Sticking with my plan to hold events spread over the country, we have managed to organise a great deal with Open Track at the North Yorkshire Croft Circuit. It is a full open pit lane event with usual Club Support.
As the Motorsports Co-Ordinator for the club, I will be there to look after everyone and be your club representative and point of contact: If you are new to track days I will show you around and how the systems works, answer any of your questions and give you guidance on setting up your car.
We can supply free helmets and track tuition and we have also organised a talk about the track and track driving by a professional racing driver. A certain amount of tooling will also be available to use to assist you in having a trouble free day. Refreshments will be supplied from one of the pit garages which will also be our base.
We the Club, will be doing everything we can to make your track day as enjoyable and as safe as possible, just remember track day driving is enjoyable and the MX5 is a joy to drive on any circuit. Why not bring your partner or friend along for a passenger ride and get them to enjoy the day as well.
To take advantage of this Members deal, please e-mail me at peter.mcnicol@mx5oc.co.uk or pm me with your membership number, e-mail, name and address for an exclusive discount code.
When you have received your code click on this link to the OpenTrack Order form to make your booking.
Click 'Add to basket' then click on 'Your Order' in the left hand column.
Input your discount code in the 'Coupon Code' box and click the Redeem button
Once this is applied, Please enter your membership number in the Order/delivery Comments box, then click check out.
If you have any problems or would like to know more please e-mail me.
Peter
Please Note This event is being arranged on behalf of the MX-5 Owners Club by an External Provider. The Terms and Conditions of their products and services in relation to this offer or event can be found on their website; please familiarise and satisfy yourself with these conditions as well as your rights to cancellation or refund, privacy and general sale conditions prior to booking as the MX-5 Owners Club is unable to intervene in your booking process and can assume no liability for your purchase.
The Provider carries sole responsibility for all and any offers posted on their website and any other websites linked to by the MX-5 Owners Club in conjunction with this event, product or service. The MX-5 Owners Club does not assume any liability for the accuracy or currency of the information posted by the Provider.
What can I say, what an experience…and I just went down as a spectator! A couple of weeks back I emailed Peter to see if it would be ok if I turned up just to watch and observe. No problem he replied. So today I motored down to Croft, my local circuit, in my 1990 Eunos and on arrival went to find Peter to introduce myself and have a chat about what was going on. Almost before I knew what was happening I’d been offered a ride in Paul’s Mk2 and was provided with a shiny new helmet. The ensuing laps were unbelievable with corners being taken at a ridiculous speed and faster traffic whipping by my left shoulder. I couldn’t imagine how a standard car could feel so quick.
Things got even more exciting after that with rides in Andy’s Mk1 (me strapped in to a racing bucket seat with a full harness), and then Stephen’s (I think, sorry if the name is wrong) 200bhp Mk3 - both drivers going up to 7000rpm and scaring the living daylights out of me!
To say that it was the experience of a lifetime would be an understatement and my thanks go to the drivers and in particular, Peter, for making it all happen. All I can say is if you get the chance to go to a track day - do it, you won’t regret it.
As an afterthought I now know how incredible the handling of an Mx5 is and that my Eunos has been nowhere near its limit. The icing on the cake is that on the way home I felt like I was driving a racing car!
I had similar experience first time I went to Blyton… just went to see what the fuss was all about; one passenger ride later and I was hooked… completely.
Now I take part in track days as often as work/wife allow - and never had a dissappointing day - best advice I can give is to join the annual OC track-event at Blyton surrounded by MX-5’s, get on track with a tutor and enjoy yourself… being a passenger is great… being the driver is even better; you’ll learn a lot about your car AND yourself. I’m never going to win any trophies for fastest lap, but that isn’t the point - I’m pushing combination of me/car as far as I can… and then some more, and it’s bluddy great!
Can’t wait for the Lotus Track Day start of August
It was a pleasure to take you around Croft for a few laps in my Mk1 Willmo. Just in case you feel the need to relive it I’ve posted the in car footage of our run on YouTube
Steve, I used a GoPro 3 mounted on my roll bar for that footage. I see you’ve got an NC so if you look at my other stuff on YouTube there’s a little bit of this years owners club event at Curborough which was shot from between the seats in my NC.
One of the advantages of the GoPro is that’s it’s controllable from my phone either manually or it can be triggered by the GPS with certain apps automatically.
Thanks again for an incredible day yesterday guys…I’m still rerunning it through my mind. I haven’t watched the vid yet Andy but can’t wait to relive the experience. My wife is green with envy so she’ll feel even worse after watching the action. My car got good and soaked on the way home but it was worth it!!
And just to add to the Croft day post. A massive thanks to Pete for making sure we had a great day, and to the club for supporting this event.
the value through the club was fantastic, Pete was brilliant making sure we all got instructor time and was full of tea and coffee, even managed to take Pete for a spin round, literally. (sorry for that over exuberance)
if your nervous about going on track for first time you must attend one of these club events and if your experienced you will still have a brilliant day as I did. Best track day I have ever attended.
One question I forgot to ask the guys yesterday…what about oil surge? Back in the day baffles had to be installed in the sump to stop the pump sucking dry (or a dry sump system put in). Great vid by the way Andy, I’ll cherish that.
Hi John, I always ensure that the oil on the mk1 is slightly over full especially if the circuit has long sweeping bends. If you have super sticky tyres that can add to the problem due the extra cornering speeds. If you have a problem with a mk1 it will more than likely be no3 big end that will pickup first. just from experience. Just to add this does not happen very often if you use a good quality race oil.