Huge sigh of relief as race day goes to plan

Up to 30,000 fans were advised to stay away from the circuit for Saturday’s qualifying after constant rain on Friday had left the grass car parks unusable, although Phillips confirmed that only around 10,000 had heeded that advice.

But the track was able to accommodate all ticket holders on raceday and contingency measures such as encouraging spectators to car share, bumper-to-bumper car parking and staggered leaving times proved to be largely successful.

Phillips admitted that having fans park their cars on the A43 had been considered as a last resort, but felt the measures put in place had been effective.

He said: “It was much better to get people in, even if we had to push and tow them into position.

“We did bumper park which was not the most popular thing with some people, but actually in the end they got out just as quickly as they would had they been in a normal car park queueing at the gate, which gave us another 1,000 cars and these things can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

“And all credit to the local community, you appreciated today how many people were camping in people’s back yards, sleeping on couches, on top of roundabouts and everything else.

“It has been an amazing day, if you looked at the stands and you compared the number of people that appeared to arrive to the number of people here it was pretty full, it was pretty much a capacity crowd and I thought the atmosphere was great.”

The weekend’s events were down to the exceptional circumstance of the wettest June on record being followed by heavy rainfall on Friday and Saturday.

But Phillips says there are lessons that will be learned for next year’s race.

“There is plenty to reflect on,” he said. “We have to sort out the campsites properly. We have got to put more roadways into here and do everything we can to preserve car parking, and I think park and ride was a massive success.”