Although my alarm was set for 5.50am, I was wide awake for the best part of an hour before that in anticipation of the biggest event on my working calendar.

Brand Hatch had been transformed into little Germany for the weekend and boy don’t they go to town! The week before, I was there working the BARC Dunlop meeting and the circuit was already teeming with German workers, piecing together their huge travelling circus. Nothing however, could have prepared me for the scale of the circus when we rolled up, midmorning on Thursday. Huge two storey hospitality units were next to the main grandstand for Audi and BMW with two more set further back for Mercedes and for the DTM race organisers.

Upon arriving in the outer paddock (our place of work for the weekend), most of the overseas based championships had already arrived and were setting up. We started preparing for the two championships that we were to look after, Formula Ford and Volkswagon UK Cup. Parking up for these two championships was 2pm, giving us 3 hours to get everything ready.

After a manic three hours or so, everything was where we needed it to be. Our part of the paddock was looking very smart, especially compared to what our continental counterparts had managed. It was safe to say that our lines of trucks were far more in line than theirs, (not that it was a competition).

With only a quarter of the paddock to look after, the rest of the time was spent just being on duty, in case of any problems from any of the teams, MSVR or DTM. This included setting up an arm wrestling arena where the ‘British Legends’ competing in the Sirocco Cup could do battle on German TV. The legends comprised of, Damon Hill, Martin Donnelly, Julian Bailey, Perry McCarty, Mark Blundell and David Brabham (I know, he’s an Ozzie!)

It was great to be able to work and chat with these guys, all were enjoying themselves and were having a real laugh. Along with these legends, there was plenty of other ex F1 drivers around. DC and Ralf Schumacher were, in and out on their scooters all the time. Plus current F1 drivers, Jenson Button and Paul di Resta came along for the weekend.

The rest of the time, we could enjoy a little bit of track action. This was my first experience of DTM and in terms of speed, they didn’t disappoint!

I now have two weeks off, my next event will be the British Touring Car Championship from Oulton Park. If you’re going, make sure you come and say hello.

Last weekend saw me return to circuit where my adventure began, Brands Hatch. Eight weeks ago, I started my job as a logistics co-ordinator at Brands for BTCC.

The BARC Dunlop meetings are made up with several club championships. On the race card for the weekend included the production touring car championship, Kuhmo BMW, Classic Formula Ford and Classic F3.

With smaller meets like this, the paddock layout is less important as most people turn up with their car on the back of a trailer. As long as the separate series’ are grouped together, that’s fine.

Friday was a general test day, which meant as well as some of the teams coming to set up for the weekend, we also had some teams turning up for the day. Our main priority during the morning was to try to get the people who were only there for the general test to operate from areas that wasn’t going to be used by the teams who were stopping through to Sunday.

Although we had no real authority to ask the testers to set up where we asked them to, most understood why we were asking and duly set up out-of-the-way. All except for the from ES Racing Lotus Team! Their chap who was in charge was less than accommodating and set up his 6 car setup right in the middle of the BMW paddock. There was nothing I could do but make sure that all the BMW team that arrive knew that, that chap had an arse hole where his mouth should be, he talked that much crap!

By the end of the test, the Lotus’ had gone and the BMWs could finally get setup for the weekend. With all the teams signed on by 11am, there wasn’t much to do apart from make sure everyone was OK and…..watch a little racing. I watch the opening laps of the Production Touring Car race from the pit wall. At Brands Hatch, the cars pass very close to the pit wall at the beginning of the straight and you can almost touch the cars as they pass.

Sunday was a very short day. The classic Formula Ford 1600 were signing on at 9am meaning that was the end of my duties for the weekend. While we were down there, we took the opportunity to make some preparations for this weekend’s DTM championship. The support package is bigger than anything I’ve come across before which means we had to survey areas of the paddock that hadn’t have been mapped before.

It’s Monday afternoon, the sun is shining here in Sheffield. I should be outside making the most of this rare occurrence but I find myself glued to the BBC red button, reliving yesterdays dramatic Spanish Grand Prix for the third time.

For those of you who regularly read this blog, or follow me on twitter. You’ll know how much of a Williams fan I am. It was the titanic battles between Mansell and Piquet had with the Likes of Senna and Prost that got me hook on F1 all those years ago.

Being a Williams fan in recent years hasn’t been an easy task. Year upon tear, slipping further down the constructors championship after their last title in 1997 and without a win since Brazil, 2004.

2011 saw my team register its worst ever points tally in its 34 year proud history forcing the team to make sweeping changes in personnel to try to stop the rot. And stop the rot they did. It only took to round two for the team to eclipse their meagre return the year before giving me the belief that they can hopefully regularly challenge within the top ten.

