TRACK: CIRCUIT CLUB ANZAC TRACK DAY

After eagerly awaiting the ANZAC weekend track event at Wakefield Park, the big day finally arrived.

In True Circuit Club fashion,  the line up of cars was first class and with the World Time Attack event drawing closer this was a good chance for some competitors to test different setups, and get some valuable hours behind the wheel.

Walking the track with Jeff Denmeade (infamous Skip Barber Racing School instructor out of the USA) was extremely useful as he discussed and described which racing lines to take and what obscure obstacles to look out for.

Once we returned from our session with Jeff the Group A’s were out racing around the circuit and tempting me even more. The wafting noise of a Radical downshifting into turn one and the pure brilliance of the 6.3 litre V8 ‘Black’ series Mercedes Benz which made the wait even more unbearable.

As Group C’s time came to an end the announcer yelled for Group D. “Group D! For ‘a dingo ate my baby’.” As I sat in pit lane and waited for the all green to leave, my hands were sweaty and my heart was pounding, although this only took 30 seconds it felt like an eternity but as soon as I took off the feeling was absolutely amazing, it made everything that a car modifier goes through worth it.

Our first session was very much about getting used to the track and experimenting with some different lines and braking patterns. The best time I could muster up was an extremely disappointing 1:29.

As the day went on times started to improve and by the end of the second session I was down to a 1:25. Still a poor time as I knew there was more left in the car.

Group A featured Steve’s well built R33 GTR, which will be competing in the WTAC. The showcase of this GTR includes plenty of aero additions and 380kw at the wheels to get your heart pulsing. Once a switch to semi slicks was made he was able to punch out an easy 1:07 lap until the standard box blew third gear.

A fellow JDMST member was out in his extremely well set up mariner blue MX-5 and backed up his previous 1:19 from the Shift Performance track day with another 1:19 in the final session.

As I went out on my final session I felt much more comfortable with the car and managed to complete a 1:21. I decided to share this last session with a good friend of mine who managed to complete a 1:20 flat which was much better.

A couple of mates came down with us in a standard DC2R and managed a quick 1:16 – going to show how fast these cars can be with a good set of tyres and some decent brake pads.

As the day came to a conclusion Wakefield Park was everything we had expected and hoped for and although the track day was full it was very well organised and the day ran very smooth, as per all Circuit Club events.

Find the full set on our flickr.

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