Track days in Victoria

[braddo]

Does anyone here go on track days in Australia? I was wondering how often they might be held within a few hours of Melbourne. It looks like there are 3 or 4 tracks within a few hours' drive of Melbourne but the tracks' websites don't seem to mention track days like what are so common in the UK.

In the UK you just book a place with a track day organiser and turn up. Is it similar in Australia or do you have to be a member of some sort of motor club and/or join the race cars at test days, perhaps?

I'll return to live in Australia one day but I have serious misgivings about being able to enjoy cars on public roads there. Going on a track day every couple of months would appear to be the only way I would be able to actually enjoy driving a fast car.

Is the stringent speed enforcement creating decent demand for track days?

The UK and Europe are such liberating places to drive in comparison.

Cheers.

[papahet]

braddo said:

Does anyone here go on track days in Australia?

Yes, I also compete in tarmac rally as well as sprints, time attack type events etc.

braddo said:

I was wondering how often they might be held within a few hours of Melbourne. It looks like there are 3 or 4 tracks within a few hours' drive of Melbourne but the tracks' websites don't seem to mention track days like what are so common in the UK.

I could not tell you about the circuits around Melbourne in particular but you might find that trackdays are not always called the same thing. Club days, tuning days etc are the usual names.

braddo said:

In the UK you just book a place with a track day organiser and turn up. Is it similar in Australia or do you have to be a member of some sort of motor club and/or join the race cars at test days, perhaps?

There are not many trackday organisers here like in the UK. Some circuits publish dates and you just rock up without any sort of booking, pay on the day and go and play. Some circuits you will need a CAMS L2S licence, no test needed for this, you just join a CAMS club and fill in the form with credit card numbers for a licence. Other circuits are run under AASA and require you to do something similar.

Most car clubs organise their own track events or motorsport so that is another avenue of access.

Trackdays are often really just a test day so you might find yourself on track with race cars but most circuits will make a call on the day if they are going to split in to groups.

You will find that although there are enough trackdays to keep you more than occupied through the year that most people get in to timed motorsport straight away. Entry level motorsport is way way easier and cheaper to get in to here than in the UK...$100 helmet, $100 licence and a $50 fire extinguisher and you are in.

braddo said:

I'll return to live in Australia one day but I have serious misgivings about being able to enjoy cars on public roads there. Going on a track day every couple of months would appear to be the only way I would be able to actually enjoy driving a fast car.

Meh, time and a place and all that.

braddo said:

Is the stringent speed enforcement creating decent demand for track days?

NFI

braddo said:

The UK and Europe are such liberating places to drive in comparison.

Bullst. I was back in the UK and travelled around Europe for 3 months this year. Driving in Germany and France was great from the perspective of being able to cover vast distances at a comfortable 130-160kmh (rental was flat chat at that ) but the UK was a terrible place to drive...bloody crowded roads, low speed limits everywhere and covered in people driving 20mph under the limit. I have never seen more speed cameras than the UK, farkin every 50 meters with speed limit changes every 100 meters.

[braddo]

papahet said:

... the UK was a terrible place to drive...

Meh, time and a place and all that.


Thanks for the response. Sounds like plenty of opportunities are out there but just some different ways and means of getting on track. Maybe the motorsport option will be viable too. I like the idea of a VH Commodore track car, stripped and caged like what everyone does to E36 BMWs over here... MX5 or Caterham/clubman type car more likely though.

[AW111]

There doesn't seem to be the same number of "commercial" track days as the UK appears to have, but a very big amatuer racing and rallying scene.

I have driven Haunted Hills a few times (1 hr from Melbourne), ridden Phillip Island a few times (1.5 hrs away), and several friends do Winton and Sandown.
Haunted Hills were events organised by car clubs; the island was set up by a group of bikers.

In each case we had more than enough time on track, and as pointed out above, you generally need a basic racing license (cheap and easy to get).

My main motorsport hobby is historic rallying; this is not concourse stuff : the events I run in are older cars driven flat out on closed gravel / dirt roads. Relatively cheap and huge fun.


In short, speed limits are fiercely enforced, but there are thousands of km of twisty roads with a 100 km (60 mph) limit for cruising on, and loads of amatuer motorsport.

