I haven't been to a motorsport activity for a while, and I think I caught up with my cravings the last 2 weeks doing both an autocross and going to Sepang for a track day.
Of course, I was very very excited about joining these events leading up, and I really couldn't wait for the weekends to arrive. I had to get the car ready, serviced and all mechanically sound - as well as getting the sponsor stickers up on the car for the first event - GRA.
I joined GRA thinking it was similar to the motorkhana I did previously in Melbourne. I was pretty wrong.
Firstly, the event was so much higher speed compared to the motorkhana. It was almost impossible to reach third gear in the motorkhana, but just on the main straight at the beginning of the course here, before you know it I'm already in third gear.
The objective was simple, running through the same course to get the fastest time. We went through 6 sessions, so we took the total of the 3 fastest laps. There were also two main classes depending on your experience and the car you are driving, the Grass class and the Pro-Grass class.
Because of my car, I had to compete in the Pro-Grass class against all the experienced fellows, and our session began at noon on the hot and very sunny Sunday afternoon.
Cones were placed around the course at points where we needed to navigate through correctly, and if we made a mistake of going the wrong way then it would be counted as a "no finish".
I made such mistakes in my first session, I was concentrating too much on trying to remember the route and made two mistakes going the wrong way which cost me. Luckily after that I recovered and ensured I finished all remaining sessions. Sad to say though, I was pretty much close to the bottom of the table with my times.
The whole event though was pretty fun and was a very good experience in itself. There were some very awesome cars at the event, and I managed to meet up with some familiar faces there, and made many new friends which is always excellent.