But never, ever in my wildest dreams did I think that anything like this would be possible this year. Williams have made huge strides forward since the test at Mugello and unlike Hulkenberg’s pole in Brazil, this front row start was down to the pace of the car.

So, 8 years of winless hurt end for Williams the third most successful team in the history of F1. I can’t tell you how big the smile is on my face as I write this after writing several articles on the decline of my team.

As I said earlier, Myself, along with all the other loyal Williams fans have endured these barren years and I know that there will be many smiles today out there, just as big as mine.

Onwards to Monaco in two weeks. Pastor holds the record for the most GP2 wins there and drove out of his skin there last year in his first year in F1. Could he be the first double winner in 2012? The only prediction I’ll be making is that I’ll not be making one!

The song sang, ‘three is the magic number’, but in F1 after the opening four rounds, four is definitely the magic number.

So significant is the number, that it has given us the most open start to a season since 1983.

So here’s the stats,

1. We have had 4 races so far in 2012
2. The first 4 races have produced 4 different winners.
3. After each race, we have had a different leader of the Drivers Championship.
4. Mark Webber has finished 4^th in all four races so far this season.
5. If you add all the numbers up in 2012, you get 4!

OK, OK I know the last one doesn’t actually add up but I thought I’d throw in there for good measure.

So what has made the outcome of the race’s so unpredictable this year? Why has only Sebastian (The Finger) Vettel has managed to convert pole position into a race win?

I believe the banning of the EBDs has dramatically closed up the field. Red Bull in particular appeared to struggle to find a decent balance in the RB8. But the main reason for this fantastically, stunning, stellar start to the year is down to the rubber provided by Pirelli. The Italian company have carried on where they left off last year by providing the teams with rubber with a very limited performance window and crucially, one that is proving very difficult to predict.

Michael Schumacher criticised Pirelli after the race in China, complaining that he can’t go flat out on them. Is Michael showing his age? Is he failing to keep up with the ever changing world of F1? I for one thank that Pirelli are the main reason that F1 is exiting as it is this year. I can say with full conviction that if DRS was dropped from Spain, I don’t believe that it’s absence would have any detrimental effect on the spectacle.

Coming into my fifth race weekend and my fifth different circuit, I was happy to have a little familiarity, returning to the BTCC for the second time. Seeing the paddock layout with the familiar names on made it easier for me to visualise how the finished article would look.

As usual, the Porsche hospitality unit was busy setting up when we arrived late on Wednesday evening at a cold, wet Thruxton circuit. Thursday morning proved to be a false dawn weather wise. I spent up until 8am in my T-shirt as we started to mark out the paddock but before long we were wearing our full range of winter gear as the heavens opened and the wind started howling.

Needles to say that trying to mark out a straight line with cones that kept blowing over made life very difficult indeed and mid way through the morning we admitted defeat and headed to the motor home to dry off and warm up. Eventually we got everything marked out, just in time before the trucks started to arrive.

The rest of Thursday and Friday  went off without a hitch (apart from the weather) and the result of which was a very smart looking paddock. This did lead us into a false sense of security however. Throughout Saturday, the wind picked up and by late evening we were starting to get concerned about the teams’ awnings blowing away. Several of the teams with less sturdy structures were in trouble, Including Tony Gilham. The Honda Civic driver/team owner, lost two out of three of his awnings during the night, forcing his team to squeeze into the cramped garages.

Our main concern of the night was the Pirtek hospitality unit. The wind had collapsed the front in and the wind was lifting the structure ten feet in the air. After one attempt to hold on to it when it lifted (and running for our lives), we spent the next hour battling against the elements to save the flapping awning with the Pirtek team. Eventually we had it hunkered down and, exhausted we hit the sack.

Race day was great fun, even the torrential rain couldn’t dampen my spirits. As usual with the BTCC event, we were responsible for the podium presentations. This was made slightly easier by the wind as it was far too dangerous to use the sponsors’ backdrop on the podium truck. The rain did stop briefly and just in time for the drivers parade lap. I was lucky enough to drive around with the drivers on the back of the truck as they waved to the fans and Marshals around the circuit. Everyone apart from the MG drivers, Jason Plato and Andy Neate. The pair were late and missed the bus! We found them thumbing a lift at the chicane, much to the amusement of the other drivers.

The highlight of my weekend was getting to meet the legend that is Murray Walker. The voice of British motorsport was visiting his local track and after doing an interview, I dived in to introduce myself and shake his hand. I told him that I spent more of my childhood listening to him than I did listening to my parents. After a quick photo with him it was back to work, but this time with an even bigger smile on my face.

