MX-5 Club of QLD - Track Day Morgan Park 19th March 2016

[Magpie]

What a day!

[zero00]

Great day, maybe a little hot but excellent pits and I was only there for a look

I think 21 MX-5's and 12+ 86/BRZ's really boosted the numbers

Good to see Magpie got the diff seal problem rectified and then back out on track - smoke from the back of a car always worries me Magpie and Josh Coote's problem was overfilled with oil!

A few incidents but NO damage to any cars and I'm sure all would have made it home OK - biggest obstacle for me coming home was torrential rain so heavy viz was NIL at Willowbank and I crawled to the BP and pulled over along with many others!! Almost washed off the road by B-doubles !!

A couple of things that didn't impress me even tho I'm not one who should complain but NO food or drink facilities whilst there would have been 200+ people, very difficult to spectate although we found a couple of spots and whilst only 3 groups too long between runs as the next group don't seem to be in any hurry to line up and be ready [the plus to that on a hot day is that the car gets a chance to cool down]

Overall, great to see the MX-5's having a ball!

[ndragun]

A few incidents but NO damage to any cars and I'm sure all would have made it home OK

I think a wheel fell off one of the MX5's and had to be stretchered home didn't it? Not sure exactly who.

Trying day for a few of us... My CAS shot off the back of the head and into the firewall on the first run of the day. Big thanks to those that helped. You know who you are and its HUGELY appreciated. Thanks to that we got it all back together and re-timed - and ended up with some good time on track in the afternoon - best a 1:20.6.

Rain on the way down just before Willowbank was a shocker though.

Some lovely Porsche's there. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...

And if anyone wants to buy a timing light... I know a guy.

[zero00]

[quote="ndragun"][quote="zero00"]I think a wheel fell off one of the MX5's and had to be stretchered home didn't it? Not sure exactly who.
Rain on the way down just before Willowbank was a shocker though.

Greg lost a wheel in his NA but was back on track for at least the last run - red NA with black hardtop and 'rising sun' on the boot

Sorry I couldn't assist - I'm far from mechanically minded!

That rain was unreal - kinda like home here for the past 10-15 mins

[gslender]

Great track and totally enjoyed the day, even if I had engine issues. Still put some good times down so was happy with that!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Vat]

That was a looooong day. I know one or two guys had longer commutes than I did (apologies to Sonke - I did stop at the Aratula BP and hung around for 20 mins but was keen to get going again) so I shouldn't complain, but when I got home just after 6 I was stuffed and a couple of beers saw me hit the hay pretty early.

After a lovely drive down to Warwick in pre-dawn light and mist (apart from the horrid road through Aratula) went through the entry and scrutineering (nowhere near as scary as it sounded - only question I got asked was if my intended track shoes were leather, since I was in the running shoes I'd dríven down in).

I was a bit compromised as I ran my RE003s on my stock wheels, so rubber, track and cambers were different, and tyre pressuers were a bit of a challenge. Took quite a while to get confidence in the car and I wouldn't count myself as really being into it until the fifth session. Finally got a couple of what I felt were decent runs in late in the day so finished with a smile on the face.

Still, great little track. There are some really interesting little sections (the turn 1 - turn 2 combo, turn 5 down into turn 6 on to the back 'straight', the fast sweeping right hander and the flip-flop onto the main straight on the long K course, and the 'esses' shortcut on the E variation.

Facilities are okay if a little basic - toilets are a bit more convenient, but no canteen (lunch was provided) and no air compressor.

Drive home was fine, a bit more traffic. I stopped at Aratula for something to eat and waited a little for Sonke but decided to push on while there was still light. I caught the back half of Roger's rain storm - had the roof down and got a little bit of spray in the cabin (pro-tip - the wipers will not clear water from inside the screen, no matter how many times you try). Have come away a bit ear-blasted after 1 hour running at highway speeds but tried noise-isolating ear-buds and they worked a treat. Didn't feel there was any compromise in awareness - you forget how tactile the older MX-5s are.

