Category Motor Sport

My father and I have been to many a racing event including Le Mans, Silverstone, Nürburgring, Mondello Park and the Isle of Man to name but a few.

We’d never been to Spa, but this year that changed: we went to the 2015 Spa Classic in his 1972 BMW 3.0 CSL.

We watched numerous classes, ranging from Minis and Cortinas to historic Le Mans winners. The atmosphere was relaxed and the public were allowed to go pretty much anywhere, so we also got up close and personal with a number of the cars as they were being prepared – and some later repaired – by their respective teams.

A highlight of the visit was being able to take the car for a few laps around the circuit. Although the 1972 CSL was fast for its day, clearly it wasn’t going to be much competition for new Porsches and Vipers...

Over the weekend I was at the Silverstone Classic event with my father and his close friend Anthony Humphreys. The three of us often go to events like this: we’ve attended events in Ireland, the Isle of Man and even France.

For this event, Anthony had purchased a Trespass 200: a new wonder-tent that he proudly proclaimed could erect itself in seconds which would allow him to sit back with a beer while we were still putting ours up. And that’s pretty much what happened. Two days later though when it was time to go home, it was a very different story.

I had watched videos of people struggling with pop-up tents on YouTube some months before and was quietly confident that Anthony was going to experience the same difficulty...