Grass Roots Motor Sport – UK

Those present at the Classic Marques prize giving dinner in autumn 2024 might recall – if still sober when the raffle results were announced – that the star raffle prize was a space at the new Mallory Park Sprint School. Well, to my amazement and pleasure, I held the correct ticket drawn out of the hat and the space was mine.

Fast forward to a day in March 2025, and after a night at the Premier Inn in Hinckley, I awoke to a bitterly cold morning whereby I spent 10 minutes scraping the frost from the windscreen of my gallant Lotus Elise charger.

15 minutes later I was at the Mallory Park circuit which I had last visited competitively on two wheels in 1964. This caused some amusement amongst all present and chief instructor Pete told me to keep four wheels on the track and my knee firmly off the ground at the Devil’s Elbow!

On arrival at the race control building, attendees were treated to a huge sausage and egg bap washed down with coffee or tea (I was glad that I declined breakfast at the Premier Inn) after which a briefing on the day’s event was held.

By now the chilly morning air had morphed into a more bearable warmth and the remainder of the day remained warm and dry with a little sun.

The 20 drivers attending were split into three groups and allocated one of Mallory’s driver instructors. My group was labelled ‘B’ and led by instructor Mark Wright. We followed Mark in our cars out from the pit exit to various points of the Mallory circuit where we alighted and Mark pointed out the features in turn of each corner with reference to braking, turn-in, apex and exit points which were marked by small traffic type cones. We were advised to memorise the permanent features marked by the cones such as marshal stations and coloured kerbs because although the cones would be there for the morning sessions, they would be removed in the afternoon!   

Back in the pit lane we commenced driving the circuit which was laid out as it would be for a normal sprint event. For the morning sessions we would each be accompanied in car by an instructor.

Every car starts at the pit lane exit and accelerates into and around the awesome Gerards curve, short-shifting into third or fourth gear. Full throttle can be used from around two thirds distance which means a very quick exit from the curve. Down the Stebbe straight and brake hard for a late turn-in into the tight left right Edwinas chicane. Exit Edwinas flat through the Lake Esses using all the road then quickly move left and brake hard for a very late turn-in to Shaw hairpin which I took in third with short shift into fourth for the fast left through the Devils Elbow. Approach Gerards this time at maximum speed, brake and then turn-in at the marshal’s post.

Getting Gerards right gives enormous satisfaction and a correct entry means that you can hold the steering wheel in a constant arc for the whole corner. Keep out about a car’s width at first and then hit the true apex on the red coloured kerb. Full power out for a fast exit and carry the speed onto the Stebbe straight and through the finish marked by a white line today. One and a half laps of hard work! After the finish are a set of cones that drivers must slalom through whilst slowing for the pit lane entrance. On my finish of the first run, I tried to enter Edwinas a second time and Mark’s vocal intervention as I turned caused me to take a ‘grassy’ return to the correct course. After we had all done three runs with instructor, it was back to the control building for a welcome hot lunch.

The afternoon session was without a car-borne instructor and all the cones had disappeared. An observer was positioned on each corner, who radioed in the behaviour of each driver as they passed, and an instructor was ready to brief each driver on his lap performance on return to the pit lane.  My first lap was ‘rubbish’ (my description) and I missed apexes and lines everywhere. However, over the next six or so runs I improved with each run and Mark seemed happy with my performance. One observer commented that I was exiting too soon at Gerards and I discovered that it is best to hug the inside for a trifle longer than realised before allowing the car to run for a faster exit.

A perfect day with perfect weather. I would like to thank the Mallory Motor Sports School and Melanie, Pete and Mark in particular for a great day with excellent organisation and I really learnt a lot. Acknowledgements to Louise for pictures.

PS: on completion of our afternoon runs it was back to the control building for cake and tea (or coffee in my case). the long run home took about three hours and I slept pretty well that night!