My weekend with AUTOSPORT - take two.

I'm no stranger to the world of the British Touring Car Championship, having followed the series for a number of years thanks to ITV4's excellent coverage, and have attended a few races at Brands and Thruxton since 2007. So there should be nothing to worry about, correct? Wrong. I somehow managed to get another weekend with AUTOSPORT, after a successful weekend reporting on F2 at Brands, and a week's work experience. Yet, for some reason, I was nervous as we drove towards the circuit on Saturday morning. You see, unlike Brands, which I know like the back of my hand, I'd never been to Snetterton, because, well, it's quite out of the way for me. Oh, and, it's the second-most watched series in the UK after Formula One. No pressure then...

Arriving into Snetterton, I showed my media pass, and was promptly directed into a public car-park. Brilliant. Anyway, I took it gracefully, and asked someone where the media centre was. After a bit of faffing around, I found where the media centre was...and walked into Matt Neal while he was signing autographs. Sorry mate.

Kevin Turner was already in the media centre, and gave me my weekend task. In short, I had to do the Free Practice Two report, and I also had to write mock reports of the Clio Cup and the Porsche Carerra Cup races. When a series I wasn't concentrating on was taking place, I could go wherever I liked and speak to whoever I liked. Once again, I was to have the freedom of the paddock. Still, the touring cars were coming out of the garages for their first practice session, so I loaded up a timing screen, took a photo of my view to make everyone envious and paid attention to what was going on.

Of course, the main thing that happened in that first free practice session was Gordon Sheddon's car catching fire; as it was trundling down the pit-lane of a sudden it burst into flames and all you could see was smoke. The media centre is right above the pit-lane so we all got a grandstand seat of the Flash fire (sorry). The memory of it won't leave me for a while; it's hard to describe, but what I did know was that I needed to go down to the paddock to chat with with Shedds and to see the damage to the car for myself. As it turned out, Honda were in the garages closest to the media centre so finding the car was an easy task. The entire engine bay was black and smouldering when I got down there, and the bodywork didn't look much better either. I spoke to Flash a bit after he recovered, and he told me that he had to leap out of the passenger-side door, while the car was still moving to avoid being engulfed in flames himself. It's a miracle and a testimony to the safety of cars these days that he wasn't seriously injured or even hurt at all – just a bit shocked.

Between the end of FP1 and FP2 I spent my time grabbing words with drivers and team members ahead of the second practice session and also learning the circuit a bit. As well as that I needed to pop up to the media centre to make notes on the Clios and Porsches. In short, motorsport journalism seems glamorous, but it really isn't! When I got back to the media centre, I noticed a certain Louise Goodman from ITV4 had set up opposite me. Not for the first time over the weekend, I had to explain why I was there and had a lovely chat with Louise – and I did later in the day too. Motor-racing is so serious, but everyone – generally – is very friendly. It's refreshing, and was also a bit weird to bump into pals that I met during the F2 weekend...

FP2 went by and I wrote my report, emailed it to what I thought was the right email address and I was well on my way to getting some much-needed lunch, as I was stopped in my tracks by my iPhone making a noise to inform me that I had got the email address wrong. A slight panic ensured as Kevin and Ben were nowhere to be seen. After a bit of brain-racking, I remembered the right email address and sent it in. My dad also appeared from nowhere too, so we had a catch up and discussed when we'd next see each other (it turned out to be at the end of the day, for reference), and he gave me his qualifying predictions. Writing about the action is all well and good, but it's sometimes useful to get a track-side perspective on things which you can't get when you're in the media centre, or running around the paddock trying to get information.

On my way back to the media centre, I bumped into Matt Neal for the second time in the day, and he told me that he was hoping to take the fight to his best mate Jason Plato in qualifying, and tried to give me an update on Flash's car (at that point it was a 'maybe' for qualifying). I found over the course of the weekend that a lot of the BTCC drivers were more than happy to talk to me when I nabbed them as they were going from one place to another, none more so than both Honda drivers; they were the only guys who kept on signing things for the thousands of fans that were in and around the paddock while speaking to me. As a journalist, it's a bit of a pain to have the public around as it makes it hard to speak to people, but from a fans point of view – remember, I put myself as a fan who likes write about motorsport and cars – it gives fantastic access.

The Porsche rabble are always closely matched, and the qualifying session at Snetterton was no exception; eleven cars were within a second of each other. After maing a few notes on the session and picking up the results sheet, I headed out once again to the BTCC paddock (see, told you all I did on the Saturday was go to the paddock). After about two seconds of searching I found Matt Neal again. Unlike our previous encounters, he seemed pretty downbeat, claiming that Plato had a speed advantage over his Honda Civic. Of course, the next thing I did was to go down to the KX squad and speak to someone, that person being Andy Neate who told me that their speed advantage was more like 1kph (which isn't much), compared to the 2kph that Neal was claiming.

