Event date: 21 November 2021

7:30am Sunday, 21 November begins at Phillip Island with drizzle after a weeklong forecast graduating from rain to mostly sunny.  I arrive in the hope the weather bureau has got it right, not keen on the wet after a long break.  I’ve not driven the PI Circuit since 2019 and even then very much an amateur of this circuit.  My best lap time 2.14.8.

On arrival I’m met by Jo Mawson, who proudly presents my D Class Winners Trophy, funnily enough also from 2019.  Looking back, our BMWDCM track days aren’t so much about lap times as they are about consistency.  In 2019 I obviously attended enough track day events with reasonable enough results to warrant that Trophy.  A big thank you to our club, a very nice looking Trophy to boot!

For those of you who don’t know me, I drive a club plated 1987 Red BMW E30 325i Coupe.  Whilst not fully race prepared and albeit road driven to each sprint event, it does run a set of AD08R tyres & EBC pads along with race seats, harness, extractors and strut brace.  I purchased it in late 2016 as a factory auto (believe it or not) with Bell Motorsport converting to manual early 2017 ready for track day events that year.

So back to where I started.  My practice and session one were very disappointing, totally off my lines, braking & gear selection abysmal.  Best lap time 2.17.0, losing 2.2 secs since 2019. Then after lunch I overheard Graeme Bell suggest the race prepared E30’s line up together to follow him, so as to improve their form & lap times.  Well I decided to follow suit, lined up behind and followed the 5 E30 race cars around the circuit for as long as I could keep up, losing them out of sight after about 3 laps.  

So the remaining 3 sessions of the afternoon were spent doing just that.  This pushed and motivated me to keep my speed up, follow their lines, braking & accelerations points.  Well what a difference that made, having achieved a 2.11.6 by end of the day.  So I left the day feeling pretty chuffed with myself, 5.4 secs better for that event and 3.2 secs better than 2019.

See you at the next one guys and thank you to AROCA & BMWDCM for a great day!

Simon Meens | Member #45
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne