BLYTON 2015 Make a note in your Diaries!

[goff]

I have just arrived save at home, it was a cracking event.
Nice to put some faces behind names and meet people I have known before again.
My Mini made it without opening the bonnet.
(Goff: This time we were just trying to find out where to drop the bombs next time)

Glad you guys got home safely , great banter, see you next year

Goff

[rich@minispares.com]

Sorry I had to leave early folks but thoroughly enjoyed my brief Blyton 2015!

MASSIVE thanks must go to the marshalling team headed up by Jan and John , without whom this event wouldn't happen the way it does. We raised a whopping £1275!! (ok, it was £1270.05) for Macmillans and Alzheimers. Big thanks also to Mark for all his effort and letting me just mess about all day, our VIPs for making the effort, Gordon, Anita, Barrie, Jeff (who both cancelled Donington to come along), Barry, Glyn, Mike of course for the works slide show (hope you all enjoyed it!), Chris for setting up the slides and looking after Mike and Mrs Davenport for feeding me during the day. Thanks also to Bill 'The Flying Anorak' and Patricia for all the publicity they did online, Colin at Javelin for being so accommodating, Big Stu for all the photographs and of course everyone that turned up to enjoy the event. Roll on 2016.

pete

im going to post you £4.95 just so you can say that £1275 was raised.

WELL DONE EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[surfblue63]

Yep another great weekend from Pete and Mark. We've had the best that the British weather could chuck at us, but it was still great stuff and well worth the soaking I got yesterday morning. Some cracking cars on display, one of my favourites was the Lime Green Longman replica that looked good both on and off the track. Good to meet and put some new faces to the names on here. Thanks to all the owners and drivers for entertaining us with your driving. And finally thanks to Pete for organising the star guests and The Mike Wood picture show.

When is next years event so I can book my accommodation up?

[minipete]

Brilliant relaxing day,heres to next year when Minispares Rich i will come in a mini.

[northern monkey]

Mark,Pete you have raised your own high standard you set with last years event......I don't know how you are going to better this next year ?


Mick

[Mini7org]

Another fantastic 3 days for myself and Jan enjoying helping out marshalling and being appreciated for the effort of supporting such a prestigious event. Great to meet a few new friends as well as old one's, never mind getting to look at and watch a vast range of cars being used how they should. A big thanks for the generosity of so many people who made it possible to collect such a spectacular amount of money for the event's 2 charities even if the cold and very wet weather tried it's best to make things challenging. Thanks also to our fellow NMCMC club member Rick for helping out and Mick as well.
Jan really enjoyed her trip round the track with Jim from RACE.
Hopefully the stranded Mini we stopped to help on our way home made it back to Hull.

John C.

[rich@minispares.com]

john


your and jans marshalling was appreciated by every one.

i thought it was hilarious when you told mark to move his trailer and park it in the proper trailer park....

[Pete]

Jan and John are legends. Can't thank you enough. Macmillans and Alzheimers do brilliant work that helps real people with real problems, and that £1275 (?!!) will do good things. Well done to you and all that chipped in.

[Pete]

Trev Powell couldn't bring the Vita racer as he got stuck at Spa (darn day jobs!), we didn't get the Aurora BMC as the owner is ill sadly, ditto one of the coachbuilt cars, several other no shows were due to mechanical gremlins (Mick pull your finger out next time!) but all say they'll try again next year.

Any ideas for next year anyone, I forgot to invite all non track cars on to the parade laps this year which will definitely happen next time. Should we stick to two days or go back to one? Move it to a warmer month? Try another venue? Can't see a better venue on the horizon that'd do a weekend date or is the right size with the right facilities though personally and date clashes with other big events is always a limiting factor.

