NSW Club Track Day @ Wakefield - 17 February 2008

Li7hium · Postby **Li7hium** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:25 am

Now that I safely have my entry in ( :mrgreen:

), I feel happy to announce to the rest of you that the first Track Day for the year is in 3 weeks time!

Entry Form

Event Regulations

Looking forward to getting back to the track after such a long off season. It has been painful.

See you there!

Matt

marcusus · Postby **marcusus** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:04 pm

Have been considering it, but am a bit apprehensive since it's 3 events in the one day, and I've only done one day at EC.

What will the standard be like? How about the competitiveness of the event? Is it worth taking Monday off work to have an easy drive back, rather than hauling ass all the way down, racing all day, then hauling ass all the way back?

Hellmun · Postby **Hellmun** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:19 pm

I'm going to go back on my transaction history and see if I already signed up.... I have a feeling they put the forms up in November didn't they?

Marcusus the 3 events are just different parts of the circuit, not much travel involved. I wouldn't really say it requires anything but a little more adaptation than the standard track day.

I usually drive up on semi's, hard suspension, polyeurethane bushes from Wollongong to Goulbourne and back. Absolutely stuffed by the end of the day but definitely do-able.

marcusus · Postby **marcusus** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 11:12 am

Hellmun wrote:Marcusus the 3 events are just different parts of the circuit, not much travel involved. I wouldn't really say it requires anything but a little more adaptation than the standard track day.

I usually drive up on semi's, hard suspension, polyeurethane bushes from Wollongong to Goulbourne and back. Absolutely stuffed by the end of the day but definitely do-able.

Hmmm... I'm sure it's doable. But I'd be adding another hour and a half to your journey from Sydney.

It probably wouldn't hurt to take Monday off anyway, but it all depends on how much work I've got on etc. Need to check that up this week, but I wouldn't mind going really. Besides, I wanna give irwin's super streets a run on the track :mrgreen:

Are both yourself and irwin going to this?

Hellmun · Postby **Hellmun** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 9:34 pm

I should definitely be there. I think Irwin's car is not all together at the moment, he was thinking of coming up in his brothers car. I've just heard that through a friend I havn't talked to him in a couple of weeks. I've been trapped at work a lot more than usual and all my free times been stuck into the garage.

Charlie Brown · Postby **Charlie Brown** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 9:38 am

The three events on the one day is a good way to develop your skills and to learn about the MX-5s capabilities.

The morning starts with the field being split into two groups, one on the hillclimb and the other doing the short circuit. Midway through the morning the groups swap to the other event and finish at lunch time. After lunch is the full circuit.

On my first track day I stayed overnight in Goulburn but since then I just drive down and back on the same day, an hour & three quarters. I did do one event and then drove to a friends place at Blackheath (without any front pads) and it wasnâ€™t a problem. So donâ€™t let the distance/time put you off going.

As for the competitiveness on the event, nah weâ€™re not competitive at all. :roll:

Seriously though, no one expects first times to go close to class lap records, it just doesnâ€™t happen. You need to learn the track and your own limits and that will take about three or four events. Most members use their initial best time and try and shave fractions of a second off that the next time they go to the track. Others say they just want to beat a 1:25 or a 1:20 and are happy to try for that

Sadly I canâ€™t come to this meeting as a very inconsiderate friends daughter decided to get married and wouldnâ€™t move the wedding day for me to attend the track day :cry:

.

Postby **mx5racing** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 1:21 pm

Well a few of us spent Friday and Saturday at Wakefield Park - On Friday it was like a MX5 track day with 12 cars there!!

I must say the track resurfacing has made a huge difference.

The old track was surface ground so the new top could be laid down on it. In most sections the new surface is as high as the old ripple strips so they no longer do much!! You can ride across them with quite a bit of extra speed. Turn 2 is wider on the exit. Turn 3 the l/h ripple strip is not so high. Across the top is where the major changes are with the track being flater and the drop off the top not as agressive. The kink in the back straight can easily be taken at flat stick even in the faster cars. The last corner onto the straight is slightly wider at the exit and the bumps leading up to it are almost gone.

Grip level is awesome expecially across the top. All in all a much better track to drive on with times around 1 - 1.5 seconds faster than before. L/H/R tyres suffered quite a bit but the fronts look great considering the 130 laps we did over 2 days!!

Shame you wont be there Charlie Brown - thought you could do a couple of laps in our NC's........ have to save it for next time!!

