Given that time has passed, and exact recollections of this event will soon become hazy, it is with some urgency that this report has been compiled in order to document that great Silverstone weekend.
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The latest intake of new students meant that our team was not short of members, with us committing ourselves to a team of about 30. With 9 tickets in hand, this was already set to become quite the logistical challenge. On the evening before, we made our way to the track with six drivers - myself, Wesley Thung, Bobby Bragg, Tom Grant (in Ding’s XC90), Ollie Raja-Brown towing the Riley in his Defender, and the LWB (or FL) Sprinter race van towing the Sebring Sprite. Ollie went ahead to get ourselves a favourable space in what was expected to be a packed paddock (119 cars over the weekend), whilst the rest of us pulled over outside the circuit to rearrange ourselves in a more ticket-friendly fashion...
​We had made our way through security with a heavily packed van and four empty cars trailing close behind, all of us repeating the usual ‘I’m with him’ as we breezed through, somehow not rousing any suspicion on the way (how they didn’t question this, I don’t know). We practised our racing lines around the service road (sensibly!) until we reached the Silverstone ‘Wing’, and the van could finally unload itself outside of the pit garage Ollie found us. Pit garage?! This was certainly my first time in a pit garage with OUMF, I almost felt jealous of all the first-timers amongst us who haven’t had a taste of the gravel yet (hold that thought), although I suppose I wasn’t complaining. We emptied the van of all our tools, made ourselves comfortable on the smooth painted concrete, and gawped at the ranks of lovely cars parked in the garages - Mustangs, Cobras, Escorts, Cortinas, Alfa GTVs, MK2 Jags... our Riley 1500... a truly incredible collection!