Words by Robert Nelson, Image by Robert Nelson
The date of 28th September for a meet up at the motoring-themed café NY500 had been in the calendars of both the Eastern and North East regions since the beginning of the year when potential events were initially pencilled in. The was also Sunday 1 Day; the last Sunday in September being the anniversary of the launch of the 1 Series at the Pairs Motor Show in 2004. As the NY500 was on the edge of the North York Moors, it was decided that a drive out could also be included taking in the infamous Blakey Ridge.
An initial sighting lap was carried out in mid-June with my trusty sidekick/passenger princess/daughter, Lucy, but this didn’t go quite as planned, as we ended up on a single track road following a chap on a quad bike taking his bull for a walk. An ice cream later on in Whitby did make up for this though. On getting home, I established where we’d gone wrong and went back a few weeks later making some ‘pace notes’ that could be typed up handed out on the day.
We set off on the morning of the meet and the weather could only be described as dull. The rain on the A64 half an hour later didn’t lift my mood, but it was forecast to stop in an hour or so. On arrival at NY500, I recognised a few cars in the car park and parked next to them. Good quality and reasonably priced butties were then devoured, while the others arrived and the rain continued. About 20 minutes before the scheduled departure time, we all assembled outside and directions were handed out. Since we’d arrived, the BMWs had multiplied considerably, which was nice. Sunday 1 Day was represented by three generations: an E88, F20 and a couple of F40s. Other attendees included a couple of G81 M3 Tourings, a D3, three Z4s and couple of M240i’s.
We slowly left the car park at 11:30, the rain now had cleared off, and headed north on the A169 to towards Pickering (yes, the link to the ‘Ring is tenuous), then on the A170 towards Thirsk. We took a right after 6 miles, and after the village of Hutton-le-Hole, the cattle grid and national speed limit sign indicated the fun was about to start – all ‘SPORT’ buttons were duly pressed. We had a planned stop after a couple miles for the first picture location and to regroup if we’d got separated after leaving NY500. Luckily we’d picked a place on a long straight with a reasonable grass verge. We’d planned for about a dozen cars, we actually had 24 – quite a sight. Just this 10 minute stop was enough proof that all the planning was worthwhile.
We then set off to sample Balkey Ridge over the North York Moors. Blakey Ridge was originally farmed by monks and more recently used for ironstone mining with the Rosedale Railway used to transport this to Teesside until 1929. It’s now more likely to be mentioned on YouTube and is an often-used destination for an evo magazine test. After an all-too-short blast over this very picturesque countryside, the 30mph sign appeared as we dropped down in to the village of Castleton. I would consider a 24 one make convoy impressive, but on the descent we were met with a convoy of 76 tractors travelling in the opposite direction. Perhaps they were on a regional drive-out as well.
As we were heading out of Castleton, being the lead car I was the first person to see the thing that nobody wants to see on a planned drive-out while being followed by 23 cars; the dreaded ‘ROAD CLOSED’ sign. The only sensible option at this point was to follow the diversion signs. The alternative road we ended up on wasn’t that bad, and still took to us to the A171, but had missed out the final planned photo stop. Once on the A171 heading towards Whitby, we decided we had about eight cars still with us; always a problem sticking together when you’re joining a main road. After a couple of phone calls we established that we were in two groups, so the lead group added an impromptu photo stop while the others caught up. The last leg of the ‘Ring was back south on the A169 to Pickering passing the early warning ballistic missile station that is RAF Fylingdales, and also the moorland that was on fire for around a month in summer that you may have seen on the news. Our final destination was Thornton-le-Dale, a pretty village two miles east of Pickering, made famous in recent years as the long-term home of Matthewsons Auctions, as featured in the TV show Bangers & Cash. I resisted temptation to visit their gift shop on this occasion, but the lure of the shop selling handmade chocolate was strong…
I’ll use my final words to thank everybody that made the effort to come along and join us on the day. The image of all the members’ cars lined up into the distance on Blakey Ridge was something that will be remembered for a while.
