Bridgestone Invite TeapotOne to Silverstone motoGP

What a weekend! 4 days camping at the world famous Silverstone race circuit as guests of Bridgestone. Brolly girls, Woodlands 'lively' campsite, beers, bands, rain, mud, sunshine, and 1000's of bike mad fans loving the TeapotOne project. Chuck it all together and what've you got? Smiles ;-))

Thursday started early, well actually it started on Wednesday as I came straight off of night duty! Thankfully my mate Brookesy was equally 'eager' to get to Silverstone so very kindly agreed to drive all the stall kit up for me. It was a good job too as I'd more than enough stuff to carry on the bike – as you can see from the pic on the left!

After arriving at the circuit and getting the various passes, wristbands and camping plots, I 'quickly' (2hrs) got the tent set up and the TeapotOne stall in place. The weather was not looking good with angry purple clouds looming in on us from every direction. Being June and at Silverstone, it wasn't long before the rain began to fall. But this did nothing to dampen our spirits. I was on the Bridgestone stand with Steve Watts, Bridgestone's Motorcycle Business Development Manager, and their two promo girls Frankie and April (it was a tough life).

Thursday was the 'Day of Champions' day so there was plenty of action on the main stage and a fair amount of passing traffic stopping by to call me insane. Friday started bright and I awoke to the glorious sound of motoGP bikes revving in the pitts. To say I was like a fat kid in a sweet shop is an understatement, and almost fact!

With Friday being the practice sessions, we were surrounded by a cacophony of glorious audible delights throughout the day. This was my first experience of motoGP bikes close up and I've got to say they are like nothing I've ever experienced before. Their guttural roar embraces your very soul and is felt throughout the body and mind as they scream by. If it doesn't make you smile, lie down on the floor quick as you're more than likely dead already!

Throughout Friday and Saturday we had passing traffic stopping by to ask questions about Bridgestone's various tyres, the S20, R10, BT-023, and Battlewing ranges. As I'll be using the BATTLAX BT-023's throughout the whole TeapotOne.com journey, and have used them extensively for the past 4 months, Steve could use TeapotOne as a working example of the tyre performance. In turn I could then introduce people to the TeapotOne.com project and everyone's a winner. Lovely job.

The usual questions of, "Why are you taking a Gixxer?", "Why that route?", and just, "Why!?" were in evidence from the off, but this was joined by an excited air of anticipation from those who'd been following through the website, facebook and twitter. It was great to hear people come up and say that they'd read about it in Fast Bikes, or that they'd heard about it through some mates. Word generally does seem to be getting around now about TeapotOne and I can't tell you how chuffed I am to hear that.

As I was camping at Woodlands campsite for the whole duration, it would have been rude not to have sampled the various pubs and entertainment laid on by the organisers. So, feeling charitable I ventured down to my local and quickly got acquainted with a pint and a few of it's brother's and sisters for the evening. I met some cracking folk on Friday night and had a scream. Huge thank you to everyone involved that night, it was a great giggle and just what I needed as it's been a tough old month or so recently.

Bridgestone threw a curve ball my way on Saturday afternoon too as they invited me along to their Corporate Hospitality tent for some grub and beers. Now when you consider that I was standing there in my leathers, which by now were caked in mud and rain from the last 3 days, I was hardly in the correct attire to mix it with the social elite. But thankfully the chiefs at Bridgestone are all bikers themselves and were very understanding. A huge thanks to Andy Whitehead and the guys for sorting it out, I had a great time, met some great people, heard some brilliant stories (mostly about Andy from his rugby mates sitting at my table!), and got to see the pitts and village area. We even met Dovitsioso when he popped by for a quick chat!

Sunday I awoke with a slightly sore head but the sun was shining and the rain appeared to be holding off. After packing up the camping gear and carrying it all a mile back to the secure bike park, I rode the beast back to our stand for the last time. The excitement was brewing already across the circuit as the crowds had pretty much almost doubled by 0730hrs. Russ, Woody and a new recruit Laura, had driven up early doors to help out for the day. It didn't take long to set up and soon the crowds were swooning all over the bike and map.

The crowds were huge and the sun shone high in the sky. I don’t think there was a single drop of rain the whole day! We were kept busy from the off as the crowds filtered by, first of all stopping to look over the range of Bridgestone tyres, then coming closer to look at the beast and gaze at the route map. Above all, the map always get’s the most comments and I have to say that as the leaving date of 1^st October draws near, even I am asking myself, “Why!” The difference is there is not a shadow of doubt in my mind that I won’t make it. Even if the beast has a few ‘issues’ along the way, I’ll find a solution and if I have to strap it to my back and crawl the 100,000 miles, then so be it.

Person after person was coming forward to offer their support, ask questions about the project, the route, the bike, the charities, and the tyres. People seem to have a fascination with the tyres I’ll be using and look at me like a Frenchman in Aberdeen when I say I won’t be using knobblies! There was also a marked increase in the number of people coming up to me and saying that they’d heard about TeapotOne through FastBikes Magazine, Facebook, Twitter, and other media I didn’t even know it featured in! Word certainly seems to be spreading now and hopefully I can continue this wave for the rest of the project duration.

As the races progressed the crowds would disperse and build, lapping at the stall like waves on a beach. During the quieter times I had a chance to go and sample some of what else was on offer around us.

The power tools manufacturer 'Dewalt' had a huge stand just a couple down from us. They had some great games going on where you could win a branded Dewalt quad bike. One of the games was hammering in 5 nails as quick as possible so Russ' aupair Laura decided she'd challenge me to a race! Now bare in mind I'm 6'3" and almost 18 stone, and Laura is 19 and nowhere near that, you'd think there would be no challenge. Sorry, I got spanked!

With my tail between my legs there was a chance to reclaim my masculinity with the Extreme Wheelie Machine stand. Regular readers will know I've recently done the 'Learn2Wheelie' day so surely this should be a piece of cake? Well there were brief periods of unassisted nose in the air solitude, but I don't think I'll be worrying any of the professionals just quite yet!

Well that was just about us done. The racing had all finished, Jorge Lorenzo had claimed a brilliant win but the hero of the day was surely Cal Crutchlow who'd ridden despite a big injury the day before. The bravery and comittment he showed that day is a real symbol of true British grit, and something I'll draw on during the many tough times ahead on my journey. Well done cal, incredible effort.

So that was Silverstone motoGP 2012. A massive thank you to Steve, Dan, Andy and all those at Bridgestone for alllowing TeapotOne to be involved. It was a brilliant few days and an insight to a world I love. We've got a few more events to go before I leave on the 1st October such as the Twitter UK Bike Meet this Friday, RBLR1000 on sat, The Supercar Event on Sunday, Goodwood Festival of Speed, HUBB weekend, and the War & Peace show.

So if you're at any of these feel free to pop by and say hello. I'm still recruiting corporate backers for the trip so drop me a line if you'd like to discuss how you or your company can help.

Cheers for now, keep living the dream and love it!

Bruce