[rich@minispares.com]

Any ideas for next year anyone, I forgot to invite all non track cars on to the parade laps this year which will definitely happen next time. Should we stick to two days or go back to one? Move it to a warmer month? Try another venue? Can't see a better venue on the horizon that'd do a weekend date or is the right size with the right facilities though personally and date clashes with other big events is always a limiting factor.

my thoughts

two days was fine, made it less frantic than last year

warmer month - it could rain any day - the weather wasn't that bad, it certainly made the track good fun on sunday morning, and by 2pm it was blue skies and t-shirt weather (for the northern boys), james palmer still looked like he was on an artic expedition....

I cannot think of a better venue, both from the track (that eastern circuit we did on sunday was just perfection for minis), viewing for the people who watch, facilities etc etc

the blyton and javlin staff do a fantastic job, those two ladies doing the food worked non stop!

[almondgreen]

I would keep it as it is.
The weather was not so bad...
The only thing......next time I will have to go on the track...

[surfblue63]

I would also say keep it at the same time, same place, and two days. If the weather is crap one day it might turn out nice the next, and it was proper T-Shirt stuff on Sunday afternoon this time.

Any chance of a printer flyer/programme 'cos I missed a few things and almost missed the presentations on Sunday.

Also, do you think Javelin would allow a half hour session for the racers to go a bit, well you know, naughty!!

[billycooper]

I agree with Rich and Surf, same place, same weekend, always gonna clash with something, "why fix something that's not broken" !!

Eastern circuit was fab , especially for us boys with less than 80 horse !, although it will probably be 3 different years, 3 different cars, hopefully actually get a Mk 1 there next year !!

[thefarmer]

I've just spoken with mission control (aka..the wife)...same place, same time, same everything. I think Simon (The MiniWorks) is also thinking the same and also it's pretty much our first event each year, which makes it even better to look forward to.

Mixing up the circuits was a great idea....something for everyone and everything. Weather was only really crap for a few hours Sunday morning, and you imagine if it was only a 1 day'er...that would have written the whole event off!

Also...2 days allows Simon to loose bits off each car, like he did this time around....and he couldn't blame me this time. I lost some of his car a few weeks ago somewhere in the Highlands.

Ben

[surfblue63]

Did Simon find his arch?

[thefarmer]

Did Simon find his arch?

A marshal found his wheel arch and half the trim.....it seemed to pass a few hands before it got to me, and reunited it with the owner. That was on Saturday.

Sunday he lost the whole drivers side side trim on his sprint..although to be fair, I think it was Barry Williams who lost it. Barry decided he wanted to go for a spin towards the end of the day. Looks like he didn't want to go home, and wanted to have a bit more fun and try a few different cars out. I see Barry hopped out of Simon's sprint and then 15 mins later was in Tim's car???

oh...side trim was also returned. There was a concern that Barry was going to drive over it on the following laps once it fell off, which had Simon sweating a bit...

[billycooper]

I agree with Rich and Surf, same place, same weekend, always gonna clash with something, "why fix something that's not broken" !!

Eastern circuit was fab , especially for us boys with less than 80 horse !, although it will probably be 3 different years, 3 different cars, hopefully actually get a Mk 1 there next year !!

Having the day off work on the Monday helps with having it over this weekend .... Next year the Bank Holiday falls in after the weekend of April 30th / May 1st

[59fan]

I think the venue and date are spot on, the damp weather worked for me as i have a modest amount of power and am running 145 Aquajets, the Sunday afternoon session when it dried was a bit too frantic for me.

Love the idea of all the mini's getting a drive around the track.

Its probably making things too complicated but perhaps a small allocated track session time for newbies or people with slower cars, its hard to get to grips with a track you don't know when you are spending most of the time hauling yourself to the left to let people past. Perhaps some if the more experianced drivers could use this time to sit in with novice drivers and show them the basic lines etc? I for one would have loved to have someone showing me where I should be on the track.

Ian

[nick rogers]

Don't change a thing.

[Smiffy]

Hopefully the stranded Mini we stopped to help on our way home made it back to Hull.

John C.

Yep made it back john thanks for stopping, wasn't the head gasket anyway