Hey guys,
So that’s another season over!!
And what a way to finish it off with my home ePrix.
As I travelled down to London with a friend, mum and I went
for 5 days instead of 4 like we would do normally. So, on the Thursday, I met
mum, and then got the Arriva 2 in to derby, the Red arrow out to Nottingham,
got a coffee from costa and then we got the train together from Nottingham to
London. I cannot fault the staff at East Midlands Railway at all. On the Thursday,
I hadn’t made a reservation for all of us, so I quickly sent them a message,
and they were able to sort it out surprisingly quickly. The staff did make a
mistake on the way back, but I had an apology message, and we sat in unreserved
seats, or seats that weren’t taken up by the people that had reserved them. When
we got into London, we got the tube from Kings Cross St Pancras, and then went
to Bond Street via oxford circus to get the Elizabeth Line to Woolwich and
chill out for the rest of the evening.
The next day was originally meant to be a chill day before
going to bowl in the afternoon, however, Lizzie and I wanted something to do,
so we went trackside for a bit to do a wreckie of how we were gonna get there,
and we were also fortunate enough to catch the shakedown session before we went
to bowl.
It was super, super cool, as it was also my first shakedown session,
as we would never be in London in time to catch the session live at the track. We
then hopped on to the DLR, went to canning town, and then got the Jubilee Line to
North Greenwich to bowl. I lost one game, and came second in the other, which I
was quite pleased about. Between you and me however, I was letting Lizzie not
come last in the second game. It was super fun though, and if we go together again
next year, it’s something I would love to do again.
Then on to race day 1, and a pretty special day for me. So,
as you are aware if you know me well, I have been following laney on his
engineering journey since he was with Sam at Envision in season 5. I had a
drawing that I did for him whilst I was in Cyprus with nothing to do one day. So
when io got to the mclaren garage, he was still in qualifying debrief, so I asked
a McLaren team member to run it back to him. Then, as luck would have it, he
came out to speak to Rene’s performance engineer about something, and then
after a quick signal, he came over to speak to me!! As of writing this, im still
amazed after two years he remembers the name and face, but the start of the
conversation went a little something like this. “hi Natalie, I really like the
drawing😊” I always used to send little bits of drawings
and stuff down to the envision factory during lockdown whilst I was sending fan
projects and things like that, so the fact that he remembers the name more than
anything set me off emotionally crying, and I think Rene must have been there
too, as he commented on it whilst I was at the table getting my hat signed by
gary. And I can more than testify that laney does give the most amazing hugs. I
met nick again and saw Shiv in the pits going up to Nissan for his photography
duties.
Then on to race 1 itself. It was dramatic to say the least!!
There was intrateam drama at envision, with Nick having to pit for a new front
wing cause Seb defended and swerved right in to him, right in front of me… it
was definitely a head in hands moment, and seb should have let Nick through knowing
full well Nick was in championship contention. But im not the team so idk what
went wrong. Nick eventually finished the race, but not in the points, so that
meant Jake Dennis had won the drivers world championship with 1 race to spare. It
was gut wrenching watching it happen right in front of me, and knowing what
that meant, however a day later id be emotional again. For a good reason this
time. Jake hughes also crashed straight in front of me, however he was fine,
and he was able to reverse out of the barriers and not cause any safety cars or
full course yellows. It shook mum and I, however I am glad he walked away
unhurt, and his car could carry on the race. After the race, the fans were
allowed on track for the podium. Like the autograph session, the wristbands for
the podium were on a first come first served basis, and like the autographs, I was
lucky enough to get one of these for both days. Being on the track for the
podium ceremony was so so so amazing, and the noise when jake came on to the podium
as the newly crowned world champion was phenomenal. After the race, we went
back to the hotel, and I met Jenn and Leon again when they were walking back to
the garage. It was so nice to see them both again, and its nice that they both
had time for me, even when they had to go and debrief ready for the next day.
Then we went back to the hotel, mum had some mcdonalds and I
had a snack and then we got ready for race day 2.
The next day we got up bright and early, and made our way
trackside once more. We got on the Elizabeth Line at 8am, and went trackside to
queue for autograph wristbands. As I was the only one in our group to get a wristband
for the autograph session, I took the last few bits that needed singing, and
got them signed to the pleasure and smiley faces of everyone when I got back. Lizzie
had the time of her life whilst I was gone, and I went straight to envision
when I was allowed in the pitlane, as I wanted to ask nick a favour. He gave me
his cap, and I smiled. James also got lizzie a cap, as he was also in the
session, and lizzie, like me, is a massive Nick Cassidy fan. The qualifying
session hadn’t finished when I was queuing for the autograph session, and when I
was walking over the bridge, I saw nick got pole. And as envision were tied
with jaguar on points, those 3 points would turn out to be crucial in the
championship fight. I met robin again during the autograph session, got Lizzie’s
flag signed and then went to NIO for a special request. Mum had a painting done
by Julie one of our amazing friends, and she didn’t get a chance to go up to NIO
on the Saturday, so I said that I would take it up to NIO for her. Sergio
really liked it, and the signed painting hangs proudly on her wall in her
bedroom.
Then on to race 2. The rain halted the race about 6 million
times, but when the race did get going finally, it was a classic formula e
race. Sturdy at the front, but some good overtakes in the midfield. About 5
laps from the end, I went to queue for the track invasion for the podium, and I
met up again with a good friend of mine, lucy. As my phone was dying, she took
an awesome video of me when nick crossed the line to win the race, and when Seb
crossed the line with enough points to crown envision racing world champions. It
was the most emotional I’ve ever felt at a racetrack, and im super, super proud
of EVERYONE at Envision for all the graft and results all season long. When the
results haven’t quite gone our way, they’ve made sure they’ve regrouped and gone
at it again with pride and passion. Like the soldiers I know every single one of them can be. After 9 “nearly” years, and 2 painful years of watching the championship slip out of hand, by other teams doing better, it finally happened!! At home too 😊. I wanna thank a few people for being awesome people over the weekend and making my weekend as enjoyable as it was
Oz
Sarah
Mum
Kelsey
Lizzie
James
Rich
Jenn
Leon
Laney
Nick
Sam
Rene
Jake
All the awesome papaya family I was lucky to meet at the McLaren fans podcast “tweetup”.
Lucy
Hayley and the squad
And so many more
Then we went back to the hotel to pack our bags for a sad trip home the next day. I truly didn’t wanna leave the track, as id had such an awesome weekend, however there comes a time where you have to leave…
So on the Monday morning, we packed the last few bits,
handed our door keys in at reception, and left the hotel to go home.
As we had heavy bags, I made sure we went via the step free stations, so that we didn’t have to lug our bags up and down steps and we could use the lifts. So we went:
Woolwich to Canary Wharf
Elizabeth Line
Canary Wharf to Green Park
Jubilee line
Green Park to Kings Cross St Pancras
Victoria line
As the train didn’t leave for an hour after we got to the train station, we had a picnic on the concourse at the EMR Platform level. Then the sad journey home began, we talked about our weekend highlights, and other stuff on the train on the way home, and we were all in agreement that we had an awesome weekend. We got in to Nottingham, had a good half an hour chat on the platform with Kels, and then said our goodbyes before
going to get the tram back up to Royal Centre to catch the red arrow back to
derby. From derby it took about an hour to get home, but when I did get home, I was
filled with happy memories, and also good memories of an awesome weekend that
was had together with some pretty awesome people.
So yeah.
London you’ve been amazing as always 😊
I'll leave my socials down below
Natalie 😊
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