Getting ready
Well, it’s allmost that time again.
Tomorrow, my A1GP weekend will start at Wijk Aan Zee, just 30 km ( 20 miles ) north of Zandvoort, where all the media is invited for a media event.
Some drivers and some journalists will be blokarting. For those who do not know what that is: attach a sail to a small 3 wheeled vehicle, and sail over the sands. Blokarting is quite old as an activity. The oldest blokart was found in an Egyptian tomb, and the very first patent ever was for a blokart designed by Dutchman Simon Stevin.
After that, I am going to pick up my accreditation at Zandvoort, and i’ll try to get onto the circuit to snap some shots there.
one down, three still to go
6:30 and the alarmclock was going off. Though I’d love to have stayed in bed, I knew I had to get out to make it to the A1GP media event in time.
I had to get to Capelle aan de IJssel, where Hugo’s brother would pick me up. Together we drove from there to Amstelveen to pick Hugo up, and then proceded to the Dutch coast just above IJmuiden.
The weather was good. A bit chilly perhaps, but dry, sunny and lots of wind, so the blokart event was definately on. We were recieved well, were laden with presents, and a lunch was being prepared.
It allways comes as a welcome surprise to see the A1GP drivers having fun at such events. They may be competitors on the track, but off the track, you couldn’t find a bunch of closer friends if you tried to. Oliver Jarvis, Khalil Beshir and James Hinchcliffe are the animators of many a party, and they definately were so here during the blokart races.
After all the photoshooting, footage taking and interviews, the lunch buffet was opened. I have to say that we were well catered for, allthough I do now know why I never ordered lobster soup before. It’s not that it was bad, but it didn’t agree with my tastebuds.
The podium for the blokart races were announced, and Khalil thought that this was the right time to get back at Ollie, Loic and Hinch by generously spraying them with champagne. Earlier, they tried to bury him… boys…
The three of us then went to Zandvoort, where I picked up my accreditation, and I decided to take some shots of the circuit while all the preperations were still going on.
One day down, three still to go, and a busy one is just ahead
Friday the 2 x 13th +2
Beep beep beep beep grmbllll 6:30 am.
Shower, breakfast, bus, train.. in that order I think. It was raining when I woke up, but luckily, by the time I made it to Zandvoort, it stopped, and it stayed dry for the rest of the day.
Hugo picked up Alex first, then me, and we went from Hoofddorp (near Schiphol airport ) to Zandvoort. I had to get the rest of my media kit, my card and my precious white tabbard that grants me access to the paddock/ pitlane/ track. I have been handed number 38, so be on the lookout 
.
And, I have allready been recognised. A couple from the Netherlands noticed my name on my card and said: Oh, so you are Richard Renes. We see your name on a lot of fansites and forums.” So you see my fame preceeds me.
The new Pakistan livery looks pretty. It now has three shades of green in a pretty arrangement. This was my second team launch this year you know 
. I have yet to spot the South African or Swiss car fully assembled, but the body parts I have seen give a decent impression. Be on the lookout
Practice and qualifying for the Suzuki Swift Cup, Formula Ford, BRL and Renault Clio Cup started at noon, and while it’s hard to tell who made the most noise, it’s easy to tell who made the least: the Suzukis.
While in the Media compound, I got a call from Jeffrey. He and Stuart were at the cafe at the end of the paddock, so Alex and I gathered our stuff and went to meet them, and there was much rejoicing. On our way back, we also met up with Orangeman from the Fanzone. He told us: “You will recognise me!” and he was right: we did.
Another busy day tomorrow.. got my camera, batteries are charging, got my earplugs, and a pretty spot to take pictures from.
I say: bring on day 3
Cold and damp ( Zandvoort Saturday)
It was cold and wet when the day started, and that would never change during the day. Yes there were small periods of dryness, but overall, the day was a wet one. Not that it was actually raining hard or something like that, but it just kept drizzling.
At 9 am, the first A1GP cars went out. I had taken up my position on a crest at the Rob Slotemakerbocht ( turn 4), so I could see who has the confidence to go hard there and who did not. Netherlands, South Africa, Italy, Mexico, Czech Republic and Switserland had that confidence right at the start. Germany, France and Great Britain after a few laps, but Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia and USA never were comfortable during the first free practise. Also, it was the first time teams Switserland and South Africa went out in a more or less finalised version of their respective liveries. I had no problems at all recognising the vehicles at high or low speed at all.
John Watson and Arie Luyendijk jr. next. I didn’t actually see them driving around in person, but I watched them on the big screen in the media centre, where it was warm and dry. I had the feeling we’d be out in the rain more today, so an occasional break wouldn’t hurt.
