Before the first race of the season at Mallory Park next weekend Matt Smith from the MR2 series had organised a track day for anyone wanting to shake down a new car, learn the track or have an excuse to go for a drive. For me the excuse was to learn the track, so off we toddled to Mallory Park for a track day organised by Circuit Days.

When we arrived there were a lot more MR2s there than I was expecting. Mo was there with the Stoner Racing crew, Matt Coggins (Coggy) too, plus a number of new faces. In fact, a good percentage of the paddock was made up of race cars, presumably with people who were doing the same as us – getting in some practice before racing next weekend. Other cars of note were an Audi R8 V10 driven by Perry McCarthy (and being driven very quickly too), an ancient old car I’ve no idea about, and we can’t forget the fabulous mini powered by a motorcycle engine.

I’d completed the formation laps without any dramas, or so I thought. From the other end of the paddock Mo had spotted smoke coming from the engine bay. With the sunlight it was very hard to see up close. An inspection under the engine bay showed the problem – oil was between the cam covers. As we had just serviced the car we assumed we’d spilled oil, although we were slightly puzzled to how we had done this without noticing. The oil was mopped up and the car sent on its way to see if that really was the problem. Unfortunately Ian’s suspicions were correct. The oil had reappeared and it was coming through the cam covers. This is when having a mechanic is handy, and also having Stoner Racing at the circuit. Being a DHOC engine we guessed which cam cover was more likely to be faulty and Ian set about removing it. Thankfully Mo had a replacement seal in his van which he kindly donated. By late morning the car was fixed and headed on track again for a short run. Excellent – no problems. I headed out again to start learning the track, this time with another guest Mo had brought along (familiar story? Yep!). After the run the dreaded opening of the engine bay began. Oil had reappeared, but less of it, so both covers were leaking and we had fixed one. Time to get the tools out again…

Dinner was provided by Sakari Racing (Matt Smith) which was burgers galore, and after eating far too many unhealthy meat products Ian wondered back to the car and started taking the other cam cover off. Unfortuntely nobody had another spare cam cover seal so we set about the bodged fix after taking some advice from Coggy. Sealant. The phrase ‘it’s only a bodge if it doesn’t work’ has never been so well applied as it worked perfectly, and we’d get some decent track time in the afternoon.

The number of cars on track was now dropping so you could start stringing laps together. I know a few people thought the day had too many cars attending as you were constantly being passed or passing other cars. First to have a ride was Sim who popped down in the morning to see the engine in peices, but was glad it was fixed in the afternoon. His words were ‘it’s noisy, hot and uncomfotable’, which sums it up quite well, but he had a good time. At the end of the day, once the remains of the Peugeot 406 Coupe were swept up I convinced Ian to have a ride who uttered the words through Gerrards ‘THE GRIP… THE GRIP’. I’m glad the tyres were gripping too.