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A bevy of MX5's in attendance as well as a full grid (74 cars) made for some interesting track times. Thanks to an email suggestion that the first few of us that turned up were to grab some pit bays worked, we got 4 bays and managed to get 6 MX5's into them.

No PB for myself (61.37) but the car went well, started slow in the early sessions but picked up the pace. On more than a few occasions we lapped some cars twice, traffic made it hard to get 'space'. The car was more of a handful, power oversteer on some corner exits as well as exciting times keeping it gripping to the bitumen. One more practice session before WTAC and I'm happy with my progress this year.

Will use facebook for the photos this time
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1208648705867592.1073741850.100001674213960&type=1&l=b8365c1612

Will post a video soon.

I read the sup regs for one of these and could not work out the format. Is it a standing start, flying finish and you get x number of attempts or is it timeattack style flying laps in sessions, fastest flying lap counts?

Some great shots - some nice artful captures

Fastest lap counts. 5 flying laps, plus out and in laps. No standing start, outlap from the pit lane and go for it when you cross the line the first time.

The American - shots were taken by my other half and our daughter.

As for what Trackphotos stated, however it is 4 flying laps (excludes in/out laps) and min 4 sessions for the day. The street sprints are almost always held up by the V8 experience, this time we were only 45mins late, has been 90 mins late. The start/finish person this time counted 4 laps by the slowest car, hence we were able to get more laps in, sometimes they count 4 laps by the fastest car.

With 20 cars on the track at a time and on the sprint layout it made for 'watch you mirrors'. Only 1 MX5 that I know of went off track (not me). A test from the pit wall shows that my MX5 was 97dB (I phone test) at about 15m, so should pass the 95db at 30m, but maybe not Lakeside.

The AD08R's are not giving as much grip as they have in the past and are starting to become a handful. I never thought that I would ever say that!

Technically speaking 4 wheels off the track is an OFF so there may have been 2 Mx5s with extra dust on the trip home,

interesting watching the rear view with the Blue Mx5 later braking and more speed through the cutting a bot of traffic through the day made for some interesting passin.

Ps; Great photos Mark, thank you

Wow. Some "frustrating" moments in that video Mark. 4:14
Think I'll stick to the club days

When's the last practice before WTAC? Might be able to get over for a spectate.

Hence why when coming out of the pits you stay to the outside not duck into the racing line. Did not help when the car was 'late' we were on the start of the first flying lap.

It was not too bad, we developed a strategy to reduce it happening again

2 October is the next general practice.

The Street sprints with QR are a weekend tack experience for road registered cars, ideally first timers and to introduce newbies that are not a part of a club or cant do midweeks???? and sometimes some experienced drivers needing more experience join the mix for track time !

challenge yesterday was 2 groups were dedicate to the ever growing 86/brz drivers that want to take their cars to the track this limited the time groups for non 86 cars

all in all the field sorted out after the 2nd run and great to have 6 mx5s on the track vs 38 BRZ/86s

next run is LS street sprints 1/10 and is not as busy with the Open sprints 2/10 with GP in the morning if you want to drive the National at QR

The American wrote:I read the sup regs for one of these and could not work out the format. Is it a standing start, flying finish and you get x number of attempts or is it timeattack style flying laps in sessions, fastest flying lap counts?

Some great shots - some nice artful captures

Standing start is the Super Sprint series (CAMS event at Morgan Park). I've just done my first one and have started a new topic about it in the hope of getting some more MX-5s in the series next year.

Magpie wrote:The American - shots were taken by my other half and our daughter.

As for what Trackphotos stated, however it is 4 flying laps (excludes in/out laps) and min 4 sessions for the day. The street sprints are almost always held up by the V8 experience, this time we were only 45mins late, has been 90 mins late. The start/finish person this time counted 4 laps by the slowest car, hence we were able to get more laps in, sometimes they count 4 laps by the fastest car.

With 20 cars on the track at a time and on the sprint layout it made for 'watch you mirrors'. Only 1 MX5 that I know of went off track (not me). A test from the pit wall shows that my MX5 was 97dB (I phone test) at about 15m, so should pass the 95db at 30m, but maybe not Lakeside.

The AD08R's are not giving as much grip as they have in the past and are starting to become a handful. I never thought that I would ever say that!

Geeze Mark,
some of those dicks must have been giving you the willies? And that taxi!! Did he take a wrong turn & end up on the race track?

Yeah the video probably shows some of the frustration, however as Adam said in the pits "we all started somewhere". Yes that was a taxi, runs in Lemon events, was lapping in 1:17's.

Reminds you to use your mirrors when on the track, and just because you are faster on the straights does not make you fast around the track.

68 cars with times recorded for the day. Mx5's in 22nd, 25th, 36th, 39th, 48th and 54th.

Q
Hey Mark

Great photos and video. Group 3 looked pretty crowded. Glad i was in group 4 with ghe 86 club. At least the average speed was consistent and starting towards the feont gave a clean run without lapping traffic

John

Couple of nice portraits in that photoset!

It was initially very challenging in group 4. I nearly hit the same 86 twice in 1 lap! Blew past me down the straight, held me up through the dipper, then almost spun in front of me... good thing I had backed right off and was able to go around him. Then he did exactly the same thing on next lap. I was pretty steamed! He obviously didn't listen in either of his driver briefings. Next session I pushed my way to frontish of queue to get away from him. I'm still a bit grrrrrrrr about it.

Other than that it was a top afternoon, despite the late start, and I did 5 of the 6 available runs. Great weather. Good company. OK times. The R888Rs have potential, but they do seem very flexible in the sidewall, resulting in lots of movement. I found it hard to tip into the corners as hard as I would on the V70s, but the times were only 0.5s off my PB, so the tyres are probably better than they feel (to me). When they start to let go they are quite communicative, but seem to get slippery after 3 or 4 laps. The R888Rs were surprisingly noisy too, howling a bit at initial turn-in to T5 & T6. On the highway they are reminiscent of 4WD muddies, with a distinct whine from about 50kph.

Kudos to Mike Jones for getting me to my first non-MX5CQ sprint event.

Thanks for the feedback on the R888R's as they are on my shopping list (Z214's, A050's, DZ01's, NT01's or even AR-1's)