My first supersprint with CSCA went very well yesterday. They had a huge field of 113 drivers and all were given the opportunity to do 5 runs of 4 laps each - including a 20 minute lunch break. The Jaguar Drivers Club put on a great show. Scrutineering was processed remarkably quickly and thoroughly. Paperwork & Dorians were managed from the scrutineering office rather than the timing tower, which worked very well. The driver's briefing was high quality. And the day ran very smoothly and efficiently.
The Jag guys managed the North Circuit much differently to NSWRRC. Each run started with 14 cars, and we were sent out from the access road on the back straight just before the final sequence of turns. This maximised the timed lap efficiency but meant we only had those three corners to warm-up before starting the first lap (very careful on lap 1). At the end of the run, we were flagged in at turn 4, saving half a lap of cool-down time. Very efficient use of the track! Maybe slightly smaller gaps between pairs (it was 10 seconds), and a fifth lap would have made better use of the time?
About the only criticism is that they decided to allow people to exit early at turn 4
during hot laps rather than requiring an early exit via the main straight (the sensible place to do it). There were a few close calls as a result, when drivers coming over the hill and about to negotiate turn 4, discovered they had a very slow car blocking them as it swung wide to exit the track.
There was a fascinating mix of cars on display. Apart from the usual collection of Evos, WRXs, Clubmans, Commodores and MX-5s, there was a great assortment of modern and old cars from Lotus, Triumph, Austin Healey, Morgan, MG, Sunbeam, and Jaguar. I enjoyed chatting and matching my times against a group of six RS Clios - some were stock, most modified, and I beat all but two of them (I think - final Natsoft results are not up yet). Sadly, one of the most gorgeous cars on display - a Jag D-Type replica - punted the wall exiting turn 5
. The driver was unhurt but hearing him wail after he saw the damage was heart-wrenching (I saw the crash happen while waiting to start my run).
My five runs were a bit of a mixed bag. I did a fairly comfortable 1:21.5876 on the second run and couldn't improve further. My final hot lap of each subsequent run was compromised by 1) having a spin on the final turn, 2) missing the final gear change (foot slipped off the clutch), 3) brake lock-up into turn 2, and 4) negotiating slow traffic (nearly ended in the boot of a Jaguar Mark 2 on turn 1 at 160-odd km/hr!!!). A sub-1:21 lap is definitely on my agenda. But first I'll need to replace my shagged R-specs which are almost slicks on the outer half, and now badly flat-spotted too. Interestingly, my stock NA6 was comfortably in the top half of the 113 driver field, which says a lot about the cars and drivers at CSCA events - not quite as serious as the State Supersprints.
What do I think of the North Circuit? Not much really. Turn 1 is a hoot as always, Turn 2 is tedious, Turn 3 is flat in 3rd and not all that interesting (at my speed), Turn 4 & 5 is a bit challenging and potentially a bit of fun once it becomes more familiar, Turn 6 (old turn 10) is flat in 4th and not all that interesting (at my speed) apart from having to lift a bit earlier for braking, and Turns 7 & 8 are OK (no different to before). It's definitely not as much fun as the original circuit, where turns 4 and 5 were great to slide, and off-camber turn 8 around corporate hill was a thrill too. Biggest criticism is that there are very few braking areas and lots of time on straights, which makes it difficult to get heat into the tyres. There's one big stop for turn 2, a light dab for turn 4, a medium stop for turn 7, and that's it. I was struggling to get more than 50°C into my RE55s (especially the passenger side), which didn't inspire confidence in grip. This is definitely a track suited to high power/weight cars. So I don't think I'll be all that excited about North Circuit events when they come up.
Video will come soon, once I have time to edit it and upload to YouTube.
Oh, and nice to meet and chat briefly with Andrew (Villa?) who dropped in to say hello.
At least there will only be ten of them in the country.
)
