Post date: Jul 07, 2012 1:55:21 PM
SILVERSTONE, ENGLAND, UK (JULY 7, 2012) (ITN) - Tens of thousands of Formula One fans have been urged to stay away or risk being turned back from British Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday (July 7) after a day of traffic gridlock caused by the closure of waterlogged campsites.
Officials at the Silverstone circuit urge tens of thousands of F1 fans to stay away from the qualifying session for Sunday's British Grand Prix, because it's too wet.
In scenes similar to a fiasco 12 years ago at the Silverstone circuit, when heavy rain closed car parks and turned green fields into quagmires, approach roads were jammed for many hours on Friday.
Silverstone officials said they would refund unused tickets for Friday and Saturday and in a sign of mounting desperation asked anyone with public car parking passes to stay away on Saturday -- qualifying day for the race -- to ensure fields are not too churned up for spectators to Sunday's race.
The circuit's managing director, Richard Phillips, was quoted as saying that Silverstone would not be able to cater for up to 30,000 of the expected crowd of 100,000 on Saturday.
Corporate guests, sponsors, journalists and others who park inside the circuit will not be affected.
With many of the teams based locally and with McLaren's two British world champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, having a chance of winning, Sunday's likely attendance has been put at more than 125,000.
In the year 2000, when the grand prix was held in April, tractors had to pull cars out of deep ruts and public vehicles were banned altogether on the Saturday, when car parks were closed.
This Friday, cars were turned away from private campsites, while at the main official site, camper vans were towed in one at a time.
Some corporate guests had to abandon their transport to walk the last few miles into the circuit in the faint hope of seeing any action.
There were complaints from some fans at Silverstone on Saturday, but most seemed to be putting up with the problems.
"I think that the communication has been shocking to be honest. We've had mixed communications through Twitter and through the radio, so it's not really good, if I'm honest," said one fan.
Bradley Miller's group was moved from one campsite to another because of the conditions.
"Well, until we got moved we was upset, but obviously when they moved us into this place, this is a lot better than where we was going to be anyway, so we're pretty happy now. But we'll see how the rest of the weekend goes," said Bradley.
Young Charlie Miller was stoical.
"Yeah it's all right apart from the mud, because we're not allowed to put our shoes into the tent because it's so muddy out here. But we'll make do," said Charlie.
A campsite has been provided for F1 fans by the nearby Whittlebury Park Golf Club, whose managing director, Charles Sargeant, has his own plans for race day.
"I'll probably be getting ready to tow people out of the mud! Don't know what everybody else will be doing, they will probably be enjoying the grand prix. But I think for us this year during the race, we are literally going to be getting ready to, to help a lot of people off site very quickly," said Sargeant.
Much has changed for the better since 2000, with the circuit spending more than one million pounds ($1.55 million) a year on preparing and managing car parks and trying to ensure that traffic flows smoothly.
An extra mile of filter drainage has been put in this year and 1,100 tonnes of hardcore added to car parks, but the sheer number of people trying to get into campsites without pre-booking, coupled with the weather, has been hard to handle.
The British summer, always unpredictable, has been particularly damp after the wettest April in more than a century. The forecast is for rain throughout the weekend.
Camping is a big part of Silverstone, which is surrounded by fields in the heart of England, with many drivers staying in motorhomes on site rather than retreating to luxury hotels.
At its best, with the sun shining and the whiff of barbecue smoke in the air, it is one of the most inclusive races of any on the calendar -- providing the fans can get in -- among them International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge, who is due to be one of the official guests at Silverstone on Sunday, less than three weeks before the start of the London Games.
($1 = 0.6443 British pounds)