MX-5 Club Trackdays - Wakefield Park - 3rd/4th June 2012

[kris]

Plenty of PBs today, Ralph set a new class record on the last run for road registered NCs, 0.01 under Chris Gough's old one. A fantastic effort.

I had a mixed day. A new PB of 1:10.33 but many laps with No. 4 cylinder suffering a miss due to a broken COPS lead.

A great day was had by all. Well done to the officials.

I'll fix the lap record sheet when the full results are posted.

1:10.33 ... damn thats fast...

[Guran]

The less said about my experiences with the new R888s on Sunday, the better! Suffice to say that I was not happy with how they performed and could only manage a best time of 1:16.7950 despite driving the nuts out of them. OK, the track was damp all day exiting turn 8 and at the apex of turn 10, which made it difficult to get the power down - and I lost a lot of time there. But, I struggled to get any heat into the R888s and the front-left tyre grained badly. Phil assures me that they'll come good after a heat cycling - I bloody hope so.

Monday was much better. I managed to shave 0.02s off my PB and Class 1 record on Star Specs - now at 1:16.34. From memory, that was on the third run and I had nearly two thirds of a tank of fuel at that stage. So there's plenty more to come off that time at future events. After that I mucked around with following Lindsay Burke on one run - got lots of video for him (I loaned my PerformanceBox to Joe). I sort of wish I'd kept at it because Stewart Temesvary pulled out a 1:16.2-something right at the death, and won our little rivalry.

After lunch, Sailor insisted I have a drive in his modified NC - an offer I wasn't about to turn down. Started with a couple laps in the 1:14s while negotiating slower traffic and learning the car; then my third lap was 1:12.19! That's actually my fastest ever timed lap at Wakefield (was probably quicker driving Hellmun's car but it wasn't timed). The last lap was quicker again and on target for a high 1:11 ... until I fluffed the shift into 3rd at the fishhook, so it ended at 1:12.24. Thanks Rob - your car is a fantastic drive.

The last run of the day was declared "non-timed" so we were allowed to take our passengers. This is a rarity at our club trackdays. So I offered Mitchell Bennett the passenger seat in my NA6 and he seemed to enjoy the experience.

[Zohxoco]

Wish I could drive. Here's me trying to catch up on the last lap of a run. Pretty lame.

[Zohxoco]

The last run of the day was declared "non-timed" so we were allowed to take our passengers. This is a rarity at our club trackdays. So I offered Mitchell Bennett the passenger seat in my NA6 and he seemed to enjoy the experience.

Oh I didn't know! I would love to have bummed a lift from someone, maybe I could learn a thing or two!! I left when we hit untimed cos I thought no point adding wear if I don't know how I'm going (any pointers to in-car timers?).

[Hjt]

That spin looked like a heap of fun, did you keep the power down as your apex'd?

From the first 15 seconds, corners 1,2,3 I noticed your not going wide enough pre corner, and your apex is off. You need to take advantage of the full track. I'm sure an expert NC driver wouldn't mind giving some pointers.

[Zohxoco]

That spin looked like a heap of fun, did you keep the power down as your apex'd?

Wish I could remember. In the afternoon I was spinning off everywhere. Unforunately that was the only spin I got on video.

From the first 15 seconds, corners 1,2,3 I noticed your not going wide enough pre corner, and your apex is off. You need to take advantage of the full track. I'm sure an expert NC driver wouldn't mind giving some pointers.

Thanks for the tips.. Yeah that was messy. This was my second visit to WP so I need more track time.

[PaulF]

That video gave me a bad sense of deja vu. I had a spin in the same spot driving Dann's car last year.

[Charlie Brown]

That spin looked like a heap of fun, did you keep the power down as your apex'd?

Wish I could remember. In the afternoon I was spinning off everywhere. Unforunately that was the only spin I got on video.

From the first 15 seconds, corners 1,2,3 I noticed your not going wide enough pre corner, and your apex is off. You need to take advantage of the full track. I'm sure an expert NC driver wouldn't mind giving some pointers.

Thanks for the tips.. Yeah that was messy. This was my second visit to WP so I need more track time.

Ah, this spin is an easy one to answer and Hjt nailed it.

You lifted off throttle entering the corner. This transfers the weight to the front wheels, unweighting the rear and inducing the spin. Listen to your audio.

Just from your short clip I can see a few things that need working on.
First up, you're on the power out of T2 way too late. You should be back on the throttle well before the apex. You should be seeing between 90 - 100 kph on the exit depending on your tyres.
T3 in a stock NC and a NB on good road tyres can be taken flat out in third gear (128 - 130kph). You're backing off before the corner, keep the power on and NEVER back off mid corner.
T4 where you spun. You don't need to brake unless your exit from T3 is too wide and you haven't been able to get back to centre or left track. The corner is heavily cambered, so feed in power entering the corner, hit the apex and let the car drift up to the outside of the track to the short straight section, then you're positioned to attack T5.

[Charlie Brown]

Results are now up on the Club site.

New Class records were :

Class 1 NA6A 1:16.34 Bryan Shedden (-0.46 seconds)
Class 2 NB8B 1:15.72 Glenn Thomas (-0.03 seconds)
Class 6 NA8A 1:13.59 Phil Munnings (-0.02 seconds)
Class 7 NC 1:10.16 Ralph Thompson (-0.01 seconds off Chris Gough’s time)

Congratulations on a fantastic effort to all.

