| BLOG | ||||
| July 09 |
Preparations for the GP starts about 2 weeks before the event. I get
involved with Kap (the third member of the team) down at KNK Gallery in
Nottingham in the printing, framing and canvas stretching of all the
stuff we think we might need. Ian is involved in getting the stand ready and doing all the preparation with Donington. Wednesday Ian travelled down from York via my place to Donington and started putting the stand up in the Exhibition Centre and unloading the stock. Late Wednesday night, back to York to get more bits and pieces. Thursday Arrive back at Donington at 7.00am to set up outside for The Day of Champions. We put 2 canvasses in the Auction. The signed Scott Redding fetched £550 and the Valentino 08 picture fetched £1400. Just when we start packing up at 8.00pm, the heavens opened and everything gets a good soaking! Drive over to the Exhibition Centre and start building the main stand and dressing it. We worked till 1.00am then drove back to my house in Nottingham, had some food and went to bed at 2.30! Friday Up at 5.15am, drove to the gallery to pick up some more stuff and arrived at Donington at 7.00am and finished dressing the stand. Although the weather on Friday wasn’t too good, there seemed to be a very large crowd, which kept us busy all day. At about 8.00 pm we closed the stand and drove down to the paddock where we were the guests of Roger Keys (Scott Redding’s manager) for the evening. We were supposed to be meeting with Valentino but that didn’t happen, so Roger treated us to a tour around the pits and the paddock. Finally left Donington about 11.30pm drove back to my place, food and bed again at 2.00 am. Saturday Got up Saturday morning at 5.15am and back via KNK to Donington at 6.30am. Again a huge crowd and good weather bought things to life. Closed the stand at 7.30pm and back down to the paddock to meet with Valentino because he wanted a couple of pictures off us. Finally got to meet with him after his dinner with Nigel Mansell and handed over a couple of Pop Art’s to hang in his 2 homes. Met also with Colin Edwards where we presented him with the Laguna canvas, and he also signed a couple of our canvasses for customers. Spent some more time with Roger and family and wished Scott good luck for the race. Drove back to my house, bed at 2.00am alarm set for 4.00 am Sunday morning! Sunday Back to Donington for 5.30am where the huge crowd kept us very busy all day. We finally packed up and left Donington at midnight, drove home had some food and COLLAPSED! About 9 hours sleep in 3 days is not to be recommended! In summing up Thanks to all of you who came to the stand – if we were too busy to chat – I apologise Thanks to Roger Keys and Scott Redding for all their help and hospitality. (Well done to Scott for his 3rd place) Thanks to the Yamaha Fiat personnel for setting up our meeting with Valentino (not easy these days) Thanks to all the other riders and people that made us welcome whilst they were “at work” Thanks to Riders for Health. Thanks to MCN and Jason Wallcraft for the Riders for Health photography. Thanks to Donington Park (let’s hope it’s not the last Moto GP!) Steve Whyman |       |
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