:: Driving me Crazy... ::

:: Sunday, July 13, 2003 ::

Got back a couple of hours ago from the MotoGP. If any of you EVER hear me suggest I might be visiting a major event at Donington, unless it's Formula 1, slap me and remind me to re-read this post.

I hated it.

Not the MotoGP part, the actual racing was fun though the main reason I went was to test out the camera again. The shots that came back are not great, either. Although there are a few good ones- I'll be updating the 'bigger' online photo album later this evening with the passable shots.

No, the main reason I hated it is that Donington is about 30 miles from my house. So having it take three hours to get into the circuit kinda took the shine off. But not as much as it taking one and three quarter hours to travel the quarter-mile to the exit. Honestly, with the best will in the world, Donington officials cannot clear the car parks in an orderly manner at major events. The attitude appears to be that we're all like-minded racing fans and we'll work it all out ourselves.

There's a flaw in the logic.

Well, not actually a flaw, so much as a lack of analysis. Yes we're all like-minded, and yes, we're all racing fans. So what does that mean?

We all want to race to the exit.

Anyone who's seen carnage at the first corner of a Formula 1 race knows what I'm talking about. 20 drivers all competing for the same space of tarmac that's wide enough for two at best. Well there were about 100,000 people at Donington today. You work out what's going to happen.

Couple that with the vital point where you have to decide whether to go North or South. I'd be going North- only there's a truck broken down at the junction, so the Police are directing EVERYONE South. Eventually I find myself back at Junction 24, but approaching it from Kegworth rather than East Midlands Airport.

It's at this point the car's magnetism kicks in. Either that, or there's a cloaking device installed that I don't know about. I mean, I never have trouble finding the car, so it can't be on all the time. And I've seen the car being driven in the car park of the local Toyota dealer, so it's not an ignition switch thing. Anyway, what leads me to believe there's a cloaking device is that someone trying to leave the GP (I assume, coming from that road) pulls straight out in front of me, despite there being rules in this country that you give way to traffic already on the roundabout. It's different on Malta, so if the family's just come back from there I apologise, but you still shouldn't have control of a car.

Then there's the Ka that totally fails to see me. I'm sure the lady still doesn't realise how close she came to taking the front right corner off my car.

While I've been typing, I've been finding a few better bike shots. Feel free to take a look- need all the hits I can get.
:: Gary 13.7.03 [+] ::
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