Does anyone from Solent (or Wessex) participate in track days or can recommend instructors or venues for first timers that are a little more convenient than the sites north of Birmingham that have been suggested to me so far…?
Total newbie and am not really finding the info I need with the search feature.
I’ve done loads of trackdays mate. for first timer you want a track that is relatively safe (so Donington, Snetterton, Anglesey from the top of my head).
opentrack is my favourite large trackday operator, you can get 30min free tuition.
Nick from MOT Trackdays is also good and tend to do more off season stuff
any questions message me.
Get yourself on a MOT trackdays event and either me or Nick will gladly give tuition.
Some may say we know a thing or two about taking a mx5 around a track 
I’d really appreciate that, thank you
Are there tracks in the south other than Thruxton and Castle Combe?
Brands Hatch is in Kent, close to the M25. Is that easier for you to get to?
https://www.brandshatch.co.uk/about/how-to-find-us
Castle Combe is just up the road from you, compared to north of Birmingham …
Bristol Pegasus Motor Club run a track day that would be well suited to a novice details of their 2024 date will shortly be posted here :- https://bristolpegasus.com/
Other track days are run at the venue but I cannot vouch for there suitability for novices.
Hi walkbythe sea,
I have emailed a contact of mine that is an official at “Gurston Down”, near Salisbury, to see if he can assist with this one.
I await a reply and will let you know in due course.
Regards
Mal
All looking good, thank you folks.
Lots of MX5’s on the Gurston Down website 
I have always found Castle Combe very friendly & helpful . I am booked February 18th for Snetterton - maybe a bit of a treck for you, but cost is modest & there’s a special section for cautious drivers. Not sure if it says so on the attached image, but 1/2 hour one to one coaching available for £20. Well worth going for that. It’s a 3 1/2 hour drive for me, so I will be driving over the day before & staying overnight in a local hotel.
When I first read this, the name Gurston Down was not familiar to me, and I have done many track days. I have just looked it up. It’s a hill climb track; not a circuit. Are you aware of Goodwood Festival of Speed? It’s like that. There’s a start line, a length of track, and a finish line. Essentially you’re timed for your drive from start to finish. A circuit is a continuous route with a single start/finish line. Just like Formula 1 and Goodwood Revival cars drive multiple laps around the circuit. I believe that’s what you want. Not a hill climb. Yes, with a hill climb you will get several goes through the day. You line up for the start, you have your run, then you make your way back for another go as & when you’re ready.
Castle Combe seems a good fit to what you’re after. The organisers are very friendly & supportive. It’s a fairly short track, which is good, because you haven’t got many corners to learn & you’ll be able to do multiple laps at one go, learning as you go.
Castle Combe is about 1.8 miles - enough to blow out the cobwebs but without the down side of lots of corners to familiarise yourseld with.
That is a good point about the difference between hillclimb and track, considerably more miles are possible in a trackday.
To wit Bristol Pegasus have announced their track day at Castle Combe, and you are unlikely to find a safer environment to start doing trackdays than this :-
TBH I’m interested in trying a bit of everything, drifting included if I can find anywhere that does instruction
