Pete & Carole visit Zeltweg

The following report and photos from the 2000 Austrian GP are by Carole Aisthorpe-Buckley. 

This year we decided to venture further afield for our Grand Prix fix.  Austria was the final destination and Pete worked out that the distance to drive would not be far off 1,000 miles.  Not a drive to be undertaken in one go.  The ferry tickets were booked and the weekend passes were bought.  We got the ticket booking telephone number off the Internet at the A1 Ring web page.  £156 each for the weekend in grandstand seats just before the Castrol Curve at the end of the pit straight.  Checking the prices that ticket companies in this country were charging we saved £150 on their charges.

Eventually Saturday 8^th July arrived and after packing the car and trailer we left Dorset at 5pm.  Arriving at Dover at about 9pm we were 8 hours too early as planned to allow Pete a few hours sleep.  However on checking in we were told that we could catch the next sailing in about ¾ of an hours time.  We set sail and arrived in France and headed off through Belgium, Germany and to Austria.  We made such good time and with a couple of breaks for an hour to let Pete catnap we arrived at the German/Austrian border at about 6pm.  We drove for another couple of hours until we started climbing the foothills of the Alps.  At about 9pm we reached a small rest area at St Pankraz Pass and decided to stop for a meal and rest for the night.  After the meal we let down the seats and spent the night’s sleep in the car.

We woke to a most spectacular sight.  The sun was just rising and was shining on the side of one of the many peaks in the area.  The colours were spectacular and a plane passing over head leaving vapour trails could be seen as clear as day.  Those that have holidayed in mountainous areas will know what I mean.

We set off and after a short break for breakfast we arrived at Zeltweg and to the A1 Ring.  We found our camping field next to the circuit and set up camp.  We were the first on the filed and shortly after arrived 3 German lads who we became friendly with later on in the week. Also overlooking our field was the merchandising paddock and the first to erect their display unit was Jaguar.  The day was sunny with cloudless skies.  We slept well that night to be woken by the sound of heavy rain.

We decided to drive to Wien but when we got there it was still lashing down we decided to return without seeing much of the City at all. That night we visited the local bar/restaurant/disco and after a few beers went back to the tent.  Thankfully the rain had stopped but we thought if there was much more then scenes similar to Silverstone may emerge.

Well that was the start of the week.  More campers began arriving and one night whilst sitting outside the tent 3 girls came up and asked if I was Carole.  She had seen my Jaguar flagpole and Pete’s Ferrari flag pole at the side of the tent.  Having followed the Johnny Herbert Forum she guessed it was us, CarPet.  Her name was Alex and was living and working in Germany.  She and her 2 friends had just arrived by train and were camping in the next field.

Friday arrived and the weather was good.  Johnny’s first practice session was excellent being the early leader for a while.  Eddie on the other hand wasn’t performing as well and after finding out about his ailment the next day we weren’t surprised.  (Glad it was not too serious.)  In fact Eddies car stopped out on the track and he was listed as 21 or 22.  We left the track and were looking forward to the following day’s qualifying.  Johnny’s car seemed to be handling quite well and as long as the reliability of the car lasted we should be in for a good race.  By now the camping area was quite full, not muddy as we feared but the 1,000s of beer swilling Germans that had been at Nürburgring last year seemed to have followed us to Austria (see previous report).  Loud music, fireworks and great humoured atmosphere. 

That night we had a visitor whilst we were asleep.

We had been to the bank on Friday and Saturday morning I couldn’t find Pete’s passport.  He couldn’t recall actually picking it up from the bank so assumed we had left it there and that we would pick it up on Monday.  Strange though but the spare car key that was zipped up in my handbag was now in the bottom of the bag.  The tent zips were up when we got up and the car was unlocked.  I blamed Pete for being too drunk the night before and I could see he was puzzled.  He was certain he had locked the car and zipped up the flaps but there wasn’t anything missing.  All our camera gear, video and digital cameras, were still in the boot so it didn’t make sense.  More about this later.

At Saturday’s early morning practice we were puzzled at seeing Burti driving car 7.  Not having a radio or television we didn’t know then that Eddie had been taken ill.  Later we discovered the reason and began to cheer Burti on as his early morning times were about 8 seconds behind the leaders.  At qualifying though his times dropped with each lap and Johnny seemed to be of the pace again slightly.  Rain was threatening so the cars came out right at the beginning saving us from the normal debacle of waiting 20 minutes into the session before someone decides to go out.  As it happened the rain never came so we had cars on the circuit for the full hour.  16th and 21st seemed a very poor result but the run up to the first corner nearly always sees spills so we hoped that Johnny may well be in a position to avoid the melee that was sure to happen.

