BENTWATERS AIRFIELD DAY SUNDAY 28th APRIL 2002
Alan and Mark Cayzer power around the
track
The day started with the prospect of lots of rain and smoking rubber. As it
turned out the rain did not materialise but the other did.
Bentwaters is situated a few miles off the A12 north of Ipswich and the
action took place on a large disused airfield operated by RAF Bomber Command
during the cold war period. A two mile circuit had been mapped out by the
organisers with cones on the wide concrete runways comprising some tricky tight
corners and chicanes to negotiate.
Out of the forty or so MR2’s that turned out approximately half were MK2’s
followed closely by MK1’s and a few MK3’s. There were a few members from our
club there who had been to the CCC track day at Castle Combe the day before and
had travelled over for todays event. We recognised Andy O’Brien, Lauren and Toni
and a few others.
Having signed in and attended the pre meeting prep talk things got under way
shortly after 10.00am. Sessions were divided into three groups each having 20
minute sessions per hour track time. The first of each session started with a
two lap familiarisation parade led by a circuit car, after we completed the two
laps the circuit car peeled off into the pits and off we went. The MK1
superchargers and MK2 turbo’s raced ahead of the rest, there were a few spins
and run off’s onto the grass verges at first but things settled down once
everyone got used to the course. There were a couple of mishaps, a MK1 NA’s fan
belt broke and had to return to the pits looking more like a steam train than a
sports car. Then there was the guy in a supercharger who decided to try a
different approach to a fast right handed bend and got it completely wrong, he
ended up sliding off the track sideways onto the grass where he unfortunately
hit a big divot which broke off his front suspension arm causing the nearside
front wheel to be placed much closer to his rear wheels than Toyota originally
intended! Thankfully his only injury was to his pride but needless to say his
day was over.
Having an NA myself I could not match the pace of the faster SC’s or Turbo’s
but held my own against the MK3’s, they had the edge on me on the straights but
we were far superior through the bends.
By the end of the day we had completed six sessions and escaped with my pride
still intact. In all, despite a bitterly cold wind that accompanied us all day
it was very enjoyable and successful. I would personally like to thank the IMOC
for making this event possible and look forward to the next one.
ALAN CAYZER and friends
LAURENS REPORT
After the mayhem of Castle Combe the day before, there was yet more madness
to come in the form of Bentwaters. It was an early and almost reluctant start
but after Toni and I had a 7am breakfast the boys joined us and we were off. We
arrived to a very windy and deserted Bentwaters airfield, though it wasn’t long
before fellow IMOC’ers and MK1 Club members appeared on the scene.
After the usual briefing from the Bookatrack team and a mental note from me
not to get black-flagged like last time (!) the parade laps started. What
Bookatrack do is offer Novice, Intermediate and Advanced sessions. You decide
when you book your place which session you wish to go in. Novice is designed for
those new to trackdays and those who don’t want to go too crazy. Intermediates’
is generally the class that is suited to those who want to go a little faster
and generally have been on a previous day.
Advanced is of course for the nutters! I should stress though that Bookatrack
do make a real effort to ensure that everyone has a safe and enjoyable day. The
Advanced session is also where ‘non’ MR2s’ must go. At Bentwaters Adrian from
Fensport in his 2.0 Turbo Corolla (400Bhp!) was there as well as a souped up
Supra and a R34 Skyline GT-R.
Anyway, back to the action. I quickly secured myself a ride in Chris Dooley’s
Supercharger to see where the course went and also to get a feel for his very
modified car - which didn’t seem to be running too well (of which more later!).
The circuit layout was excellent being 2 miles long with some very good sweeping
high speed left/rights and a particularly nifty chicane in the middle of the
back straight. This chicane was excellent as it had this kind of ‘sacrificial’
cone on the exit where if you weren’t going to make the turn you could abort and
skip across a flat piece of grass and miss the cone (maybe!). Towards the end of
the course there was the ‘Staircase,’ which consisted of consecutive left/right
turns reminiscent of a slalom course. This really suited the MK1’s so there was
lots of time to save here.
Unfortunately there was one incident involving a really stunning very rare
burgundy SC who managed to lose control on a very technical fast left/right
sweeper where the run off if you really got it wrong was some pretty rough
looking muddy/concrete ground. No one seemed very clear as to what happened but
a lower wishbone on the front strut broke leaving the car to be trailered off
and another safety briefing for everyone followed. At around the same time Nosmo
in his SC conversion was having his instruction session, this went well for a
couple of laps at least until his battery made a bid for freedom in his boot!
With a boot full of battery acid and sparks flying Nosmo was ready to make a run
for it though luckily no damage was done and a quick pitstop later he was back
on track.
My sessions went very well with the car running near perfectly with no heat
soak from the intercooler and fantastic handling from the Koni’s, I was on a
roll. Better still I had a brilliant session having a friendly tussle with Fazza
who has a very well sorted MK2. This was brilliant as every lap we changed
places as we kept pushing harder and harder. This didn’t go unnoticed though as
at the end of the session we were put into the ‘sin-bin’ and given a black flag
for ‘racing’! Andrew O’Brien was my victim in the passenger seat and he even
managed to film the session whilst simultaneously hanging off the grab handle!
Chris Dooley had some bad news when we got back to pits as his new Levin SC
engine turned out to be a dud with some serious knocking coming from the big
ends. Luckily the engine was under guarantee so we hope to see Chris back on
track soon. James Mathews who left his piston rings at Brands Hatch back in
March was in attendance in his new SC. Though unbelievably he suffered much the
same fate as Chris! This is terribly unlucky as if your engine is in good
condition trackdays won’t cause damage. Alan Head, whos car has done 245,000
miles and at least 8 trackdays was still going strong!
In the afternoon and promising to be on my best behaviour after the ‘black
flag’ incident I managed to accidentally go on a bit of an unprovoked cone
killing spree! This was best described as trying to make the turn after the fast
chicane on the back straight with the inevitable car meets cone at around 80mph!
Luckily no damage done. I also managed to be a little too optimistic into the
first corner, managing to get two cones stuck under the front of the car and
dragging them up the straight for a while with a slight diversion onto the grass
which truly flattened them! Toni even managed to wrap one around her driveshaft
with not much being left of it after her session!
There was some spectacular spins for the spectators to watch as well as the
Skyline showing off to the crowds with some spectacular tail slides Tiff Needell
style past the pits. All in all it was a brilliant day and with a professional
photographer there many people went home with some very nice piccies. These
events are a great place to meet what has become a very friendly and active web
based community.
It looks likely that the next IMOC action day (MK1 Club members welcome) may
be in August either at Llandow or Anglesea in Wales. A very big thanks to Jamie
and Rogue from the IMOC for organising the event.
LAUREN BLIGHTON
