Mallory Park Trackday
As I sit here in the paddock at Brands Hatch watching someone else's trackday, I thought I'd pen a few words on our own trackday last Friday. The Autumn Trackday, at Mallory Park in Leicestershire, was fortunately dry but chilly. A disappointing small number of attendees but, no matter, as it's a great opportunity meet and discuss 2017 plans, regulations etc.
Mallory Park is a 1.35 mile track, ideal to learn the art of driving quickly & safely. Exiting the pits, you are presented with a long right hand bend, treated as 2 corners with a double apex. Then a burst down the back straight up to the Esses, these to be straight-lined as much as possible. Obvious really it's the quickest way between 2 points!. Then braking for the Right hand hairpin, aim for the marshals post & aim left into the Devils Elbow & floor it, allowing the car to move to the right to use the whole track. Not sure about the speed along the Pit Straight as I daren't take my eyes off the road. End of lap & what fun.
The attendees were very happy with low numbers as we went to an open pit lane from the very beginning. This means that drivers can go out when they want for as long as they want. There were no more than 6-8 cars on the track at any one time, giving people the opportunity explore the correct lines through bends without other cars attempting to share that piece of track.
JEC Chairman, Peter Purdom came along to see what all the fuss was about &, after a few laps with Ray Ingman in my F-TYPE, soon recalled his own racing days. The day was totally incident free, with the exception of an XF which cut out at Gerrards Bend when fuel surge caused the car to switch off.
The usual mixed bag of cars, including racing BMW, Sunbeam Alpine and the usual crop of road cars. Chris Robinson brought along a new shape S-TYPE diesel for assessment as a potential race car. In the hands of Dave Bye it proved very quick. Chris had planned to transpose the mechanics into an XF but decided that, as it was so good, to leave it & find another donor car for the XF shell. Daniel Stewart (XJS) & Roger Webster (X300) also brought their competition cars for a shakedown. Webster to see if the brakes had been improved. They had not! However, Rogers tuition has practically signed up a new convert to JEC racing.
After the obligatory drivers briefing, where people are clearly told track etiquette, drivers new to Mallory Park, were handed over to instructors for demonstration laps. The instructors services could then be used throughout the day for maximum enjoyment. Many make use of this facility, sometimes sitting alongside the instructor but mainly with the instructor in the passenger seat.
In a moment of madness, I allowed Ray Ingman to take me out in my car to stretch its legs. Ray is a safe pair of hands as he's covered thousands of laps in Portugal & Spain demonstrating the car for Jaguar. Oh boy; this car is made for the track & my attempts by comparison were weak as I attempted to remember the correct braking & turning points for each bend. At no time was I permitted to exceed the car or my limits. This included a rap across the knuckles for lifting exiting Gerrards when I should have been feeding the power in. I totally recommend trackdays for those of us wishing to safely explore more of our cars & our own potential.
We allocated the lunch hour for Classics Monthly magazine to carry out static a slow runs to report on 2 cars for their future editions. Diverse cars such as a Triumph 2000 Estate & a Jaguar X Type. I felt sorry for the photographer as he lay in the rear of a car with the tailgate open, photographing the following car moving slowly behind. The proximity to the exhaust pipe meant he looked a little green at the end of the photoshoot. Not recommended but good shots. Our photographer Roger Gage can sympathise as he did the same at our Bands Hatch Trackday in February, hanging out of the boot of son Nicks car. See photos.
Many thanks to our instructors Ray Ingman, Roger Webster & Derek Pearce. Also Chris Robinson, our technical official who prepares our championship regulations, a thankless task. What is the saying? You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time BUT never all of the people all of the time.
All of us overseen by Helen Hodgson from the JEC Office who rules the event with a rod of iron.
A fun day & highly recommended. The next trackday will be at Brands Hatch in Kent towards the end of February. Contact me at [email protected] to be placed on the mailing list.