July 2016
Among the participants in Scott’s
group there was a variety of backgrounds and levels of experience including go-karters, open wheelers,
sports cars, etc and drivers ranging
from club level to National competition. Rhys Howell from Victoria was
competing in Scott’s group. Rhys’s
father, Andrew, and grandfather,
Neville, are MGCC Vic members and
Andrew originally built my Honda
Civic.
The Marulan track is a tight winding
track with several elevation changes,
some cambered corners and a long
uphill straight to the finish line. Great
for driver training but you couldn’t
race a full grid of V8 utes on it!
As Scott was one of the earliest runners this may have been a good car in
which to start as it had ABS and traction control, although maybe both too
sensitive, to assist while Scott came
to grips with the track and the car. He
managed to acquit himself well and
only caused Tim to jump once when
the car stepped out through turn 2.
Scott thoroughly enjoyed the car and
finished with a huge grin, as always.
For the morning session there were
three V8 utes, a Toyota 86 and a Nissan Pulsar to be shared among 22
“Professional” competition drivers and
groups of ”Rookies” and “Amateur”
drivers.
The day was well managed with drivers rotated through the cars efficiently
as a mechanic was assigned to
changing drivers and transponders
between cars as required. The drivers’ briefing was very emphatic that if
you lock up or spin you may as well
go home! Scott wasn’t worried until
that was said. Given the conditions
we did not see any spins, some close
to it, and quite a few lock ups but nobody left the track.
After a short wait he was slotted into
the Nissan Pulsar alongside Terry
Nightingale who races in the Dunlop
Development series on a drying track.
As the track dried there remained several wet areas among the shaded
sections so it was never really dry.
The Pulsar series is active on the
East Coast and these are largely
standard Pulsars with controlled modifications, e.g. locked diff, and are mar-
Scott’s first session was in the Toyota
86 which is owned and raced by Tim
Brook in the Toyota 86 series where
he finished second in the first round of
2016. Tim was the instructor/assessor
in the car.
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