The famous Ferrari Owners Club track day descended onto our home track, Brands Hatch Racing Circuit in Kent on Thursday 11th September. Every year, we look forward to this event. Brands Hatch is a magnificent track, which enables spectators to see all of the action on the Indy circuit.  The track day was a marvellous opportunity to meet the Ferrari Owners Club Representatives and Ferrari owners who travel from all over England and Scotland to attend these events. 

Everyone arrived early to secure a garage space and set up the Ferrari for the track. This enabled plenty of time for formalities such as signing in, noise checks and having your Ferrari scrutinized to ensure paramount safety.  Ferrari passengers were able to sign their lives away for a small charge and a wristband that entitled them to a day of fun on the track.

Track time started, very cloudy but fairly dry,at 9.00 am, Three sessions were running on the day, firstly the novice, then the intermediate and finaly it was the turn of the experienced track driver. There were instructors on hand all day to assist drivers with improving their skills. We believe in the region of 40 cars attended which really was a wonderful sight. We noted various marques, 308, 328, 348, 355, 360, 360 Challenge, 430, 430 Challenge, 512 BB, 288 GTO & F40. Around mid morning we had some drizzle making the track slippery. Those on the track using road tyres erred on the side of caution and stayed in the pit lane or took very easy laps.

There are many memorable moments at track days, sights most Ferrari owners and their guests don’t observe everyday. Our technicians Richard and Ian, were on hand to assist, many of whom required their tyre pressures adjusting, bleeding of brakes or general assistance with preparing the car for the track. The day was utilised by one client as testing, the Pirelli Ferrari Formula Classic at Oulton Park that weekend, in which he was racing. Others used their home circuit as a fantastic opportunity to experience the acceleration of their Ferrari without having to obey the speed constraints of the highway. An F40, which started misfiring, was frantically worked on by Richard in the latter part of the morning session. Our location at Brands Hatch is ideal for those situations when we can call on equipment, which is not transportable. Richard made a few changes to the car enabling it to get back out in the afternoon session and lose little track time. After lunch the track dried out enabling some quick laps to ensue.

As the day drew to a close, it was easy to complain that the weather could have been better, however, it could have been a lot worse, so we were extremely lucky. The atmosphere was fabulous; it was great to meet such wonderful, happy people, enjoying what these cars do best………..drive fast!

Roll on next year!