Copse Corner, Maggotts Curve, Brooklands and Woodcote Corner at Silverstone are known to millions of F1 fans around the world – now it was our turn to take them on.
Just because we are novice racers in the Caterham Academy does not mean we compete on beginners tracks.
Our racing at the home of the British GP lived up to its reputation and saw the closest most thrilling racing of the season so far.
Built on the site of a World War II RAF bomber station the airfield’s three runways, in a classic triangle format, still lie within the outline of the current circuit.
It was first used for a car race a in 1947 when a small group of friends took advantage of the deserted facility to race over a two mile circuit. Their fun was cut short prematurely when a wandering sheep was hit and killed, writing off one of their cars.
A few years later the Royal Automobile Club took made it an official circuit with hay bales for markers. The first Grand Prix event was held there in 1950.
Since then it has of course seen many memorable moments including in 1991 Nigel Mansell taking the chequered flag in front of his home crowd, then giving Ayrton Senna a lift on the back of his car after he had run out of fuel on the last lap of the race.
So for many of us Caterham drivers it was a bit like meeting our heroes, and the closest we will ever get to them.
Obviously our cars are different but the track is the same.
We were racing on the 1.6 mile long National Circuit, rather than the 3.6 mile GP circuit so missed out on the Hanger Straight, Stowe and Abbey Curve.
But in fact the shorter circuit was immense fun, with the wide track and fast speeds providing plenty of overtaking opportunities.
Before the start of the season the original 59 drivers were split in to either Green or White group, so there are two Championships in one.
Usually we run in separate qualifying but Saturday morning saw all 43 drivers who turned up, on track at the same time.
To whet our appetite for just how close the racing was going to be, the timing results showed the top 36 positions were all within two seconds of each other.
Testing on the Friday showed that although the National Circuit is small, it is perfectly formed. Two straights at the start/finish and Wellington both saw us hitting three figure top speeds.
There are only really five bends ranging from Copse taken at over 75mph to the giant hairpin of Luffield.
It was like a giant go-kart track, and seeing as out 1.6 litre 650kg Caterhams are like giant go-karts it was a great match.
The wide corners gave us plenty of practice at reigning in understeer and oversteer and correcting it through a corner.
It is something that I had heard about a tried to master in other cars on other tracks, without much success.
But strapped tightly into the small light Caterham with no driver aids, experience over the season has taught me very well how to control it, even if I have not mastered it yet.
A mid September heatwave ensured the track stayed dry and with four half-hour testing sessions and not many corners it gave plenty of opportunity to really learn the track. By the end of the day my VBOX camera and GPS system showed I had done over 60 laps of the track.
Testing sessions are always a balancing act, between pushing yourself and your car enough to get faster and find the limit, without having an ‘incident’ that will damage the car and prevent you racing the next day.
Unfortunately ten minutes into the first session of the day two cars had a coming together at Copse. One was fixed within the hour, by the Caterham support team. But the other needed more major work, was trailered off and not seen for the rest of the weekend.
But as testing is only open to those with a race licence, similar classes of vehicle and talent are put together, you get a lot more freedom than on a track day.
You can overtake on either side and generally everyone is more observant and predictable in their behaviour.
The last session of the day went the whole 30 minutes without any flags or stoppages, which was exhausting and thrilling in equal measure.
On Saturday it was clear that family and friends had made full use of the three extra complimentary entrance tickets that are given to every competitor for each race.
Silverstone’s Northamptonshire central location and F1 glamour saw a full grandstand of over 100 spectators to watch our races.
After the 20 minutes qualifying session the respective Green and White Championship leaders were the only ones to set times under 1:09 seconds.
I was pleased with my 1:10.82 as it beat my fastest time the day before by over a second. But such was the narrowness of the margins I was 18th on the grid, while the fastest driver with a time in the one minute ten seconds bracket was 6th.
But with five drivers behind me it was one of my higher places of the season.
It is customary for the first corner to be a bunfight for position with cars passing within inches of each other, and then spreading out in to smaller groups.
But that did not happen at Brands, the whole pack stayed pretty much together through the whole race with places being swapped on every corner or straight.
Darting down the inside at the end of longer straights and battles among the last of the late brakers were the most common tactics.
But even those who spun out, were soon back in the action. Everyone agreed afterwards that Silverstone’s National Circuit does indeed ‘race well.’
My own race came to an abrupt end in the gravel trap at the end of Copse on the 6th lap. Looking back at the VBOX I saw I had got up to 109mph before a braking mistake saw me shoot straight on at the end of the straight.
Maybe it is special F1 gravel, as I can verify it does a great job of stopping you short of hitting the tyre wall.
It was my most disappointing moment of the whole season so far, I had been having an amazing race, living up to everything I wanted it to be when I signed up last summer.
I was well and truly gutted, but my couple of days there will live long in the memory.
Next year when I watch Lewis Hamilton battling it out around its famous curves, I can proudly boast ‘I’ve raced there’.
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