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Silverstone is seen by most petrol-head enthusiasts as the Mecca of British motorsport and I for one had never had the opportunity to visit the famous Northampton venue.
So when I got the phone call asking me to cover the Moto GP weekend at Silverstone I was delighted to represent Sportsvibe.co.uk.
As I made the trip to Milton Keynes Central station I sat reading a review of the new Senna movie - a must watch - which got me even more excited about the weekend ahead.
A couple of miles away from the famous circuit, I could hear the sound of motorbikes in the distance. I then proceeded to wind down the window of the taxi and could smell the exhaust fumes of the powerful bikes as they were revving up.
Upon arrival at the circuit I was swiftly taken to the DEWALT Monster Yamaha Tech3 stand for something totally unexpected. DEWALT and Stanley had teamed together to get us hacks to do a number of challenges using new tools.
These included doing a chin up using a state of the art industrial sprit level and using a new range of hammers to see who could hammer four nails into a plank of wood in the fastest time (my time was 17.98 seconds).
This was all a bit of fun but the day got a lot more interesting when we headed over to the new state of the art paddocks at Silverstone known as the Wing.
Once here we were taken to the bikes of Tech3 riders Colin Edwards and British rider Cal Crutchlow. We where shown how the bikes were set up for the days practice session.
We were then taken for lunch at the Tech3 restaurant with team principal Herve Poncheral, where we quizzed him about the teams performances and the goings on in the world of Moto GP.
The day ended when I was able to interview Crutchlow, with the sun out it was a glorious end to the day and I was now looking forward to race day on Sunday.
Having enjoyed the lovely weather on Saturday, waking up at 8am on Sunday morning to pouring rain was not the best start to the day but whilst heading up the M40 the thirst to see Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi was setting the pulse racing.
It may not have been the best day in terms of the weather, but it was certainly the perfect conditions to make the race even more exciting.
Unfortunately there was no British interest on race day as Crutchlow had to pull out due to a collarbone injury, but the home crowd got behind his team-mate, American rider Edwards.
The race had everything; two crashes which were made spectacular in the wet conditions. However you couldn’t look past the masterful Aussie rider Stoner who was outstanding and claimed his fourth victory of the season.
It was a great two days at Silverstone and it is certainly a fantastic venue to watch more rubber burning Formula One or Moto GP action.
We would also like to wish Cal a speedy recovery and hope to see him back in action soon.
Cal Crutchlow was talking at the launch of the DEWALT XR power tool range. DEWALT is a proud sponsor of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team. www.dewalt.co.uk .
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