MX-5 Club of NSW - SMSP Track Day - 14th Feb 2016

[hamx5ter]

Man was it hot.. it was hot... wow..

Just wanted to thank the organizers and flaggies for their efforts today. It's one thing to volunteer your time so that the rest of us can have fun. It's an entirely effort to keep it going on a day like today, where the temps on the track and surrounds were horrendous! 50+ degrees I'm sure... Despite the heat and the bogged up toilets, the day ran (was run) flawlessly and we managed 6 or 7 sessions.

My cunning plan this time was to follow Gus around, rebuild my brief acquaintance with the track and get a little more comfortable with my lines . Seems to have worked once Gus calmed down enough to lead me around the track. We didn't go quicker than our first session out, but it gave me a chance to settle into the track a bit more.

Weird day though ... After being loose and slow most of the day,, the car found grip across most of the track and my times improved somewhat. The last two sessions had only 4 Cars on the track and room to put down some consistent times. Managed a PB on the last lap of the last session so quite pleased with how the day turned out.

Thanks again to the Club and the organisers for a great effort.

[stuart1]

As usual thanks to those who gave their own time to ensure there was a track day.

Yes it was a hot one.

We chased front end grip all day while others chased rear grip..It seemed impossible to get a balance but one thing I did note was there was a relatively small difference between track and tyre temperatures...The track surface was almost as hot as our tyres which I guess confirmed there was little grip.


If you get a breeze blowing across the reservoir later in the afternoon the track can recover fairly quickly but we called it a day at just under 60 Deg track temp.

[hamx5ter]

I'm just impressed thar my car managed the heat ...

My shift light faded for some reason, maybe heat, but came back after a lap or two. The rest of the car ran well, so that was a relief after the hiccups of the past year.

60 degrees... I believe it .. I got home, showered, put the a/c on max cool and fell asleep for 3 hours.. Happy Valentine's Day, wifey!

[chops]

first day out with a few new things on the car and all went pretty well considering how horribly hot it was. I only ran 3 sessions and the grip disappeared pretty quickly

Thanks to all the officials on the day, I owe you all an ice cream

[MX5_Club_of_NSW]

Hopefully that is an ice cream each, not one shared amoungst all the officials?

The class results, times and updated championship point scores are up on the club website. Enjoy!

http://nsw.mx5.com.au/motorsport/track-days/results

http://nsw.mx5.com.au/motorsport/club-track-days/point-score

[hamx5ter]

Wow... a few PBs inspite of the heat it seems..
It's gonna be a bumpy ride...

[stuart1]

After running on the Brabham,South and GP tracks at SMP I have always thought the new South track extension had different characteristics to the older GP track.

With any sort of temperature we have always struggled with the South track which includes part of the GP track to try and get a balance in anything other than cooler conditions.

Today, by accident, I met a guy from a pavement company that had a bit to do with selecting and laying surfaces for events like the V8Supercars at Homebush.

He told me of some of the problems experienced between track surface and a V8Supercar tyre which can reach 135 Deg C on the inner edge of the tyre and rip the wrong surface apart.

He also told me something I suspected in that the newer SMP south extension was surfaced with material that had different characteristics than the older GP track.

So the take out from that is you may not be able to get a good setup on the South track as it is really two tracks in one with different surfaces!!

To me in the Summer months for a good steerer on a race tyre the South track seems only at peak for the first run of the day and late afternoon if you get a reservoir breeze and up to lunch time in the cooler months and again recovers if you get that breeze later in the afternoon.

I would appreciate comments from others but if you sometimes feel you are chasing your tail at that track don't get too concerned as you may not be alone....