Wakefield Park Track Day - Friday November 12th!!

[MR22ZZ]

yeah, should have mentioned it was teperature manaegment for both the cars and the drivers today...

that sun was toasty!

[Ackerz]

Absolutely awesome day. Would have been much better if not for my uni joint coming apart but still happy that i got to fix it and got some laps in. A big thanks to every one ho helped me out on the day.

[-GT-]

Had a bit of a chat afterwards and it turns out that v8 supercar guy was one of our group - i thought he was affiliated with the circuit. I completely understand why they wouldn't have been impressed with him abusing the leeway they give us on passengers by selling rides.

Have also confirmed there'll be no issue whatsoever with us going back next time to the same format and rules we've been running for 8 or 9 years down there, may just mean that guy isn't with us next time.

Thanks again to all who came along and made it such a great day, definately by far the quietest i've ever seen it. Shame to see a couple of toyotas have issues, especially Arek about 5 laps into his first ever day, but after a good effort under the car for most of the day got back out there in the arvo and made up for lost time.

I decided to play with sway bar settings given how much time we had - led to a softer rear a little more inclined to slide but some more understeer in places so i'm not sure it's quicker, but more adjustable mid corner so will see how it goes with the timer on it. What it did do though was make it less recoverable to a light rear end transitioning out of turn 1 - it turned right on me one lap in the first session after the change and was gone: led to a very fast ride through the grass on the inside and back out over the track at turn 2, and a metric truckload of grass entering the car via the driver's window (not dirt thankfully after all the rain!)

So that's what i'm doing this weekend - removing seats and whatever else is needed to vacuum half a football field out of my car. Think i'll be able to mulch the garden with it all. No video unfortunately, i didn't take the camera out once all day.

[MR22ZZ]

Your car was certainly sliding a lot through turn 4 Garth, but that's the way FWD cars seem to get around Wakefield. I remember the sportivo being the same through there.

also, while the seats are out... dry ice

[Brendan]

Did one session of hot laps in each VW.
GTI: 1:14.6
R32: 1:15.1

R32 feels much niver to drive, but not when you giving it some stick. Traction control is quite invasive.

Sam does not seem to handle situations well at all...
After asking me to leave a passanger seat (thats fine), goes on for the usual are you a driving instructor interogation (also fine to an extent), then pushes too far as usual.

General abuse thrown at me such as "see you've taught him well" shouted at me regarding the black sw20 having a spin and then a fish tail, Whom i hadn't even met the driver of yet at that stage...

Love to know what his offical position at the track is?
I assume hes not a partial owner and just works there?

[1JZ-Rolla]

Which one is Sam? Sounds like a bloke i've become 'familiar' to at WP Can certainly dish out a barrage of verbal abuse when it suits him, captured on my in-car camera one of the last times I was out.....

[WHITCHY]

Yeah thanks for another wicked day Garth! So much track time it was insane. Managed to have some fun trying different entry angles at the last corner earlier in the day, then had some mad sessions towards the end of the day to nail some decent times. Unfortunately Sam didn't like me trying to test my limits in an attempt to find some more seconds around the top part of the track in those last sessions, so he pulled the black flag on me....again.

[trdee]

weird, ive never had anyone say anything to me and im spearing off the track more often than most??

sounds like the guy needs an official complaint made....

[-GT-]

Hmmm, knew we had a bit of a problem with him but didn't realise he'd been that bad - as i mentioned before it seems like the decision was made above him to curb the passenger action around lunchtime, but it seems as though he enjoyed being able to pull us up on it. I'll have a word to the other guys and fill Warwick in on some of this as i think he's pushing the boundaries a bit - we've already been told things will be back to normal next time, and he actually seemed fine right at the end and let us go out 2 up in the commodore wagon. But he did apparently say something along the lines of "i love this, best part of the fucking day" when he pulled the chequered flag out on us.

Unfortunately we'd already swapped drivers back in the wagon so i didn't get a chance to top the 1:11.1 i did in my first session. Was suprised how easy that thing was to drive hard, smooth power and plenty of traction with the slicks - i had to actually try to provoke the rear end out of the hairpin or the fishhook in second gear. I was able to give it 100% by about mid exit in 2nd and even snapping 3rd didn't break the rear end loose. Those brakes work alright too. Needs some decent camber/slicks alignment to get rid of some understeer when pushing into corners but it's pretty well balanced otherwise - it just promotes power through corners like down the hill. Definately a lot more in it quite easily, that was only my first drive. And was pretty impressed Steve did a few 1:11.9's on only his 3rd ever track day and first time on slicks.

[v8soarer]

Pretty impressive for a car that size with just a street alignment. Sounds like Sam needs to chill a bit - is he even interested in cars?

Bit of footage following Manny. My car felt down on power but his blue Soarer is a fast unit - just needs some brakes & suspension setup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b4fDLnBeWA

[manny]

Garth, thanks for another fantastic event, we had a great day out there with a top bunch of enthusiasts who were happy to lend a helping hand or advice - a little too hot but you can't control that.

The blue Soarer went great all day but unfortunately the track pads didn't arrive in time so I was cooking OEM pads every 3-4 laps before a forced cool down period... then as you can see in Damo's video, the shifter became less that accurate so shifts were hard to execute until it let go completely at the end of the main straight where I was left rolling in neutral until the session was red flagged and I was towed back to the pits. sorry guys
Fortunately, it was only the 4 bolts holding the R154 shifter plate down that had backed out some 10mm each until the shifter popped out.... a quick clean and reassembly later and it was better than ever back out on the track and for the 300km trip home.
Hopefully with some decent pads and a proper wheel alignment it will be back out there and no longer only quick on the straights!

Can't wait for the next one

[TurboRA28]

Spun a bearing in the 1mz on 16th lap so not the best day. But shit happens!
Sam seemed like a Dick and made it hard for us as we were doing some driver training which was cut short.
I have heaps of pics just need to host the 3gb somewhere.
Cheers
Joel

[trdee]

sad to hear joel. new engine going in soon?

[Cuzzo]

Sam does not seem to handle situations well at all...
After asking me to leave a passanger seat (thats fine), goes on for the usual are you a driving instructor interogation (also fine to an extent), then pushes too far as usual.

General abuse thrown at me such as "see you've taught him well" shouted at me regarding the black sw20 having a spin and then a fish tail, Whom i hadn't even met the driver of yet at that stage...

Love to know what his offical position at the track is?
I assume hes not a partial owner and just works there?

Is he the dude that gave me some abuse when i rolled the corolla?

[Cuzzo]

Sam seemed like a Dick and made it hard for us as we were doing some driver training which was cut short.

Pun Intended?