Twenty one members and their guests arrived at Blyton Park Circuit in Lincolnshire on a warm sunny day on 4 July. There was the customary scattering of the Jackson clan (four in all), trackday regulars, like Tony Bernstein, Andrew Brodie the Citroen SM guru (suitably equipped), plus quite a few members on their first event. One indeed only joined six weeks ago having acquired a 4200. The promised Bora and Khamsin were both casualties prior to the day and modern substitutes were rushed into action. Other than that we had a brace of 3200, 4200 and Granturismo models plus the ubiquitous Quattroportes which wafted round the excellent track seemingly effortlessly but at some considerable speed.
Amongst our guests were Lord Gerald Fitzalan-Howerd who brought along a very pretty 355 Ferrari one of two from the marque as Tony Bernstein left the Massers at home and arrived in his latest toy, an immaculate and very sonorous Ferrari 458 Italia. Other oddities were Treasurer, Jerry Hutton’s focus, which despite its ordinary looks was making exceedingly good progress and organiser, Geoff Lancaster’s track prepared Renault Clio 1.4 which with its nimble handling was ideally suited to the twisty track.
On hand throughout the day was star ARDS instructor and Octane columnist, Mark Hales, and everyone took advantage of the one-to-one instruction for which Mark is a legend. I for one found that after 15 minutes with Mark sitting beside me I was going far quicker than I would have believed I or the car was capable of!
Blyton is a relatively new circuit (3 years) and is the brainchild of former Autowindscreens owner, Richard Usher. Richard directed proceedings throughout the day with a light yet efficient touch and apart from two gentle noise warnings everyone from the club behaved themselves impeccably and even earned themselves the accolade of the ladies in the restaurant as the “nicest most polite group that had ever visited”
By mid afternoon the members had had their fill of lapping and were starting to drift away in one case back to Scotland! It had been an excellent day with good track access and no queuing, excellent tuition and above all the weather remained kind. No doubt we shall do it again next year.