[Google [bot]]

I rode shotgun with a friend at a Phillip Island trackday in January via the Maserati Club Australia, this should answer a lot of queries:

http://www.maserati.org.au/Resources/Documents/P%2...


Awesome track, awesome day, awesome people.

[braddo]

Google [bot] said:

I rode shotgun with a friend at a Phillip Island trackday in January via the Maserati Club Australia, this should answer a lot of queries:

http://www.maserati.org.au/Resources/Documents/P%2...


Awesome track, awesome day, awesome people.

Thanks for this.

Did many pure road cars attend? Would they really enforce the stuff in the 'eligible vehicles' section like a battery sticker, headlight tape/film, throttle return, 2 bonnet catches?

If so, it sounds like it might be better to have a dedicated car for track fun, rather than have a road car that you also take on track days a couple of times a year. Then again, I would have assumed the majority of owners in the Maserati club would have standard road cars that they want to have some occasional track fun with?

[Jader1973]

braddo said:

Thanks for this.

Did many pure road cars attend? Would they really enforce the stuff in the 'eligible vehicles' section like a battery sticker, headlight tape/film, throttle return, 2 bonnet catches?

If so, it sounds like it might be better to have a dedicated car for track fun, rather than have a road car that you also take on track days a couple of times a year. Then again, I would have assumed the majority of owners in the Maserati club would have standard road cars that they want to have some occasional track fun with?

I've got a mate who used to take his car to BMW club track days. It definitely didn't have battery stickers etc because it was his daily too.

I think he had to tape up the lights, and have a fire extinguisher within reach, but neither of those are that hard to do on the day.

[Google [bot]]

braddo said:

Google [bot] said:

I rode shotgun with a friend at a Phillip Island trackday in January via the Maserati Club Australia, this should answer a lot of queries:

http://www.maserati.org.au/Resources/Documents/P%2...


Awesome track, awesome day, awesome people.

Thanks for this.

Did many pure road cars attend? Would they really enforce the stuff in the 'eligible vehicles' section like a battery sticker, headlight tape/film, throttle return, 2 bonnet catches?

If so, it sounds like it might be better to have a dedicated car for track fun, rather than have a road car that you also take on track days a couple of times a year. Then again, I would have assumed the majority of owners in the Maserati club would have standard road cars that they want to have some occasional track fun with?

Plenty of pure road cars. We turned up in a standard 996TTS and failed scrutinering. Went and bought an extinguisher and 'secured' it with cable ties to the seat. Everything from a standard GT86 to:




There were 3 categories of cars sent out in seperate groups according to times.

ETA, for perspective:

Edited by Google [bot] on Thursday 4th September 13:47

[braddo]

As you say, looks awesome!

[papahet]

braddo said:

Thanks for this.

Did many pure road cars attend? Would they really enforce the stuff in the 'eligible vehicles' section like a battery sticker, headlight tape/film, throttle return, 2 bonnet catches?

If so, it sounds like it might be better to have a dedicated car for track fun, rather than have a road car that you also take on track days a couple of times a year. Then again, I would have assumed the majority of owners in the Maserati club would have standard road cars that they want to have some occasional track fun with?

The battery sticker does not need to be anything special. My car does not have one on it permanently so when I need one I use blue masking tape to make one and rip it off when I am done.

Headlight tape is easy, just chuck a roll of race tape in the car to put on when you get there or use clear packing tape from the post office.

Your car already has a throttle return spring.

Your car already has two bonnet catches: The 'lock' that releases when you pull the cable from in the car and then the catch that you have to feel for under the bonnet. My car does not have the factory catch anymore, it has bonnet pins and I also have a steel cable fixed around the radiator support with a carabiner on the other end that clips to the bonnet so it will only open 20cm or something.

This is the fire extinguisher you want: http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-store/prod...

The roll cage thing is specific to that club. You don't need one for trackdays or timed events.

[mojitomax]

How about motorcycle track days?

i'm moving to melbourne next week from the sticks and am itching to get a bike again

[VYT]

There are motorcycle track days at Phillip Island. You can also go on track with cars and bikes as Winton most Fridays.