Wearnes Automotive Track Day - 22 April 2011

Friday 22nd April, 6am, while most people were still snuggled in bed, enjoying the work-free Good Friday, a small number of cars assembled in front of Wearnes Automotive's Bentley dealership. The eclectic group made out of two Subaru STI, one Mitsubishi Evo IX, a Mercedes SLK200, a Porsche Carrera 4, a Mazerati Grand Turismo, a Nissan GTR, a Volvo S60R, two Renault Mégane Coupé Cabriolet and a Jaguar Xf had gathered for one reason: they want to go fast.

 

It’s to answer the call for speed of their clients and friends that Wearnes, the distributor of Renault, Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar, Bentley and Bugatti here in Singapore, decided to hire the help of driving instructor Eugene Oh to form convoys and drive all the way to Sepang International Circuit, in Malaysia and allow the speed junkies to go fast on the controlled and safe environment of the racetrack. Eugene, being a veteran driver and racer, also helps the attendants of the track days by sitting in the car with them and teaching them the ins and outs of the circuit, to make their racing day the best they could hope for.

After the traffic jams of the checkpoint to Malaysia, and the long highway drive north, punctuated by refuelling and refreshment stops, the convoy reached Sepang International Circuit. After parking the cars in the pits, the drivers quickly made their way to the track’s offices to register and attend a driver’s safety and regulations briefing with the Traction Circle Club. Each car owner was then given a number to paste on the door, and everybody made their way back to the pits at a fast pace, the racing fuel in everyone’s veins starting to run faster. 

Back in the pits, the atmosphere was electric with all drivers, whether new or veterans, getting ready to rumble, strapping on a helmet, jumping in their machines and going to line up in the pit lane, waiting for the green light to announce the opening of the session.

The lights turned green and the cars left the safety of the pit lane one by one to jump into the ocean of speed and adrenalin that is the circuit. That particular day saw a crowd of over fifty cars making it to the track, hopefully not all hitting the asphalt at the same time, but the wide F1-grade circuit managed to accommodate everyone without causing jams on the asphalt. Furthermore, this track day not being a racing session but a more relaxed lapping day, new track drivers were able to get priceless experience by following the lines of the veterans, all the while giving way to the faster cars so as not to hinder their fun by slowing them down. Among the faster cars was a Radical SR3 RS, a real track monster propelled by a 1.3 litre engine taken from the Suzuki Hayabusa, which was stroked up to 1.5 litre and now generates 210bhp for a mere 570kg. That should give you a quick idea of the type of toy the Radical is. I was lucky enough to sit in the “passenger seat” (read: the floor of the car – having an actual seat would not be weight-friendly) with Ben, one of the three drivers of the Radical, for two laps full of adrenalin, and I can tell you the acceleration, cornering and breaking forces in this machine are amazing and very addictive at the same time! 

At the end of the session, all the drivers had that shiny glow of excitement and amazement in their eyes, and kept sharing experiences between each other about the track, which turns are trickier, how they managed to find the best line to tackle them and how each and every one of them suddenly love their car even more now that they know how it handles at the limit, or close to it.

It was then time to head back south to the little island that is Singapore where everyone headed back home for a well-deserved sleep, probably full of high G-cornering, high speed dreams.

Wearnes is regularly organizing track days like this one, open for all to join in. Stick around on Gordini’s Pit Stop for information on the next session!

Gallery

Special thanks to Pearl and the whole team at Wearnes Automotive for this awesome day, Eugene and Emma and all the drivers and Justin, Benny and Vig for the ride in the Radical!

Thanks to Ang from gogoAds for the help and the great photos (you saved me!) - you can check out gogoAds here.