|
Although formally
announced in March 2006 the partnership between Speed Chills &
Creation dates back to June 2005 as the Creation team prepared for
their first assault on Le Mans.
Members of the
Creation team were keen to attend the Arthur Brown concert hosted
by Speed Chills on the Sunday evening following the race and to
sample some of the club atmosphere during race week. However,
their tight schedules meant that it wasn’t to be.
As part of our
planning for Le Mans 2006, we wanted to give our members something
special…but unexpected – a surprise bonus rather than an incentive
to join. We came up with the idea of sponsoring a team with a view
to getting some involvement during race week – perhaps a brief
signing session or some such. But Creation had bigger, better
ideas!
The Creation team
have a fantastic commitment to the sport and to involving the fans
closely with their efforts. This was the foundation for the plan
that emerged – why not give a limited number of Speed Chills
members access to the Creation team during the race? What could
top spending time in the pit garage watching one of the worlds top
sportscar teams at work during the biggest race of all?
So the plan was
agreed – sponsorship for Le Mans in June 2006 and the LMS round at
Donington Park in the UK in August 2006 with the Speed Chills logo
featuring on the car for Le Mans. At Le Mans, 12 Speed Chills
members would spend an hour of the race on Saturday evening in the
Creation pit garage – what a unique experience.
Personal thoughts
For me personally,
the sheer magnitude of the experience we were offering our members
dawned when
I attended one of the first runnings of the “Blue Rocket” at a
bleak and
cold Silverstone in March 2006. The team and drivers were very
welcoming and the car looked simply fantastic…and the Judd V10…wow
what a noise! I came away from Silverstone that day convinced that
the pit visits in June would be truly fantastic and live in the
lucky attendees minds for a very, very long time.
I have been a Le
Mans ‘addict’ for all of my adult life. I was hooked from my first
visit back in the Group C era, of the mid-80’s, and have attended
as a spectator every year since. From a personal angle this was
also a magical moment – sponsoring a Le Mans car and having access
to the team during the race…not something I ever imagined would
happen!
The Road to Le Mans
So, at the end of
May, with packs ready to post out to an expectant membership we
announced the pit visits and the ways in which they could be ‘won’
–
-
Thursday –
correctly guess the score in England’s opening match in the
soccer World Cup and get drawn from the correct guesses
-
Friday - win the
Speed Chills Le Mans Trivia Quiz
-
Saturday – each
qualifying purchase from the Bar or Restaurant got you a raffle
ticket and the winner drawn from the hat at noon.
This combination of
judgement, knowledge and pure luck seemed to us to be the fairest
way to distribute these fantastic prizes.
 As
race week dawned and we arrived in Le Mans to a downpour on the
Wednesday evening but were cheered by the news that Creation had
achieved the 5th fastest time – I couldn’t wait to see the car in
action but that would have to wait until Thursday evening.
Thursday saw the
first of our pit visit winners decided as Paul Lees correctly
predicted a 2-0 victory to England over Trinidad & Tobago and was
pulled from the hat.
After qualifying on
Thursday finished and everything fell silent Chris & I found
ourselves sitting on the pit wall just soaking up the atmosphere.
The Joest mechanics wheeled past the new R10 on its way to
scrutineering…time to give it a wish of unreliability for the race
and look past it to the “Blue Rocket” sitting in its
garage…waiting…
Friday is one
of my favourite Le Mans days – no action on the track but ample
opportunity to wander up and down the pit-lane watching the teams
strip down and prepare the cars. The big difference this year was
that rather than being firmly one side of the barrier the Speed
Chills crew were invited into the Creation garage to watch the
preparations at close quarter and grab some photo opportunities.
Friday evening saw
Speed Chills regulars Rob & Emma Melvin, Rich Bernard and Rob
Vaughan ‘victorious’ in the Trivia Quiz – their pit-visit secured.
So to Saturday
lunchtime and a packed marquee awaited the draw for the final pit
visit which was won Iain Deans.
So the winners were
ready, I was ready to escort them…but as the race started concerns
were that the team would not be ready to accept us as guests. A
brake calliper failure in the first hour meant that the team had a
less than perfect start to the race.
 However,
despite this Paul and his group were welcomed to the Creation pit
about 3 hours into the race and spent an hour in the thick of the
action with Andy Woolgar from the team giving them a full briefing
and some useful advice – “if the car comes into the garage run
that way…quickly!”
During his visit to
the pits, Rob Vaughan took a number of photos, one of which later
won the Speed Chills 2006 Photo
Competition – Beppe Gabbiani piloting the car into the pits
for a routine fuel stop.
As the last group of
winners left the garage after their pit visit I took some time to
reflect on the experience I had just had; wandering around the
paddock soaking up the atmosphere, the noise, the smell,
everything…just in case I never witnessed it again.
