Why I thought getting up at 3:30 am on an hours sleep was a good idea I'll never know, well apart from beating the traffic to get to Birmingham... anyway.

I know about the walking at these events, but it wasn't until I arrived at the NEC I remembered (just) how big the place was, it was my first time there since the early 90's when my head was about elbow height walking around the venue. This was my first trip to the ASI, first impression, its huge, I work in a venue where we have exhibitions, this blows it away, threeish halls plus other demonstration areas make for one of the largest car, motor sport and trade shows out there. 

So Day One, start of the trade days, these days are a lot quieter, which gives you more opportunity to get to see more stands, discuss with the exhibitors, pick up freebies, you know, the usual's. A fantastic chance to get up close and look at some current and historic racing cars. Throughout the day (and weekend) there are a lot of stages with various Motorsport personalities being interviewed. A must see is the amazing Pop Bang Colour art stand by Ian Cook, artwork created with... toy cars... really! If I was arranging to meet anyone throughout the day, I would describe myself as the guy in the Indycar jacket looking vague, as was the case through most of the day on little sleep. Although being a faceless [twitter] account I did have a lot of fun seeing people and saying "Hi, X..." and them looking at me, knowing full well they are thinking who the hell are you?

A restaurant recommendation for you passed onto me by Nic, I was looking for a good curry house and being in Birmingham thought my chances were high, they were - Al Frash on Ladypool Road, a fantastic curry, and magnificent (huge) naan bread!

Day Two, see day one. Just less tired. Followed by a visit to Coventry to see an old friend. One thing you will never appreciate in the Midlands is how close everything is to each other, I have discovered everything is about an hour away. Unlike Plymouth where it is two and a bit hours to Bristol and that is just to start to get going to somewhere else!!

Day Three, Saturday, I skipped. Braved a shopping trip to the Bullring where the most exciting thing I bought was some new lights for my living room, the exciting life of Adrian, aged 30 and 3/4's... Followed by a trip to the Hawthorns to see the Baggies take on Hull. £26 for a Premier League game, excellent, but, I have seen less depressing sights at Home Park this season! (Plymouth Argyle, League 2, three divisions below West Brom for those not in the know).

I did however return in time to get to the NEC to watch the Dan Wheldon Karting Trophy that evening. You can read about the event HERE as well as catching up with some highlights and chat from the event on Downforce UK Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3. This is a great event that I urge to to check out if you can, Saturday is a better fit to get more public attending than in the previous races. You get to see some pro, up and coming as well as the enthusiastic amateurs race all for a good cause, the Alzheimer Society.

Finally onto day four... by day four your feet are tired, you think you've seen all the stands, oh no, as I previously stated you are walking in some kind of motor sport labyrinth.  Come the weekend and the public days so out go the trade stands, and in come the ovals, stock cars, racing clubs and more. And now, ample more opportunities to pick up some racing memorabilia, die casts and team wear. I did manage to grab a good bargain of some DW12's from Race Gear UK. Shortly after easily persuaded to sign up for Project Brahbam, cheers James, after chatting (at some length) with Sam Brabham you can understand and appreciate what they are undertaking and unlike some other crowd funding efforts that left me feeling cold recently, this is something I would urge you to check out, if not support.

This was my first visit to the ASI and if you don't think you can fill your days, you'd be wrong, plenty of exhibitors to visit, cars to photograph and most importantly, people to meet. You never know what can lead from just a conversation. 

Go back to the 29th May 2011, you may remember Dan Wheldon’s speech in victory lane just after he had won one of the most dramatic Indy 500s of all time he paid tribute to his mother, Sue who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2009. In April of last year, Sue Wheldon sadly passed away. 

It was Dan’s drive to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s in the US that the Wheldon family has carried forward in the UK too. As someone who has had a personal experience with grandparents who have suffered with Dementia, I can appreciate what close family members go through whilst living through their later years.

Now into its third year, Saturday saw the now annual running of the Dan Wheldon Karting Trophy held at the Autosport International Show at the NEC in Birmingham.

Guest Pro drivers included Sennan Fielding & Ben Barnicoat (finalists from the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award), Sam Brahbam (Project Brahbam), Craig Dolby (Super Formula), Steve Parrish (BBC / Moto GP) to name but a few. From our screens, Kevin Fletcher (Emmerdale) and Tony Hirst (Coronation Street).

Two teams I was, and many others, were supporting, on the competitive Am’ sides, we had a team from Dementia Friends made up of volunteers and champions of their cause and of course Team Wheldon, comprising of Ash, Elliot, Austen with one of Dan’s childhood friend and former Karting competitor Gavin McFayden joining their line up.

So the green flag flies, three hours racing, all fair, all nice, all straight forward... right? No, you don’t put a collection of competitive drivers on track a track and tell them to calm down; it’s not in their nature! After several early red flags for some on track ‘indiscretions’  and some stern words from the stewards, the race finally settled into a smoother(ish) pattern. Further yellows did occur for some friendly nudges, spins and well, driver errors! 

One particular corner towards the end of the lap was a real challenge, too wide into the previous corner and you would be flirting more with the barrier than speed dating night. When the phrase the ‘track is evolving’ was created, I believe this corner evolved several times over as piece by piece the barrier was adjusted by force, probably not the meaning it was intended for. 

