Track Day 14th July 2022
Last Thursday the team members of UOW Motorsport were up before sunrise and on their way to Sydney Motorsport Park for a team drive day with both our 2018 internal combustion car Susie, and 2019 electric vehicle Stacie. The plan for this track day was to give our team members and drivers an opportunity to drive one or both of the team’s vehicles, and gain experience driving some different track layouts.
First thing after arriving, the cars and equipment were unpacked and the race team began to setup the first track layout that drivers would need to follow. While setting up Stacy our electrical team needed to fix an issue with the CAN (Control Area Network) communication system, which gave the managers a great opportunity to teach the newer members how to troubleshoot electrical problems. This initial issue set the track day schedule back a bit, but once it was fixed both cars were ready to go and the rest of the day ran smoothly. Before driving, our team members were given a briefing on the safety features of the car and how to look out for potential problems, as well as the proper safety procedures to follow while on the track.
The drivers were then taken on a track walk by the race team who explained the track layout. A track walk is where the drivers walk around the course and familiarise themselves with the layout of the track, it helps you to understand each corner that you need to take before you even get into the car so you can spend less time learning the track and more time driving and trying to get a good lap time. After this it was finally time to drive.
Drivers were tasked with navigating two different track layouts, the first being a smaller track with many narrow turns, this helped drivers get a feel for how the well the cars handle corners. The second track was larger and gave drivers the opportunity to open the car up on some straights before forcing drivers into chicanes and sharp hairpin turns to test their handling skills. With only one practice lap and three timed laps drivers were pushed to quickly achieve fast lap times while minimising mistakes.
With only four laps between driver swaps all our drivers were kept on their toes needing to constantly be ready for their next run while our media team members were busy setting up equipment to capture each driver’s experience. After a very long and fast paced day it was finally time to pack up and to once again say goodbye to Sydney Motorsport Park.
It was an awesome day for the team and we would like to say a massive thank you to Sydney Motorsport Park, The Australian Racing Drivers’ Club, and The University of Wollongong for their continued support.