Events O'Neill Track Day

I had the pleasure of attending a track day at Sydney's Eastern Creek race circuit yesterday. It was a chilly 3 degrees celcius when I arrived at the circuit at 8.00am, but thankfully the day soon warmed up.

Most of the cars present were Porsches and Ferraris along with many others including purpose-built race cars, BMWs, Bentleys and a few classics. There were more than 100 attendees and these were divided into three groups based on ability and experience. Each of the three groups had 20 minutes on the circuit in each hour. I used much of the downtime each hour to take photos.

They had a great team of instructors on hand who showed us how to drive the racing line around the circuit and gave all manner of advice on how to be smooth and steady around the track. Strict safety rules were enforced at all times, e.g. no overtaking was allowed off the main straight unless the driver ahead explicitly signalled you to pass. There was no racing, no timing of laps and very little aggressive driving.

I was apprehensive at first about taking my BMW M5 on the track but in the end I had a fabulous day. The car suffered relatively little tyre and brake wear and there were no incidents of any kind. I saw 230 kph on the straight most laps and thoroughly enjoyed unleashing the engine's 507 horsepower lap after lap.

All in all it was an excellent event, well organised and I would thoroughly recommend it.