Club Track Day - 2nd February 2014

21 February 2014 / Words by David Lawler, Pictures by Bill Fordham

The forecasts predicted hot weather in the week leading up to the 2nd-Feb track at at Wakefield Park, and contrary to common perceptions about weather forecasting, they really got it right! Temperatures were over 30 degrees all day, reaching around 38 in the mid afternoon, and these conditions affected drivers, cars and officials.

There were 67 starters, including 12 first timers. It was good to see Tony Williams back after a break away from the track of more than a year whilst he built his new home.

The battle between Mark Hellmund and Cameron MacArthur for fastest time of the day was close, with Mark coming out on top by a mere 0.15 seconds with a best lap of 1:07.60 in the 2nd run of the day.

Event with the unfavourable conditions, new class records were established by

• Tammie Hotz in ladies class 2,
• Tony Williams in class 5, the break certainly didn't slow him down,
• Phil Munnings in class 6,
• Ralph Thompson in class 9 and
• Keith Bridgement in class 11.

Full results are available as a PDF file here.

A special mention is deserved by first-timer Baden West for his impressive time of 1.12.02, which I believe is the fastest first-timer lap at Wakefield Park. although he did have to be extrtacted from the turn 2 gravel trap later in the day.

I had the pleasure of driving Baden's turbo NA8 during the first-timers session, and can attest to it's speed.

A big thanks to all the officials whose contributions make the track day possible, and an extra special thanks to Phil Roberts, Lindsay Burke, Joe Kovacic and James Cook who spent the day outside in the sun and the heat on the dummy grid, start/finish line flags and circuit entry.

The next club track day is the annual Interstate Challenge with the Victorian MX-5 club, at Winton in Victoria on 23rd March, followed by Sydney Motor Sport Park South Circuit on 27th April.

The club will be looking for the support of members to act as flag marshals for the Sydney Motor Sport Park event on 27th April.. Please contact Mike Hicks or David Lawler if you can assist.