We were staying at Turangi and taking the 40 min’ drive to the Grand prix circuit due to the fact that Taupo was fully booked out all weekend, everything was taken; the locals were even letting out the houses for some extreme prices. We really didn’t mind at all, it was an easy drive up as most people that could not stay local were at Rotarua and coming down; that road was having real problems. We arrived on the Saturday to watch the practise session and then the race qualifying, we won’t load you with detail; but NZ did great while GBR didn’t do so great. The day had a full race program on and it was a fun filled day for Em & I, sat on the grass bank watching and listening to some of the loudest cars we have even seen or heard; glad we took the ear plugs along. When we first arrived we had purchased our program, but we also purchased a 40 min’ walk around the pit lane. Now for anyone who has been to the F1 look at these prices, Program @ $10 - £4 and pit lane walk access @ $20 - £8 each; now you wouldn’t get that at the British F1. The pit lane walk also allowed you access on both days to the paddock, where you could look around all the other race format cars; take pictures and even meet the drivers for autographs if you wished too. I’m sure if the A1 can do it for these prices, the F1 should be able too? Em & I purchased our GBR tee shirts to cheer the GBR team on; we had a few supporters but not many in the crowd; so we had to cheer the boys on. This was the only sad thing about the weekend, GBR replica tee shirt @ $20 - £8 but the locals NZ replica tee shirt $50 - £20, talk about cashing in you would think they would be at least the same or even cheaper (watch out at the British A1 GP in May, will the same happen to us?) The whole day was great, paddock and pit lane walk; close to the action even from ‘the cheap seats’ and we were looking forward to race day. We must say that the NZ’s had the traffic well and truly sorted, it was a full capacity crowd and yet hardly any delays at all. We found our spot on the grass hill to watch the race, proudly wearing our GBR team shirts; we stood along side the entire GBR support crowd so that made 5 of us in total. They have a short sprint race first, in which the USA car took out our GBR car with a side swipe from nowhere; we had to pit but the GBR car came out again to try and get the fastest lap time (they get points for the fastest lap in both races) Then the full race, GBR were off the a good start from their mid grid position and we lasted all of 3 laps; engine gave up on us! But that only slightly dampened our sprits as all the GBR fans threw their voices behind the NZ car that was having great race in front of their home fans. Well the day ended on an even higher note, almost everyone went after the feature race; which was a shame as they missed the V8 reverse grid race. The reverse grid is exactly what it say’s it is, the car race the final 22 lap race with the fastest at the back and the slower up front; needless to say there was a few ‘bumps and bangs’ V8’s everywhere, bonnets, boots and even doors dented and hanging off; everyone safe and sound so it was a fantastic finish to a great weekend. We headed back to the hostel without any traffic problems, settled down with a beer and thought about our next couple of days; we were heading back to ‘stinkvilla’
