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      01-18-2012, 05:32 PM   #14
Guran
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Drives: 08 135i Coupe
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Wollongong, Australia

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For the last three years, I've been doing about 15 trackdays per year in my MX-5. Did several more before that in my Cooper S - starting in 2005.

First caveat. Don't drive your car on the track unless you're prepared to pay for any damage incurred if you crash. Insurers will NOT pay to repair crash damage from track use. Anyone who tries to dupe their insurer is exposing themselves to fraud charges and serious gaol time. It's not worth the risk.

Wakefield Park is definitely better than Eastern Creek for first-timers to start on. There's much more run-off area, and unless you do something silly in turn 10 (guilty!), the tyre barriers and armorguard almost never come into play.

There is no chance you will get enough numbers from here to make a private trackday viable. With current track costs, you'd need at least 40 people paying at least $160 each (plus $50 each for an annual AASA licence) ... and that would not include laptiming. There are much better options.

Speed off the Streets at Wakefield Park is cheap. But apart from time on the track, you don't get much. No laptiming. No scrutineering of cars to make sure they're safe for the track. No drivers briefing with essential safety instructions like overtaking rules. No guidance on basic things such as tyre pressures, avoiding use of handbrake after a run, track tips, etc. No segregation of cars into groups according to their speed - hence fast cars get held up by very slow cars, and slow cars don't get clear laps because they're making room for fast cars to overtake. It can be a dangerous and frustrating day if it is busy - and there's no way to know how busy it'll be. I would NOT recommend it for a first-timer.

You're better off to join a CAMS affiliated car club (eg. BMW Driver Club of NSW), look up the CAMS Event Calendar for Speed events, follow the links, check the Supp Regs, and complete the entry form. Many of these events (Eastern Creek especially) require a CAMS Level 2 Speed (L2S) licence, which costs $103 per year (apply via the CAMS website). Otherwise a AASA licence for Wakefield Park will cost $50 per year. At these events, all cars are scrutineered, all include a detailed drivers safety briefing, many provide some first-timer driving training (or at least a slow sighting lap), all provide laptiming, all split drivers into speed range groups, and drivers are carefully controlled on track with flag marshals etc. It's a much safer and more enjoyable experience.

There are other options too, like Driving Solutions at Eastern Creek, which are pretty good, but quite expensive and laptiming is not provided. There's a new mob around called Track School too, which look pretty good. Also Circuit Club is an option although I've never tried them.
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08 BMW 135i Sport Coupe | Manual | Sparkling Graphite | Coral Red Boston Leather | 10 Speaker Hi Fi

Last edited by Guran; 01-18-2012 at 05:38 PM..
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