War Heroes get back on track at Blyton Park

On Thursday 14^th March some twenty soldiers from the new Recovery Centre, Phoenix House at Catterick enjoyed a day at Blyton Park Circuit near Gainsborough driving and being driven in a variety of specially prepared cars around the track.  

Hosted by Mission Motorsport, the Forces’ Motorsport Charity, the aim of the day was to introduce wounded service personnel to the world of Motorsport as part of their recovery and rehabilitation. The charity was founded in 2011 with the primary aim of aiding the recovery and rehabilitation of those affected by military operations by providing opportunities through Motorsport for the wounded. The charity work nationally with servicemen and women coming through Headley Court and Recovery Centres such as Phoenix House, and on behalf of Battle Back – the UK military initiative that uses adaptive adventurous training and sports rehabilitation to help seriously wounded, injured or sick service personnel and veterans.  The charity is formally supported by Help for Heroes.

The programme has been incredibly effective, and has also been very successful launching servicemen into second careers.  “That vocational element is very important” explained Mission Motorsport founder, Maj James Cameron “but we often find that guys and girls have little or no idea of what they can do when they leave the military. It can be hard enough leaving the Services on your own terms, but for those leaving through trauma, or traumatic injury it can be extremely daunting.  We do a lot of work on rebuilding confidence and team skills, and the support of a venue like Blyton Park Driving Centre who understand our needs is just invaluable”

Richard Usher the MD of Blyton Park Driving Centre said  “We are delighted to hand the circuit over to Mission Motorsport as part of our charitable activity and it is very humbling to witness at first hand the courage of men and women who have been grievously wounded whilst carrying out their duties .”

Further details about Blyton Park Driving centre and Mission Motorsport can be found at www.blytonpark.co.uk and  www.missionmotorsport.org   

McLaren shake down at Blyton Park before travelling half way round the world!

Todays leading F1 team McLaren can trace its roots back to the McLaren Elva M1. The Elva-built McLarens were called the MK 1 and powered by a variety of powerplants. 

They had a simple and straightforward design with a frame based on three main tubes incorporating a multi-tubular space frame structured. At all four corners were an independent suspension with widely spaced pickups for the front upper wishbones. The rear had reversed lower wishbones, single upper links and parallel radius rods. Springing was by coil springs and tubular shocks. The gearbox was a Hewland transaxle. The body design was courtesy of Tony Hilder.

This Car M1 20-15 was originally built in 1965 and delivered to the US where it was raced in group 7 USSCR and SCCA race series. Famously winning one of it’s first races at Daytona in the hands of Joe Starkey. The car was later converted to a narrow bodied F5000 single seater FA racer.

The car had a final shake down at Blyton Park on Monday 7^th January prior to be shipped two days later to Melbourne in Australia where it will be raced at Phillip Island on 9/10^th March 2013. Just one week later the McLaren will be competing in the Australian Grand Prix, International Sports Car Challenge support race at Albert Park.

The shakedown was to test a winter rebuild of the 6 litre Chevrolet engine and a newly installed Hewland LG transaxle. Both engine and gearbox were built and the car maintained by Terry Van-Der-Zee of TT motors Racing in Dorset.

Blyton looks after an another exotic visitor...

Blyton Service Station is not the biggest garage in the area but it recently welcomed one of the world’s most expensive and exclusive cars to its ramp. The £850,000 Pagani Huayra had been testing at nearby Blyton Park Circuit and its team of four engineers from the factory in Modena, Italy needed to get underneath it to check some of its systems.

Blyton Park’s owner: Richard Usher rang George Heppenstall at the garage and the 720 horsepower twin –turbo V12 – powered supercar was soon safely in the air in Blyton village. George commented “ We often help out owners of cars visiting Blyton Park but being able to see the Pagani being engineered in our workshop was a real taste of the exotic. “

After a full diagnostic and physical check, the car returned to the circuit where it performed a series of acceleration and handling tests around the track accelerating to 60 miles per hour in just over three seconds and achieved speeds in excess of 160mph.  The Pagani Huayra is made by Pagani Automobili which was founded by Horatio Pagani in 1999.

Pictures of our Goodwwod visitors.

Back in September, we had a couple of very special visitors to Blyton Park preparing for the Goodwood festival.

Legendary Barrie "Whizzo" Williams was shaking down a number of Richard Meadens' classics for Goodwood, but star of the show was the unique 1963 Jaguar Lister Le Mans coupe.

Also, we had a 1960 Formula Junior Dolphin which had been lost for 50 years at the back of a garage, and was only discovered when the house was being demolished in 2001.

The car was still in its' original paint and livery but needed some restoration and was unveiled to the public at Goodwood for the first time since 1960! 

Blyton Park Driving Centre Firmly On The Map.

The Test and Tuition Circuit at Blyton Park has proved to be a popular addition to the list of leisure facilities in the East Midlands, attracting thousands of visitors in its first full year of operation. The regeneration of the former RAF Blyton by entrepreneur and lifelong car enthusiast Richard Usher has resulted in the creation of a unique facility where car enthusiasts can enjoy their cars and learn the art of car control in a purpose built environment.

Blyton Park comprises over two miles of new surface laid on the runways and perimeter track of the old airfield making up multiple circuit layouts.  These circuits were designed by ex-touring-car driver Eugene O’Brien, now a professional driver coach, John Barker a founding editor of EVO magazine and Richard Usher himself.  The main purpose of the facility is to encourage drivers to learn their cars’ capabilities by taking instruction in either their own car or one provided for them. Blyton Park is not a racing circuit as such but it is licensed by the MSA (the governing body of British Motorsport) for sprint events against the clock.

Blyton Park Driving Centre officially opened on May 4^th 2011. Since then the venue has welcomed an incredible array of vehicles and owners, including over 100 pre-war cars on “The Flying Scotsman” Classic Trial, the first ever Brabham Formula One Car and both the new McLaren MP4-12C and Ferrari 458 Italia road cars. On July 1^st over 300 Mazda MX 5’s set a new world record for convertible cars on a circuit. In addition, the unique nature of the track has attracted vehicle manufacturers and racing organisations including Audi UK, Mazda Europe and Caterham who have used the track for engineering work and vehicle evaluation.

Commenting on the last 16 months, Richard Usher said “We have been delighted by the incredibly positive response which Blyton Park has received both from individuals and large organisations, as well as in the Press. This has enabled us to continue investing in the facility which has had a positive effect on the local economy as well as completely re-invigorating a site which was slipping into a state of post-war dereliction and neglect.”

Blyton Park Driving Centre is blogging!

Welcome to the first entry to the official Blyton Park Driving Centre blog!

For those of you who are unaware of Blyton Park, we officially opened on May 4^th 2011 and our venue has welcomed an incredible array of vehicles and owners, including over 100 pre-war cars on “The Flying Scotsman” Classic Trial, the first ever Brabham Formula One Car and both the new McLaren MP4-12C and Ferrari 458 Italia road cars.

The regeneration of the former RAF Blyton by entrepreneur and lifelong car enthusiast Richard Usher has resulted in the creation of a unique facility where car enthusiasts can enjoy their cars and learn the art of car control in a purpose built environment. Blyton Park Driving 

Over two miles of new track has been laid on the runways and perimeter track of the old airfield making up multiple circuit layouts.  These circuits were designed by ex-touring-car driver Eugene O’Brien, now a professional driver coach, John Barker a founding editor of EVO magazine and Richard Usher himself.