WRX Club Day @ Phillip Island, 4th April

[ENGINR]

My CAMS license turned up in the mail the other day and I just found out my entry has been approved for a Driver Training session at Phillip Island on the 4th April - so I'm hitting the track again!!

Check it out on the WRX forum:

http://www.wrx.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=55863

or through the Motorsports Events calender:

http://www.motorsportevents.com.au/MSE3-08/

Who's up for a bit of a run at PI?

 

[Dean]

T4G Invasion!!
No ones cars are ready tho! lol

 

[peasoup]

That is definelty not a beginner track!

 

[ENGINR]

Gotta drive on it for a first time sometime.

That's why I'm taking the instructor sessions. They assign you a "track buddy" who has lots of experience on PI and they take you around the track in your car to show you where to brake, turn etc etc, then they sit with you and coach you through what they've told you as you drive. Only if they feel you're competent enough do they let you go out on your own.

Apparently you can hit some massive speeds down the front straight...

 

[ENGINR]

Nobody else from on here is having a go?

 

[the_phoenix]

Nobody else from on here is having a go?

I would, but my car had an argument with PI recently.

 

[DOUGMO]

I would, but my car had an argument with PI recently.

how is your car mate?

 

[DOUGMO]

Gotta drive on it for a first time sometime.

That's why I'm taking the instructor sessions. They assign you a "track buddy" who has lots of experience on PI and they take you around the track in your car to show you where to brake, turn etc etc, then they sit with you and coach you through what they've told you as you drive. Only if they feel you're competent enough do they let you go out on your own.

Apparently you can hit some massive speeds down the front straight...

you will love it shayne-we were hitting 230 going easy in a standard e36 m3 two up-the sweeper down to honda rocks

 

[ENGINR]

230km/hr!? Sweepy turns!? Oooooooooooooooooooooo! Me feel funny in my pants already!!

I can't wait to just get out there and have a go. That's what I built the car for and that's what I'm going to use it for.

Richard - what happened to your car dude!?

 

[the_phoenix]

Turn 12 happened.

Slow spin into the tyres, just need a few bodyparts then back in action.

Was not a good day for Tech///sport, I'm sure you guys heard about the yellow Evo 9's fate!

 

[DOUGMO]

are you a tech///sport test driver phoinex?

on a serious note though the purple 5 was going well

Turn 12 happened.

Slow spin into the tyres, just need a few bodyparts then back in action.

Was not a good day for Tech///sport, I'm sure you guys heard about the yellow Evo 9's fate!

 

[ENGINR]

The guys running this did a great job, it was very organised (lunch went a little longer than most would have liked...) but bad luck was just against us. We had a couple of cars drip oil on the track, which took time to clean, we had rain (can't help weather) which made the track a bit wet (and even more intimidating for those of us who had never driven on PI before), then we had a guy drop a line in his engine and leave a trail of oil over 80% of the track (it was a perfect race line to follow except it'd throw you off the track if you touched it).

There were two off-incidents (one confirmed as related to the aforementioned oil line) which resulted in a car being damaged and trailored away (hopefully repairable) and another being written off. Both drivers are OK.

However this was a disappointing day for me overall - I spent a total of about 4 hrs driving there and back for 20min of track time. I had a great instructor who was showing me the lines and such, but it's hard to visualise everything, absorb it all and then try to implement it when you're being flagged off the track after 3-4 laps and having to wait almost an hour for your next session. I never got to a point where I felt I could take the track a bit harder.

Once the oil was dropped over the track late in the afternoon, I packed up early and went home. You couldn't take the track properly for fear of hitting the oil and I wasn't prepared to risk my car in an attempt to go a bit harder.

As I said - no fault of the organisers, just plain old bad luck. I'd do another of these days again, as you need to accept that sometimes you'll get loads of track time and on others you won't, but something that's a bit more "Newbie Friendly" like marking out turn points etc on the track would be appreciated.

 

[ENGINR]

Was not a good day for Tech///sport, I'm sure you guys heard about the yellow Evo 9's fate!

That yellow E9 was just bad luck - the driver went off the track and hit a bit of uneven ground and over he went.

It was a bad day for the owner - not Tech///Sport (in fact I believe they have possession of the wreck...?)

 

[the_phoenix]

That yellow E9 was just bad luck - the driver went off the track and hit a bit of uneven ground and over he went.

It was a bad day for the owner - not Tech///Sport (in fact I believe they have possession of the wreck...?)

Yes they do have it, spoke to Jeff on Saturday. It was serviced or something there.