Wakefield Park is about 10 minutes out of Goulburn which is around 2 hours south of Sydney. The circuit is fairly technical but flows well and is basically in a big paddock so there's not much to hit if it all goes pear-shaped.

The 2.2km circuit runs clockwise and is positioned on the side of a gentle hill with the straight running along the base. It is very tough on brakes as there are 3 big lunges on the middle pedal each lap but with Celsior brakes, Ferodo DS2500 pads and Motul RBF600 brake fluid I've never experienced any fade although more braking power wouldn't hurt :-)

As always there was a fantastic range of cars - Celicas, STi WRX's, GTR's, Corollas, S15's, Skylines and the list goes on...

These are a couple of very well presented Celicas owned by some of the Toymods guys - both with turbo engine swaps and both are very quick.

I was very happy with how my car performed throughout the day without a single issue to concern myself with. The oil cooler has made a dramatic improvement with the temperature not exceeding 119°C even after 10 consecutive laps whereas it was previously climbing well over 120 degrees after only 4-5 laps.

I think with some better ducting to force air through the cooler (which is in front of the driver's wheel) it will be more efficient and keep the temperature lower. I'll do this before the next outing.

Something else I noticed at the last Wakefield track day a couple of months back was too much weight transfer to the rear when getting the power down. This was making the front end light which in turn was causing push-understeer when on the gas. This was mainly noticeable through the 3rd-gear right-hander onto the back straight (turn 9) as I had to back right off to get the weight back over the front wheels so as to not run wide.

At that time the rear springs were 6kg/mm so I ordered some 400lb/inch (about 7kg/mm) springs and it was these that I had fitted at Phillip Island but I was looking forward to a direct comparison at Wakefield. Straight away I found the car much more settled through that corner and as I pushed further throughout the day it was much easier to 4-wheel drift out to the ripple strip on the exit.

I'm very happy with the balance of the car and it's very predictable with the current power level.

My best time for the day was 1:15.16 (using timing transponders) on semi-slick tyres which I'm very happy with as it's quite a respectable time, especially for such a large car as a V8 Soarer.

Videos

So enough talking... here's a lap. Next time I'll have a proper camera mount instead of asking a mate to hold it.

Wakefield in-car lap - 5.5MB

This one is a quick drive-by of a Celica GT4 fitted with a twin-turbo 1UZ netting 320kw at the wheels. Needless to say it's now rear-wheel drive. Got a weird exhaust note... needs a twin system to get the v8 growl but there's no room under the car. I was taken for a few laps in this and it's an animal! The thrust on the other side of 150km/h is incredible - it just punches through the air.

GT8 - 590KB

The TA22 Celica in the photo above is fitted with a 3SGTE and is seriously quick. Here it is being chased by 2 GTR's and they don't make any ground over the whole length of the straight.

Jack's TA22 - 900KB

The next day at Wakefield will be the 1st of September but I'm not sure if I'll be ready for it... the Adaptronic, heads and cams will be going on over the next few weeks.

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