Our seats were numbered so unlike the previous years we didn’t have to be up at the crack of dawn in order to get a good spot.  However the first warm up session was at 09h30 so we left the tent at about an hour before hand for a leisurely stroll up.  Opposite our seats was a huge TV screen and we could look down the pit lane and see the Jaguar garage.  The warm up session went without a hitch for our boys and Burti was putting together some consistent laps.

The drivers’ parade took place and although we had our banner out, Go Johnny Go etc., Johnny didn’t appear to notice it.  After some more entertainment from the Austrian Air Force and Police the cars gathered on the grid.  Time seemed to pass more quickly this year but perhaps it was because we were only sitting for 5 hours not the usual 8.

The parade lap took place and Burti was relegated to the pit lane.  The engines screamed and they were away.  At the first corner a blur of cars and dust proved once again that 22 into 1 wont go.  Schumacher had been blocked by his teammate and was left on the inside, off the racing line and going full chat.  It was inevitable that he would hit or be hit and so it was.  He was out and although Trulli and Fisichella legged it down the pit lane exit back to the pits it was to no avail.  The race wasn’t red flagged and a couple of minutes later Schumi was himself seen to be strolling down the same pit lane exit.  It then dawned on me as the cars came round that Johnny had moved to 5th place.  Unbelievable!  As the safety car came in Johnny settled down and although passed by Barrichello he defended his 6th place superbly until De la Rosa went out.  Between laps 43 and 46 Salo, Herbert and Button made their pit stops.  Pete was filming Johnny’s stop and there didn’t seem to be any problem.  About 9 seconds.  However, Button must have had a blistering stop because he leap frogged into 5th place and Salo took up 6th leaving Johnny in 7th.  Although this was the final position you couldn’t have separated them with a tablecloth.

After the race I was gutted.  1 place off a point.  Still the car hadn’t suffered any recurring problems and we were pleased that Burti had also finished and shown to be a good driver.  We stayed for the podium celebrations but were not allowed onto the track.  We left but returned a couple of hours later.  We saw Alex again with her friends and chatted for a while.  We posed for a picture and then said our farewells.

Back on the track now the usual busy scene of teams dismantling everything was taking place.  The 2 Jaguar cars were still out but photography was not allowed.  The way up to the podium was not obvious and finally we had to give up on the hope of sneaking onto the podium.  We were not successful on the Monday either.

Back at the tent we had our evening meal and said goodbye to our German neighbour and his young son.  This was the lad’s first trip and although neither spoke English the lad always had a smile on his face.  Peter really felt sorry for him knowing how disappointed the lad would have been seeing his hero crash out on the first corner.  As the camper pulled away the Father got out to pickup a frying pan he’d left and also picked up some papers from the ground where his camper had been parked.  They were Pete’s passport and golf score cards!  So someone had come into our tent that night.  Obviously looking for money as a £5 note was missing that we discovered later in the week.  Next year a burglar alarm will be rigged up.

Apparently this type of intrusion/theft is quite common and talking to our 3 German friends further down the field they too disturbed some prowlers that Friday night.  They told us that the Hungaroring campsite is renowned for it’s reputation of theft from tents during the weekend.  We were discussing ways of defending our area and he started mentioning laying mines, anti aircraft guns and surrounding his tent with a double layer of razor wire.  Obviously terrified of his 56 litres of beer that he brought being stolen.  We’ve booked our place next to him next year. J

Monday is always an anti climax and as the field began to empty and look forlorn we packed up as well.  We had a date with the Burgermeister of Liederbach, our twin town, who was going to entertain us for a couple of days so we had that to look forward too.  We were the last to leave along with our 3 German friends.  They drove up to say farewell and they were dressed in white shirts with Shell and other sponsored tabs sewn on.  Very official looking.  They were going to try to get onto the track for a spin.  We wished them luck.  Dirk “Oti” Holtermann was certainly a guy with determination.  We hoped you made it Oti.

This year has probably been the best so far apart from Johnny’s 7th position just missing the point.  However, we learnt shortly afterwards that Hakkinen’s software was being queried and todate we don’t know whether he is to be disqualified or not.

Next year Hockenheim seems to be the favourite destination although Pete is hankering for Spain.  We will definitely be in the pit grandstand seats again as the extra is well worth it.  It’s comfortable, guaranteed seating and the entertainment and being able to see what’s going on during the quite periods helps the time pass quicker.