadly they closed it off to have some control over the light and to stop crowds gathering to watch. But it was still Top Gear! Before they qualified on the Friday evening, Jeremy, James and Richard all came out for a crafty fag, and I wish I'd spoken to them, particularly Richard - I've heard the other two aren't all that personable and I'd have liked to have asked Richard about his Finalgear helmet, and seen it if he'd had it with him. These other guys got chatting to them, instead, and I overheard something about dipping mirrors (I think? :S) Something was said which made all three presenters exchange glances then run into their garage - then come out thirty seconds later to re-enact it for the cameras! Even though it was kind of staged it was cool to see that they actually reacted like that.



A crap photo of the qualifying at night. There are plenty more where that came from and to save you, I'm not going to put them up.


Some photos of the pre-race warmup, taken from the grandstand. Some of the photos might not be too sharp, partly because I'm not brilliant, partly because the camera wasn't great, and partly because we drank every time the Morgan, Jag and Aston went past










Now to the race! We didn't actually take too many photos of the race itself, we were more interested in watching it, but we got one or two. Here's Top Gear being pushed back to the pits at about 50 minutes into the race (5:20pm)


We went back to the track at about 12:30am to catch some night racing. It was very cool, because there were very few spectators, which put the race under a totally different light. Suddenly it wasn't a spectator sport any more. It became a concentrated effort to simply get on with the job, lap after lap, minute after minute, hour after hour... I found that very cool. Seeing the cars race at night was a great experience. But my photos were crap so again, I'll just give you one to prove to you that you really don't want to see the others



After some sleep, we revisited Woodcote to see the last few hours of the race.


Clarkson finished off the race for Top Gear, as I thought he would. He drove over the line waving to the rather light grandstand crowd. If you look closely you can see a pretty hefty dent in the side of the car. Should be interesting to see how that happened on the show.



Though it's impossible to read (bloody digital zoom), this board, held up in the final few minutes of the race, reads "THE END IS NIGH"


May and Hammond looking out over the finish line for Clarkson. You can see them in the centre of the picture, though again, the digital zoom isn't helpful.


Duller Motorsport's BMW Z4M Coupe just before it crossed the line. I tried to time it so that I got it right as it finished but I was a fraction too early. I'd said at the start that this car looked rapid and sure enough, it won!


The top four teams on the podium. They had a lot of fun with the champagne (not to mention the water that their celebratory flowers had been kept in) but I didn't get any photos of that.


The Aston after the race. I think it looks agressive, mean and generally badass. I'd have got a photo or two of Top Gear's car if it had been out there.



Finally, some photos of me and my friends, both at the track and in our tent eating a rather ambitious jambalaya (which we needed to borrow someone else's big grill for because our camping stove was awful). The two guys aren't as into cars or motorsport as me and the girl, but we all had a good time anyway. I'm the one in the Stig t-shirt. Yes ladies, I am available, form an orderly queue

[damnhawk]

i love how when the door of the top gear car is to be opened....it simply says "penis"....lol

[Speedtouch]

On the other side it says 'ARSE Buiscuits' (full advert: Larsen's Buiscuits) . But you can't beat the good ol' Penis.

[Martyn]

Haha, I saw you loads of times!

In fact, during the podium, the photographer next to me took a photo of you because of your t-shirt.

[essentialatom]

Originally Posted by Martyn

Haha, I saw you loads of times!

In fact, during the podium, the photographer next to me took a photo of you because of your t-shirt.

Oh, cool! I did get around You should have said hi It's a bit weird having only been with my mates all weekend, then coming back to Finalgear and finding out about the other spectators who also post here. If only we had sorted out a little meetup, who knows how many people would have shown up!

I got several comments about that shirt, including a few funny looks from the Top Gear crew

[essentialatom]

Originally Posted by Speedtouch

But you can't beat the good ol' Penis.

I don't know... some of us have had many years of practice beating the good ol' penis ¬_¬