Chris Tomkins’ Blog

It was with great sadness I heard the news over the weekend the British rally driver, and former world champion, Colin McRae has died in a helicopter crash, along with his 5yr old son and 2 friends of the family.

Many years ago my dad, who used to be a rally co-driver in his younger days, starting taking me to watch the RAC Rally (now known as the Rally GB). For many years we were both keen spectators and enjoyed watching all the drivers, although there was something special, almost magical, about Colin. You could tell whenever he was interviewed, or whenever you saw him drive he just wanted to go as fast as possible and would do absolutely anything to win. Sometimes he would just try too hard and end up having a major accident but that was what everyone expected from him - 100% commitment. Since he left the World Rally Championship things have just not been the same as far as I, and I’m sure many others, are concerned. He (like Richard Burns whose life was tragically cut short in 2005 with a brain tumour) will be sorely missed by many.

My thoughts are with his remaining family and the families of the others who died in the tragedy.

Last week I blogged about the fact I was going to see the British Grand Prix at the cinema and Sam asked for a report - so here it is.

On arriving we collected our tickets and followed the instructions given by the ticket machine to go to the counter to get our free drink and popcorn. After waiting for about 4 people to get served we were told we would be given iton our way into the screen! Disappointingly the free drink and popcorn was a 75cl of full fat Coca Cola (no other option) and a small plastic bag of sweet popcorn - so nowhere near what you would expect from a cinema. The programme however IS the official race-day programme you would get at Silverstone (which I am sure would be £10 or so and includes a free copy of Autosport/AutoCar/Motorsport News or F1 Racing Magazine) so a bit of a mixed start.

We entered the cinema (which wasn’t one of the biggest at Gunwharf Quays) and chose our seats (tickets weren’t marked with a seat number so we could chose where we sat). When the coverage started the cinema was not full (probably about 2/3rds full) and was a mix of people - predominantly male (as you may expect) but a number of couples and families too of a whole range of ages. The coverage was not the standard ITV coverage, i.e. no James Allen or Martin Brundle, but was pretty good - the technical side provided by Jonathan Palmer - the only downside being Jonathan Palmer insisting on pronouncing Kimi Raikkonen’s surname as if it started with the name of a medieval torture device!

Throughout the race the crowd were pretty quiet - but probably because there were no major incidents or no really exciting pieces involving any of the key british drivers. A few of the crowd went for a one-stop strategy but were quick about it and didn’t real spoil the view.

The picture (broadcast in HD) I felt was a little disappointing - I’d heard lots of people raving about it on their home TVs but on such a big screen it was still far from perfect (the quality was much more noticeable at the press conference at the end). The big thing was the sound, which they seemed to have quite well turned up. Not only did you get the roar of the cars but you got to hear the wind noise and the rumble as they crossed the kerbs which was great.

Would I go again? Probably yes because the big screen, uninterrupted coverage and the sound are great however the cost is a bit high considering what you get for your money. I completed a survey on the way out and suggested cheaper ticket options which didn’t include the food or programme so they obviously want to find out what people think.

Apparently they are going to show the rest of the season at cienamas so it will be interesting to see how succesful it is - I wonder how many people will turn out for a non-British event?

All in all, worth going but a little on the expensive side.

Just booked my tickets to the British Formula 1 Grand Prix - not to actually go to Silverstone but to go and see it at the cinema! For the first time the race is being shown at participating Vue cinemas for the princely sum of £15. My first thoughts were that it seemed a bit expensive just to watch it on a big screen in High Definition with Dolby Digital surround sound. However, when you realise it includes an official program (worth £10), a drink and popcorn (probably best part of a fiver) and best of all there will be no adverts (hooray - just like the good old days) it seems like a pretty good deal. Now if only they had Murray Walker commentating again……..

If like me you missed pretty much everything about this year’s Le Mans 24hr race or fancy going in the future, check out this excellent report (including some great pictures) by one of my work colleagues - no prizes for guessing who it is - it should be pretty obvious!

If you’ve missed any of the F1 Grand Prix over the last 3 years and want to see how they panned out from start to finish, check out Vision F1. They provide animated versions which you can watch at varying different speeds from realtime to very fast! Unfortunately the graphics are pretty poor but it is quite cool to see exactly how your favourite drivers fared. Once they get decent graphics it may even be better than watching it on TV - at least they won’t stop every 10mins for advert breaks!