I had carried out a few modifications since my last Oulton Track day in November, mainly the replaced oil rad sandwich take off. I had finally identified that the reason my car was STILL over heating on hot days was because the Mocal thermostatic take off was not opening properly preventing the rad from doing its work. Apparently its quite common. I have a Mocal straight to rad one now and the oil still warms up very quickly so im not damaging the engine.
I put the car through its MOT a couple of days before. Although it does not see the road it allows me to get a 2nd pair of eyes on it. This was worth it as he identified the brake lights dont work! This was fixed by bleeding the hydraulic brake light switch. This also means IF I was going to sell the car, its worth about 20% more with a fresh MOT.
Anyway, track day time. I left Dartford around 8am on Monday 18th to head over to Anglsey, meeting my mate near Manchester who was doing the same track day in his own car (R53 mini Cooper). We made really good time, and got to the track in time to haggle our way on to an evening session. This was on the national circuit (a short track at only about 1 mile in length) and as it was dry (forecast heavy rain the next day) this may be our only chance of dry weather. At around 7:30pm we called it a day as we had all day tomorrow (Tuesday) on track as well. The car performed faultless and punched above its weight as usual.
Anglsey 2
Anglsey back 1
Anglsey close 1
We stayed local in a pub hotel so managed to get some decent food and beer in the evening.
The next day was torrential rain for the International circuit (the longest circuit). This was not all bad for me. I invested in some Uniroyal Rain Sport 3 tyres last year and this was my 1st chance to try them. Up until now I had only had semi-cuts and just sat sulking when standing water was on circuit and tip toed around when wet. Normally being a moving chicane for everyone else, I hated driving my car in the wet it was sooo dicey. But oh my these Rain Sports were something else, amazing levels of grip, it had dried out before I managed to grow balls big enough to push them. They had bundles of grip under braking and progressive when sliding during cornering. I had good pace in comparison to the other cars. I was soaked to the bone but smiling from ear to ear!!
Anglsey wet 1
Anglsey wet 2
In the afternoon the rain stopped and the Coastal track had dried out. I changed back onto my R888R tyres and started to re-learn the track now it was a lot faster and dry. Again, my car was faultless and I spent the afternoon chasing M4, M3 and Clio cup cars. The brakes never faded, the oil stayed spot on temp and I just had to manage the tyres (they get a bit hot after 20mins) and keep topping up the fuel. Anglsey is a strange track, the rear tyres were getting far hotter then the fronts, normally its the other way round for me.
Throughout the 1.5 days of Anglsey there had been only 3 red flags (surprising considering the rain) I had covered 185 miles on track and used about 50 litres of fuel. I saddled up the car and left for home at 6pm. My initial intention was to have a nap half way but try and get home that night. In the end I drove all of the way home and got home just after mid night, that was a long day!!!
Of course I managed to get snapped at the iconic Anglsey spot. The below picture was honestly one of the reasons I went, I just wish I was sideways a little!! The circuit is beautiful, even when its raining, and there were a few laps where I just went at site seeing pace and looked at the scenery. I think Coastal circuit is under rated and is a really good circuit. One of my favourites now. Although I doubt ill do that journey again soon. I dont think I was close to hooking up any fast laps but for reference my fastest National Circuit lap was a 1:05.15 and my fastest Coastal lap was a 1:27.40. Plenty more pace to find if I had more time.
Anglsey 1
[Edited on 18/4/22 by bi22le]
