A track day question.

[NickD]

How many of you are interested in track days?

Consider this a very distant blip on the radar, but if MoT were to organise a track day at Mondello Park, who would be interested?

I am assuming it would be around €300

[mx5ash]

Me me me.

[leamyj]

I live 10 mins away from Mondello, will help in organising an event around the trip if necessary.

John

[Fergus]

Wasn't there something said about track days before, something like you must have a roll cage (not a style bar) or a hard top etc ?

[mx5ash]

That was being thrown about when we talked about the track on the isle of man.
No mention of it here
http://www.mondello.ie/images/data/gall ... y_info.pdf

[NickD]

Wow, they are quite interesting regulations and differ from UK track days.
I have never heard of having to pre register the car and driver before and also the clean licence thing would rule out a lot of drivers as speeding tickets are becoming increasingly easier to acquire.

The general rules for track days, and surprisingly there is no mention of it here, is that over taking is only on one side, usually the left; some odd circuits have this as the right. That it is only on the straights, and by invitation. That they are non competitive days and all timing is prohibited both from inside and outside of the car.
Arms and legs must be covered and approved helmets must be worn.

The rules on overtaking get stretched a little once the organisers are happy that drivers are competent and also sensible. It tends to become no over taking once a driver starts braking for a corner and then what is safe and sensible from the apex onwards. Anyone being aggressive of silly will still be pulled off and talked to.

[leamyj]

Wow, they are quite interesting regulations and differ from UK track days.
I have never heard of having to pre register the car and driver before and also the clean licence thing would rule out a lot of drivers as speeding tickets are becoming increasingly easier to acquire.

The general rules for track days, and surprisingly there is no mention of it here, is that over taking is only on one side, usually the left; some odd circuits have this as the right. That it is only on the straights, and by invitation. That they are non competitive days and all timing is prohibited both from inside and outside of the car.
Arms and legs must be covered and approved helmets must be worn.

The rules on overtaking get stretched a little once the organisers are happy that drivers are competent and also sensible. It tends to become no over taking once a driver starts braking for a corner and then what is safe and sensible from the apex onwards. Anyone being aggressive of silly will still be pulled off and talked to.

I would imagine that penalty points are not classified, an endorsement on your licence would more than likely be a problem though. Again, if members feel that this is worth following up in association with MOT I'd be happy to arrange some other form of event around the track day itself, be it social or motoring, or both!!

Doubt if we would be getting the track to ourselves though, unless mazda can swing it for us ( wouldn't hold out much hope of that happening, even though they are the main sponsors at the track)

John

[clio]

How many of you are interested in track days?

Consider this a very distant blip on the radar, but if MoT were to organise a track day at Mondello Park, who would be interested?

I am assuming it would be around €300

yep i would be interested in going to mondello park but i wouldnt
send my mx5 around the track ,can you let me know when you are holding it
thanks
Clio

[Stig]

I'll tag along.

[Pete JB]

I could well be on for a bit if that.

[Geese]

How about organising Anglesey??? At least that's your side of the pond. I hear the new circuit is good to drive.

Mondello is big hassle to get a trackday. But i can't blame them they get a lot of boy-racers and eegits. The pre-registering cars is because they had loads of Pikeys with wrecked cars (a sierra with no exhaust comes to mind) and litterally wrecking it and the track for the laugh.

They finished the trackday by sledgehammering the sierra to bits in the paddock and trying to leave it there.

I highly suggest Kirkistown in Northern ireland. It's a small circuit, high speed not really suited to the Mx5 but the 500MC who own it are very nice. I've never had a bad trackday there even when I blew up a car on the back straight.

[VDubbin]

I've been to a few Club track days in Mondello, (thougth Octane.ie) and it's been fantastic.
True, you do need to pre-register, but that's more of a booking formality to get the numbers sorted out. There's none of the mess acting or trouble that's usually associated with the open days (which I wouldn't go near in a million years)
Half days worked out at about 160 for a half day on the International Circuit, and it's plenty of time. We've had a few '5s, Cappucinos, lots of Elises, a few Caterfields, there's no restriction on roll bars or anything like that, just bring a helmet, and keep your arms and hands inside the vehicle at all time!

[adamaca]

Im in .
The international track in Mondello is great.
I also raced in Anglesey last year MEGA! and only 15 mins from holyhead. Very very nice track.

[NickD]

Sorry guys, I had forgotten to answer this post.

The issue we have as Mazda on Track, is although we are car enthusiasts and love driving, we are also a commercial company and not a club, so events have to be financially viable for us in terms of the overheads we carry in insurance and infrastructure and also out time.

The problem with big circuits is that they have big costs and therefore big risks.
Firstly, looking through the web, apart from a bike days there are no other car track days other than the ones organised by Mondello themselves, but financially we would need to guarantee to get 90 cars there at around €250 to make this viable. I am assuming a summer weekend hire would be around €18,000 before any other costs are considered. If 60 people had immediately said this was a brilliant idea we would look into it further, but as it stands it would be a no go as we would not fill the track.

[Stig]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the suggestion and thoughts on this. Indeed we need numbers for anything we do, but especially if its a commercial venture.
We met with Mazda Ireland last Autumn to guage interest in putting business their way and to see if they had any 20th anniv. plans we could come together on but they did'nt engage with us on anything which was disappointing.
We are not a club officially here in Ireland, but are a number of like minded enthusiasts who own mx5's/euno's and its a small country here in comparision to the uk where ownership is more apparent as well as having offical clubs etc.
Its been said that we are seeing additional interest and more and more enthusiasts hanging out here and joining us at events/meets/tyrekicks and techdays - so the spirit is strong here.
Its good to have you here tho inspiring us with trackday ideas and the like and the Nuremburgring trip really interests me and another enthusiast here. We may take a lash over to it thanks to your suggestion.