THE LIGHTWEIGHT COTSWOLD MUSKETEERS DO CADWELL/BLYTON
In spite of Chris Varey’s early-in-the-year urgings a lightweight team of only two cars and
five members made this northern pilgrimage on July 5th/6th – CV and Dick Dimmock in the
Ultima and AO Andrew with Jim Payne (Jimpy) in the Black Gaffer Tape Special plus
Desmond of GT40 fame.
You have to make a proper weekend of it so we trailed up on Friday afternoon and a grim,
slow, hot trail it was – we arrived at the Black Horse pub near Cadwell for a much needed
pint of Theakston’s Old Peculier and a good meal.
Now the weather forecast was “mixed” and Saturday dawned wet so we changed to wet
tyres, unlocked anti-roll bars, fiddled with damper settings and did first tentative runs on a
track with standing water. Then at 11.00a.m. the sun came out and we reversed all the
settings and attacked the tarmac with much enthusiasm. Jimpy drove more of the Westie
than Andrew due to the AO’s dodgy neck while everybody had rides in CV’s flying armchair
Ultima. Jimpy did suffer the indignity of being towed in off the track when an electrical
glitch brought the Westie to a halt – nothing that a bit of Cotswold team fettling couldn’t
fix though.
At 6pm we sat in the Cadwell parking field pondering on life, drinking beer and discussing
why the morning wet session had seen no “offs” while the afternoon had been crowned with
3 or 4 including one that severely shortened a Golf GTI.
Back to the Black Horse for a “Four sausage and Mash” meal washed down with more Old
Peculier (Yes Peculier—ask the landlord) and a not very early night followed by a Sunday
morning dash to Blyton Park for the next event. This time it was a dry day with Chris on
slicks while the Westie stayed on road/wets -- just in case.
On both days the mix of trackday entrants was wonderfully north-country – no rental drives
apart from Desmond who hired a tired MX5 for the Blyton day. Very few expensive off-theshelf cars but plenty of kit cars, modified tin-tops and a few complete one-offs – how about
a Reliant Kitten chassis, fibreglass pick-up style bodywork and a 1300cc Hyabusa giving 190
brake at the wheels – wonderful !
We enjoyed a gentlemanly day weaving in and out of the traffic in which the standard of
driving was pretty good with no serious offs (not much solid stuff to hit on an airfield) and
the chance of a good session when well-matched cars got together. I had a session with
some other kitcars, mostly bike-engined, until we got disturbed by a Radical with 1300cc
Hyabusa – this was the best time after 4 pm when the traffic subsided.
Close of play was 5pm when we sat in the sun in the paddock enjoying tea and cake from the
Blyton clubhouse. We packed up in a leisurely way after Desmond had set-off earlier in
Kevin’s fancy BMW – he had sworn not to take this polished beauty on the track. Chris and
Dick trolled off down south in the traffic while Jimpy and I returned gently to the Black
Horse in the early evening sun with the glow of having enjoyed a good dose of speed to
soothe the soul.
Another meal of Sos’n’Mash backed by some 10 year old Talisker malt and we were ready for
bed prior to an early morning start home, missing some of the traffic – another wonderful
pilgrimage coutesy of Javelin trackdays
Why don’t more people do it?
AO Andrew “Natterjack” Reeves