Northern SKCC’ers on Track at Blyton
Report By Linda Ashby.
On Sunday, your Northern contingent went to a track day at Blyton Park in sunny, but still parky, Lincolnshire. Several Johns were involved, so to avoid confusion we’ll stick to forum handles for Midszero John and Kenjohn John. Then there was Midszero’s friend Jon, known as Little Jon, who as has been discussed before, has a “Robin Hood”, boom boom. Those of us in attendance with more unique names were myself, Paul and Alan, and a pal of Midszero’s, who’s name I can’t remember, so sorry, who’d won a day riding shotgun at Blyton as a raffle prize. Midszero, Little Jon and Alan were booked in for on track action, the rest of us were spectating, offering advice on suspension settings (guess who was doing that…. you’re not a true SKCC member if you haven’t had your rear end bounced by Paul), photography and passengering. As you do.
Blyton’s fairly well hidden away, a fact they realise by telling you not to use their post code in your sat nav. Hopefully that means it won’t suffer so much from the complaints that seem commonplace, and have caused the demise, of other venues. The circuit offers a good variety of corners/twisty bits, you can hit 100+ on the back straight, but it’s not too long to learn quickly.
Paul and I arrived just after 10, the others were already there, Kenjohn having popped over from Grimsby, the others having had a little warm up with a pre blat blat earlier in the morning – but without the breakfast. Kenjohn’s car was easy to spot (note the flag, shameless plug for a very smart looking well built Cat, PM Kenjohn if you’re interested)
So we formed an orderly SKCC car park nearby. Well, that wasn’t true. Look at the mess we made….
Midszero was even easier to spot. He stood out like a shining beacon amongst the other drivers. Well, actually, more like one of those illuminated Michelin man signs, or the Stig’s shorter cousin, or the star of Daz’s new commercial. He has a very, very white pair of overalls. Obviously designed to match his wheels. We tried to get him to pose with Little John’s Simpson Diamondback helmet, but he wasn’t having any of it.
Midszero decided the best way to escape the ribbing was to get on track. Here he is giving it some welly.
Paul then decided he’d get in on the action, and got in the passenger seat. Apparently the addition of the 100kg of ballast was beneficial to the car’s handling
Alan was being more judicious with his lappage, as he was seeing up to 107 degrees on the temp gauge on a handful of laps.
GBS were in attendance, “Tricky Dicky” providing passenger laps in their race car, and the rest of the team doing coffee and biscuits for allcomers, and some diagnostics/”tech support” for those with issues. This included some fresh coolant for Alan, and later on some follow up advice on his rad set up. Good PR undoubtedly, but also genuinely helpful and ensuring punters got the best out of the day. Meanwhile, on the “green” side of proceedings, Kenjohn had grabbed his helmet and taken up residence in Midszero’s passenger seat. This is also the best shot of the “The Man in The White Suit”
Here they are waiting to go out on track. Kenjohn does look a bit like an astronaut in that helmet for some reason
Here they are on track, in what is more typically a “me” type shot – some surprise was expressed at the size of my equipment
Here’s Alan again, in the thick of it, shaping up to overtake one of several Clios in attendance.
This one had “Bad Boy” emblazzened on the bonnet, and was shared between 3-4 “yoofs”. They were black flagged more than once. The same gang came along whilst Kenjohn and I were having our civilised lunch break on our “deck chairs” and took an interest in his car. Aside from the obvious question of “how much”, we then got the classic “what’s the difference between this and a Caterham then, mate?”. The obvious answer, “about 30 grand” was probably the better than they deserved.
Having to the taste for on track action, Paul had become a passenger seat tart, and was trying his luck anywhere and everywhere. GBS took him out for a run, and he did try to get in Alan’s car, but couldn’t fit in the seat. So, next on the list was the S2000 engined, very stripped out, track car only Zero. It weighed about 400kg!! It needed to, it’s peddler was taller than Paul.
Whilst it’s GBS themselves, and a number of Zeros, were there in force, the entry list was pretty full with plenty of other cars there. Here’s a few
And here’s a couple for our orange fans – Graham
And, finally, not on track, by one of my car because, well, I’m taking the photos
Whilst spectating, I’d been keeping an eye on Little Jon’s progress and suggested Paul see if he could a) fit in his car b) bag a ride with him. There was a comedy moment when there was a certain amount of ferretting around under Paul’s rear whilst he was installed in the car, but finally he was wedged in.
Little John had definitely been getting the best out of his car and slick tyres, hussling it around every corner. At one point there was a bit of road rage whilst Paul was on board, when GBS Richard pulled into the “pits” in front of them. I thought Little Jon had been remonstrating due to being held up. Not a bit of it, he was annoyed that he wasn’t going to have a tussle down the next straight. But, with a lot of on track time, and a day of hard driving in rising temperatures as the wind dropped, fatigue probably set in, and a very minor off resulted. At least, that’s what we were lead to believe, it was nothing to do with the passenger’s driving advice
So, all tracked out, and with general agreement that it had been a great day and that Blyton is a top venue, we departed. Until next time…….