One of the great things about it is that we don't have to pay (the exorbitant prices) for our tickets courtesy of my father who commentates for BBC Radio Five Live. It has become tradition that I go down to the race with two good friends of my dad. Jimmy Jackson, better known as Captain Hargate, who runs a block of holiday apartments near where I live, and John Lee, better known as, well, John Lee, who is an architect living in Sheffield, and is a former school friend of Jimmy's. This year, after my dad dredged up another ticket, I had decided to bring along a friend from school, Robert Foster.

In past years often due to the race clashing with my return from holidays we have had to go down on the Saturday, thus missing qualifying. But this year with a clear space in the diary, Jimmy decided that we should go down on the Friday night. So after two hours of driving down the motorway and after picking up John who had been at a meeting (with headhunters) we arrived at our campsite next to Silverstone village cricket ground. Jimmy and John were sleeping in a tent while Rob and I had the back of John's Landcruiser. After pitching the tent we headed off to the cricket ground where there was a big party going on. Supper consisted of beefburger and chips plus several drinks from the bar.

I had brought along my film camera so I could make a video of the weekend. Stupidly I had forgotten to bring the battery charger and my last piece of film shot was in the bar when the low battery sign came up. Jimmy used for the first time, my new word that weekend, FORESIGHT. At around 11pm we took the decision to turn in. Once in the Landcruiser Rob spent the best part of an hour on the phone to his girlfriend, while I shouted "McLaren!" to a group of Ferrari supporters who had been drinking a bit too much lager. Finally we fell into slumber at about 1am.

L-R: Rob, me and Jim at our campsite by the Silverstone Cricket Ground. [Note: F1 Rejects editor refrains from making gratuitous comment about English cricket.]

The next morning I awoke, and after a couple of minutes headed down to the pavilion to get showered. After picking up our tickets at the gate it was time for breakfast of bacon roll and chips at Sillverstone's traditional bargain (?) prices. What you don't realise is how much waiting around there is between sessions! While Jim and John sampled the F3000 paddock Rob and I found a cosy Fosters tent where we waited until the start of qualifying.

At 1pm we moved to our spot on the exit of the Luffield Complex. After 30 minutes of empty track, Kimi Raikonnen in the Sauber brought huge relief to the crowd. Rob enjoyed his first taste of F1, and we saw yet another pole from Spoonface. On a reject note Tarso Marques became the first person to be beyond 107% of pole time and not start the race since Ricardo Rosset at the 1998 Japanese Grand Prix.

The afternoon passed fairly quickly. Rob and I had lunch at another of Silverstone's wonderful kiosks. My chicken burger for some amazing reason didn't match the McDonalds style photo on the menu! At 4pm we met my Dad so he could take us across to the paddock for a Honda garage tour with both Jordan and BAR. There was only one problem, John who had bought himself a Honda cap and drives a Honda car was forced to miss out because there were only three passes. So feeling rather sorry for John we made our way over the bridge and down to the paddock gates.

John at our spot on the exit of Luffield, either trying to hide from the lens or picking his nose. You decide.

Here I suffered an embarrassing moment. To enter the paddock you have to put your pass up against an electronic sensor which lets you go through a turnstile. I did this but was too slow for the turnstile - meaning I had to go round the outside. After that, though, we entered a world quite unlike that occupied by the fans. Everything is neat and tidy, everywhere you look there are famous people, and the motorhomes are spectacular structures. In fact they are more like miniature houses.

The Williams one was the most impressive, with a massive entrance with two pillars either side. The BAR motorhome is a double-decker (with carbon fibre toilet seats, naturally). Benneton have one shaped like a bouncy castle. But I digress. A nice chap from Honda led us into the BAR garage where he showed us the two cars and how the mechanics monitor the telemetry. Also interesting was a whole room full of bodywork from accidents.

After a similar tour in the Jordan garage we had a bit of spare time. We wandered up towards the Ferrari/McLaren end of the paddock. After spotting David Coulthard in the McLaren motorhome, Dad took Rob into meet him. Rob had gone into the paddock wearing a 'Papa Roach' jumper and apparently Coulthard made the remark "You don't actually like them do you?"

I think DC was impressed with the Papa Roach gear: "You don't actually like them do you?"

After our return to the campsite we prepared to go into Towcester for our evening meal. Last year during the quagmire of Easter weekend 2000 we discovered a Chinese restaurant called the 'Rice Bowl'. We were so impressed with the food, that John had booked us a table for four weeks beforehand. It also seems to attract F1 drivers. Last year Rubens Barrichello popped up in Towcester to celebrate his pole position.

This year as we ordered our food it was Enrique Bernoldi who sat in the corner (what is it with the Brazilians?). Jimmy insisted that Bernoldi had held our meal up (another poor joke!). The meal was delicious and towards the end Jimmy began doing poor Enrique Bernoldi impersonations. Once back at the campsite I made my way back to the pavilion where I ordered a lemonade and a Bounty. "How much do I owe you?" I said. The bartender replied "It's on the house forget it." My day ended playing pool with a couple of Norwegians.

Sunday morning, 5.30 am and it's time to get up. Despite the early start it was a heavenly morning with not a cloud in the sky. I was very annoyed (and freezing) to find that the showers, unlike Saturday, were lacking any hot water. I had also managed to forget my towel so it was time to drip dry. But soon we were all dressed and John drove us as near to the circuit as he could without getting stuck in traffic. Then Rob and I walked to the circuit so we could put up the chairs at Luffield. Last year I had found the best place that just about anyone could possibly could get. But this year things didn't go according to plan (more on that later).

All together for a meal at the 'Rice Bowl' and a chance meeting with Mr Bernoldi.

At 7am we met Jimmy and John and went across the bridge for breakfast in the Jaguar motorhome. Again there were only three passes, but unlike last time Dad managed to find the fourth. After a tour of the Jaguar garage we went out into the pit lane to watch the teams practising pit stops. David, the man from Jaguar then led us down towards the motorhome. "The motorhomes are laid out in the order they finished in the championship last year" explained David. Jimmy replied "It's a long walk down to Jaguar isn't it?"

The food was magnificent. A full English breakfast with bacon, sausages, hash browns, mushrooms etc. After that we again had a bit of spare time. Dad led us down to the Minardi motorhome and inside he introduced me to Paul Stoddart, the boss. We preceded to have an interesting discussion about the Marques saga. Stoddart was unhappy that the stewards had not given him dispensation. After the morning's excitement there was more time to kill. So it was back to the Fosters tent until the race. At 12.30 we lumbered over to where our seats were.

Jim, Rob and I pose for a photo inside the world's richest village. Jaguar's motorhome is the one in the far distance next to Hadrian's Wall.

Or should have been. Perhaps due to lack of sleep I had put the chairs right in front of someone else, so that person had folded them up. Second mistake was that we had put them in the wrong stand. Third mistake, we had spent the whole weekend making unnecessary phone calls and had used up our battery so we couldn't get in touch with Jimmy and John. Anyway we watched the race from our grandstand. The funniest part of the race was when Fernando Alonso's Minardi shed it's wheel right in front of us. But Silverstone was mainly about Mika Hakkinen.

Disappointingly, David Coulthard's championship chances faltered after a first lap collision with Trulli. After the race had finished, instead of rushing away from the track we stayed to watch the thoroughbred grand prix. On the way home I began to feel a bit ill and ended the weekend in some severe pain. I think I had had one bargain (?) burger too many! Rob had enjoyed his first taste of F1 and hopefully will join us again next year. But despite the wide criticism of the facilities it is always one of the best weekends of the year and this year, thankfully, was no exception.