I did my first Javelin track day on Sunday at Blyton Park in Lincolnshire. It was an excellent event, very well run and the open pit lane format worked perfectly without causing long queues to get out on track. In fact I did not queue up behind more than two other cars all day and was on track from 9.30 to 4.30 with breaks only to let the brakes and tyres cool down and to go and get more fuel. On the subject of fuel, on the 135 mile trip up from Kinver on mainly fast moving motorways I averaged 41 mpg. The average for the time on track was 11 mpg.
I paid for instruction from Tim, a qualified racing instructor and we concentrated on racing lines and trail braking, which I am not very good at, my normal technique being full on the throttle or full on the brakes, but I ended up considerably faster than before my lesson and I thought it was money well spent. This is all in preparation for the first round of the Toyota Sprint Series at Blyton in two weeks time.
The car lacks the power of the Elise but handles fantastically and gives me a lot of confidence. My aim this year is to improve my driving, take on the challenge of some faster circuits (as opposed to hill climbs) and to keep the costs down by using the same car for going to work, Tescos, holidays and competition. Also, in order to keep costs down even further I have entered the Standard Class in the Toyota Sprint Series which doesn’t allow any modifications at all. So, believe it or not I had to change the tyres to Michelin Primacys, which were fitted as standard when the car was new. This is a disadvantage when entering the Roadgoing Series Production class in MSA events, which allow List 1B tyres (like the Toyo R888s I had on my Elise last year) but the more I save on the car, the more money I have to enter events and I still plan to do local events at Loton Park and Curborough.
There were two other GT86s…
And here’s a quick look around from my area of the paddock…
(If you can’t see the embedded video, try this link https://youtu.be/gs91CZl0OIs )
My next outing is this weekend at Loton. Saturday is Members’ practice day and on Sunday it is the first event of the year.