1st Time @ Wakefield Park - 25/03/09

[iijjee]

Drove 1100km to finally get my car on the track at WP. Apart from the high temperatures (33+degrees) it was the perfect day for a first timer.

Only my cousin's car and mine, a little 1275cc kit car and one open-wheeler there all day - 8 to 4!

On Tuesday, I picked up 6 semi-slick (used) tyres from 2 locations in Sydney and then found that none of them would fit on my car!!! So, I had to put 2 new 205/45/16 Adrenalins on the front and stick with my dodgy old Falkens on the back. Track felt very slippery and everyone's cars were getting hot within 4 to 5 laps so we just took to lapping one at a time and doing 5 laps each, one warm-up, one hot, one cool down, one hot, one cool down. We hand-timed the 2 hot laps. Got in about 6 timed laps each on the day after a few 'moments' and one big spin (by me!).

My cousin has a stock 2008 FG XR6T 6 Speed Manual on 19's. He started with traction control on but ended up finding laps were faster and more fun with it off. Too much big brother intervention! He's a good driver and although I know he could have pushed it harder (stone-chip phobia!), I think the weather afffected his car more than mine, even though his is white and mine is black! We had both never driven here before so it took a couple of hours (20 laps or so) to learn the track and gain more confidence. Probably did about 45 laps altogether with less than one third of them being at fast pace.

I still feel like I haven't taken the 'fish-hook', the 'kink' or the right-hander onto the back straight with full pace yet and I know I could would find more time in braking later with a few more laps under my belt, but I'm happy with our times for a first crack.

My EG B18CR has stock shocks, lowered springs?, full interior/sunroof, a new sports organic exedy clutch and a 2.5 to 2.25 exhaust with speed-bump flattened headers! It runs a Microtech computer, too.

Best Times?

Formula V Open-wheeler (1200cc!) - 1:16.47 (computer-timed)
Mini Roadster Thing! (1275cc) - 1:16.9 (GPS-timed)
XR6T (no t/c) - 1:15.25 (hand-timed)
EG B18CR - 1:14.12 (time from video camera + hand-timed 3 laps in 1:14's)

Pretty happy for 1st time out with both track and car but was shooting for a 1:12 with the semis. I doubt I'll get back there again as this was a once off opportunity for me, but I'm sure a high 1:12 is possible with my set-up on a cooler day and with more track time, or a 1:10 with semis...

A big thanks to fatboyz39 and papz for the semis - even though I couldn't use them in the end. Rolled guards not possible when you arrive at the tyre place at 4:00pm the day before a track day!!! (If anyone needs some 205/50/16's Dunlop D01J semi-slicks - let me know as I left them with my cousin in Sydney!)

My spin was pretty exciting, too! It was on the left hander before the 3 right-handers. Just too much pace and missed the apex. Might get it up on here one day after my bro uploads it. Here's the 1:14.12 lap on youtube, which he just uploaded a few minutes ago. Car is pretty well balanced with nice oversteer on entry followed by a little too much body roll and power-understeer on slippery tyres on exit!!! A lot of fun!

What a day! And how jealous am I of all the guys who can get there in 2 hours! Count your blessings! You're all mad if you don't get out there for a crack sometime! It's a brilliant track and extremely technical. Mess up one braking point or apex and you can stuff up 3 corners!!!

Here's the URL...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_oiNwTY9Zs

[bennjamin]

wow great times ! Im a second behind you similar setup...you must have bigger balls than me rofl.

more in car vids !

[damienm]

sweet time, what brakes are you running?

[moo moo nel]

what a good start!
but...rev-matching is important

[e240]

Hey
1:14 on streets and stock sussys is really good!

[Zilli]

well done mate! good onya for getting out there! great times for your setup!

[aaronng]

Good first time. Once you start revmatching while braking entering the corners, you'll be able to exit corners with more speed and shave a few seconds off.

[Zilli]

and wait till you get matching tyres back to front and some better sussy... you're car must be a rocket

[Benson]

Great time for a first timer. We were out their yesterday with my brothers EVO and a mates Suzuki Kit car. Should of came out yesterday. haha

With more practice, you'll be well into the 1:13's. Seems you got a pretty good alignment set-up in it.

[Q_ball]

Well done

[iijjee]

Yeah you can see mistakes in almost every corner when you watch it back! Still focusing on arriving at turn-in point with right speed so rev-matching and later braking will have to wait until my next (imaginary) trip to WP! Not likely! Thanks for the ups fellas.

Benson, I heard it was going to be cooler there yesterday... would have been great to share the track with a few cars and watch some times and corner speeds.

The guy with the Mini kit car had a free downloaded programme on his mobile called 'Race Chrono' which I have on my phone, too. I just thought is was for speed and 0-100 etc, but he had downloaded WP from the RaceChrono website and had bought a little bluetooth enabled GPS receiver ($109!) which talked to his phone as they sat on the dash together! He was able to scroll through all his lap times, the best and worst being up the top of the list, click on any lap and see corner speeds for each corner on a little map of the track, and ideal lap time based on the best sector splits and heaps of other info about speeds etc! Amazingly complete and simple to use!

My brakes are from an EK VtiR. 262mm, stock pads and rotors. Rears are stock EG Vti.

Was well prepared for day as I had to drive 1100km to get there and didn't want to break anything! A 2500km trip in the end. Got 600km on one tank with a full car (13.33 km/L) and at the track I used 20L for 105 km (5.25 km/L)!!! The XR6T used 36L in 105km!!!

Maybe QR-Sprint next! Trying to interest the prettiest girl in the world we could take there kids there for a 'fabulous' day out - April 15?!?

Not likely!

[iijjee]

Wait 'til I upload the spin! And the 1:15 with a BIG moment at the fish-hook! (Still had 45psi in fronts then, changed to 30psi later.)

Pics to come, too!