JSCC supersprint competitors skipped round 2 at Eastern Creek North but returned in force for Round 3 at Wakefield. Unfortunately, two months of preparation, waiting and anticipation to hit the track was "dampened" by some week-long rainy weather. It wasn't a fun drive down to Goulburn from Sydney in the rain and we thought that the weekend would be ruined. But the closer we got to the track, the more the rain stopped. This created a muddy drive through roadworks with all competitors cars looking like they had just finished a rally.
JSCC members were back with Leon's EVO and Kieran's 350Z (Team Minidisc with pit crew Lowena and Wing in the parts carrying Honda Jazz). Tony's Celica made a return to the track after a 18 month hiatus. There was a full field of over 70+ cars in this CAMS NSW Supersprint Championship round. The carports were occupied very early and the JSCC cars ended up in the comfort of dry garages. After unpacking tools and semi-slicks, it was a race to prep the cars in time to get to scrutineering. Semis, numbers, blue triangles, and mandatory racing suits for championship competitors were all ticked off and good to go. It was now time to finally hit the track!
The Minidisc 350Z piloted by Kieran went off to a blindingly fast start. After the first session on a damp track, the fwee-fiddy was 3rd outright... Of course, when the track started to dry the officials allowed the use of slicks and the other cars laptimes started to drop significantly. Class 2B had a field of 7 competitors. Kieran held his own against a Lotus Exige and a highly experienced driver in an Evo. Lapping a best time of 1:10.748 delivered a 3rd place in class and only a bit over a second behind the 1st placed Lotus.
Leon's Minidisc Evo started the day slowly and steadily dropped the laptimes session by session. By the middle of the day, Leon was laying down consistent 1:10's. The massive number 14 did fall onto the track at one stage but the Team Minidisc pit crew quickly taped it down and it was back to the track for a few 1:09 laps. The best was saved for last with a massive PB of 1:08.862 on the very last lap. Awesome results with first place in Class SVC and 13th outright!
The return of Tony's Celica showed how things can be forgotten after too much time away from the track. Overly low tyre pressures don't help laptimes and neither do misshifts into higher gears when trying to heal-toe downshift. But once this was sorted and confidence built up in the new Porterfield R4 race brake pads, it was back to super late braking after the dog leg turn 1. It was a very competitive field of 9 cars in Class 1B with only 0.05 seconds separating 2nd, 3rd and 4th places. The Celica ended the day with a 1:15.663 and 3rd in class.
Results: http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?03/06/2012.WAKE
