REVIEW: Oulton Park Mini Festival 2015

Sometimes, just sometimes, certain events seems to always be blessed with good weather and blistering sunshine. I've previously experienced this at numerous visits to the Mini Cooper Register's Beaulieu show, and hopefully this trend will continue at this event at Oulton Park too.

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The Festival is the 'northern' sister to the Brands Hatch Mini Festival which was hosted a few months ago by the same organisers. Bringing various forms of Mini motorsport together on one day for a mass celebration of all things Mini, with racing from the Mini 7 Club and MINI Challenge forming the crux of the event, with other side attractions.

This year's event, its second outing, should have been a lot better than last year's inaugural event, but overall it was just as good, but not the vast improvement we'd been hoping for.

Following a tragic accident the weekend before at CarFest, all roads and routes to the circuit were now reopened for the masses of Minis that would be passing through the gates. The weather forecast had been positive and surprisingly accurate.

With the sun lotion slapped on we parked up, pretty much anywhere we wanted to, and had a wander. Taking the family with me, the kids were immediately screaming to head to the kids entertainment, where I had said they could spend most the day as last year all the inflatables and bouncy castle stuff was free...  but not this year! This time is was £3 a go or £6 for all day...    Still, I suppose most Mini shows don't have kids entertainment in the first place, but when they offer it free one year and not the next, you see it as a negative don't you.

The Oulton Park site is rather large and with lots to see and do, we had to get a move on. Legendary stuntman Russ Swift was back doing his thing in MINIs. Two wheels, parrallel parking, scaring the bejesus out of random passengers whilst doing it! Great fun!

Further infield showgoers had access to the paddock area where there was plenty of spannering going on. Minis in all sorts of states of repair and driving and mechanics scratching their bonces working out how to fix a gremlin or eek out a few more bhp in time for the next race. All were happy to take a break and chat about their day.

We even met up with most the love:mini drivers who write for us. Wildcat Rob Howard was present with his new Mini Miglia, freshly built by Endaf Owens, after Rob had a serious barrel roll at Brands Hatch. After handing out another set of love:mini stickers for his car, we blessed the Mini for luck before meeting up with our next racer, Hannah Chapman.






Hannah was just in park ferme preparing to go on track when we caught up with her. She's just pleased to get some more sponsorship under her belt to help her continue her racing. We can't let the Champ not race!

In the MINI Challenge, our man Hamish Brandon was keenly escorted by his big cuddly Panda teddy, who in turn seemed to attract the grid girls! In the other garages you would also find Charlie Butler Henderson, brother of TV presenter, Vicky. 

Away from the racing there was a fairly big club stand display mixed in with random Mini parking. The turnout did seem to be very regional with mostly localish clubs, although we did spot a stand from Norfolk Mini Club - a fair trek for them, so well done!

After learning a lesson last year, we brought our own food, but I couldn't help taking a look at the prices of things on offer. OK, so you expect prices to be inflated, but how does over £7 sound for a fried breakfast? Or £5.50 for a hot dog from the one of the on-site food stalls, and £2 for a standard plain ice-cream. My advice, bring a picnic!!

Around the corner from paddock was the MINI Challenge Hospitality Tent. You may have seen us promoting this and offering the chance to win tickets and VIP Hospitality. We were kindly treated during the day (more of which we'll report on later), but it's a great base to set yourself up, and with shade from the sun and an endless supply of food and drink, it's much better value that buying from the on-site vendors - and you can even borrow a MINI bike to zoom around site.

Turning to the trade village, if you can call it that, with about seven traders. Lohen and Arc-Angels the most prominent. Believe me when one trader started packing up at about mid-day after seeing the disappointing effort to create a decent trade area. Other traders shared the same sense of frustration, which obviously highlights a serious area in need of improvement.

 

Elsewhere you could watch some Minis go round the rally track having a bit of fun, but you couldn't actually try it yourself. But you could sign up for the YoungDrivers scheme, aimed at children aged 10+, it was £30 per session.

Once all the side attractions had been covered, we took time to chill out trackside and watch some racing - which, let's face it, is rather exciting when it comes to Minis! Straight from the off the Minis were bunched up and fighting for space on the tarmac - Max Hunter being pushed wide on to the grass. Later on there would be close racing with Lewis Selby taking first before crashing out!

 




As the day started to wind down, spectators were allowed to bring their Minis on to the circuit for a parade lap before heading out through the tree-lined back roads and on to the motorway home.

All in all a great day out, but we left a little disappointed that the show hasn't been improved upon from last year with the trade especially, but smaller things like charging for kids entertainment now, and the massive cost of food and drink. Here's hoping for an improvement next year!!

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