[Time-sinks] Motorsport

Part 7 of the time-sinks series is here, and it's time to talk about something a bit more stereotypically 'boyish'. Yep, that's right, I'm going to talk about cars (and bikes) of all shapes, sizes and speeds. But mostly the really fast ones driven (and ridden) by professional racing drivers.

My interest in cars goes back a long way (you may by this point in the series have noticed that this is a theme for most of my major hobbies and interests). As children my brother and I had a large plastic box full of all shapes and sizes of toy cars. My favourite Lego sets were the cars and race tracks. I drew cars. I wanted to be a racing driver (on some level I still do). My brother and I used to make race tracks, and drive our toy cars around them making car noises. Later we acted out pretend races, complete with pit stops, crashes, and a full championship calendar.

The blame for all of this has to fall squarely at the feet of my Dad. He too is car mad, particularly when it comes to racing. He's never been a racer himself, but did do some marshalling in his younger days. He has a vast collection of magazines, books and pictures about motorsport, and keeps detailed records of motorsport results. Some of that obsession has been passed down to me.

The start of a Super Saloons race at Donnington Park race circuit in 2008. (Credit: David Brown)

 From an early age Dad took my brother and I, occasionally with Mum in tow as well, to race meetings. These were mostly amateur level race meetings, at permanent circuits, organised by the variety of British motorsport bodies. In the early days our local circuit was Brands Hatch, but we would frequently travel to circuits that were further afield, such as Snetterton, Silverstone, Mallory Park or Donnington Park. Since moving house I have never been back to Brands Hatch, a fact that I regret as it's a wonderful track. Silverstone is the local circuit for my parents house now, and it's not quite the same. We also went to hillclimbs at Shelsley Walsh, sprints, rallycross events at Lydden Hill,  short-course oval racing in Northampton, auto-grassing, and the occasional karting meeting at the local kart track in Kimbolton. Every now and then we would go to a race meeting for one of the top level, professional, national or international championships. If there was motorsport on television, which as a child basically meant Formula 1, we either watched it or recorded it.

Like many of my interests and hobbies I went through a drought period with motorsport towards the end of my school days, and the start of my university studies. To some extent it continues to this day. I certainly don't go to as many live race meetings as I used to, but the rise of televised motorsport and the Internet has meant that I am able to watch, and keep up with, many more championships than I was ever able to before. I am helped somewhat by the fact that my current housemate, John, is an avid motorsport fan as well. It is he that introduced me to the motorsport podcast that I listen to, and is with him that I am making my first pilgrimage to Le Mans this year; John goes every year without fail.

Classic sports cars racing into the dusk at the 2009 Silverstone Classic (Credit: David Brown)

Although my early motorsport experience centred around amateur events, my interests now tend to lie with professional motorsport, both national and international. To a large extent this is due to a combination of the aforementioned increase in televised events and lack of attendance at live events. It's much, much easier to keep track of top level motorsport than grass roots championships. There are several championships that I follow, and that I try to at least catch highlights of where possible, and they run the gamut of motorsport formats.

Formula 1 and Indycar account for my open-wheel single-seater interests. Tin-top/saloon events are covered by the British Touring Car Championship, World Touring Car Championship, and Australian V8s. The BTCC is the one series that I really go to watch live any more, as John and I have a tradition of travelling to Knockhill to watch the series' annual trip north of the border. My interest in endurance racing, John's particular favourite, is catered for by the American Le Mans Series, European Le Mans Series, World Endurance Championship and Le Mans itself. Then there is MotoGP, which allows me to indulge my growing interest in motorbikes without risking maternal wrath by actually learning to ride one! There are also several series that circle around the periphery of my interest, such as the DTM, World Rally Championship, Nascar, and Japanese SuperGT.

BTCC at Knockhill in 2011. (Credit: David Brown)

During the height of summer keeping up with all of these championships can be difficult. Thank goodness for Youtube, where I can at least catch up on highlights of all of the races that I haven't managed to watch. I'm also indebted to the Midweek Motorsport podcast put out every Wednesday by Radio Le Mans, of which I am an avid listener, that provides an excellent round up of most of the weeks motorsport news. To quote the main presenter: "There's no time to explain, get in the llama."