Wakefield Park Track Day - Friday 20th of June!

[Draven]

in the wet you're doing slower speeds (much slower, depending on power/traction), so while you lost less speed as you spin, you're doing less to begin with.

[GUN METAL]

in the wet you're doing slower speeds (much slower, depending on power/traction), so while you lost less speed as you spin, you're doing less to begin with.

You are right, you will be going slower, say if you do say a 1:15 in the dry are being really conservative in the wet and you reduce your speed and lap at around a 1:30 thats a difference in average speed from say 110 to 92 km/hr. The problem is the traction off the circuit ie the grass and mud the road drops by around 50 % in the wet.

So its fine if you stay ON the track but a whole different ball game when you come off.

i havnt done much stuff on the track, but speaking to people that have say that in the dry when you come off the track you slow down, but in the wet when you come off the track YOU ACCELERATE !, Of course you dont actually accelerate but because the surface is SO slippery it feels like it

[Draven]

hehe

given my power and tyres, I plan to spend a lot of my time spinning

[YLD-16L]

A lot of the "off" areas are dirt not grass at WP so you slow down almost as quick in the wet as the dry. The gravel trap at the end of the straight is the same wet or dry

[messy]

is it a gravel trap/dirt after the last hairpin - just before main straight?

Got told yesterday there is a brick wall a fair distance away there ....but still a wall.

I do actually hope it rains - we all get the chance to throw our cars around in the dry and they are predictable...but i dont know my car in the wet and prefer to do it where there arent kerbs, other cars and bad roads....so should be good, one way or another!!!!

[YLD-16L]

is it a gravel trap/dirt after the last hairpin - just before main straight?

Nope, mostly grass, not enough dirt to offer any traction, it's the only corner I excercise caution when it's wet, everywhere else has plenty of run off.

[messy]

great, good to know...thanks!

[JustenGT8]

is it a gravel trap/dirt after the last hairpin - just before main straight?

Got told yesterday there is a brick wall a fair distance away there ....but still a wall.

I do actually hope it rains - we all get the chance to throw our cars around in the dry and they are predictable...but i dont know my car in the wet and prefer to do it where there arent kerbs, other cars and bad roads....so should be good, one way or another!!!!

Don't wish for rain...trust me the novelty will wear off after a coupla laps as you'll want to use the track to actually go fast

Onto the straight is the only place you can really damage yourself and even then only if you try and keep the boot in after having a moment. Safe option is to get off the throttle and just let the car do it's thing until you stop .... then start again

I have heard the new ripple strip/curbs are a bit nasty and also means the drop off the circuit is getting pretty big in places.....wayward driving will likely cost you some gutter rash/bent rim and/or underbody damage.

Dry is soooooo much more fun.

[MR22ZZ]

Nope, mostly grass, not enough dirt to offer any traction, it's the only corner I excercise caution when it's wet, everywhere else has plenty of run off.

I see you've never driven a FWD car around there in the wet then...

The turn 1 kink in a FWD car is a bitch for lift off oversteer in the wet.
There is also no sand trap to pull you up there so you are spinning on the grass towards to armco. Not a fun feeling at all.

[-GT-]

Agreed, there's no way i throw my car around in the dry anywhere near like i can on the track, so i don't, there's no fun in it on the street anymore, you just can't come close. The wet is only fun at the track because it happens so rarely.

And you can manage anything in the dry you can do in the wet, you just have to try hard enough...

Edit: Bah, getting interrupted at work mid-post - comment was in response to justen's post. Dylan's post makes me laugh because i was following him when he did that.

[YLD-16L]

I see you've never driven a FWD car around there in the wet then...

Nor the dry, can't say it's on my list of "things to do"

[messy]

fair enough....can i hope for 20 minutes of rain right at the end
need to practice driving in the wet - the soarer scares me a bit in the wet!

think old rims will be coming out for this - dont like the sound of the new ripple strip!

[Mos]

Onto the straight is the only place you can really damage yourself and even then only if you try and keep the boot in after having a moment. Safe option is to get off the throttle and just let the car do it's thing until you stop .... then start again

On my first ever wakefield outing a kid in a beamer had a stack there, in the DRY. He had a series of moments with the boot in, eventually spinning the car around and backing it into the wall along the straight. Either let go and catch it, or if you can't catch it just spin off into the inside of the corner.
Mos.

[IN 05 NT]

i have spun almost every corner at wakefield, wet and dry,

ONLY ONCE have i ever come close (within 10mtrs) of hitting the flag tower at the begining of the bus stop, was caining it round the top and holding a rather crazy slide till it flicked me and sent me in reverse straight for it,

also had an R33 GTR roll over onto it roof as the right rear end colapsed under it, slid of and dug in, and toppled over on to its roof.

its really hard to hit soemthing there, no one should be scared, or paranoid, once you get out there (if you havent already been) you will realise your buffer zones are massive.

[Rodger]

I'll agree.

Not much to hit out there.

I happened to be present when a Mazda RX3 (I think it was) cleaned up the flag point that was on the inside of the track at the turn 1 kink. Next time I was there the flag point had disappeared. The Mazda pushed the concrete pipe tower up and out to a 30 degree angle and the flaggy rode it down.

Regards

Rodger