10th-Jul-20, 12:32 PM
How I saved the Champ Car race at Brands Hatch..............
In 2001 the newly opened Rockingham Speedway held the first Champ Car (Indy Car) race held in this country since 1978. It had signed to run the race for three years and ran it again in 2002 but was unable to finance the next year's event, Brands Hatch took over the contract for 2003 and the race was scheduled for the Bank Holiday weekend of 4th/5th of May. I attended the first two races and was thinking of going to the third. Read on for the story of how it was nearly cancelled........
I used to work in the electrical wholesale trade and at 7:00 AM on Monday 28th April that year I got a phone call from a very good customer who specialised in electrical hook up installations for caravan sites, marinas etc. He wanted to place an urgent order for a large quantity (many £1000s worth) of equipment made by the French company Merlin Gerin plus a load of ancillary items in the way of cabling etc. It had to be delivered to Brands Hatch circuit by Thursday 1st May and cost was no object! Now this was a customer who would normally haggle me down to the last penny so I was pleasantly intrigued by the prospect of making a good profit for once and asked him to elaborate.
Apparently the entire electrical hook up system of the paddock and pits had been condemned as unsafe and the whole thing needed replacing before the Champ Car race could take place. My customer had been told to get it done at any cost and, so long as I could provide the order on time, we would both make good money on the deal. If not, then the race could well be called off at enormous cost to Brands in cancellation fees. I therefore had about 48 hours to gather in large quantities of stuff from numerous suppliers, including some which would have to be air freighted in from France so I set about placing the orders and calling in a lot of favours from trade contacts.
Things went surprisingly well, everything was sorted by close of business that day and I then spent a sleepless night convinced that something would go wrong on Tuesday! All was well though, the consignments rolled in with the final shipment arriving from France at 9:00 PM on Wednesday.
6:00AM Thursday I finished loading the van and set off for the two hour trip to Kent, got as far as Bishops Stortford and the M11 ground to a halt! I sat in the queue for a while then turned off into the services to have breakfast and phone my customer with the good news. He was not best pleased but told me to get there as fast as I was able. I eventually arrived at the paddock gate at about 10:30 and joined the queue of transporters which were arriving at the same time. Once past security I drove down to the main paddock where my customer's entire fleet of vans was waiting and I have never seen a consignment unloaded so fast. They were installing the stuff before I had even got the delivery note signed.
As I was leaving for home my customer thanked me profusely and handed me an envelope which turned out to contain a pair of grandstand tickets for the race plus pit walkabout passes!
Every once in a while the gods do smile on you - the race went ahead, we both made a nice profit on the deal, I got a day out of the office, free race tickets and a fat sales bonus from my boss. The race itself was a fairly rubbish procession but you can't have everything can you?
In 2001 the newly opened Rockingham Speedway held the first Champ Car (Indy Car) race held in this country since 1978. It had signed to run the race for three years and ran it again in 2002 but was unable to finance the next year's event, Brands Hatch took over the contract for 2003 and the race was scheduled for the Bank Holiday weekend of 4th/5th of May. I attended the first two races and was thinking of going to the third. Read on for the story of how it was nearly cancelled........
I used to work in the electrical wholesale trade and at 7:00 AM on Monday 28th April that year I got a phone call from a very good customer who specialised in electrical hook up installations for caravan sites, marinas etc. He wanted to place an urgent order for a large quantity (many £1000s worth) of equipment made by the French company Merlin Gerin plus a load of ancillary items in the way of cabling etc. It had to be delivered to Brands Hatch circuit by Thursday 1st May and cost was no object! Now this was a customer who would normally haggle me down to the last penny so I was pleasantly intrigued by the prospect of making a good profit for once and asked him to elaborate.
Apparently the entire electrical hook up system of the paddock and pits had been condemned as unsafe and the whole thing needed replacing before the Champ Car race could take place. My customer had been told to get it done at any cost and, so long as I could provide the order on time, we would both make good money on the deal. If not, then the race could well be called off at enormous cost to Brands in cancellation fees. I therefore had about 48 hours to gather in large quantities of stuff from numerous suppliers, including some which would have to be air freighted in from France so I set about placing the orders and calling in a lot of favours from trade contacts.
Things went surprisingly well, everything was sorted by close of business that day and I then spent a sleepless night convinced that something would go wrong on Tuesday! All was well though, the consignments rolled in with the final shipment arriving from France at 9:00 PM on Wednesday.
6:00AM Thursday I finished loading the van and set off for the two hour trip to Kent, got as far as Bishops Stortford and the M11 ground to a halt! I sat in the queue for a while then turned off into the services to have breakfast and phone my customer with the good news. He was not best pleased but told me to get there as fast as I was able. I eventually arrived at the paddock gate at about 10:30 and joined the queue of transporters which were arriving at the same time. Once past security I drove down to the main paddock where my customer's entire fleet of vans was waiting and I have never seen a consignment unloaded so fast. They were installing the stuff before I had even got the delivery note signed.
As I was leaving for home my customer thanked me profusely and handed me an envelope which turned out to contain a pair of grandstand tickets for the race plus pit walkabout passes!
Every once in a while the gods do smile on you - the race went ahead, we both made a nice profit on the deal, I got a day out of the office, free race tickets and a fat sales bonus from my boss. The race itself was a fairly rubbish procession but you can't have everything can you?
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