Estoril Diary

Stuart and Steve went off to Estoril in Portugal for some extended testing time in the car. I asked them to keep a diary of how it went thinking it would make some interesting reading about the circuit and their time in the car etc. It turned out a little differently....

DAY ONE

Our adventure started at Heathrow on a cold Saturday morning on the 28th of February and we were both on a high for the task ahead which was a three-day Dunlop tyre test on the famous Estoril GP track.
We arrived on time in Lisbon courtesy of Air Portugal and picked up our hire car and headed to the circuit to check that the truck and our car had made the three-day journey from the UK. On arrival it was soon clear that our truck hadn’t made it and in fact was stuck on the French/Spanish border along with 22,000 other trucks including three other British teams hoping to be at the test.
Unsure about when the truck would arrive, we decided to check into the hotel and get some lunch. The room at the hotel was not ready so we went and found a lovely bistro and had a true Portuguese lunch. We finally checked into our room which was no larger than a broom cupboard with a shower. We couldn’t relax not knowing where the truck was and so we returned to the track for news. It transpired that John was still at the border and the roads into Spain were still closed, but there was a chance they would get moving in the morning for a trip that should take 15 hours. We thought that if we missed Sunday we would at least still have Monday and Tuesday to test.
As we were already at the track, we decided to drive round the perimeter road to try and learn the circuit for the test ahead. It looked fantastic and we were both looking forward to the challenge. We also agreed that we would run a full race distance with driver changes As we had been up early and were tired, we went back to the hotel, changed and had dinner and an early night. We went to bed thinking about tomorrow with everything crossed.

DAY TWO

Got up this morning and had breakfast and met the four mechanics from JWRacing that had arrived during the night at the hotel via the Irish Bar. We were soon on the phone to John who still hadn’t moved and also to the other drivers Mark and Mike who were in the UK not knowing if they should leave for Heathrow.
Whilst waiting for news, we had lunch at the Marina and then went back to the track for an update. Not good news as Mark and Mike were cancelling their flights and the truck was to turn around for the UK on Monday.
There is a truck ban on the roads in Europe on Sundays so the earliest the truck could have left for Estoril would have been on Monday. With an arrival on Tuesday after the test had finished, it was with regret that we had to try to get our tickets changed and head home.

We checked out of the hotel and made it to the Airport for the evening flight to Heathrow with our four mechanics. If the hotel had been a five-star, we might have stayed for the duration and had a few days relaxation but it wasn’t to be.

Our dream of doing an official tyre test had evaporated but our enthusiasm for the car is still there and our next test will be at Donington a week on Tuesday weather permitting. We arrived home in the early hours of Monday morning tired and sad that we had missed a golden opportunity to have three days in the car and hopefully returning to the UK ahead of our competition.

03/03/04