[Guran]

Results are now up on the Club site.

New Class records were :

Class 1 NA6A 1:16.34 Bryan Shedden (-0.02 seconds)
Class 2 NB8B 1:15.72 Glenn Thomas (-0.03 seconds)
Class 6 NA8A 1:13.59 Phil Munnings (-0.02 seconds)
Class 7 NC 1:10.16 Ralph Thompson (-0.01 seconds off Chris Gough’s time)

Congratulations on a fantastic effort to all.

Thanks Phil. Slight correction in red text. I previously dropped the Class 1 record to 1:16.36 at NatMeet on 8th April.

It was a day for very tiny improvements!

Link to the results on the MX-5 Club website

[mx5racing]

Sounds like everyone had a great day even though the weather was not the best down there either on Monday. I'm sure with a bit more heat in the track everyone would have gone even faster.

Great stuff for Ralph in the NC and his new record - its great to see it broken albeit by the smallest of margins!! We've been doing a lot of work with the tuning of the NC's and David from MX5 Mania and I have been working on a reflash of the std ecu. Since the last track day I did with the club we have come up with some very good results with nice power gains and all without losing any driveability and saving on fuel consumption!!

Dennis (the Reverend) was down there in his burgandy NC with one of our new tunes and managed a 1.10.2 - the fastest he'd ever gone around there by just under a second. He said later that even though his tyres were worn out and was struggling to get traction from the std diff the car was much livelier than before and he was rapt. This backed up our other findings as one of our cars did a 1.49:7 at Eastern Creek a couple of weeks ago - again on r spec tyres. They have bog std engine, gearbox and diff, with just some good brake pads, cold air intake and a set of extractors. We run adjustable coilovers and whiteline swaybars on them and thats it - they are amazing little cars. The Rev is convinced he can get into the 9's with a decent set of rubber!!

It seems the race is on to see who will do the first 9 in a road rego'd NC. With Ralph and Phil inching, closer and closer with every track day - awesome effort guys!! Was not that long ago a 9 at WP would have you on the podium in a few race meetings!!

Looks like I might have to dust of Mum's car and come down to the next one !!

Chris.

[manga_blue]

Results are now up on the Club site.

New Class records were :
Class 6 NA8A 1:13.59 Phil Munnings (-0.02 seconds)

Thanks CB, but didn't Dean wallop my old 13.61 record at Natmeet this year?

Even so, another great club day made special by constant dicing with Phil in the Lotus and David in the Evo, both of them great competitors and gentleman drivers. Lap after lap, safely locking in beside David on one side then the other slipping thru turn 5/6, the fishhook and then 9 was the best fun I've had yet at Wakie.

Guran, the 13.59 was on the old almost bare R888s, the new R888s were 1.2 sec slower in the same conditions on their 5th session. I'm guessing another 20 good laps before they bring me back to my best times. From memory the last set were also cold and screaming when new and I dropped them down to stupid pressures (22-23 cold?) and absolutely flogged them to get them to heat up. I might even use them as dailies until PI this month to get some more wear.

[Charlie Brown]

Dennis (the Reverend) was down there in his burgandy NC with one of our new tunes and managed a 1.10.2 - the fastest he'd ever gone around there by just under a second.......

Looks like I might have to dust of Mum's car and come down to the next one !!

Chris.

That answers how the Rev was holding on to me when my miss stopped. I was thinking that I must be overdriving my car, as normally I can just pull a few cars on the Rev. He kept it quite, didn't say a thing. the old bugger.

It won't be long before the 1.09's happen. If Mum's car is ready, bring it down.

[Guran]

Thanks CB, but didn't Dean wallop my old 13.61 record at Natmeet this year?

True, but Deen's in an NB8A and he didn't beat the Irwinator's 1:10.75. Meanwhile, you have the NA8A record in Class 6.

Guran, the 13.59 was on the old almost bare R888s, the new R888s were 1.2 sec slower in the same conditions on their 5th session. I'm guessing another 20 good laps before they bring me back to my best times. From memory the last set were also cold and screaming when new and I dropped them down to stupid pressures (22-23 cold?) and absolutely flogged them to get them to heat up. I might even use them as dailies until PI this month to get some more wear.

Pleased to hear it! Will try much lower pressures next time. The behaviour of these R888s is totally foreign to me and I was shocked how cold they were after a good flogging at 31psi hot. Unfortunately that seems to have resulted in horrible graining in the middle of the front-left tyre, which hopefully will wear off on the next drive to the track.

[mx5racing]

He kept it quite, didn't say a thing. the old bugger.

We didn't tell him till later In the past we've found it's easy to overdrive if you think your new gadget or setting should make you faster. If you dont know you just go out and drive - and the times come without any pressure. That said, he surprised us all with a great time

With the reflash the mid range torque is much improved along with raising the rev limit and shapening up the rather vague std throttle response without making it to snappy. David and I have been running around in various NC's and got the tune right where we are happy with it for everything from std cars right through to modified race and Targa cars. Its the easiest kw's for your $$ that you'll find in an NC .

If Mum's car is ready, bring it down

I got caught out last time when I took it back with the blue triangle still fitted..... Ever since then she is reluctant to let me borrow it