My tips for scrutineering at Morgan Park:
- you need to get your entry paperwork sorted and signed off on first
- have your helmet in the car
- have your track shoes on
- Morgan Park don't care about your side numbers, they want them on the windscreen on the top left (passenger side) of the windscreen. A number made up of white tape is fine.

[Red_Bullet]

Well that was a great weekend, Saturday was interesting with some fine machinery present, sessions were slow to run but enjoyable. Being a first time with the Porsche club not all processes were clear to a newbie, but I floundered my way through the technicalities. The track is really fun. It was great to see such a vast array of different cars. The long circuit which we ran first (funny, I kinda thought we would have run the short cct first) was really fun, I really enjoyed the chicane things before the straight, must be related to my love of round-abouts. That fast right hand sweeper down the back is not for the faint hearted, but would be really good with a bit more time to build confidence with it. I thought that the brands could have been mixed up more, no reason why the slower 86's couldn't run with the Mx-5's and vice versa.

Sunday with SDT, I spectated while my first born had his track debut in his Mazda 3. He took to it with aplomb despite the horrendous howling of road tyres entering the straight and his maniacal late braking into the fast turn 1. Interesting weekend that I wouldn't have missed for anything.

Thanks Adam for getting this together.

[slug_dub]

A really good day. I love a whole fleet of MX5's but it was really nice to see and hear a variety of vehicles.

Many thanks to Adam for making it happen, looking forward to the next one!

[Magpie]

As I said what a day!

Woke up (always good) headed for the track, unloaded and got ready. Scrutineering is always easy when you know what to expect and get there early . Briefing was brief. Track time, yes!

The bad - noticed smoke out the rear after a few laps. Checked the gauges no issues, engine protection not activated. Backed off smoke did not. At the end of the session an official spoke to me that I would not be allowed out till the smoke issue was fixed.

Apparently if you are trying to hide from the enemy a smokescreen is good on a race track it is bad! Mainly the oil concern...

Checked the engine bay nothing. Pull the data logs nothing. Nothing dripping at the front. Rear, damm oil from the diff was going onto the exhaust and causing the smoke. Problem found, now the solution....

Thanks to Jeff at Plus for taking my call on the Saturday and making some suggestions. Tried a few of these but the leak did not stop. During this time Tess was ringing around Warwick trying to find a business to have a look. I decided to call it, handed my timer in and started to pack up when Tess said that she had found a place that would look at the diff. At lunchtime loaded the car on the trailer and off to Mal Wood's (http://www.malwoodauto.com.au/.

By 1430 I was heading back to the track with new seals. Just in time for the group I was in going back on the track for the last session. Since I had taken my number off AND handed the timer in the clerk of the course still let me out, sans smoke screen. Bonus run as well. Whilst I only got 3 runs in the weekend was not a total loss. Car handled horribly in the last sessions, but on the Sunday things were tweaked and got more seat time and confidence.

Thanks to Tess for not giving up when I had, Josh (MCA) for loaning me jack stands, Jeff (Plus) for providing telephone support, others who helped and Mal Wood's for the 'miracle'.

Photos from the day
DSCN3101 by Eipeip, on Flickr

DSCN3100 by Eipeip, on Flickr

DSCN3094 by Eipeip, on Flickr

DSCN3090 by Eipeip, on Flickr

DSCN3089 by Eipeip, on Flickr

DSCN3088 by Eipeip, on Flickr

DSCN3087 by Eipeip, on Flickr

DSCN3086 by Eipeip, on Flickr

DSCN3085 by Eipeip, on Flickr

DSCN3084 by Eipeip, on Flickr

DSCN3082 by Eipeip, on Flickr

DSCN3078 by Eipeip, on Flickr

DSCN3074 by Eipeip, on Flickr

DSCN3072 by Eipeip, on Flickr

[MXO005]

Great photos.
I always get too caught up to go around and capture the other cars.

A few pictures of my (varied) group. Think we had the best opportunity to mix in Group 4. By that I mean I had different makes overtaking me.
Bunching up on the out lap improved things a lot later in the day.

