Elvie's Year in Photos 2011: Day 163 Race Day

Sunday 12 June

Phalanx of Moto2 riders

Bradley Smith gets in front of Scott Redding

As forecast, raceday dawned cold wet and windy. Our breakfast chef cooked under the awning and we had our bacon rolls indoors then wrapped ourselves up well and headed to the track. Once there we froze! Although sheltered from the rain by the grandstand roof the wind was blowing in our faces and was cold and penetrating, hard to believe it's June! We'd missed the warm up sessions as that was definitely going to be a misnomer! First race was the Moto2. It wasn't a bad race considering the conditions. Great to see Bradley Smith working his way through the field to come second. As soon as the riders were over the finish line we left the stand to escape the wind! It was actually less cold standing outside behind the stand where we were more sheltered.

Chips and a hot coffee helped to warm us before the main race. After the first couple of laps it was a bit of a procession with not much action once Lorenzo, Simoncelli & Spies had crashed out. It must have been horrendous riding at those speeds in such atrocious conditions. In the interviews afterwards the top three all said how miserable and cold they'd been. Ride of the race was undoubtedly Edwards who came third despite fracturing his collar bone a week ago! Respect to the winner, Stoner - he's not exciting to watch but boy can he ride!

Lorenzo leads the pack early on

Finally it was the turn of the 125's.. By this time Ann & Andy had left and after 2 laps LB joined them as they couldn't stand the cold any more. V,P & I being more hardy, or foolhardy, were rewarded by a more exciting 125 race. A bonus was the 3 Brits, who normally are lucky to get a point between them, coming 10th, 11th & 12th. I doubt if either of the two later support races had any spectators at all as the shivering crowd, us included, all left immediately after the 125's finished.

Standing water & Stoner takes the lead

Back at the van the heater & kettle was on. A&A had already taken down their tent and took their leave of us after a cuppa. We've all agreed next year we're going to skip Silverstone, and watch a MotoGP in warmer climes! Then we were four. We spent a very pleasant evening cooking & eating in the warmth of the caravan while watching the even worse weather at the Canadian F1 race and Jenson Buttons amazing win. What a day!

I took hundreds of photos at the race so hope you enjoy this selection!