World RallyX Silverstone 2018

So having decided not to go to Silverstone RallyX, what did I miss.

Looks like the weather was Ok for Saturday but it was under the path of the thunder lightning and rain on Sunday.

So hopefully our correspondent Steve N can report into what it was like?

Chris

From the armchair the track didn't seem that exciting anyway. Definitely no Lydden, that's for sure

Think the grid needs staggering better. Its almost as if they want a pile up in the first corner.

Strangely there is absolutely no info on the Motorsport News or Autosport pages and no film clips on Youtube when I looked on Monday morning.

If it was that good there would have been stuff out there???

Chris

Greetings one and all! Apologies for the delay in 'corresponding', but I've taken a leap and joined Facebook and been busy networking there.

So Chris, what did you miss? A surprisingly good event both on track and off. Surprising due to the poor showing for the British Rallycross Championship in the snow in March. It wasn't just the weather that was better. The racing was generally good - yes the first and second corners saw a few corners being taken off or pushed into non-standard shapes, the jump was good photographic value and the merge from the very tight joker lap followed by the run up to the flag were the sources of particular interest on track. The rest was slow, narrow and bereft of much overtaking or opportunities to try!

The support programme on track was good - the Group B machinery, both rallycross and rallying was excellent to watch (and hear!!). Shame that the timings to let the heritage machinery out on track was oddly chosen - why have them out AFTER the WRX semis and final had been run on Sunday and many folk were drifting off home? Thinking of drifting.... WHY? There were some drift enthusiasts - the vast majority just drifted away enthusiastically!

The static displays were good and in some cases excellent. Thinking of the Group B rallying and Retro Rallycross garages. Shirley Gibson had worked wonders to bring an eclectic mix of awesome Group B cars to be drooled over and watched on track. RS200s, a Quattro, Lancia Delta Integrale, 205 T16 and several MG Metro 6R4s were packed into the F1 garage with some space for two display cabinets filled by yours truly! I've posted photos of the 80 cars in the two cabinets (Group B in Rallycross and 50 years of Rallycross) on Fb. For me a highlight was reuniting Graham 'Struggers' Strugnell with his Mini and mk1 Transit transporter but in 1/43 scale. He was a very happy bunny!!

Jaguar had a driving experience on over the weekend, with folks driving an F-Type up the main straight from the grid, around some tyres and back. Sounded amazing! Next ear, I'll queue and have a go!!

Many opportunities to meet Rallycross and rallying folks over the Friday and Sunday I was there. Plenty of enquiries for models to be built and photos to be sent to me....... Yum Yum!

Sad not to be at Lydden, even more sad that Dover DC has squashed Pat's attempts to develop the circuit empathetically, but a great event after all.

Cheers, Steve