2nd of December was the Alfa Romeo Owners Club of Australia's sprint event at Winton. Went down with some friends again and I've got to say I was really surprised at how good the track is to drive. In fact I prefer this track over Phillip Island and I found it to be a more enjoyable and technical layout. We had the long track layout on the day.
Some shots of the cars in the paddock...
Winton Motor Raceway by
J.H. Sohn, on Flickr
Winton Motor Raceway by
J.H. Sohn, on Flickr
Winton Motor Raceway by
J.H. Sohn, on Flickr
Two of my favourite cars on the day
Winton Motor Raceway by
J.H. Sohn, on Flickr
Winton Motor Raceway by
J.H. Sohn, on Flickr
Winton Motor Raceway by
J.H. Sohn, on Flickr
Winton Motor Raceway by
J.H. Sohn, on Flickr
Lent my camera to a friend during one of the sessions to take some photos for me
I was able to get settled on this track much quicker than PI, although that may have been down to my fantastic instructor haha. Some observations:
1) The tyres are wearing fast (esp. rears) so I may need to consider a set of lighter wheels and grippier tyres. The temps were quite hot so the tyres were overheating much faster than at PI, which was frustrating as it seemed to always happen on my clear runs
2) Brakes... same story as before although I was much harder on them this time. Overheated with approx. 2 clear laps and I think I may have boiled the fluid in my last session which was a bit scary... luckily it happened on one of the slower corners so no real damage done.
On a related note, I had to brake quite hard and suddenly on the road today and the pedal felt quite mushy... could that mean I have air in the system? Regardless, I'll have the brakes sorted soon enough.
3) Suspension needs to be tighter esp. under braking, and the body roll is still quite evident although not as bad as the sweeping corners at PI. Still felt scary through the chicane on the main straight... kept off the curbs because it felt like it was about to flip if I clipped them. Okay maybe not that bad but still scary haha.
4) Again, engine sounds amazing and feels awesome. Don't think I want any more power if I'm honest... I'd do more damage than good if I do!
Loved finding the limits of my current setup on this layout... my instructor was happy to let me out by myself by the second run but I didn't let him leave until the last session because I wanted to learn as much as I could
PB of the day was 1:48.0101 on my last lap, which I was pretty happy with as I was more concerned with having a drivable car for the trip back home at the end of the day rather than the fastest lap time
Some things that my instructor suggested were track wheels and tyres, brake overhaul (Ferodo DS pads, higher rated fluid, stainless steel braided lines) and something that I thought was a bit strange - a 4 point harness. He said that it lets you feel the car better and removes the effort of having to counteract the forces whilst cornering... worth a second or two on track according to him. Research backs this up although there seems to be some controversy with running them on stock seats, no roll cage, mounting points, etc etc.