hrd-hr30

how can you test your setup at half pace? any car feels good at 8 or 9 tenths...

mate I'd rather bring the Datto, but I don't think it will get an invite. Its not late model JDM car which is probably their target audience, its not a workshop car, I'm not well known in Sydney motorsport circles, or to the organisers... I think if you have to limit entries, the first thing to do would be to restrict drivers to one vehicle - there's one guy listed as driving 3 different cars on the entry lists! Same should apply to workshops - its pointless having one workshop entering 2 or more cars in the same class, unless they're at least in different sub-categories (ie rwd, awd, 6cyl, 4cyl etc). Just my thoughts.

I doubt the old-school Datto would make the invite list - assuming Superlap is Late Model JDM focussed. Can you put me back to my original EOI for the JZA80 Supra in Clubman class. I don't want to miss out on this event all together!

my thoughts: 1. having predominantley had cars that do lap times due to handling, you learn to allow a bit of a gap in a sprint event to more powerful cars so that you're not getting held up through corners on your hot laps. 2. passing only on straights can cause a problem for less powerful cars, but there are other ways of finding some clear track than passing the car in front - do a slower lap to create some space while watching your mirrors, or roll-through the pits to get onto a different section of track from that car alltogether. 3. a supersprint permit would facilitate unlimited passing with L2S licences. not sure if that permit stipulates that the format has to be as per state supersprints though??? but that wouldn't be a bad thing in my opinion either. 4. from what I can gather most open class guys, certainly the majority of those on here, are probably more experienced than the average supersprint competitor. there is every possibility of the old red-mist or ego getting involved on the day though. so personally I'll be treating it like a qualifying session, looking for a bit of clear track for a few attempted hot laps per session. You're not going to get anywhere by trying to run the whole 20 minute session flat out. If you can do that and still be setting good times at the end of it, your tyres are probably too hard for this type of event. I know my rears won't cop 20 minutes of trying to set PB laps!

I asked that question a few pages back. Answer is it will be broken up into groups with 20 minute sessions.

the IPRA nationals were at Morgan Park last year. should be able to find the times of some NSW competitors there like Loftus in the GTR and compare to his Oran GP record. I seem to recall he went under the IPRA lap record at Morgan Park in qual but not in the races??? I was there to watch - the final on Sunday was a cracker after the safety car period allowed Keys RX3 to close in on Lofty's lead. He threw everything at him for a number of laps after the restart. some very good, close racing from both drivers.

those ones on V8central were from Sunday's Top Gear race meeting. cool pics though. apparently there's a court hearing contesting the opening of the track sometime next month, and Tetly wants to get as much racing in before that as possible.

I uploaded a few pics from the day in the motorsport section earlier: lakeside pics

here's a handful of pics from Saturday

very true. its all relative. have you had your Zed on the scales? I know you've got lots of power but that's still a very impressive time for a big car at a reasonably tight track like Wakefield.

its the Australian Hillclimb Championship event. You'll probably need to be log booked to enter it. First weekend of December is a better option - the Bathurst Speed Weekend. Saturday is the Conrod Supersprint and Sunday they have a hillclimb on either Mountain Straight or the Esses. The supersprint is alot of fun - 2 cars at a time in a race down conrod, through the chase and finishing on pit straight. You can sort of choose who you line up against too. I've made the trip down for the Speed Weekend a couple of times and always have alot of fun. Bathurst Light Car Club are the organisers and will have details - blcc.com.au

should probably be a question mark after cheap too...

I think its still got the same tyres now! sheez Bozzy - so much for being an unkown quantity eh? but that's still seconds off the pace of the Exige - and that's with you at Datsun's wheel! then factor in my fat untalented arse slowing the whole show down...

lacks a certain subtleness perhaps, but I like it

a mate of mine who runs there all the time and has been stuck in the low 61 for the past few meets, set a new PB of 60.5. so the sealing doesn't seem to have hurt the track at all. he hasn't changed the car, but has lost 12kg himself, which wouldn't hurt but I doubt its responsible for the time improvement.

really? I've seen plenty of waved fists. that's got a particular meaning to race drivers. but only ever noticed one bloke give the finger to another driver. who was flippin the bird last weekend?

give him time... I mean, its not everyday you see F1 drivers flipping others the bird on a track

I'm not defending his actions in that instance, merely pointing out that he wasn't any worse than many other drivers. Senna is just a convenient example. he'd have been much better served to have nudged a wall and caused some superficial damage rather than do what he did - would have been much easier to pass it off as an accident then. but when you make a rash ill-conceived decision in the heat of the moment in the cockpit of a car you probably don't think it through that clearly. at least this incident wasn't premeditated or endanger another drivers life.

changed my mind. I'm going to man up and bring this down for the main game instead. it will probably mean i spend most of the day under the car, re-attaching the turbo each time the studs stretch/come loose but what the hell... someone has to play the cannon fodder role! quick question - what's the format going to be? do you break us up into groups and have (for eg) 10 minute sessions each like a normal supersprint, or do you get a series of single attempts to set your time - ie out lap, timed lap, in lap?

see, you're just about turning this into the most dangerous thing ever. heaven help the man if he did half the things senna did. umm - double waved cautions? if they hadn't red flagged the session by the time another car got there? and if the other drivers hadn't been notified by team radio. and after all that, if the drivers didn't see it in one of the championships slowest corners. I just wonder why Senna deliberately crashing into someone at racing speed doesn't "jerk your chain" as much???

it is great to get back out there hey? I was there in my old Datsun the week before it closed. was lucky enough to get on the track during its official closure for a "driver training" day in my GTR, and was in the first group to get commercial use of the track last month in the Supra. Can't wait to get my current track toy out there as soon as I can after a full exhaust goes on!

bet you don't remember anything else about that monaco race. even IF it was deliberate, professional fouls occur in every other sport. I don't really see the difference, except with how much media hype surrounded that incident. professional sportsmen take every competitive advantage they can, and always try to stretch the envelope of the rules or what is considered acceptable. that was certainly the culture at Ferrari - you don't dominate the best part of a decade in F1 without stepping on a few toes. perhaps if <<insert your favourite driver here>> had been up the pointy end for half as long as Michael, they'd have had a momentary brain fade here or there along the way also. strange perspective though - deliberately causing a crash at racing speed is not as bad??? maybe Schumacher should have slowed and waited for the potentially faster qualifying car and just ploughed into him deliberately and to hell with the consequences - then you wouldn't mind it so much eh? personally, I reckon you'd be screaming "attempted murder" along with the world's press. the power of a surname. or the way the media casts you...

just like Senna - "Nice guys do not win" , or words to that effect. Senna, Prost, Mansell, Piquet etc going back many years raced in the same uncompromising manner, which the PC era now seem to call 'dirty'. Hell, Senna even admitted to premeditatedly taking other people out as revenge for incidents that happened in previous years! the gentleman racer is a myth, or at least well and truly extinct

I went out to take some pics - meant to bring them with me today but I don't do Monday mornings very well I'm afraid... will post some up tomorrow. Was great to see so many GTRs, Evos etc running flat out around Lakeside

yeah mate, just in the Supra. Should be a little quicker now thanks to some very minor tweaks - I spent alot of time tweaking ride heights and have a better balance now, and also converted from sequential turbo operation to simultaneous which gets rid of a big 'hole' in power delivery for track work.