Event date: 2 April 2022

I asked my 21 year old son, Mitch, what he was up to on the first weekend of April.  He said he was off to a house warming in Sydney.  I mentioned that the Club was holding a track “Driver Training Day” on the Saturday and that he could join me.  As both of us had spoken about the potential of doing a track day ‘one of these days’ but had never got around to doing it, we were both keen to give it a go. Needless to say, the Sydney plan was quickly dropped and the two of us registered for the event.

As we live in Torquay, we decided it would be best not to drive the 2 hours up to the track, attempt a track day and drive a further 2 hours home all on the same day.  So I booked us in for an overnight in Kilmore.  We had a reasonably early start so as to top up with fuel and pumped the tyres and of course, some fuel for ourselves.  The only place open for brekkie at that time of the morning between our accommodation and the track was the big “M”. 

We arrived at the track while still in darkness and proceeded to find the pits and the organisers track office.  I must confess there was a little anxiety creeping in, especially as we approached the pits to be greeted by other drivers busy off-loading their “race” cars from trailers.  It all looked quite professional and a little more hard core racing than my expectation of taking my pride and joy, a 2009 E89 30sDrive Z4, for a spin on the track.  We were guided to pick a pit garage for the day where we removed our overnight gear and any other movable items from the little beemer and dumped it at the back of the garage.

The excitement levels started creeping up as we met other drivers in the track office, shared some banter and proceeded with the official business of purchasing a Motor Sport “Single Event Licence”, a battery location sticker and of course a number sticker for the car identification.  The car prep was pretty straight forward, make sure the car has been cleared of any loose items, check, place a blue triangle sticker on the body panel closest to where the battery is located, check, place white or black car identifying numbers on the side windows or panels of the car, check, and finally, remove the tow eyelet mounting point cosmetic cover and install the eyelet at the front of the car, check.

The proceedings for the day started off with the officials having their briefing.  The nervous excitement filled the air shortly thereafter as the drivers were called for their briefing.  The session commenced with the introduction of the key officials for the day, a reiteration of the track rules together with the identification of the different colour flags.  A two man team of photographers were also present and kicked off with a driver group pic.

Following the briefing, the reality of the day was really starting to sink in and with it a fair mixture of anxious excitement forming.  By now the day’s proceedings were rapidly moving along with the first timers offered the opportunity to go for a couple of rounds on the track with an experienced driver behind the wheel.  I was paired with Andy who was really great in providing an overview of the track and the special training day markers placed at specific points on the track to provide racing line guidance.  I can only assume it must have been the look of excitement on my face, as there was little time to slowly become accustomed to the track, we were hitting a fair pace straight from the blocks.  Once on the track, Andy continued with his valued commentary of do’s and don’ts including some of the potentially hidden pitfalls of this characterful track.  To me, this was the real ice-breaker, after the first lap any fear rapidly evaporated, to be replaced by pure excitement.  I was fortunate enough to have a second session with Eagle (apologies if I got the name/spelling slightly wrong).  He was also extremely informative and started introducing me to braking and cornering points and techniques.

Following the experienced driver rides, it was our turn to take the wheel.  As part of the introductory process, we were once again accompanied by an experienced driver.  I understand there were 40 entrants for the day and we were divided into 4 groups of ten drivers.  Mitch and I were split into group 2 and 4 respectively as we were sharing the little Z4.  Each group of ten drivers were started individually with a couple of seconds delay so as to provide each driver with plenty of wriggle room.

I do apologise, but with the excitement of the day, I have forgotten the name of the experienced driver that accompanied me on my first run.  He was a great source of very useful info from guiding me with my driving habits to some of the more interesting characteristics of the track.  My confidence grew in leaps and bounds and by the end of the session I had already significantly improved my driving techniques.  In fact, I was so impressed by the guidance I opted to request an experienced driver to accompany me on my second outing for the day.  This time, Jessie joined me.  He quickly established my level of competence and started coaching me on braking and cornering.  Before his input I was heading into corners having not used the full potential of the car’s braking capability, with one hand on the steering and the other on the gear lever and my right foot hovering over the brake and accelerator.  His instruction was that I head flat out towards the corner, find a braking marker, hit the brakes hard, once the car has slowed, gear down and get my left hand back onto the wheel and my foot off the brake as I enter the corner.  I must confess that although I have been impressed with the little Z4’s braking capability, I was blown away with how much more he guided me to get out of it.  In retrospect, I think one of my fears was related to what may lay around the corner and with that, being nervous to remove my foot from the brake until I was pretty confident that the car had commenced the corner rotation.  Once again, with Jessie’s guidance, I began to have more confidence in myself and the car’s ability and started to trust it to take me around the corner.

For the rest of the day, I spent each session practicing the techniques that I had been given some guidance in during the early part of the day.  During each session I could feel my confidence levels improve and with it my overall performance, not to mention the extremities of the smile on my dial.  From starting the day with a fair measure of excitement and a healthy measure of anxiety to finishing the day having completely relaxed and thoroughly enjoying myself.  To add to the day’s fun, I managed to finish the day being awarded the Makulu Vehicle Storage “Most Improved” trophy.  I feel very honoured to be awarded this accolade amongst a group of other drivers that also finished the day having significantly improved on thier skill levels during the day.  I would also like to mention that my son must have been a very near contender as the car was very new to him, he does not drive dad’s pride and joy around very often, and by the end of the day he was able to extract a lot from the car, particularly around the corners – well done Mitch!

I was also impressed by the number of woman participants, some arriving on the own, some with their partners, notwithstanding that it was an “International  Woman’s Day Come ‘n Try” there were plenty of lady drivers to show the boy’s how it is done.  Well done to you all and great to see you participate in the day.

Also, as a new member to the Club, I am impressed by the Club’s community.  This was my second Club event participation an am impressed by the level of friendship and fellowship within this Club community.  Every person that I approached was really friendly and keen to share their experiences or strike up a conversation on mutual interest.

However, there is one aspect of the day that really impressed me the most.  The organisation.  I was blown away with how smooth and professional the whole event was run, from the early days of registration through to the day’s proceedings.  In discussion on the way home, Mitch said he was quite anxious at the start of the day not knowing what to expect.  But he also conceded that he needn’t have been as the whole process on the day, from the driver’s briefing, the experienced drivers drive and the experienced drivers coaching readily removed any fear.

I can only imagine the amount of behind the scenes work and effort that went into organising the day.  A huge thanks to BMW Drivers Club Melbourne and the organising team, in particular to Graeme and Jo, the officials for giving their time and the experienced drivers who provided their invaluable guidance.  I can only but highly recommend the day. It sure as hell put a big smile on my dial and am positive it will do it for you too.

Steve Wesson | Member #837
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne