Wakefield Park NSW Club Class Records

[Wertoculas]

I ran a 1.16.65 in a NA8 Clubman class on Sunday aswell. Car number 5.

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[Nuddy]

Andy Harris in MX-5 Cup round 5 on Sunday in a naturally aspirated NC race car on slicks recorded 1:05.356
List on the first page shows Daniel Deckers on 1:07.05 on 29 July 2012
I guess someone may have done better than Daniel in 5 years but can't imagine anyone got into the 1:05s before.

[SIB]

Standard NC record needs updating. Talking to you Luke ;-)

[shirtz]

as a newbie to track days and Wakefield some of these times to me seem unattainable.

I have an NA8 with coilovers and ok street tyres and did a 1.19 on a hot day yesterday. id love to hear some tips on racing lines to improve my time. I know I have a few seconds to make on the first and last corner alone!

[GR124]

Hot tip, power to weight ratio. standard BP4W on E85 and ECU. 1.06 Sorry, not an mx5 but same engine.

[shirtz]

o wow.

power to weight is one thing, but id love to know how many laps the guys on the front page have done to do those times!

[Guran]

I hold a few of the standard MX-5 records. It takes plenty of seat-time and several hundred laps over a few years to get down to these laptimes. More to the point it takes perfect track conditions ... typically cold air, low wind, clear skies and high atmospheric pressure. I've found September seems to be the best time of year.

In my old NA6, I started with 1:19.96 at my first track day, did 1:18:26 at my next event (a wheel alignment and new brake pads worked wonders), got down to 1:17.00 after 18 months and about 300 laps, then 1:16:80 with another year and 200 laps experience. I then swapped tyres from Bridgestone RE001 to Dunlop Star Spec Z1 and ultimately pushed the class record down to the current 1:15.80 after another year and about 200 laps. However, I never managed to get back into the 15s in the next year and a half. All up, that was five years and over 1000 laps including Supersprints on R-spec tyres.

With several years of experience, it takes less time to reach the limits of a new car. When I swapped to a standard NC in 2016, my first outing was 1:13.561 and I was down to 1:12.410 after a few more track days (Kumho KU36). With better tyres, I improved to 1:12.142 a year later (Hankook RS3), and then 1:11.894 a year later (Hankook RS4). I've not had a day slower than 1:12s since swapping to RS4s. Tyres help, but it's mostly about learning how hard you can push the car and also having other fast drivers to compete against.

If you're serious about wanting to improve your laptimes, I have a few recommendations:

1) Forget about trying to make your car faster. Focus on making YOURSELF faster.

2) Do our Club Driver Training Days at Pheasant Wood. We have three dates booked once again in 2020 ... 9 Feb, 5 Jul, 30 Aug.

3) Compete regularly and get as much seat-time as possible. I used to compete in 15 to 20 events per year.

4) Watch videos of quick drivers to see how they do it. My Youtube channel is linked in my signature.

5) Start datalogging your track days (try Racechrono with a 10Hz GPS receiver) and analyse it to find out where you can gain time. I did a LOT of this when I first started over ten years ago.

[Guran]

Incidentally, the MX-5 Club of NSW is introducing a completely new vehicle class system in 2020. It is based on all-time records for standard MX-5s and extrapolated for other models based on kg/kW ratios. The lap records at Wakefield Park that we've used to set benchmark times are:

1:15.80 - 29 Jul 2012 - Bryan Shedden - Mazda MX-5 1992 Red
1:14.063 - 1 Jul 2018 - Michael DeMaio - Mazda MX-5 2002 Silver
1:11.894 - 1 Jul 2018 - Bryan Shedden - Mazda MX-5 2006 Grey
1:10.802 - 17 Sep 2018 - Jie Ren - Mazda MX-5 2016 White

Full details will be published on our website within the next couple weeks.

[shirtz]

fantastic reply Guran. Exactly what I needed. I will book into Pheasant Wood for next year (done 2 already) and look into a 10Hz GPS receiver. any recommendations of what to get?

I have Racechrono full version but haven't dug in deep to see how each section can be improved - on the to do list.

thanks again.

[Slow Yank]

Incidentally, the MX-5 Club of NSW is introducing a completely new vehicle class system in 2020. It is based on all-time records for standard MX-5s and extrapolated for other models based on kg/kW ratios. The lap records at Wakefield Park that we've used to set benchmark times are:

1:15.80 - 29 Jul 2012 - Bryan Shedden - Mazda MX-5 1992 Red
1:14.063 - 1 Jul 2018 - Michael DeMaio - Mazda MX-5 2002 Silver
1:11.894 - 1 Jul 2018 - Bryan Shedden - Mazda MX-5 2006 Grey
1:10.802 - 17 Sep 2018 - Jie Ren - Mazda MX-5 2016 White

Full details will be published on our website within the next couple weeks.

