Travel Feature | How the Poms do MotoGP, Silverstone Visited

Apart from a couple of races in Asia in the '90s, Nigel’s only experience with MotoGP was at Phillip Island and Eastern Creek, until now… Photos: Nigel Paterson

Silverstone Raceway in the heart of England has been a motorcycle racing circuit since around 1949, after it had been converted from an RAF bomber base during World War II. Since then, it’s hosted many bike races, taking over World Championship events from 1977…

The latter occurred once the Isle of Man was deemed too dangerous for grand prix world championship events. They ran GP racing at Silverstone until 1986 and then moved the MotoGP to Donington Park, but moved it back again from 2010 after a 23-year absence.

I was a little nervous about attending a race at Silverstone because, being a former bomber base, that means it was very flat. And so there’s not a lot of undulations at a place like Silverstone. However, it is a long track with a high-speed layout and sweeping corners, so there is often a lot of action at the circuit to be witnessed and enjoyed.

It’s also a Formula 1 circuit, which means the run-off areas are quite deep. To photograph the racing properly, I actually went out and hired a very long lens – 600mm equivalent for those who understand photography and shooting motorcycle racing. But let’s just say I was a little bit concerned that bikes would be a long way from the side of the track.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by how visible the bikes were when I was standing near the circuit, and you really did get a feel for the action. The MotoGP bikes in particular were so close that earplugs were called for from the volume of the noise that they create.

From a spectator’s point of view too, although you couldn’t see a hell of a lot of the circuit from anywhere I managed to get to (although I’m sure it would be a bit better from the stands), you could see lots of large screens around the place and pick up the commentary too, if you knew how to do it. So you could definitely follow the action and see what was going on while actually being there.

The weather gods were fairly good to us for Silverstone too, with very little rain falling across the weekend and mild weather being recorded for each day.

For visitors to the track, there was a lot more to see than just the racing, of course. There was an excellent variety of food vans and bars. There was a stage hosting lots of entertainment – interesting people up talking about motorcycles and providing other types of entertainment.

For visitors to the track, there was a lot more to see than just the racing, of course…

There were lots of displays of bikes and accessories for motorcycles, and all in all, people seemed to be having a great time being able to get around the track, see the bikes from different angles, and then settle into their seats or beside the track to catch the racing.Being a long track meant that there were lots of places you could go to actually see the racing and get quite close to the fence without it being too crowded or having trouble getting a good spot to see.

Being set up as a permanent racing circuit where lots of activity is happening all the time meant getting to and from the track was very easy. There’s lots of parking for motorhomes and tents and motorcycles, of course, around the track. So that made life a lot easier than places like Phillip Island, which can be a traffic nightmare. And there were even buses rolling around to take the public from one part of the circuit to another part – all included in the price of your ticket.

The 2025 event was being held in May, which was great for me because I happened to be in the UK touring around, but normally it’s actually in August. I think they changed it to see if they’d get more people because, unlike some of the European rounds which are attracting record numbers of spectators to the event, Silverstone is struggling a little bit, pulling only around about 100,000 people across the three days of the event.

“Unlike some of the European rounds which are attracting record numbers of spectators to the event, Silverstone is struggling a little bit”…

Part of this struggle might be down to the lack of UK riders competing, especially in the premier class – there’s no one for the home crowd to really get behind, which always makes a big difference to attendance figures (the change didn’t work, and in 2026 it’s going back to August and the summer).

That makes Silverstone less crowded, easier to get around, and definitely offers a lot of comfort and ease compared to being somewhere where there are people everywhere.

So would I recommend going to the racing at Silverstone? Absolutely, if you get the opportunity. But I couldn’t justify going halfway around the world to go to Silverstone on its own – I’d want some other things to do as well, and if you’ve got time the Isle of Man isn’t too far away.

Great event, good fun. It was so wonderful to see Senna Agius get up and win his first Moto2 race – the first time an Australian has won a race since 2021. So a good event, a great track, offering some really good racing and without the massive crowds of some events around Europe. Definitely worth a look, and I’m very pleased I put the effort in to get there.

Read Nigel’s other features here… and our Silverstone MotoGP report here…