Club Track Day - 1st June 2014
09 June 2014 / Words by David Lawler, Photos by Greg Unger
There are interesting track days, and then there are INTERESTING track days. We had rain, a very slippery track, enough mud for everyone, then a dry track, and then more rain. Despite the poor conditions, the dedicated officials worked to give club members and visitors the opportunity for up to seven runs. A special mention goes to Greg Perry, James Cook, Joe Kovacic, Kevin Tuckerman and Lindsay Burke who spent the day out in the weather on the dummy grid and at the start/finish line. Thanks guys.
The first few runs of the day were very slippery, particularly at turns 2 and 10, probably due to residue from truck racing the previous weekend. One experienced driver commented that it was more difficult than racing in torrential rain. Many drivers had off track excursions, with cars returning to their garages covered in muck. I wonder how many kilograms of mud got inadvertently carted away from Wakefield Park at the end of the day! Unfortunately one car made contact with the wall at turn 10, resulting in some panel damage but leaving the car driveable and the driver unhurt. Other than that, there were no other notable incidents, and amazingly no cars had to be retrieved from the various sand/gravel/mud traps around the circuit.
Fortunately the weather cleared somewhat by late morning, and the track started to dry, allowing everyone a few runs on the dry track. Many drivers made good use of these runs to lay down some good times with Anthony Tang and Tammie Hotz setting class 2 records for the 2013/2014 competition year, and Gus Elias breaking into the 1:14s to set an outright class 4 "Clubman" record of 1:14.95
Unfortunately the rain returned after lunch resulting in many people leaving early, with those who remained enjoying up to seven runs before the track was closed.
Deckspeed again offered the chance to win a drive in one of their MX-5 Cup race cars. There were many entries, and the winner drawn from the box was Lesa Bunn. Daniel Deckers from Deckspeed was on hand to congratulate Lesa, and to give her the keys at the end of the day for a few laps of Wakefield in the NC race car she will be driving. The next MX-5 Cup race meeting will be on Sunday 24th August at Wakefield Park.
This track day completes the 2013/2014 competition year, and the award presentations will be held at the ARDC Garage Cafe at Sydney Motorsport Park, from 5:30pm on 20th July 2014. See here for more information and RSVP details.
Full results are available for download from here.
More great photos from the event by Greg Unger are available on Flickr here.