Should be a great meeting on the 17th!! :mrgreen:

Charlie Brown · Postby **Charlie Brown** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 2:41 pm

mx5racing wrote:
Shame you wont be there Charlie Brown - thought you could do a couple of laps in our NC's........ have to save it for next time!!

Should be a great meeting on the 17th!!

BUMMER, would LUV to have a run in your NC :mrgreen:

just to see the handling differences etc, etc.

1 - 1.5 seconds quicker. Ouch, there goes my old lap record to Hellmun.

What times did you get the NC down to?

Postby **mx5racing** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:43 pm

Best we did was a 1.11:12 in the red car and 1.11:66 in the white one.

Red car has Aussie diff ratio and white has Jap.

Aussie one worked better at W/Park as you could hold it up the hill in 3rd not have to change to 4th.

Next on the list is the exhuast and ECU sorted and some sort of cold air intake. Once done it should be capable of 10 flats and with the right tyres and good conditions a 9.

Not a bad time for a pretty std car.

Will let you know when we go to W/Park again and see if you can make it down.

Hellmun · Postby **Hellmun** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 5:41 pm

So those two NC's are stripped, caged and are also running R888's at a guess and are already doing 1:11's....

Hopefully I'll get one last trackday where I'll peel a second+ off my laptime then :mrgreen:

Sorry to hear you won't be up there though CB, was looking forward to chasing you around.

marcusus · Postby **marcusus** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 9:18 pm

Charlie Brown wrote:On my first track day I stayed overnight in Goulburn but since then I just drive down and back on the same day, an hour & three quarters. I did do one event and then drove to a friends place at Blackheath (without any front pads) and it wasnâ€™t a problem. So donâ€™t let the distance/time put you off going.

Thanks for the info. This passage intrigues me the most, because in the end it's the biggest factor for me.

I live on the North Western side of Sydney aka the Hills district, so for me to head to Wakefield means I need to add perhaps another hour or so on top of that 2ish hours you have there.

What time will the day start and finish? I suppose if it's something like a 9am start and a 4pm finish it might not be too bad, but I'll still be knackered afterwards.

Either way, I'm getting quite keen for this now. Just wanna get my facts traight before I say yes/no.

Charlie Brown · Postby **Charlie Brown** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:25 am

marcusus wrote:
I live on the North Western side of Sydney aka the Hills district, so for me to head to Wakefield means I need to add perhaps another hour or so on top of that 2ish hours you have there.

What time will the day start and finish? I suppose if it's something like a 9am start and a 4pm finish it might not be too bad, but I'll still be knackered afterwards.

Either way, I'm getting quite keen for this now. Just wanna get my facts traight before I say yes/no.

Whereis tells me that from the time you hit the M7 at Richmond Rd., till you get to Wakefield, it's 2 hours.

Scrutineering starts at 7:30 and goes for an hour. Finish time generally is about 4:00 - 4:30. All the details are on the Club site.

As for being knackered, you'll still be running on adrenalin by the time you get home, still trying to work out where you can go quicker next time you're there, next time....

PhilM · Postby **PhilM** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:32 am

Sorry well miss your smilng face CB!
The Hunters are having a run down on Sat 16th too far to drive on 1 day, (no old fart comments please) and making it more social for the understanding partners, weve got a few 1st timers.
See my topic in the Events for details.

Philm

marcusus · Postby **marcusus** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 7:21 pm

Charlie Brown wrote:Whereis tells me that from the time you hit the M7 at Richmond Rd., till you get to Wakefield, it's 2 hours.

Scrutineering starts at 7:30 and goes for an hour. Finish time generally is about 4:00 - 4:30. All the details are on the Club site.

So that would be at a very minimum a 5am wake up to make it there. Hmmm... that makes it a bit tougher, but I've basically convinced myself to go anyway, so I suppose I'm in.

Guess I'd better go about filling in the forms etc.

Does everyone just kinda meet there, or is there a bit of a pre meet so that those that have no idea where they're going (ie me) can tag along and not get lost and waste time that could've been better spent sleeping

Hellmun · Postby **Hellmun** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:30 pm

It's actually a really easy drive. It's just get on the expressway, drive to Goulbourne and there'll be a sign turn left up ahead. You turn left follow it along and then hit a petrol station (mobil I believe it is) at a big intersection and you turn left again. Then you follow that along for about 2-3 minutes...and then you turn left at a bridge/overpass and just keep going straight. Wakefield is noticable when you reach it.

Alternatively if you stop at a petrol station on the way there...you will end up meeting an MX5 on their way there as well. Me and Irwin have caught someone every single time at either petrol stations or the Macca's for breakfast.