We were pleased when Practical Performance Car Magazine invited us to take the Aquila along to their annual bash at the Mallory Park circuit in Licestershire. Part track day, part car show, you get a variety of cars at this event that you usually don’t see in the same place at the same time. From vintage racers to modern hot hatches everyone is represented. We also took along our BMW 328 coupe track day car which pounded round the circuit all day without missing a beat and out performed some (on paper) much faster cars. In the morning we had the Aquila out on the wet tyres, in between sessions parking it up on display in front of the PPC stand where it drew a crowd, but after a few sessions the track was drying so we swapped to the dry’s. Matt went out and was on lap 2 and just getting some heat in the tyres when the gear selector cable snapped! Without a spare we parked the car in its display spot for the remainder of the day. Despite this setback we all had a great time, thanks to all the team at PPC magazine for having us along.

Group 1 Bluebell, Group 2 Red C

Bluebell
Having qualified 24th we expected to make up a few places and Matt managed to overtake 3 cars on the start. He continued to make his way through the field until becoming held up by a Porsche 911 who was clearly determined that NO ONE was going to pass him. Bluebell was significantly quicker out of the corners but every time Matt went to come along side the Porsche driver cut straight across causing Matt to have to back off sharply, finally coming out of clearways onto the start/finish straight Matt was passing on the right hand side when the Porsche again swerved sharply across. This time there was nowhere for Matt to go other than the grass and then the wall, despite this the driver just came straight across until he hit the MGB, dangerous and stupid! On the driver change Matt told Marky that the car was running well but that there was a lot of play in the steering. Marky went straight out to a safety car which allowed the cars behind home to catch up but made a good restart and started to hunt down the cars ahead and despite the steering issue which became progressively worse throughout his stint, managed to put in the fastest lap of the race and made up still more places to finish 11th which considering where we started was a good result.

Red C
Mike was in a good starting position to make up places but disaster struck when a Marcos two rows ahead on the grid failed to start. The most dangerous place to be behind a non starting car on a race grid is not right behind but a couple of rows back. If you look at footage of start line crashes it’s usually the cars a couple of rows back who come to grief due to the speed that they have reached by the time they come upon the stricken car and the fact that there is usually no where to go at that point.

Mike had little chance to react and no way to avoid the obstruction and struck the rear of the Marcos and was then hit by Chris Blewett in his Lotus 7, fortunately all the drivers were fine but they were all checked over by the circuit medics at the scene. Obviously the race was stopped until the three cars could be recovered. Back at the paddock we had a quick look at the damage before loading the cars up for the journey home.

Group 1 (Bluebell)
Despite the forecast the rain was holding off for the time being. Matt went out first as usual and used the first lap to bed in the new pads and discs. Three laps in another MGB got into a spin at Surtees right in front of him and he had to take evasive action across the curb and grass before rejoining the track at clearways. One lap later and the engine died just before Paddock Hill and Matt coasted to a halt just off the track on the approach to Druids, it wouldn’t re start and at the end of the session the car and it’s driver were recovered to the paddock. It was quickly discovered that the trip across the grass had caused the connector to the fuel pump to become dislodged, a two second fix! This meant that we qualified 24th out of 25 on the grid, not ideal!

Group 2 (The Red C)
Mikes qually was mercifully uneventful, the rain was still staying away apart from a few drops in the air. He also needed to bed in front brakes and took it easy for the first few laps before putting in consistent laps in the high 59′s. Good enough to qualify 16th out of 30 cars in a field full of VERY quick cars.