Castle Combe Track Day
Our annual track day at Castle Combe with our partners the Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club is always a highlight of our calendar. With persistent rain leading up to 15th October we anxiously checked the BBC weather site and pleasingly Tuesday looked fair, however for Gary and the team setting up the evening before it was pretty wet.
The paddock quickly filled with a range of Jaguars, F-Types, XK8’s, XKR’s, E-Types, S-Types, XJ’s and a selection of race cars from the JEC Racing Saloon & GT Championships. The day was supported by a number sponsor including our partner Castrol whom we were delighted see and ever grateful for their support. After breakfast and safety briefing, we headed out onto a still damp track. With our own race and track prepared fleet in attendance we were pleased to be able to take our clients, friends, sponsors and partners out on track for high speed passenger rides in our own Palmer Jaguar JP1, racing XJR and Palmersport XKR, the ever popular unique JP1 proving to be the fans favourite.
By lunchtime we had a dry line on the circuit and with the autumn sun was breaking through we were treated to demonstration laps by Andrew Maynard in his Jaguar XJR-15. This car being chassis number one of only fifty built, the car was the creation of legendary designer Tony Southgate working for TWR – Jaguar in 1990 and based on the Le Mans winning XJR-9 and the worlds first road car to be made entirely of carbon-fibre. Seeing one of these cars on circuit is rare treat and we are enormously grateful to Andrew for bringing his car along.
The afternoon sunshine provided a great opportunity for some the near one hundred guests to experience the thrill of riding in a Jaguar racing car thanks to our friends in the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club Toyo Tires/Watchdogapp.com Saloon & GT Championship. Our thanks to fellow racers, Simon Dunford, Chris Boon, Michael Holt, Daniel Stewart, James Ramm, Tom Lenthall, Derek Pearce and Colin Philpott for supporting the day and giving passenger rides to guests and instruction on track. We would also particularly like to thank Ray Ingman for looking after our twenty-one novice drivers for the day a JEC/Swallows Racing track day record, Ray is a qualified ARDS instructor and has kindly supported the track day for many years.
The annual Castle Combe track day is proving increasingly popular and we were delighted to see so many of our clients, friends and partners with us. Please look out on our newsletter, website and social media channels for dates of future track days we will be delighted to see you.
Watch our YouTube in car footage; courtesy of Wayne Scott Classic Heritage PR & Media
DAy
