Less than a week after the disappointing DNF at Snetterton in the MGB, it was onwards to Silverstone! This weekend in a Mk1 Mazda MX-5 was supposed to have taken place all the way back in May at Brands Hatch and had originally been scheduled as my first ever race. However, with covid hitting, organisational disaster for a triple header at Snetterton (A huge thanks to Kent MX-5 for sorting it all out), things were pushed all the way back until now.

I was excited to jump into a new car and although the MGB and MX-5 seem similar on paper, I knew the experience would be completely different. As a result, I booked us in for a day of testing prior to race day to get some experience behind the wheel. Although we were testing on the National circuit and racing on the International layout, the day was hugely beneficial to learn the limits of the new car and we ended up having an additional 60mins extra of track time, it was also great fun!

The track was very busy all day. In our closed wheel group we had everything from historic Morgans to TCR touring cars and a pair of monster TVR Sagaris’.

Initial thoughts:

Very easy to drive at the limit - Very predictable and communicative
Similar to the MGB but with a lot more grip and less roll
A hell of a lot cooler with the open top!
Very responsive to small adjustments (After making some suspension changes, I could immediately feel the difference in the corners and was 0.25s faster 2 laps in with the new settings)
Times became much more consistent with the new setup direction so with a few more tweaks, we ended up with a setup that I was really comfortable with.
The Racelogic VBOX was really valuable during this time testing, as it allowed me to analyse my split times in real time, identifying where I had room to improve. Looking at data and throttle traces was fascinating (Definitely felt familiar to sim racing!)