Written by Rachel George
Track Day 15th August 2025
The team held our final track day with our 2024 vehicle, Mollie, at Sydney Motorsport Park to develop our potential drivers for the 2025 FSAE-A Competition. The day was dedicated to giving the drivers more seat time and testing different throttle curves to assess the vehicle’s performance.
For this track day, the team worked with two developing drivers to further build their skills, and we had an experienced driver on hand to offer tips and tricks. Unlike previous track days that focused on Autocross and Endurance runs, this session concentrated on Acceleration and Skidpad runs to help the drivers refine their control and consistency in these specific dynamic events.
After our safety debrief, our experienced driver completed the shakedown for the day, and fortunately, we didn’t find any issues. Once everything was sorted, we set up the track for the first half of the day, which focused on Acceleration runs.
Testing Acceleration runs is an important part of driver development, as it combines a range of skills such as reflexes and reaction time. These reflexes directly affect how quickly drivers can respond and adapt their control inputs to suit the environment and the behaviour of the vehicle. It’s also a valuable way to build driver confidence, giving them the opportunity to focus on straight-line performance and refine their technique without the added complexity of corners.
Our newer drivers had a few mishaps, as it was their first time completing the acceleration runs. After receiving feedback from both our experienced driver and the Clerk of Course, they started to get the hang of the runs. Our experienced driver also collected a lot of valuable data for our throttle curve testing for the Race Engineering team to analyse.
After charging the car, we had the track set up for our Skidpad testing for the second half of the day. Skidpad runs are an essential part of driver development because they test consistency in the drivers’ use of all controls. They also challenge the drivers’ ability to perceive what’s ahead and quickly adapt their inputs to maintain speed and control through continuous cornering. This not only improves technique but also helps drivers build a better feel for how the car responds under different conditions.
Overall, it was a successful final track day for our 2024 vehicle, Mollie, as we got a lot of driver development in and gathered valuable testing data for our Race Engineering system.
