I’d been putting off a return visit to Castle Combe Circuit because it was in excess of £200, but I spotted that OpenTrack were doing it for a much better price in October and so jumped to sign up.
I was last at this track about a year ago when we abandoned the day due to the heavy rain that day so I was cautious about what the car would be shod with; and was mindful that I’d be using the car to get to and from the venue as well as on the track.
Preparation
As the weather was awful in the week running up to the track day I elected to streamline the usual wheels-off preparation and between rain storms checked the tyre pressures, oil level, coolant level, brake fluid level and wheel torque settings properly.
I’m pleased to say the oil level is lovely and stable in this car and oil burning is not yet a problem.
I did a visual check for gearbox and diff oil leaks – both negative; and also for break pad depth and disc brake condition.
In the winter break I’ll be replacing the fluids and toying with the addition of oil pressure and temp sensing, but as all was well no changes where required.
Tyre Choice
The run-up was fraught with weather-watching and trying to decide whether I’d be using the Yokohama AD08’s if it was dry or my standard road tyres if it was wet. The BBC’s forecast changed its opinion throughout the preceding week. I committed to the Yokohamas as late on the day before as I dared and fortunately found myself heading to Wiltshire on a beautiful autumn morning.
It had rained the night before and so I was aware that I’d be carefully warming the tyres up before any pushing as they are allegedly not the strongest wet weather performance tyres.
With that in mind I’m happy to report that they were superb around this track on a broadly dry day.
Registration and Sighting Laps
I’d timed my arrival for between 08.00 and 08.30 and found many had arrived earlier but I still found a place to park and put the gear I take with me out on level ground.
Registration passed without problem but it was clear that you need to complete your online registration, video safety briefing and exam the day before (via your opentrack account).
With my sticker on the car and wrist tag it was off to the scrutineering bay for the noise test. Its an MX5 so no problem there.
A verbal briefing with the organiser and chief marshal and we were good to go: 12 cars on the track at any one time, Indicate & Pull Right to be overtaken on the left only, Overtaking on on straights, not in corners or braking zones, stay off the kerbs or we’ll be black-flagged if we do it too often, Spin and In, Spin on the sighting laps and your going home.
We were sent away by being told that in the previous week a trackway had been cancelled at 10.30am due to a car spilling enough oil on the track for the track team to be unable to clean it up!
Waiting
Sighting laps completed, I waited a bit to let the queue go down and drove round to the pit entry and was treated with a 10 minute wait for access to the track. This was a feature of the whole day and not helped by people going off and red-flagging the session.
When I buy track day insurance my insurer rates Castle Combe (and Thruxton; as well as others) as high-risk tracks and certainly there were several red flags across the day.
The Plan
As relatively new to the track day game, my plan involves spending the first lap to warm the tyres and brakes up, going a little faster in the second and then pushing-on incrementally from there each time I enter the circuit.
The video below shows my fastest laps at the end of the day.
Leave a Reply