Fact was, it wasn’t
long before I was back there again! Due to the hot weather, the
team were running short on water so we took the opportunity of
taking up fresh supplies to liberate the some of the chefs and
give them a ‘taste of the action’ so to speak.
The race was not a
happy one for the team with retirement at lunchtime on Sunday.
Such a shame - I dreamt of spending the closing stages of the race
with the team in the garage excitedly waiting for the
finish...that will have to wait until 2007!
Le Mans 2006 Pit
Visits – one to show the Grandchildren
Thursday winners -
Paul Lees, Martyn Harvey, Nathan Green & Richard Gravil joined by
Tangye Frost and Andy Woolgar from Creation
“To do this
during the race, will I think go down as one of those ‘life
experiences’ you tick off a list if you are lucky enough to be
involved!” Martyn Harvey
Friday winners - Rob
Vaughan, Richard Bernard, Emma & Rob Melvin
Saturday winners -
Iain Deans, Matt Farris, Guy Barnes & Mark Jackson
“It was fantastic to
see the cars so close and was a real surprise at how small the pit
garages actually are. Watching the car pit and then firing up that
Judd engine was fantastic.
It was a real
privilege to be so close to the action and I just wish that the
car had made it to the finish! This was an experience that I few
will experience unless they have the wealth to be invited to pit
garage as a VIP.
PS. If you are
wandering where all the stunning ladies hang out at Le Mans, then
get yourself a pit lane pass and you will soon find out!” Matt
Farris
Le Mans Series -
Donington Park
With Le Mans
finished for another year our thoughts turned to Donington Park.
Creation on the other hand had the Nürburgring round of the LMS to
contest before then and with it claimed pole and finished second -
their first podium of the year.
We had found a great
little location at Donington Park, close to the paddock and with
its own Caravan Park and campsite. We knew that we would not get
as many people attending as get drawn to Le Mans but we were not
expecting the event to be as poorly supported as it was.
Why does the LMS get
so little support in the UK? The format (1000km or 6 hours) is
now, largely, back to the halcyon days of the Group C era and the
grid competitive yet the crowds stay away…
 So
it was that a trimmed back but defiant Speed Chills Bar & Grill
opened in the grounds of the Park Farmhouse hotel right next door
to the paddock entrance at Donington Park.
Friday and Saturday
offered our crew ample opportunity to mingle with the action
including watching Nic Minassian & Kevin McGarrity (who was
driving the car for the first time) practising driver changes with
Jamie Campbell-Walter perched on the front of the car timing their
efforts.
Our guests at the
Speed Chills Bar & Grill enjoyed a ‘close encounter of the
Creation kind’ on the Saturday evening too when Nic, Jamie, Kevin
and team owner Michael Jankowski spent over an hour chatting,
posing for photos and signing posters for an excited audience.
In a great race on
the Sunday the Creation cars finished in second & third positions
– handy points in the championship overall.
The great result at
Donington followed by a fighting third in LMP1 at the final LMS
race of the year at Jarama in September saw the team claim second
in the LMP1 championship standings and a priceless guaranteed
entry for Le Mans 2007.
Racing Stateside
After Donington, one
of the “Blue Rockets” was shipped to the U.S. to contest the final
two rounds of the ALMS – Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta and Laguna
Seca.
 A
surprise bonus for us at Speed Chills was our logo on the
rear-wing of the cars – something to watch out for on the TV
coverage and hopefully something to intrigue eagle-eyed U.S
spectators!
The car went
fantastically well at PLM with Nic putting the Blue rocket on pole
ahead of Alan McNish in the lead Audi R10! Technical problems
meant the team were pipped to a podium finish by less than 30 secs
– still an amazing result though.
So onto Laguna Seca
for the final race of the year and once again Nic put in a
stunning qualifying effort to put the car on the front row. A
podium finish made a fitting end to a great season for the team!
The Future
We thoroughly
enjoyed our first year of sponsorship of the Creation team and
look forward to extending this relationship into 2007.
Thanks to Andy,
Tangye & Bicks for helping us get the most from the partnership,
the drivers for putting on such a great show on and off the track
and the team as a whole for putting up with us invading their
workplace! It was a privilege and a pleasure to meet all of you.
If after reading
this, you feel moved to supporting the Creation team through a
partnership of your own, please do not hesitate to contact us – we
will gladly give you any advice we can and introduce you to the
team. Go on…you won’t regret it!
Neil Matthews -
December 2006
This somewhat
personal review of Speed Chills season sponsoring Creation is
dedicated to the memory of my father who left us in August 2005,
too soon to share this chapter of the Speed Chills story. He would
have loved it as much as his son. |
