Australian Grand Prix 2012 - Day 2

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With the experience of the first day behind us we up a little earlier and prepared some lunch time snacks before catching the trams back to the circuit, with Jo taking a coffee in her shiny new insulated cup!!

Considering it was only day 2 of the event, we were surprised by the increase in numbers in people queuing to get into the track, nether the less we passed through the bag checks pretty quickly and made our way to our seats to watch the V8’s.

Given the crowds seemed to be slowly growing we decided to take in as much of the off track action as we could so had planned to watch the Crusty Demons practising the motorbike stunt display, although unfortunately this had been called off due to the early ran making conditions to slippery. As the sun had started to shine we decided to stick to the plan and took Will to the L’Oreal for Men tent for a free make over and claim a free goody bag of products before dashing back to our seats and watching the first of the F1 practices.

Next we went back to the infield to see some crazy Austrian guy doing 30 metre bag jumps off a platform into what seemed to be a large bouncy castle; it was pretty impressive, although we declined to the opportunity to try as it was open to the public! Continuing around the stalls and stands Will got chatting with some University Formula Student teams before we walked across the lake to the back straight to watch the Formula Ford race. As the race progressed we walked round to the bottom of the track, and in the closing laps the rain started to fall lightly which caused a couple of drivers to slide of the race track in front of us. As the race ended the heavens opened and we took shelter under a tree with our water proofs and umbrella, although it provided limited protection in the torrential conditions, and we soon found ourselves marooned with several large puddles/streams around us!

As the rain passed we headed back to our seas with coffees and hot dogs in hand in time to watch the slightly damp second F1 practice session. For anyone who has never heard an F1 car – there loud, so wear plugs! With the track initial very wet it provided interesting viewing with a couple of cars coming off the track in front our stand, as well as those shown in the large screens in front of us from other locations around the circuit. Most spectacularly one of the Sauber cars managed to slide his car down the start finish straight in the final seconds to put the crowd on the edge of their seats.

With the F1 over we decided to head home a little early and miss the V8’s, although it appeared most of the other spectators had the same idea, so there were some long queues getting to the tram, although they passed quick enough and we headed home via the shops to prepare our picnics for the next few days before Mark arrived.

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