James Hinchcliffe should consider getting his pilot licence. He flew, literally. Later on, Adam Khan tried something similar in the Tarzanbocht, but he did’t get that high. Again, at the main straight, you could see who was happy and who was not. Those who were happy hit their brakes as late as possible, whereas those not happy in the car did that at least 20 metres earlier. The last part of free practice 2, I decided to make use of one of those neat features in A1, the Paddock Perch. There you can see the live timing, all the circuit cameras, the pitbox camera of the home team, and listen to the teamradio of the hometeam. I know what problems team Netherlands had during the second free practice, but I won’t tell hi hi.
Time for a historic moment: for the first time ever, the BRL light cars had a definative advantage over the BRL V6 cars. On the slippery surface of Zandvoort, the weight, the distribution and the tyres worked better for the Ford Focus silhouetted BRL lights. Yes, on the main straight, the Ford Mondeo imaged V6 cars were faster, but they lost that advantage in pretty much every corner of the circuit.
Qualification is a go. Four sessions of 15 minutes. Alex and I decided to move towards the Hugenholtz corner more progressively during these qualifications. We took some decent pics considering the material we were working with.
Seventh and eleventh for the home team. I knew Jeroen had his work cut out, but I also knew that if there is one driver capable of overtaking at Zandvoort at pretty much any spot on the circuit, it would be Jeroen. Seriously, any other Dutch driver, be it Jos Verstappen, Christijan Albers, Robert Doornbos or anyone else would have had to work much harder to move up the field.
Only 3 things left to do on Saturday: Visit the DutchA1GP barbeque, pay a visit to a friend of mine who was having her birthday and to write a report. Problems with public transport on a Saturdaynight at Zandvoort meant I never got to do the last one, so my apologies for that.
For the pride of your nations, start your season
For a change, it was dry when I woke up. Sure, the sky was still a tad greyish, but it was dry.
This time, a friend of mine, who was going to the races too, was going to bring me there in return for a nice parking ticket on the circuit. We would regret this later off course, but for now, it looked like a good plan to park at P3 on the circuit.
All the merchandise shops were there, and they were now all open. There were some dedicated Team Netherlands shop with the new team gear, but there was also a big official A1GP merchandise shop.
From the mediacentre, I proceded to the pit area and moved to the starting grid to shoot some nice pics. While on my way, I noticed that some cars again had more sponsoring on them. Bruarfoss, an Icelandic mineral water, and Hekla Vodka were now prominent on several cars, as well as Energem. A sign of things to come perhaps ?
I was able to get through the grid smoothly. All the grid girls cooperated nicely, so my thanks go out to them.
None of the teams were in panic though. They all made the preparations needed for the race, which was to start at 11 am local time. And when the sign was given to leave the starting grid, I went to the inside of the Tarzan corner, where I expected some things might happen.
And… they didn’t. All cars stayed on the track.. now there is something new. Allthough South Africa was pulling away fast, there were quite some fights going on throughout the field. Our local hero Jeroen Bleekemolen took the Dutch car from 7th to the podium, and Oliver Jarvis was quite keen on overtaking people too. Little did we know then that his time that day was still to come.
Zandvoort says that over the weekend, there have been 98.000 paying spectators, and I believe them. Yes, it wasn’t as big a crowd as last year, but from where I was standing, that was hardly noticable.
The circuit had provided us with a nice side program. Apart from races for the Dunlop SportMaxx Clio Cup, the BeNeLux Formula Ford championships, the BeNeLux Racing League and the Formido Suzuki Swift Cup, there were also demonstrations of the Tom Coronel sr gang in their drift Nissans, a guy with a jet powered quad, a nice procession of various vehicles from the Daf museum and a proper driver’s parade with 23 Donkervoorts.
The national anthem was sung by Do, the magic words were spoken by Arie Luyendijk sr. and the parade lap was a go. Next time they would get around, it would be mayhem, I was that sure.
Again, yes some pushing and pulling, but only Portugal went off ( spectacularly I may add ). Sadly, that was on the other side of the track. And again, like in the sprintrace, there were fights all through the field except for the lead of the race. Still, the podium was well deserved for all three drivers.
There are moments in life when you wish you could split yourself in 2 or more, and the last four days definately qualify for that. I wanted to be everywhere, but I simply couldn’t be everywhere at the same time.
Off course, little was I to know that my hardest challenge was yet to come: getting home. Remember I was allowed to park on the circuit ? Well, when we left, we were sent to the right instead of the left ( where we wanted to go ). Result, it took us 3 hours to get from Zandvoort to Leiden, which is a distance of about 25 miles/ 40 km. And it didn’t end there.. In their wisdom, the Dutch National Rail decided that traffic between The Hague and Rotterdam wasn’t going to be possible, and they also decided to hand me the wrong information at Leiden. If they had said there that I should have gone through Gouda, I would have.. but they said that from The Hague, busses would go to Rotterdam.. and.. they didn’t.
Still: I will be there again next year.
