A1 Grand Prix began at Brands Hatch, 23-25 September 2005. To celebrate the series not turning 5, over these three days, I’m looking back at what seemed like such a good idea.

Five years ago today, it was the first A1 Grand Prix race day. It was glorious weather at Brands Hatch, and the place was buzzing. I remember bumping into people I knew, who I would never have expected to see at a race meeting. But the concept – a Grand Prix of Nations, a World Cup of Motorsport – was new, interesting. People came down to see what it was all about. It could have been the start of something big. It didn’t quite turn out that way in the long term, but it was a fantastic day.

Clearly some people went to greater lengths to be there than people I knew who lived in London. Mainly the Dutch, taking up a good part of one of the grandstands, all dressed in orange, letting off orange smoke, supporting Jos Verstappen in an orange car. It really did feel like it should have been the start of something big.

The way that it actually got started – the launch ceremony – was entirely bizarre. On my way into the circuit I’d seen banks of black cabs, and I couldn’t imagine what they were for. It was so obvious: they would drive around the circuit, intermingled with circus performers with flags of all the nations taking part. Those ceremonies never make sense though.

To be honest, my memory of the racing that day is sketchy at best. What I mainly remember is disappointment in A1 Team Great Britain retiring while running strongly in the feature race. According to Wikipedia, the car suffered a battery failure whilst leading under the safety car. Oh dear.

It was Nelson Piquet who took pole, sprint and feature race victories, for A1 Team Brazil. This week in motorsport history pretty much belongs to him, but more for the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, when he intentionally crashed to help Fernando Alonso win for Renault.

But back to happier days. I’ll finish with some really rubbish footage of the A1GP cars streaming past.

Thanks for travelling back in time with me!

On Thursday I looked at the vision for the series, and on Friday I had a look at the drivers that came through A1GP.