Anyone who went to Donington GP on a bike...

[Silver]

...and got absolutely soaked like we did, read this and then feel better about the fact that when you were getting in your warm shower at home, car drivers were still queueing in the car park!

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/nav?page=motorcyclenews.articles.articleCategory.article&resourceId=2829347&articleCategory=SPORT_MOTOGP

Oh, next year's GP date has been announced too: 16th July 2006.

[Reevo8]

It didnt take me long to escape on the bike, well not after cutting across the grassy feild!
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05 ZX10R, (**05 WKR)

[numark1]

4 hours. Fucking hell, bet your glad you took you bikes. I wonder if all of the car drivers were jeallous.

[Steve H]

I didn't get caught up in any traffic (although I didn't stay for the Virgin R6 race) thankfully I got there relatively early so managed to park the bike up not far from the entrance to Redgate corner thus leaving myself a mad dash through the car park once all the racing was wrapped up.

Looking back on the day (despite the crappy weather) i still wouldn't have missed it
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Mellow Yellow
The BCF Top TEN - 2010, 2009, 2008, The Original.

[numark1]

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/jpeg/283/5810063.jpeg

[yambabe]

I think some of those times may have been slightly over-exaggerated tbh, unless nobody stayed to watch the final race which finished about 7-ish?

The exhibition hall and the bar both closed around 7 anyway, and there were still plenty of people milling about.

Even those who didn't stay to the bitter end, I wouldn't have expected them to be trying to get off site until 5-6ish?

Being a trader we had to pack up before we could leave, so finally left at about 9.30pm. There was nobody else around when we left. All the car parks, all the camp sites, the whole place was deserted except for maybe half a dozen other traders and a handful of marshalls.

So while a couple of hours is certainly feasible to get out of the car park (I know they were still queuing to get off the campsite when we left at the same time last year) I honestly think that it may have just felt like four for those sat in their cages!
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Sod falling in love, I wanna fall in chocolate.

[swaffs]

we were camping so parked in the bike camping carpark, but had absolutely no problem filtering past all the cars queueing to get out !!
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Swaffs Photography |
BCF vinyl stickers
"Look not back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around you in awareness."

[JonB]

Here is a pic from about 9AM on Sunday morning, this is in no way any sort of reflection on the sheer amount of bikes there, this is probably about a quarter at the most.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[Kram]

thats the kind of carpark... where u lose your bike and walk around pressing the arm/disarm button on your alarm just to find it
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FS1E -> SR125 -> CB400N -> CB650 -> FZR600 Genises -> VFR400 NC21 -> CBR900RR Fireblade -> Renault Clio 1.4

[Kirmit]

[TOM M]

it wont be long before they start charging for parking
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Now owner of a 1200 Bandit

[JonB]

Well Sam and Dom have a shit sense of direction and we ended up spending 15 mins to look for our bikes, I with my pidgeon instinct managed to find em straight away.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[Dom]

[tony532]

no change from last year then.

about two hours to get out of there in a car when the main gp had finished.

there was only about 76,000 people there this year as well


they still cant sort out traffic problems after saying they would last year.

i watched it on tv this year as i resent paying 50 pound to be treated like cattle

[Silver]

[houlsby]

getting in was good, filtering past al the cars in a "middle" lane full of bikes. "nose to arse". wasn't too sure of the bikers (cbr400 gullarm, if it was you you scared the shit out of me!) wheeving through the traffic and skipping lanes between jammed cars and nearly getting smashed!

getting out was better, straight out, followed by some random ktm rider. shat myself going home, went up the a1 with l plates on because i got lost. trying to not get caught by the plod.

[chris___]

I didt think getting out was to bad, if the weather had have been better it would have been alot easier, I thik its unfair to criticise donington for the traffic afterwards, they cant help the weather. The shit weather meant that everyone wanted to leave at once, which was never going to work. It was also made worse by the fact that some car drivers decided to use the bikes only route
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Yamaha rxs100 > Kawasaki ZZR600 > Kawasaki ZX6R > Honda Hornet 600 > Honda Bros 400 > Suzuki SV650S K2
Bikepics page

[JonB]

In all fairness if it was dry I would have stayed for the R6 race.
____________________
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[chris___]

[JonB]

Meh I'll never forget hitting the M5 towards the South West and get caught up in a massive shower at about teh Worcester area.

I was a bit stupid to stick at 90MPH in heavy torrential rain when I could virtually see fuck all, but sometimes I just wanna get home. But I couldn't resist myself to a £7 (waaaay overpriced) all day breakfast at the nearest Road Chef.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[ali-b]

We got out of the car park pretty easy, we were on the grass bit just outside entrance 10...wet grass is not fun after it'd been riden over by a gazzilion bikes...

The M1 was rubbish, traffic all over the place...we stopped off at the first service station with a load of other bikers and queued to dry stuff out under the hand dryers in the loos...lots of 'this is supposed to be waterproof' grumblings from a few people.

On the plus side, the guy who came with us who'd never filtered before learned pretty fast.

My gear held up pretty well in the rain, got the usual seepage into the wrist area and a bit into the top of the jacket when the buff gave up the ghost...left a nice puddle of water on the floor when we stopped for drinks and grub...

There was a bit of a queue for petrol, but it was good to see the bikers doing everything they could to speed up the process...10 bikes thru the pumps to 2 cars when I was counting...

Still can't help but feel sorry for the people in cars... sorry, I couldn't keep a straight face for that one ...as we filtered past them in their thousands

Alex.

[Reevo8]

[ali-b]

[Dom]

[ali-b]

[blatantly stolen from the web]
The roads plan in the 1960's came under fire because it wasn't committed to motorways, but instead to a combination of motorways and all-purpose roads. Worst affected was the A1, which was almost all upgraded in the 1960's as far as Newcastle, but a few bits as motorway and the rest as all-purpose road. Right now the A1(M) sections are:

London (M25) to Letchworth - 23 miles
Alconbury to Peterborough - 14 miles
Worksop to Doncaster - 15 miles
Aberford to Bramham - 3 miles
Walshford to Dishforth - 15 miles
Barton to Washington - 30 miles
In the early 1990's, the government had plans to upgrade the gaps to motorway standard, and started work with two isolated sections - Alconbury to Peterborough and Walshford to Dishforth. The plan was then unceremoniously scrapped in 1996.

New under construction are two new sections in West Yorkshire, from Darrington to Micklefield, bypassing Ferrybridge and providing a free-flowing junction with the M62, and a new junction north of Wetherby, removing the temporary junction at Hunsingore and building three miles of motorway plus junction 46..

In 2005 work will begin on upgrading the seven miles of A1 that will be left between Bramham and Wetherby, and then from Dishforth to Barton. This will complete at long last the motorway connection to Newcastle and the North East, and there is speculation that the section north of Aberford will become part of the M1.
[/blatantly stolen from the web]

Alex.