I have the weekend off next week before two consecutive weeks down at Brands Hatch for BARC Dunlop championship, followed by DTM.

Last week saw my first assignment at the home of British motorsport, Silverstone for the opening rounds of the FIA F2 World Championship. Although I’ll be working some far bigger events in regards of spectator numbers and TV coverage, any trip to Silverstone is always special for me.

With the Wing complex glistening in the background, we start to survey the paddock of the old pit lane sandwiched between Woodcote and Copse while the first race trucks wait outside the circuit gates. With no race vehicles allowed in until 6pm, there was quite a queue building up going into the afternoon. Just as we finish marking out the allocated areas however, Silverstone decided to open the gate and allow the convoy of trucks over the Wellington bridge and down towards us! The sight of twenty or so articulated lorries heading towards the two of us was quite a daunting site to say the least and the next four hours were frantic but every enjoyable to say the least.

In terms of the number of competitors, this was by far and away the busiest paddock. With 16 F2 cars, 30 Lotus’, 30 Radicals, 25 Minis, 45 Sports 2000s and 60 production BMWs to accommodate there was never a dull moment. Even with the generous space in the paddock at Silverstone, the sheer number of cars/teams meant that any late coming artic lorries were going to be in a spot of bother parking into their space.

Some make it look easier than others I have to say. A German Radical team did make an absolute meal out of it, taking over an hour to park straight in their space. To add to their humiliation (and two world wars and one world cup) two Brit drivers show them how it was done, parking up with two manoeuvres which I doubted were possible.

With the Minis finishing their weekend after their second race on Saturday, the vacated space was filled up with the rest of the production BMWs that spent the night being held on Copse runway. I have to give a special mention to the Project8 family for their hospitality over the weekend. After my boss left on Saturday, I was sleeping in the sleeper cab of one of the Dunlop tyre trucks and I was treated to tea, coffee and bacon butties with these great guys.

After the hustle and bustle of the BTCC weekend at Brands Hatch, it was a sparsely populated Oulton Park that greeted me on Monday afternoon. Ahead of the Easter meeting at the weekend, some of the teams were there to take advantage of the two general test days on Tuesday and Wednesday before the first round.

As normal, the first job was to survey the paddock and mark out the teams allocated spaces. This could only be done for Formula Ford and the F1 teams as the rest operated a first come, first served policy. As a newcomer to the job, this didn’t make my task any easier without any solid plans. The stress levels were exacerbated by the fact that I was flying solo on Tuesday and Wednesday, having only a handful of days under my belt.

The highlight of the test was the arrival of ex McLaren team manager, Dave Ryan’s GT3 team. I manage to see a little of their McLaren in action. Being a general test however, this monster of a car was sharing the track with Caterhams and Ginetta’s. Watching from the pit wall, the speed differential was immense!

After a few day’s at home, it was back to Oulton for Easter Sunday and bank holiday Monday. If the start of the week was a little strange, arriving back on Sunday was quite bizarre. Being Easter Sunday, there was no track action, even the Ginetta’s and F3 teams were pulling out having finished their races on Saturday. Replacing the F3 teams was competitors from the F3 Cup, a club series that runs older F3 machinery. It’s fair to say that these team don’t always compete on such a big stage and were unprepared for my keen eye to have all the truck in a perfect line. One driver in particular struggled to get his head around the need to move  his truck ‘a few inches’. Every time I asked him to move, he would mover a good two feet! And every time I asked to go the other way, he got more frustrated and move even further past his mark. My boss tell me that we are to expect the odd team like this but most know what is expected and do what they can to make it as painless as possible.

Sunday was only a half days work. Lining up the last of the F3 Cup teams and helping with the super car display and my work was done. Since I was there, I decided it would be rude to leave without watching a couple of races. The Formula Ford race was won by a very talented Sheffielder, Jake Cook. I’ve never seen anyone pull out a lead as big as he did in one lap and in very wet conditions. My second and last race before heading home was the GT race. There was some great action throughout the field, especially a five cat fight for third. The biggest drama however, was left to the last lap. The United Autosport Audi R8 had lead from pole position. They held a comfortable lead all race and looked to have it in the bag. I, like a lot of others, had made our way to the podium only to hear that the leaders had ran out of fuel with only half a lap to go.

This week, I’m off to Silverstone for the FIA F2 championship Thursday to Sunday.

