Modified Live 2022 - Cadwell Park

2nd May 2022

I've been going to Modified Live at Cadwell Park for quite a few years. In the early days displaying my car on a club stand, but more recently just going along as a regular punter on a day out.

I still have the same car but all of the guys and girls I used to go with have moved their cars on, quite a few during lockdown as there was not much point in having a show car when there weren't any shows.

Well the show season is definitely back and back with a vengeance. Last month's Japfest was packed with record crowds and club stands filled with modified metal. It seems that some didn’t get rid of their pride and joys but used the time to get on and do all of those jobs that needed doing on their cars.

And did it show? Yes it did. There was a great selection of classic to modern modified cars for the very large crowd to view. When I say large. I mean huge. I had arranged to meet a few people inside the event, however it took a few who had not planed to arrive early up to and hour and a half to get in.

I think the staff at Cadwell had been taken a bit by surprise by the numbers; during large events they will have a few alternative gates open to access field parking, and more ticket booths open at these alternative locations but that was not the case on this bank holiday Monday.

I entered with only a short delay, which when you are in a car that draws a bit of attention can be fun. My friend's God-daughter was loving it! "They are all filming us" she said just as a "rev it up" was shouted.

I can neither confirm or deny that the afore mentioned request was granted, but there was a loud cheer from the occupants of the other cars and a small amount of the earth's resources might have been wasted for the entertainment of the queuing petrol heads.

So what had inspired the good folk of Lincolnshire and beyond to make the journey to the flowing hills of the Wolds? First up was the opening round of this year's Time Attack Championship.

Time Attack has been running for 16 years and gets better every season for the spectator. When I first started watching this motorsport it was quite a small affair, but it has grown somewhat.

There are now classes for just about every "race" and road going car you can think of. Club, Clubman, Pocket Rocket and the Pro class were all out, not racing, but doing time attack. If you think of a hillclimb but on a circuit that in a nut shell is what time attack is - they are racing the clock.

The drivers are trying to set the fastest time they can, not racing each other. One maybe two hot laps flat out, then they will do a slow lap or so and go for it again. This can be seen by the use of a flashing red light on the rear of the vehicle to warn the other competitors that they are on a slow lap. 

For the racing fans there was the Civic Cup Saloon Cars Championship. This series is based on the Honda Civic Type-R EP3 and FN2 all pushing about 230bhp so there was some close, very close, racing resembling the bumper to bumper action seen in British Touring Cars.

A grid of 27 started racing, five did not finish in race one and three in race two. For the final race only 21 made the grid with three more not finishing the race. The attrition rate in this race series is quite high but very entertaining for the crowds. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the Civic Cup. It's usual at Club racing to see one or two individuals run off with all of the prizes. This is not the case here, with different winners, very close racing and a few spills, it kept my attention. The series has teamed up with Time Attack and will be on the same race card at the next six meetings.

Also on the race card was the Motorsport UK British Superkart Championship. We saw these tiny rocket ships a few weeks ago at Cadwell so I knew what to expect. However, it still impresses me when they fly through Hall Bends.

With little to no suspension, and being so close to the ground, they carry some amazing corner speed. This lack of suspension also makes for interesting viewing from the grandstands at the top of the mountain.

The main event for most of the crowd was the Motorsport UK Drift Pro. Modified Live has had a few different show events on track over the years, and the historic F1 cars were great to see round the mini Lincolnshire Nürburgring a few years ago, but the drifting takes some beating.

Previously,  Modified Live have tried a few different parts of the track for drifting - Gooseneck, Mansfield and the bottom of the mountain. This year they returned to my favourite part of Cadwell, Hall Bends.

It was a great spectical with the cars only being a few feet away from the fans, but there was a problem. As so many had turned up it was up to five deep along the fence line and it was difficult to see what was going on.

The Drift Judges did have to stop the action a few times as kids were climbing the trees for a better view. I did see a post on social media later that night commenting about how hard it was to see the action. One post suggested a grandstand at the end of Halls. I think that is a cracking idea.

So that was the on track action. Off track it was all about the car club stands. There was a very good turnout including a lot of super cars that did a parade lap at lunch time, sorry no pictures I was having lunch

If you are a bit of a billy no mates like me and not part of a club, you could still display your car as an individual or enter the show and shine. I spent quite a while round the car clubs meeting up with friends that I had not seen for a few years.

One inspirational guy is Martin who I’ve known for quite some time. I knew of him before actually meeting him as he used to help organise a big car show in Hull many years ago that I used to go to. He also used to run a well known garage that catered for the modified scene. When I needed parts for my car he was the first port of call.

These days Martin is not in the best of health but still turns up with his super clean R33 GTR for the show and shine events, and it's always great to see him and the rest of the crowd. 

So how can I sum up Modified Live? It was the best one I have been to so far, with great cars on show, very good track action for when you have had enough of looking at cars that have been polished to within an inch of their life, and a great party atmosphere helped by the Motorsport UK Drift Pro area that was more like a mini music festival than a race paddock. 

Thanks go to Graeme Taylor Images for helping out on this report, you can see more of his work by following these links.