New Trackday Venue - Blyton Park, Lincolnshire

Casey · May 05, 2011, 06:50:37 PM

We have a lovely new circuit to play on in the UK! Blyton Park, in Lincolnshire, is built on an old WW2 USAF airbase (so the Americans can be useful after all :wink: ). New tarmac was laid just a few weeks back, so this is a major deleopment for the venue.

Arnie_O, CrissyUK and myself had a private invite to visit on 4th May, prior to the the track\'s official opening. Our invite included some open pit lane time (as well as great refreshments throughout the day), so we got a chance to really see what the track was like. Unfortunately, CrissyUK\'s car, already suffering from the dreaded "low compression" decided the prospect of a track outing was just too much and threw an apex seal on the way to the circuit, restricting Crissy ro riding shotgun only :cry:

Well, I have to congratulate Richard Usher for his perserverance in "making it all happen". He seems a genuinely nice guy, and all his family are closely involved in what he is doing at Blyton (his wife checked us in on arrival). He has clearly been very keen petrolhead for all his life, with the story that whilst at prep school, aged 11 years, he had to get permission for the "Motorsport" magazine to be delivered to him, whereas the other kids made do with the "Beano" comic!

Although he\'s clearly very financially astute, his passion when talking about this venture would suggest there is more "heart" than "head" in what he is doing at Blyton. Which is great for those who laike their trackdays. The circuit will NOT be hosting any competitive racing, instead it is specifically designed for trackdays, testing and instructional events. This means no armco needed to protect spectators and loads of safe runoff areas to avoid hard collisions, as you can see from the video below.

Anyway, more later, but for now, here is a 5 minute clip of a few laps of the circuit. Arnie_O probably won\'t speak to me again now, as it shows me hauling him in and he, very kindly, letting me pass. What\'s interesting is that he has a 192 (v my 231) and we were both running Vred tyres. On the straight, I don\'t think there was much in it, but in the corners my suspension seems to make a huge difference. Arnie_O is running stock suspension, I\'m running on Tein Monoflex coilovers. I did an interesting experiment during the day; running the Teins at "full soft" for several laps I could consistently lap in 86-87 secs. Then I switched to the "full hard" setting and consistently lapped in 82-83 secs. So, the Teins are giving me 4 secs lap, ~5% advantage from one end of the range to the other. That makes me very happy - the investment was definately worth it

najiru · May 05, 2011, 08:34:41 PM

Ineteresting to see a \'track day\' circuit crop up, am not aware of any others that are so single purpose. Anyone else know of any? Is it as narrow as it looks in the vid? Looks similar width to mountain at cadwell but all the way round.

Casey · May 05, 2011, 11:53:29 PM

^^Hi Neil - the camera lens probably makes it look narrower than it is. Having said that, it is narrower than most tracks, but as it is intended for trackday and other non-competitive uses, it\'s certainly adequate. I was involved in some overtaking situations and didn\'t feel the width of the track was any problem.

Casey · May 06, 2011, 12:27:22 PM

Here is a useful, short, press release about the venue;

"We have created a completely new 1.6 mile circuit at Blyton Park where drivers can once again revel in the thrill of driving and explore the limits of their vehicles without the perils of barriers and banks to punish their over-exuberance.

The new outer track layout provides a challenging circuit featuring a combination of slow, medium and high speed corners. It is a test of precision and skill but with the huge advantage of tarmac run off areas and only a single length of Armco down the back straight.

There is also an undercover Paddock Area, Admin Building and Toilet Block etc."

fil_auto · May 09, 2011, 06:56:24 PM

looks fun ;o)

Casey · May 11, 2011, 08:57:36 PM

As an incentive, the normal price for trackdays at Blyton is Â£139, but if we can get 20 cars booked, the price will be Â£119.

Let\'s see what dates people could do, and see if we can approach that number!

25th June

9th July

6th August
Casey
GSB/BSB
Will66
Zarterone

3rd September
Casey
GSB/BSB
Ian.M
Zarterone

22nd October
Casey
GSB/BSB
Ian.M
Zarterone

5th November
Ian.M

Quote this post, remove "Quote" tags and add your name to dates you could do a Blyton Trackday.

TRex · May 11, 2011, 10:41:47 PM

Well done.... looks a fine Track...

I\'ll be up for a session, and fairly flexible on dates.

Casey · May 12, 2011, 12:05:07 AM

^^^ Dom, great - I\'ll put you down for the emerging popular dates, so your input doesn\'t get lost later...

As an incentive, the normal price for trackdays at Blyton is Â£139, but if we can get 20 cars booked, the price will be Â£119.
It\'s highly likely I can include a FREE 20min session with a qualified instructor during the day too, for anyone who want it!

Let\'s see what dates people could do, and see if we can approach that number!

25th June

9th July

6th August
Casey
GSB/BSB
Will66
Zarterone
TRex
Duffbyname

3rd September
Casey
GSB/BSB
Ian.M
Zarterone
TRex
Duffbyname
Speedy36

22nd October
Casey
GSB/BSB
Ian.M
Zarterone
TRex
Duffbyname
Speedy36

5th November
Ian.M

Quote this post, remove "Quote" tags and add your name to dates you could do a Blyton Trackday.

lennycarloff · May 12, 2011, 07:34:20 AM

I will be up for a day or two

lockwood77 · May 12, 2011, 05:17:06 PM

Any idea what their noise limit is?

Casey · May 12, 2011, 06:18:26 PM

^^ Noise - they haven\'t formally declared one! It MIGHT well operate "informally". I get the impression that as long as a car is not insanely loud, there shouldn\'t be a problem.

No noise tests were carried out when we were there recently, and we had a 1987 Formula 1 Lola (Cosworth engine) driving round for two demo sessions. Man, that was loud!

The nearest village is a mile or two away. The only habitation nearby is a few farms, and the farmers are all in support of the track anyway, as their land is leased to the track owner!

If I get any further info I\'ll post it up.

lockwood77 · May 13, 2011, 11:03:11 AM

Well, I\'ve got a T51R with an open wastegate, so if they\'re happy with the sound of a small jet taking off, I\'ll be fine!

TiddlesRX7 · May 13, 2011, 11:10:09 AM

Yeah I could well be up for this. Not sure on what dates yet so I\'ll keep you posted.

Casey · May 13, 2011, 11:15:12 AM

^^ Great stuff Ade. Most Aug/Sept/Oct dates have now got 10-11 names down (when I get a mo to update the list!), so we are getting there. I\'ll leave the "poll" to run for a while then plump for the most popular date!

C J R · May 13, 2011, 11:44:21 AM

25th June
Jang

9th July
Jang

6th August
Casey
GSB/BSB
Will66
Zarterone
TRex
Duffbyname
bigpete
Jang
stewartm
Rutz
CJR

3rd September
Casey
GSB/BSB
Ian.M
Zarterone
Duffbyname
Speedy36
TRex
Jang
CJR

22nd October
Casey
GSB/BSB
Ian.M
Zarterone
Duffbyname
Speedy36
TRex
CrissyUK
Jang
stewartm
Rutz

5th November
Ian.M

Just found this post and added myself to the August & September dates.