rec.autos.simulators

Went to the GP, paid through the eye teeth for a seat in the stand, only
to have a partial view at the best of times, through the 5 metre high
steel mesh fences.

Last year I could at least see the cars un-obscured, as the seats looked
over the fence, but no more.

Also, the stand was badly oriented, facing directly across the run-off
area of turn 9, instead of looking down the straight towards the cars as
they came into the corner. So looking to your right as the cars come
down, they are even more obscured by the steel mesh and support posts.

I guess these are the problems associated with a temporary circuit and
obviously the results of the death of a marshal last year, but I think a
little more thought could go into it.

Have a look at this to see what I'm on about.
www.southeastweb.com.au/GP_03/stand_view.jpg

Cheers, Glenn

Wow, what a terrible view!

Glenn

Yes, that's it Dave. The marshall was struck by one of Villenueve's
wheels while standing in front of an access hole in the fence... but
you're right, insurance, and there was a public outcry at the time.

Glenn

They were pretty huge eh?  Well FWIW I have never paid the extra
for a seat in the stands and have found the best viewing to be right on
the entry to turn 6.  You get to see the big twitch under braking as
well as being one of the closest points to the cars themselves.

I've been the the GP every year except one since it came to Melbourne.

I was about 50 metres to your right on the Saturday and had an
unobstructed view from the exit of the sweeper, through the chicane.
Unfortunately the screen was just outside my FOV.  I'm sorry to
hear that you had a poor view as the racing was pretty good this
year.

<snip>

The first couple of years at Melbourne I'm pretty sure the Clark stand
was oriented to face down the straight.  Unfortunately the hill overlooking
that chicane have been more and more populated by General Admission
people like myself and I think the stand has slowly moved around.

Interestingly the death had nothing to do with the fence height but was
in fact the access hole in the fence where Vills. tyre and wheel went
through the fence and hit a marshall square in the chest at 250kph.
It was a totally freak accident.

The fencing is a PITA and made it very hard to get decent photos.  I did
get some great shots of the brabham v8's running around the circuit and
later on in the paddock so I'm happy to post them to a bin group if anyone
is interested.

I still miss Adelaide - one of the great street circuits.

iksteh

Yeah, I was in the 'Fangio' stand and even there the steel mesh seemed a bit
like overkill.  One of the problems with buying tickets to the GP is that
you can choose which stand you're in but the quality of seating position
within the stands varies a lot and it's the luck of the draw.  I guess if a
car rolled and was tumbling towards me, I wouldn't be to bothered by the
steel mesh. ; )

It was an amazing race though, and I had a ball at the GP.  I did have one
gripe too though - the screen opposite my stand looked like the resolution
was wrong.  All of the times on screen were unreadable.  It kind of looked
like a laptop LCD that's not running in its native resolution.  I considered
it a major blunder on the part of the organisers - it was the main screen
for the main stand at the track.

I taped the race too but to my extreme disappointment, Channel 10 in their
infinite wisdom decided to do their own commentry for the race with none
other than Bill Woods and Neil Crompton - ugh!  Channel 9 tried something
similar in the early days and were flooded with complaints.  I'll certainly
be complaining in writing to Channel 10.  Whilst Channel 9 often neglected
overseas races, their coverage of the Australian GP was way better than
Channel 10's first effort.

Eldred
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I paid the same and sat in the Senna stand, on the last turn, so they came
within 10 metres of us and we could also see the pit entry. Wasn't too bad
at all. Sam Newman walked right in front of me when he stacked his lambo.
Unfortunately due to the heavy steel fencing we couldn't look down the
straight :/ Better safe than sorry I guess.

massivechicken

p.s. how bad was the sun over the weekend? I've turned black!

Yeah! And wasn't it hot on the Friday sitting in the Stand?!

Oh, great! Just hope they don't bring the shouting Diffey in on the act!
I can't stand James Allen either, but at least Martin Brundle knows what
he's talking about... he's actually been there.

Glenn

  > Interestingly the death had nothing to do with the fence height but was

I got some shots of the Brabhams in the historic garage and even a pic
of a Brabham signed on the spot by old Black Jack himself. He's amazing,
  76 and he was out there driving with Stirling chasing him.

Glenn

Yeah, I got goose bumps seeing Jack Brabham and Stirling Moss and Co.
driving past me in their Brabhams and Coopers.  They weren't crawling
either - they were doing 200kph+ down the straight.

I'd never been to the GP on race day before because I was convinced I'd get
a better idea of the race from watching it on TV...but it was so much better
being at the track....the feeling of e***ment was just incredible and the
race was quite easy to follow with the big screen....I'm definitely going
again next year! Might buy a mexican sombrero this time though haha.

Regards,
massivechicken