I'm not a fan of Doran, but it would be shit if the track reached a point where it was no longer economically viable to run events.
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I could end up eating my words, but I think (hope!) we're a way off that yet. I have spent a lot of weekends in the last 15 years at Lydden, I'd be gutted if they stopped running rallycross there.
As you guys have said I would expect an expanded calendar for this to be a proper Americas Championship, but perhaps they are keeping it small scale on the first year?
I was at Silverstone on Saturday for the opening round of the British Rallycross Championship, with a entry that included a few World Championship drivers. Easily the coldest day I have ever spent at a track, the windchill was below -10 at times and everytime I used the camera my fingers were frozen within a couple of minutes. I managed to take barely 100 pictures over the whole day.
I actually thought the viewing for spectators was better than expected. I initially feared that the grandstand area was the only place to view, but the top part of the track was all accessible...
...lot of high fences though, so very limited options for spectators taking pictures (unless you were packing big lenses!). Not the worst UK rallycross circuit for spectator viewing that I have been to, it struck me a bit of a mix of Blyton and Croft in many respects (better than the former for spectators but not the latter).
The grandstand and top of the Stowe building gave a good overview for seeing the entire track and the standing areas were never more than two people deep, so finding a spot you wanted wasn't hard. If they hit the 30,000 spectator target they have talked about for Speedmachine though, that will obviously be a different situation.
It's a very twisty circuit. Seemed quite compact and slow, even when it dried out. I didn't think the Supercars really got a chance to stretch their legs. The track obviously had to drop into a specific area, but it seemed like there was unused space at the bottom end of the circuit (after the jump). Loeb agrees that it's a bit slow as well:
https://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2...ebastien-loeb/
Be interesting to see if they can make any changes for the World round.
Interesting, thanks for the review. Will try and watch some coverage of the event at some point, although doubt it'll tempt me to Speedmachine instead of going to Santa Pod that weekend. I guess that being slow could engineer some 'excitement', a bit like Hockenheim...although it could end up more like the bottom hairpin at Barcelona, which I always find really boring.
I went to Silverstone with a mate and met a couple of friends there: all of them are tempted to go back to Silverstone for the second British Championship round later in the year, but none of them are tempted by Speedmachine yet.
I really wish they would straighten the bottom section of the track out (the approach to the bottom hairpin) as that would increase the chances of them coming to the hairpin in a group rather than in single file.
Critical to Silverstone RX track.
Both Löeb, Bakkerud and Timmi Hansen tried out the new Silverstone RX track in the UK round this weekend.
Löeb and Bakkerud were not impressed. The track was so slow and mickey mouse like, that they said there was very little chance to fight and overtake. Max 70 km/h according to Löeb. As said longer down in the thread.
Lets hope they take the signals from the drivers, and adjust the track, to get some more more action for drivers and fans.
See what you mean. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWcpTyKzNs
Not sure about the surface, looks a bit like the Weston beach race at times. Hopefully just a byproduct of the weather, although doubt they'll have the time to sort anything out in the next 6 weeks or so.