1:13.7690 - 20 Jul 2020 - Michael DeMaio - Mazda MX-5 2002 Silver

[PaulF]

Nice work mate! RE-71R?

[Slow Yank]

o wow.

power to weight is one thing, but id love to know how many laps the guys on the front page have done to do those times!

It took me over 330 laps at wakefield to get a stock NB into the low 14's, and probably another 100 (plus perfect weather and setup - tyres, alignment, fasting for months ahead of time, emptying out the change and draining my washer-fluid ) to crack into the 13's.

I will emphasize Bryan's post below. Seat time, seat time, seat time...

In so many other sports - Golf, Football, Tennis - everyone understands "practice makes perfect", yet for some reason most people think to seem that people are born with some inherent level of driving talent that will be instantly and fully exploited once they put their butt in the drivers seat and pull onto a track for to push a car at 10/10ths for the first time in their life.

You can - and should - study racing lines and technique from books, simulators, youtube videos and driving around your car in a safe manner, but unless you have 100 lives, 10,000 spare points on your license and zero care for public safety, you absolutely cannot push a car on the public roads as you can on a race track, and therefore cannot learn how to drive a car at its absolute limits.

I often think of my good mate in the US that I used to Autocross with. We got into it together, and I mopped the floor with him at our first local event, but we were both towards the bottom of the standings. 4-5 years later, I was going once a month, he was racing in three clubs and therefore out almost every weekend. We co-drove a car together for a season and he was consistently a second faster than me. Now he's a two-time national champion with sponsorship deals (and I haven't autocrossed in nearly a decade...so I'd probably get beat-up at a local event!).

[Slow Yank]

Nice work mate! RE-71R?

Thanks Paul! Yes, RE-71R's with two prior track days on them.

I ran them on the only cold Wakefield day I did last year (2 Jun 2019) but could only manage a 1:14.099 - just short of the 1:14.06 I'd run the year prior on the RS4's. But the problem last year was that we couldn't get out first thing in the morning due to fog. My first session wasn't until I think around 10:30-11, and I didn't get a clean run due to traffic. By the 2nd session temps had risen and my chance for a PB was significantly decreased if not dead all together.

Yesterdays conditions were awesome. I had to deal with cobwebs (first track day at Wakefield since 2 Jun 2019) and traffic, but as ambient temps stayed at around 8-9 all day I had lots of chances to pull it together into one, clean hero-lap.

I'm not certain if the RE-71R's hold lateral g's any better than RS4's, but they do brake unlike any 200TW tyre I've ever experienced. My first two sessions I kept pulling up short to turn 10 - nearly had to go to 1st. I will certainly say that unless you're doing what I was doing (just trying to get that one, "perfect" lap), or using them for hill climbs (cold grip is phenominal - they're an auto-x tyre, after all) I don't recommend them. They wear like melted butter and can't handle heat like an RS-4. Even on a warmer - but still winter - track day at South circuit they started to go off towards the end of the session. I'm sure they would be abysmal on a Nov/Feb day.

I actually bought the RE-71R's before I ever ran the RS4's. However while I was waiting the ~6-months after ordering them from a local distributor for them to come in my RS3s turned to rocks and were undrivable. In a panic I ordered RS4's from the US just to tie me over (and had them a week later ), and as I've said time and time again, was blown away by them on the first time out. I thought the RE71R's would be even a level above that, but wasn't overly impressed when considering the wait time, price, and wear. I think they're a bit overhyped for track use IMO.

Unless COVID kills the season I'll run them at Wakefield again in August and South Circuit in September, but will likely retire them after that (if they're not corded first!).

[PaulF]

It does sound like a lot of compromise (and $) for 0.3s but hey, records aren't gonna break themselves.

[Luke]

Well the RE71's explains the NB time lol.
Was wondering how you did it.

Will stick to the 245/40/17 RS4's on the NC2 for now.
They do not want to wear out and don't seem to be having any heat cycle issues.
And they are wearing out very evenly as well. I don't think I will even get them flipped at the halfway point like I normally would.
1'09.888 seems OK at Wakefield for a non R-Spec and no go down the straights. Incidentally the same speed I had in my stock ND1 2.0L, 162km/h.


I am thinking about changing over to Kumho V70A's for next year and actually run in Supersprint class.
Only running in race this year as that is what I was deemed to be at the start of year due to rim/tyre width and did not want to give up the points lead I had in race when I was told I could go to Supersprint.