Once upon a time, there was a car company called Lotus and they allowed a F1 team to us the Lotus name. However, Lotus decided to do F1 for themselves and tried to make Lotus change their name. Lotus didn’t want to do this so they slightly changed their name. This made Lotus mad and they decided to take Lotus to court. Lotus won the case and were allowed to keep the Lotus name but then decided they didn’t want to be called Lotus after all and changed their name again. This all made Lotus very happy! Now they could call their cars Lotus from the start of the 2012 season. After two races, Lotus decided they didn’t want to be in F1 anymore and stopped sponsoring the Lotus team. Even though Lotus aren’t sponsoring Lotus anymore, they are still called Lotus and intend to keep the Lotus name.

The end…..

It’s Thursday morning and I back home in Sheffield after 8 days on the road, the first five of which were spent at Brands Hatch for the first rounds of the British Touring Car Championship.

So, what does a logistics co-ordinator do over the course of a race meeting? By the time ITV4 start their live coverage on Sunday, MSO CS, the company I work for have already been on site for 4 days.

Walking into the empty paddock for the first time on Wednesday lunch time and looking at the CAD plans, it’s fair to say that I felt a little lost, wondering just how we were going to turn this vast, empty space into a full, bustling, organised paddock. Luckily for me, me bosses, Derek and James have been doing this job for twenty years and could probably do it blindfolded!

The first job was to locate the road marks that were sprayed the following season and to mark them out with cones. Once the road ways are marked and straight, we begin to allocate the teams their allotted space. Starting with the Porsche Carrera Cup on the right hand side, followed by the Clio Cup runners finally the various Ginetta teams along the far, left hand side.

This whole process takes a good 4/5 hours to make sure all the line are true and straight. The next time you see a helicopter shot of all the trucks in the paddock lined up, remember, that doesn’t happen by accident.

Brands were hosting an open test day on the Wednesday so a few of the teams were already around. I spent the rest of the day, and Thursday learning how to get the articulated trucks straight. This may sound a little silly but until you try to park one of these bang on a line, you really can’t appreciate how difficult it is. I would say that the average time to get one into position is around ten to fifteen minutes.

This average however, may be a little higher thanks to my first solo attempt to park up a lorry. To be fair, it wasn’t really my fault. After assisting to park up over a dozen trucks, I felt confident enough to do it myself. So off I went to the IDL Ginetta team were three big factors conspired to making this park up very difficult indeed! 1, this was the first truck I’d seen with a rear steering axle and 2, it was the first time the driver had driven a rear steering trailer. After forty minutes (half of which were under the watchful eye of my boss) we finally got it nosed in and straight on the line.

The dynamics of the role change on Friday. All the teams are in and practice sessions are under way by 9am. One of the scourges of the paddock is private cars! Finding offending vehicles is one thing, finding their owners is quite another. Friday see’s more action going on in the main paddock as the BTCC teams arrive ahead of setting up. Due to the ultra tight paddock, the order of the trucks going in is carefully orchestrated as when all the trucks and motor homes are in, you are left with a road no bigger than one lane wide. As a newbie, I was given other things to do in the afternoon which was to collect all the trophies and champagne from the different championships and check them all before the first races on Saturday.

After a curry and a couple of beers Friday night I was up early on Saturday, ready for a busy day. Before we got started I thought it best to have a shave after my morning shower as the camera’s will be rolling in the paddock for the podium celebrations. The only reason I mention this is because the showers we use in the paddock are situated next to the public toilets. As there are no sinks in the shower room, you have to move next door to have a shave. As some of you my know, I’m very folically challenged and shave my head. So you can imagine the surprise as the early arriving fans got as I’m stood there, no top on resembling santa with my full head of foam!

Into the afternoon and we were over in the main paddock to manage the three race podiums of the weekend, this where the first major panic happened for us. Two trophies hadn’t been assembled as well as they should have been by the manufactures, leading to some frantic gluing in time for the race finish. I’m happy to say that we got them repaired in time for the finish of the race and the viewing public were none the wiser….. At least until the third trophy (the one that didn’t break) fell apart on the podium as it was lifted by the second place driver!

On to the main event, Sundays action packed race day with three BTCC races taking top billing. There is plenty of work to do on the podium. Changing the backdrops and podium numbers for the correct championship and sponsors as well as dressing the top three steps with the trophies and Champagne. The day ran without any major problems, although I did miss most of the second race hunting down some missing champagne.

As I said in my first post about paddock life, I wondered how I would cope with going from a fan, to being part of the team making the event happen. To be honest, I didn’t think about this until we were on the road home. Living and working at a race circuit is about as good as it can get for me and to call it work isn’t the right word at all.