Had my first track day in a car this weekend,
It was just a winton funday, and for my hard earned $30, it could not have been a better day.
I've been to many motorbike trackdays, and they are not even close to comparable, this was amazing, and if I'm honest, at 4:30 when I was considering the drive home, I was surprised that my car would take that much of a beating, and still cruise home down the hwy.
Having never been before, I had a rather large learning curve ahead of me. The street, and the track, are like two polar opposites. To even think that you have any familiarity with the way your car handles from driving on the street, you too will learn a lot.
The day was run with 2 sessions per hour, all day from 10am, through till 5pm. no stopping for lunch. (well briefly) the only time there wasn't people on the track was for incidents, like a couple of blown engines (and oil on the track) and an accident that saw a less fortunate honda slide sideways into the ripple strip and fold his rear wheel under the car
this would be a costly mistake for a street driven daily .... glad I wasn't being too hektic, or got caught up in the adrenalin.
I took it easy for the morning, just learning the car, feeling the breaks, and realising that once heat gets into the tyres (595 RS-R's) they seem to feel like someone has applied glue, rather then the sliding feeling when your too hot into a corner. For the life of me, I couldn't get the car into a power oversteer, it was a little understeerie, but it wasn't excessive, I was able to hit apex's pretty well.. (well probably means slow)
One massive thing I learnt was, there are so many ways around winton, just taking a couple of laps to realise that there is so much track between the curb on the left, and the curb on the right, just taking different lines, massively affects how you get come out of a turn, and get into the next.
I did a bit of a hero move on a VL turbo, that was wheelspining out of the first hairpin in the cleavage, I was on the inside, and could hold a tighter line, but went wide into the next hairpin and had to make it stick in order not to look like a tosser, and completely stuffed up my entry into the third turn, but with the 4wd and turbo, the car had me out of there was soon as I was straight enough for grip, and I had enough power to keep him in the mirrors.
Not sure I'm a full addict, but I'm definitely going back, and I'm definitely going to spend more time on the track.. I'm still a little worried about my car, as it is kinda of a daily, and I don't want to commit to a full track setup.... time will tell on this front, but can't wait to get back to the track again.
It was just a winton funday, and for my hard earned $30, it could not have been a better day.
I've been to many motorbike trackdays, and they are not even close to comparable, this was amazing, and if I'm honest, at 4:30 when I was considering the drive home, I was surprised that my car would take that much of a beating, and still cruise home down the hwy.
Having never been before, I had a rather large learning curve ahead of me. The street, and the track, are like two polar opposites. To even think that you have any familiarity with the way your car handles from driving on the street, you too will learn a lot.
The day was run with 2 sessions per hour, all day from 10am, through till 5pm. no stopping for lunch. (well briefly) the only time there wasn't people on the track was for incidents, like a couple of blown engines (and oil on the track) and an accident that saw a less fortunate honda slide sideways into the ripple strip and fold his rear wheel under the car
this would be a costly mistake for a street driven daily .... glad I wasn't being too hektic, or got caught up in the adrenalin.I took it easy for the morning, just learning the car, feeling the breaks, and realising that once heat gets into the tyres (595 RS-R's) they seem to feel like someone has applied glue, rather then the sliding feeling when your too hot into a corner. For the life of me, I couldn't get the car into a power oversteer, it was a little understeerie, but it wasn't excessive, I was able to hit apex's pretty well.. (well probably means slow)
One massive thing I learnt was, there are so many ways around winton, just taking a couple of laps to realise that there is so much track between the curb on the left, and the curb on the right, just taking different lines, massively affects how you get come out of a turn, and get into the next.
I did a bit of a hero move on a VL turbo, that was wheelspining out of the first hairpin in the cleavage, I was on the inside, and could hold a tighter line, but went wide into the next hairpin and had to make it stick in order not to look like a tosser, and completely stuffed up my entry into the third turn, but with the 4wd and turbo, the car had me out of there was soon as I was straight enough for grip, and I had enough power to keep him in the mirrors.
Not sure I'm a full addict, but I'm definitely going back, and I'm definitely going to spend more time on the track.. I'm still a little worried about my car, as it is kinda of a daily, and I don't want to commit to a full track setup.... time will tell on this front, but can't wait to get back to the track again.