I then thought to myself 'Jason Plato has blanked me three times in the last three years. He can't ignore me because I'm in the media, and anyway I want to speak to him'. I honestly wish I hadn't. His engineer stopped me from going into the garage (all other teams allowed me to waltz in), which is fair enough, and asked me to wait for Jason (which again, is fair enough since he's a busy bloke). After ten minutes, Jason pops out, complete with sunglasses, and starts to quiz me on who I'm with. After explaining to him that I was with AUTOSPORT, I probably did the wrong thing and told him that Matt Neal thinks that his arch-enemy will walk the weekend. To which I got told this:

'Have you ever seen touring cars? Matt is playing games and is clearly talking out of his arse to you'. Righty- ho.

'Jason, how do you think you'll do in qualifying?'

'Well we'll have to see; obviously those Hondas are a bit quicker than us, but you know what Matt's like. I honestly think he'll beat me and he's bluffing to you, but we'll have to see.'

'And the races? It's meant to be warmer which suit you, shouldn't it?'

'I don't know yet. Come back to me after the races. I couldn't give a shit about the weather, as you probably got that from Matt' he says smirking.

'Erm, okay. Thanks Jason.' I go to shake his hand, and he turns around and heads back into the garage, ignoring the fans that were camped out behind, hoping for a quick chat with him. If only they knew the real Jason Plato while the cameras were off...

A little shaken, I head back towards the media centre, and on my way back I bumped into Mat Jackson, one of the kinder members of the drivers. I asked him how his chances for qualifying and also asked how the NGTC car was getting on. Mat was friendly and explained that he only ran four laps in the car so he was treating the weekend as an extended test session. As I headed back to the media centre for qualifying, I had mixed feelings; Jason had obviously been quite rude, which was annoying, yet everyone else was so helpful and kind – his team-mate for one. I put that out of my head, sat down and asked Louise for her prediction and chatted to her a bit more. Have I mentioned she's lovely before?

I found it amusing all weekend how everyone goes their own way to do things during the weekend, but about five minutes before the BTCC sessions begin everyone crowded into the media centre to watch and take note. Alongside me, I had Kevin, Ben, a Motorsport News writer and the lovely duo responsible for tweeting from the BTCC account and keeping btcc.net up to date. Together we had a laugh all weekend, with Matt providing the laughs more often than not. One gem from him, as the session was red-flagged after Shedds got going again was this: 'Who runs this series? The Chuckle Brothers?' I admit that it makes more sense if you were there, but he's a very funny bloke indeed.

Clios then beckoned and I actually had to concentrate as I was writing a report on it; in short, it wasn't as manic as a typical Clio Cup race, but it was still a brilliant race nonetheless. I had arranged to meet up with dad during the final race of the day so straight after the Clios, I said my goodbyes and packed up with the am of getting out of the circuit at a half-decent time, as by then I was shattered.

Finding my way back to the car was a challenge as I had to negotiate a number of over-eager Ginetta drivers, and because I wasn't really sure where to go. After finding the car, I flopped in and rested. It had been a long, hard day, but a very rewarding one.

Sunday.

I actually slept on Saturday night, which was good news as I needed the rest. Like my F2 weekend, I was shattered after a day of running around a paddock. That's not to say you should feel sorry for me though; I thrive on running around and love to find out things. Still, Sunday came nice and bright again; it was race day, it was going to be busy, and boy was I looking forward to it.

Getting into the circuit was a bit harder than the previous day mainly due to more people coming to the circuit. It was a lovely day and touring car were on the bill. What could be better? It was a lot easier to find the media centre in the morning than on the previous day, so I was set up nice and early, said hello to everyone and went for a wander before the first race. There was nothing really that interesting to write home about from the wander other than Honda confirming to me that Flash's car was fixed. We'd have more Honda-related troubles before the end of the day, though...

Wander complete, I went back the media centre to watch the first of the day – the Ginetta GT Supercup was out and anyway I needed to be around the media centre for the second race of the day, the Porsche Carerra Cup which I was covering. Plus it allowed me to go on about Louise Richardson on Twitter, more of which you can read later. Louise, incidentally, got a podium in her class, and I still had no idea who Emily Jane Williams was. She was, according to the Ginetta PR person someone who won a competion to be a grid girl. I'm not sure how she added 'much needed glamour to the Ginetta weekend'.

The Porsches raced and I made some notes which I discovered were hard to read the next day, picked up a results sheet and went down to the paddock again during the Ginetta Junior race because I needed to find out how to get on the grid for the for race for the touring cars. As it tourne out the answer to the previous question was 'very hard'. After explaining to the marshal that yes, I was part of the media and yes, I was allowed to go on the grid, I got told that I was at the wrong end of the pit-lane and that I should go to the other gate. So I traipsed through the paddock (good job I was organised and sorted it out early, eh?) and made it to the other gate only to be told that I had to go to the gate that I went to the previous as that one was the right one for grid girls and journalists.

