Brands entices beginners and spectators
The traditional end to our track day season of 2011 was at Brands Hatch on Monday 5th December. Amongst many regular club members at this ‘Roller Coaster’ circuit were some first timers, who all left the circuit that day with beaming smiles and a desire to join us again this year.
Despite it being a cold crisp but sunny winter’s day, we were visited by a few MG owners who just came along to ‘have a look’ and were curious to find out more about ‘Track Days’. As always, there were our regular drivers on hand and willing to give a passenger ride to show the thrills of driving on a circuit. One of those curious passengers was so thrilled by the experience that I found this in my ‘inbox’ when I got home…!

Why did I wait six months! by Stephen Ryan
‘Whilst looking for an answer to a technical issue, I came across the MGoT website and started to investigate the possibility of joining one of their sessions with my ‘runabout’ but thought that my car couldn’t possibly be good enough to take it onto a track. I started looking at expensive modifications and changes and put off the idea of MGs on Track thinking it would be beyond me. It took another 6 months or so before plucking up the courage to actually go along as a spectator and see what it was all about and I ended up at Brands Hatch on a freezing but sunny Monday morning in December. Turning up at the circuit and entering the paddock where I parked up, I was instantly greeted by other drivers, made to feel very welcome and had all my questions answered. I soon found out Cars only need to be roadworthy and of MOT standard and that no mods are expected or required.

I was pleased to see that MGFs and TFs seemed to be a very popular choice with many of them being standard. Heaven knows, they are an incredibly cheap way of buying a dedicated track day car if that’s what appeals to you. A very friendly and helpful committee member invited me in his car to experience the track with him in the passenger seat of his beautiful blue MGF VVC trophy which I gratefully accepted. On track he certainly wasn’t hanging around but it all seemed very gentlemanly and unintimidating with plenty of space given to cars and drivers of all abilities and there was excellent marshalling from the Brands hatch team. In the afternoon another passenger drive was organised for me in a seemingly standard but in actual fact highly modified midget belonging to Dave Pearce which was a very exhilarating experience proving that both standard and tuned cars can easily co-exist on the track when the idea is to have fun and not to race. By the end of the day I’d really caught the bug and made up my mind to sign up for the first session of 2012 and give my unmodified TF 135 a new reason for justifying its place on my drive!

Thanks to all those who made me feel welcome and I’d recommend all those who are reading this and thinking that track days are not for them to at least come along to Goodwood or one of the other events in the spring as a free spectator to see if the infectious enthusiasm of the MGoT team rubs off on you as well!