The race was won by Team #18 Vincenzo Sospirio (yes, he the one-time practice’r of the 1997 Mastercard Lola), runner up with #2 Team Titan 2 and #3 Tockwith 1 in third.

More highlights and chat from the race can be found at Downforce UK. Full results are HERE supplied by Alpha Timing.

It was fairly competitive on track to say the least, what are your thoughts on the way your Team Wheldon #21 did?
Definitely was very competitive on the track that night, which is great to see. Team Wheldon had an ok night, finishing 12th out of 30 teams. Didn't help when both Elliott & Ashley got black flagged. Great to see Austen and Gavin putting in some very quick laps. To be honest we thought we would hold back and let someone else win for once.






Tell us about the Alzheimer's Society and the work they carry out?
The Alzheimer's Society is a charity very close to my family and I. As you probably know we lost my mum to the illness last April. Dementia describes a set of symptoms that may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language. Dementia is caused when the brain is damaged by diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease or a series of strokes. It's progressive, which means the symptoms will gradually get worse. Alzheimer's Society is a membership organisation, which works to improve the quality of life for people affected by dementia in UK. Alzheimer's Society staff and volunteers provide both local information and over 2,000 services across England, Wales and Northern Ireland to people affected by dementia in their communities. There local services include day care and home care for people with dementia, as well as support and befriending services to help partners and families cope with the demands of caring. From Dementia Cafes and innovative Singing For The Brian sessions to memory-book projects and group outings, their services provide both practical support and an essential point of human contact.

Links
Alzheimer's Society
Demnetia Friends
Dan's Fundraising Page for Alzheimer's Society
Dan Wheldon Karting Challenge - Facebook / Twitter
Teeside Karting 

... and onto the somewhat thorny issue of TV ratings, with thanks to Tom Firth for trawling through endless BARB pages and statistics. Here are your ratings for the 2014 Indycar season. On average they are still below where they were with Sky Sports but are on the up compared to the first year with ESPN and BT Sport. There are some very good figures, understandable the Indy 500, Houston and Mid-Ohio, and some lowish ones, overnight races will always be low and when maybe you don't have control of the remote and somehow Im Strictly X-Factor Get Me On Ice wins over (why, just why?!). 

Indycar had a very settled and long term home on Sky and switching channels, include a name change 6 months in, has knocked it somewhat but the good think to take into 2015 is that BT Sport and the producers are very keen on motor sport and developing their coverage. The non 500 races used to be around 15-20,000 and are on the up from 2013.

Here's the disclaimer, I do not work within any TV organisation, data collecting or anything other than plonked on the sofa on a Saturday or Sunday evening, how accurate these figures are is sometimes debated, but that's what is out there! 

Following Indycar in the UK does come at an extra cost, anything up to £16 per month, especially if Premier League football or Rugby isn't your thing... 

Worthy side note - These figures are for live coverage only. Sometimes at unsociable hours, up against competition, like Downtown or something, looking back at some of the highlights ratings, Milwaukee pulled a 6 live, but 13 highlights the day after.

Every month during the race season, I would estimate around 80-85% of the search terms that bring people to this site are about Indycar coverage in the UK, how, when, where and more. 

So for those finding this blog by asking... Yep, Indycar is on BT Sport 1 / BT Sport 2 / ESPN this year (2015). I know the possibility of growing the coverage here is on their radar, but can't promise anything, so to ensure Indycar stays live on UK TV, each race day just tweet about it, it helps! 

Also good promotion helps, twitter, facebook, actual advertising on the channel, there is no coincidence that the Indy 500 was as high and better than when on Sky Sports after BT Sport aired their own commercial in the weeks prior to the race.

A good blog to follow is F1 Broadcasting, if TV news and stats are your thing, mainly concentrates on F1 and Moto GP but does cover other series from time to time. 

And onto a couple other series show on Pay TV...

Moto GP - Live on BT Sport.

NASCAR Sprint Cup - Live on Premier Sports

And finally, Formula 1 - Sky F1 only (BBC is around 75% of the normal total figure)

So what is the romance of racing? 

This book is personalised who's who of racing, from the viewpoint of one of the most successful drivers from these shores, Dario Franchitti. There can be little doubt over who Dario idolises the most, for a clue, see the below video. But who are the others that he has an admiration for or those whom he has raced against, respected for their careers and for their achievements.

But who else does Dario pick out from the annals of time? 

The first time reading through the book, one of the most enjoyable traits of the 132 pages was not knowing who was going to appear on the next page, could be a Formula One driver, Indycar, NASCAR, even someone away from the track, although not too far...

Each racing personality featured within the book gets their own page and accompanying photograph by some of the world's great motor sport photographers. Rarely a well known shot, maybe something that encapsulates the person, some with a story to tell. Having spent some time with the books editor, Andy Hallbery, some of those pictures really do have a story behind them, be they the last shot of the day, strip clubs, or even subscription cancelling! There are plenty of stories to be told, some you may have come across through time, others completely new to you. You find little nuggets from Dario's past when he has met these people from their younger years, and pays tribute to some racers who are sorely missed. Its hard not to read in a Scottish accent.

A perfect trip down memory lane, you know what Dario's romance is, here's why its also yours.

For more information about the book, check out the website for details, the book is available for purchase through Amazon - UK & USA.