Ready for the start

By late morning the tension was starting to build, as it does on race day. People poured into the circuit looking forward to seeing a great fight at a classic track. René Arnoux was on pole with his teammate Patrick Tambay in second, followed by the Renault of Alain Prost, the Lotus of Elio de Angelis and the Brabhams of Riccardo Patrese and Nelson Piquet. We went round to the exit of Copse to wait for the start. After the cars had made their way round on the warm up lap off they went, tearing down towards Copse and screaming past us! The usual blur of noise and colour! You can’t beat the first lap of a Grand Prix standing trackside!! Hard to imagine now but in that era there was no debris fencing in front of us so the view was great. The three British drivers in the race, John Watson, Derek Warwick and Nigel Mansell had great support as always from the loyal Silverstone crowd. Mansell in particular had a fantastic race in his Lotus, finishing 4th after starting 18th!