I towed my sedan down to Philip Island this weekend gone to compete in the Australian supersprint titles. It was a two day event, which was probably the main reason I decided to do it, not much point driving all that way for just one day.

Perfect weather both days, cool temperatures, some clouds but mainly sunny. The saturday was kicked off with a 20 minutes practice session for all 6 colour groups, I was put in the slowest group due to an estimated lap time of 2:10. First impressions of the circuit were, WOW. You melbourne blokes are very lucky to have such an awesome piece of tarmac within 2 hours drive.

The A-series was really stretching it's legs down the straight with the 4.875 diff, but I had bumped the rev limiter to 8250 in anticipation and came close to hitting it in top gear before turning into turn 1. Due to having to share the track with the superkarts (they had been displaced by the V8's from last weekend), which are absolutely mental by the way, each group then recieved only 4 timed runs for the day, but at 5 flying laps each time, plenty of fuel was used. Ended saturday with a best time of 2:00.03. There was plenty of banter amongst the group of blokes I had come down with as I was three tenths ahead of one of them who was driving a well sorted torana running an Holden 6 liter V8. The others were in the 1:52's in other V8 holdens and the last bloke had a 1:37 in his radical SR3.

Sunday morning felt a bit worse for wear after a few too many schooners at the Philip Island RSL. Anyway got out on the track and concentrated mostly on holding the car flat through turn 1 and across the back towards Lukey heights. Came in and checked my times. A 1:59.8, pretty happy with that. Suddenly the Torana's up on the jack and the semi-slicks are coming off and the full slicks are being bolted on, I guess he just couldn't face being beaten by the 1.6 litre datto.

Anyway he ended up with a 1:53.8 and I got down to a 1:58.56, first in class by 12 seconds. Ended up getting 6 runs on the sunday so ended up totalling over 200 full noise kilometres on the 1200 without the slightest hiccup. I couldn't be happier with the way the weekend went.

what else was competetive in your class?

My class (modified production 0-1600) wasn't very well represented, besides me there was a ford laser and a mx-5 that was double entered. I had a few good dices with a guy in the class above me in a 2 litre gemini. I wasn't really concerned about winning my class anyway, the main point of going was to experience the circuit, and to come away with a trophy was just a bonus.

Well done mate! Which class were you in?
Are you heading up to Bathurst in December?

Ian

No I don't think so. I'm probably going to do the two state hillclimbs at bathurst early next year. There's a supersprint at Oran Park on december 13th that I want to do instead, seeing as it's closing next year.

Hey great report.
Phillip Island is on next years to do list.
8000 plus rpm is that with a 4 speed or overdrive 5th.
Any idea of a speed at the end of the straight or don't you want to know ?
Cheers
Bob

It's in 5th gear, toyota T50. I think the speed's somewhere around the 190-200 mark, don't have a speedo in the car but roughly figured it out by measuring the circumference of my tyres and doing the maths with gear ratios and rpms. My mate had a GPS datalogger in his VY SS ute and got 236 kph . He got a 1:51.9 which would put him on pole in a V8 brutes race in a much heavier, but slightly more powerful car.

Good report Aiden,you can't beat"the island" in my opinion,it's universally thought of as the best drivers track in Aus.,not as demanding as Bathurst but differant and not to be compared.
I have driven many many miles around P.I.although not in it's current slightly shorter layout after the last rebuild.
I also know what your saying about turn one,it's a genuine test of the wedding tackle not to lift!
As a matter of interest was it a PIARC event or AASA and what was the entry fee?
Glad you had a ball.
Cheers

The event was run by PIARC, entry fee was $350 which i thought was pretty good value considering most people got 50 or more laps in over the two days.
Turn one is definately a bit tighter than turn one at eastern creek, but to go through without lifting is probably a bit easier due to the smoothness of the circuit and the camber of the road. Definately not for the faint hearted though. The part of the track I really enjoyed was the right hander near the hayshed and then left over lukey heights, had at least one wheel well off the ground going over the hill on most laps, according to those behind me.