guess what I did yesterday...

Sprints at Lakeside!

Lakeside ariel veiw doesn't do the place justice. Its very undulating, and held the fastest average speed for any track in Australia. Absolutely awesome place!


Total Driver had a training day at Lakeside, and got approval last tuesday to incorporate some sprint sessions with it. It was untimed and not a competition, just a chance to get back out on the track for a blast. Strict noise limits were enforced, which was fair enough, and a mate in his 240Z wasn't allowed to run after doing a trial lap judge how loud it was. So if I still had the old carbied 1200, I probably would have been sent packing too. But the GTR is whisper quiet thankfully.

Hit about 210kph before the kink on the front straight, and about 180 under the bridge at the back of the track. By the end of the day i was just rolling off the throttle to turn into the kink and then hard back on the gas. Had to get on the brakes as soon as you straightened up after the kink, back to 2nd gear for the Karousell (sp?). Into the bumpy sweeping RH turn under the bridge at the back I was short shifting into 4th at about 170 and then accellerating all the way through the turn. probaly hit about 190 before braking for Hungry's corner. Just an awesome track!

by about L10 or so on the first session, I ran out of brakes. Boilled the fluid and he pedal went to the floor braking for Hungry's, which was a bit interesting... pumping did nothing, so I downshifted to 3rd and threw it into the turn a bit sideways to wash off speed - all good. just cruised around for the rest of that session to cool everything down as much as possible, but the pedal didn't come back until some time after it sat in the pits...

Perhaps not surprisingly, I cracked a rear disc on the last session of the day. It actually happened in the pits after the last run, standing around talking with some of the other drivers, we heard this loud crack from my car just behind us. The closest guy said it seemed to come from the rear wheel, so i had a look - big crack in the LH rear disc! lucky it didn't happen on the track, and that I only live 10 minutes from Lakeside...

I'm still on a high from yesterday! and it should be the first of many more sprint events at Lakeside in the near future!