Blyton 14

It was early on Saturday 21st June that the 4 figures that made up Team Merlot 2014 left Ely for Blyton Park Driving Centre in Lincolnshire. Their sole aim was to have a great weekend at the MX-5 Owners Club's 3rd "Blyton Bash". The weekend was to consist of 2 afternoons of track driving and an a social evening to share stories of the day.
After arriving at the venue and carrying out the usual pre-track ritual of emptying Project Merlot of what wasn't essential to driving, setting the damper settings to the preferred hardness (unlike the last event!), changing the road wheels and tyres for a set of Team Dynamics wheels & super sticky Toyo R888s and on this occasion also fitting a new set of EBC yellow stuff pads to the front axle, kindly supplied by MX5parts.co.uk.
After signing on an completing the sighting laps Project Merlot was allowed, for the third year, out on the familiar Blyton circuit. As usual, the car took all that was thrown at it in it's stride and behaved impeccably throughout the afternoon (apart from a on going knock from the front suspension that seemed to be getting worse as the afternoon progressed).
As a thank you to MX5parts.co.uk for their support over the last few years, the staff were treated to passenger rides in the car, most of them not having been on track in an MX-5 before, so seeing what the car can do under track conditions seemed to really impress, with some of them coming back for more on the following day (watch out for the MX5parts Motorsport range in amongst the usual shiny stuff that they offer).

The afternoon ended all too quickly though and after a couple of pints at the onsite bar the team retreated to their questionable lodgings for the night (see Arties Mill & Lodge on Trip Advisor, Martin felt the need to leave a review!). After a good night's sleep, breakfast (which once again wasn't smoked salmon and poached eggs) and questionable coffee, the quartet made their way back to the circuit ready for the second afternoon of driving, with a twist! After some investigation into the knocking noise from the front suspension the previous evening, the car was jacked up and some grease applied between the upper arm suspension bushes and their mountings, meaning the noise was gone. Next came the track. Having visited Blyton twice previously and driven the same circuit on both occasions, since last years visit, the owner had added an alternative track layout.

Brooklands Museum with the MX-5 Owners Club

There can be few places with a motorsport heritage as amazing as Brooklands and on 27 April 2014 with the MX-5 Owners Club taking the place over for their Spring Rally it seemed quite fitting to put together an MX-5 Motorsport stand and feature on it pretty much every motorsport option for a MK1 MX-5.

Project Merlot was there to represent the hardcore track day car, but the stand also featured; a novice track car, a full on race car, a race kit car and a track focussed MX-5 kit car.  With the previous day seeing Project Merlot at Brands Hatch for MX-5 Racing with 5 Club Racing it was a pretty full on weekend once again.

Snetterton with the MX-5 Owners Club

Saturday 8 March saw Project Merlot right back where it belongs, no more shiney show car, no more muddy runs across farm land, but a day spent being thrashed around a race circuit. The MX-5 Owners Club organised track day at Snetterton saw 4 drivers take to the wheel of the Merlot plus a whole load of passengers, some getting their very first experience of an MX-5 at full throttle on a race circuit. Despite the low number of cars attending on the day there were still plenty of red flag incidents including a trip off the circuit by the Merlot which saw it wipe out a some of the track furniture which fortunately was not as hard as it looked as the car slid towards it, so no damage done. Some suspension adjustments followed and things improved after that and whilst there was one further short trip onto the grass later in the day nothing got in the way that time! But we did manage to get a black flag late in the afternoon but we think that was a case of mistaken identity as no one in the Merlot had been running on the kerbs and over the white line, (honest guv!)

A great day was had by all and I think it may well have rekindled the enthusiasm of the team for a lot more of this in 2014. 

Thanks to all those involved in making the day a great success; 

www.mx5oc.co.uk, for organising the day

www.mx5parts.co.uk for their continued support of Project Merlot

www.mazdaontrack.co.uk for their management of the day

and www.adrianflux.co.uk