Group 1 - mainly Porsche
Group 2 - Mainly 86's/BRZ + 1x BMW?
Group 3 - MX-5's - looked very evenly matched across the group to me.
Group 4 - mix of older, and 'protected' Porsches, Lotus Elise, 3x MX-5's


SAM_6297 by MXO005, on Flickr

SAM_6298 by MXO005, on Flickr

SAM_6299 by MXO005, on Flickr

SAM_6307 by MXO005, on Flickr

Really don't know my Porsche models but the driver of this one was a great bloke.
SAM_6305 by MXO005, on Flickr

Had a few decent chats, think he was a friend of Chris and they were enjoying a whole family day.
He jumped out of the (hectic) middle of the pack and dropped back with us. I still couldn't catch him though.
He did admit that he had a lot of electronic wizardry. Not that he was depending on it.


Thanks very much to Adam and the other Clubs organisers. I think most of the niggles have been mentioned and can easily be fixed in hopefully lots more similar future events.

[ndragun]

Really don't know my Porsche models but the driver of this one was a great bloke.

...

He jumped out of the (hectic) middle of the pack and dropped back with us. I still couldn't catch him though.
He did admit that he had a lot of electronic wizardry. Not that he was depending on it.

Cayman isn't it? I actually mistook it for a Boxster once I finally got out in the afternoon and had a run around behind him.
The owner of the GT3 with the yellow checker pattern was a great bloke as well. He paid $65k for that car in a post-divorce fire sale. It was apparently prepped for Targa but never ran and so ended up sitting in a shed doing nothing until he picked it up. What a steal...!!

Apologies if I messed things up not bunching up - I was trying to open a bit of space to the 944s by the end of the day on the out lap. I had a pretty sizeable lockup around the back following one of them and have fairly ruined my front left. They were braking quite a bit earlier and just caught me by surprise - so I thought I'd better just keep my distance.

[gslender]

Really don't know my Porsche models but the driver of this one was a great bloke.
SAM_6305 by MXO005, on Flickr

I thyink that's a Cayman and essentially a coupe version of Boxster - which is a car that I'd like to own one day... they are getting cheaper and probably for $20K you'd get an ok boxster model if you don't mind a few klms on the car. Not sure if they'd be anywhere near easy to work on given the engine is mid mounted and apparently you've got to drop the entire engine frame down to work on it... so probably a bitch to fix.

These cars handle better than 911s and go OK too if you get the bigger six engine!

G

[MXO005]

Apologies if I messed things up not bunching up

No dramas at all.
I was getting lapped by the two front runners during the third lap on the first couple of runs of the long circuit so missed out on my fifth lap and they effectively only got two 'clear' laps so were probably equally as unhappy. Maybe it was as much their fault for racing off straight from the pits ? I thought we were all doing pretty well keeping together at the back
The bunching up later really worked though and you could see the front guys were controlling it as we went around the hairpins.

Think I then only lost out once more on the first run of the afternoon on the short circuit when Sven (?) pipped me just before the line. I was pretty mad at myself as I thought I should have done better through those last twisties and hung on but I made a hash of it and then a piss poor attempt at waving him through once I realised it was lost.


I think we all like the 'idea' of the opportunity to run against different makes and show them up in the corners even if we lose out on the straights but your point about different braking zones is a good one and at this/my level, and remembering that it's not actually racing, and everyone has different risk levels regarding their vehicle/driving maybe the idea is better than reality and the actual group splits weren't such a bad idea.
[A complete novices thoughts ]

[Cal]

A great day, if cut a little short for us. Thanks Adam for organising.

Didn't get to the short circuit but PB'ed on the K circuit with a 1.31.02 trying to stay with the brand new blue 991 GT3.

The reason we went home:

Broken power frame.

[MattR]

Well it's not as if Bluey has led a pampered life........

Could have been worse though, and at least you get to have a drive of something. i haven't actually sat in the driver's seat of a car since January 10, I might have forgotten how to drive by the time I get to sit in front of a steering wheel again......