After explaining this to the Marshall I got let into the pit-lane and followed everyone because I didn't really want to stand around like a lemon in front of the prying public who were really confused as to who I was and why I was in the pit-lane. Everyone seemed to go towards the other end of the pit-lane so I followed, only to be told by a marshal that I wasn't allowed on the grid-walk and that I had to exit the pit-lane using the gate that two minutes earlier I was told I wasn't allowed through. Of course, this had to take place in the background of Steve Rider introducing something...

At this point, as I was once again walking towards the media centre, I was annoyed. I had been told that I was allowed to go on the grid walks, but the huge palaver had put me in the wrong frame of mind so as I walked into the media centre, I noticed a man wearing an MSV shirt walking out, and explained that the conflicting information given to me was very annoying.

'Come with me. I'll get you on' he said reassuringly as we walked towards the gate for the third time. This time, I breezed past, oozing with confidence and walked into the pit-lane, then through a little gap in the barriers and onto the grid. I had finally made it. I then got a tap on my shoulder. I thought it was a marshal at first to tell me to get off, but no, this person said my name.

'Hi Daniel'

I racked my brains. Who was this man? Why did he know me? Was he someone I was meant to know?

'Erm, hi. I don't know who you are. Can you, erm, say who you are please?'

'Ha, yeah, I'm Jack.'

I still didn't know who this 'Jack' person was. Had I met him? Maybe he was a random Twitter follower? Clearly, Jack saw the lack of memory in me.

'I'm Jack Nicholls. I met you at F2'.

Ah! The light bulb went off in my head. I remembered Jack. Well, I did, but I hadn't spoken to him much over the weekend as he was doing the commentary and asking the questions in the Press Conference, but anyway, I knew who he was, finally. By this time, the grid was really filling up with other people who had managed to slip through unnoticed, or people who were meant to have been there. (I fall into the latter category, contrary to what the marshals had said)

It turns out Jack was at Snetterton with his dad and had blagged his way onto the grid. Still, we were on the grid; so we did a grid walk. Well, when I say we did a grid walk, I mean we walked the first three rows of the grid and then got turned around by a marshal (I don't have anything against them by the way; they were doing their job) because it was time to get off the grid, and make my way back to the media centre to watch the race.

I'll skip to the end of the day from here as I'm sure you know what I did between the end of the first touring car race and the end of the day. In case you don't, it went something like this: Go down to paddock, find someone to talk to, go up to the media centre to put what they said online, stay in media centre to watch support races and go on grid walks. Repeat.

So instead I'll fast-forward to the end of the day after the final race. Everyone was hurrying along tapping out their copy and the teams were trying to pack up as quickly as possible. I was also trying to get out of the circuit quickly, but I came across a couple of obstacles. Namely one being the lovely Louise Richardson. As I was walking out of the media centre towards the paddock for the final time – it's a strange arrangement at Snetterton where us media folk have to walk through the paddock to get to the car park – I once again heard my name from behind. I turned around to see Louise Richardson. 

'Hi Dan, I noticed you were jabbering on about me on Twitter earlier during the race? Thanks'

I was taken aback. Somebody actually read my tweets over the weekend? 'Erm, yes, you were doing really well'.

And so it carried on for the next twenty or so minutes, Louise and I just chatting away while everyone else was trying to pack up and get home. I think that because of the small age gap – she's two years older than me – it must have been refreshing to meet someone in the media who was a similar age. And she was making herself known to me as I guess she figured I'd write about our meeting and get some free publicity. Finally though we had to say our goodbyes as she was in rush to get back home and I had dad wondering where I was. (Louise, if you're reading this, there's a chance of me being at Brands. Catch up again?) So I carried on through the paddock, just coming up to Rob Austin's garage when...

'Ah, Daniel. Do you want to join an impromptu party in our garage?'

It was Rob Austin who had sprung from nowhere and he was inviting me to a random party. Suddenly all concept of time flew out of the window and I agreed and went into the garage to hear some loud music and a lot of jolly faces. I'm still not entirely sure why he was holding a party at the time and even more confused now because he's not got a lot of money. Maybe he spends it all on random parties? I have no idea.

When I managed to drag myself out of a loud garage (I know, it's tough being a journalist...), I finally made my way back to the car to find a very confused dad when I told him of my tales. We were one of the last to leave – it was near enough 8pm, two hours after the final race had ended – but it was worth it. Still, we wouldn't be in any traffic on the A14 would we?

Wrong...

Thanks to:

My dad for transporting me to Snetterton and spending two days by himself while swooned from party to party and wrote a few things. Actually, that's not quite true – I 'only' attended two parties all weekend.

AUTOSPORT, Snetterton and the BTCC for having me.

Louise Goodman, Toby Moody and the great Kevin from MSV for giving me great advice and helping me out a number of times throughout the weekend.

KX for giving me free drinks all weekend.

Everyone (well, almost) from the paddock for being so friendly and kind to me over the weekend.

And finally, my friends in and around the paddocks and media centre for putting a smile on my face all weekend. Cheers guys. Anyone for Brands....?