Knockhill - Evening of Thursday 12th August

by Graeme Forrester

We made the three hour trip from Cumbria to Knockhill for the Dreadnought Garage run track evening. This has got to be the best value around as the normal cost is Ł45 - good anyway for 2 hours open pits but MGoT got it for Ł20 and that included 2 drivers and passengers!

As a National A Clerk of the Course I run the national championship sprint at knockhill and have competed there many times over the years; however this was my first ever track day.

Knockhill track days, certainly the "Hot Hatch Days", have a huge following of the "boy racer" element with their hangers on and often attract more spectators than SMRC race meeting due to the high number of accidents and incidents. However this event was very different. There were a fair number of Caterham race cars, and then a number of MGFs, Lotus Elise, Porsche, TVR and a lovely Noble. The driving was very good with the average age of the drivers being above boy racer level!

The weather on the way up was horrendous and we rang a couple of times to confirm it was till on as Knockhill has a big problem with fog in bad weather. However it was warm and dry for the 2 hours although the track was wet.

We were there to shake down our "historic" spec B which we had completed over the past 2 years. Sadly we were the only classic MG (or anything else) there. Both myself and step son Paul Brooks got in about 30 laps each so it was a good evening for us and we got to know the car.

The event "sponsor" was out in an MG ZT 250 which seemed to go well but the TVR was the quickest car on the track. Our B was quicker than any of the Bs, (particularly the one that spun in front of me!) and most of the Elise and on par with the road going Caterhams.

The event was effectively run by Knockhill with Ian Forrest (past BTCC independent Cup winner) in charge. A good event and excellent value. it was great to get so many laps in on a top track.