Last June (2025), Silverstone was hot and sunny, we took a support car loaded with tools, tyres, gazebo and picnic table; and iit was glorious.
This year the June track day was cold, breezy and rainy, though to be fair it settled down after 14.00 and the sun made an appearance, but what ever the weather a track day at Silverstone is such fun.
It’s an expensive venue so it’s a once a year treat for me. This year the weather forecast was bad enough for me to cancel the support car because sitting in a car for much of the day gazing at the rain and being bored while I was out on track having fun was not something I wanted to inflict on anyone.
Tyre Choice
My Yokohama AD08’s were swapped for my SportMax road tyres in the rain the day before as they’d be no use in the expected heavy thundery rain.
An early morning start on the motorway saw mixed conditions and I stopped at the services on the A43 at Brackley and took the opportunity to top up the petrol can with Super Unleaded and then a short final leg to the track and registration at the old pit lane.
Setting Up
I arrived at the track at about 7.30 and the gate and parked near the Cafe. I registered and got all the info want back to my car and pulled all the gear I’d crammed into it out.
Two tool boxes, torque wrench, and a dry box for my food and drinks. I pulled my tow bar out of the boot and packed by helmet and HANS bags into the waterproof box.
I placed the gear in front of the car so my Pit Box was clear to anyone who might be tempted to block it when I’m out on track. This has happened to me before at Castle Combe and is particularly irritating especially when your gear is in full view of them. I now reverse park and go no further back than the line for this reason.
Some cars pulled in beside me and they arranged their cars specifically for this reason, telling me they have had similar experiences.
Car Prepration
Having experienced a bit of torque twitchiness on the motorway I backed the rebound on the suspension to +5 (five clicks from softest) with a plan to adjust as I went along and then also reduced tyre pressures to 1.8 bar (cold-ish)all round ready for the rain.
Once round all the wheel nuts with a torque to check they were all firmly at 100nm and I was ready for the briefing and sighting laps.
Briefing
The Briefing was well attended with an explanation of the format of the day, the flags in use, when we stop for lunch, rules for overtaking, then it was back to the car to kill time until the sighting laps.
Game On
The sighting laps started at the usual pace and speeded up. After that the track opens and we’re on our own.
Silverstone in the rain paddock side is bleak, track side however is much more entertaining.
I followed the usual pattern of trying to get some heat into the brakes and tyres and building up speed as the laps tick by. I managed to get between 80 and 90 mph down the Hamilton straight, 90 to 106 down Hanger and 80 to 100 depending on the intensity of the rain and whether I was giving way to faster cars or not. Never once did the car feel like it was aquaplaning on the straights or braking in straight lines.
Turning however was another matter several times I underbaked and the Traction control pulled it all back together.Appart from the trying the tarmac run-off between ?? Maggotts and Becketts, and going all wheels over the line at The Loop which is very slow and for which the car was off line due to the traction control being unhappy that I was pushing the cornering forces much harder.
Given the weather I elected to put in more laps each time I was out (uptown blocks of 10 laps) and this help build a better picture of the conditions and the available grip.
There were some really nice episodes where I had an open track to play with. On others I was forced to pull over on the right side of the track to let faster cars past. In the rain this can create a worry effect where there is vision at the sides of the track but a grey hole in your vision where you know the cars should be but you can see nothing but grey water as they speed past you (especially at the end of the Hanger straight).
After the lunch break things began to dry out and I was able to get the roof down on occasion.
Thoughts on the Day
Despite the weather I found nothing to put me off Silverstone in the rain though I prefer the dry conditions for grip.
I used the petrol pumps at the circuit rather than drive to Brackley on this occasion as I was shocked to find at the lunch break to find I had been racking up the laps and was down to less than a quarter of a tank. MPG for the car had dropped from 37 to 22 with enthusiastic driving on the track and across he whole day (including travelling to and from the circuit) I used nearly two tanks of Super Unleaded.
In the wet conditions the tyres remained pretty intact with none of the heavy wear and melted rubber from the previous year evident.
The brakes (EBC Yellow Stuff on normal discs) were again superb.
The new suspension was excellent and I ended up settling at +7 clicks.
Given the rain and some visibility issues Ive decided to buy a flashing rain light as a safety measure for similar conditions.
Hopefully I’ll be back next year.
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