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MRT Performance track day at Wakefield Park

MRT Performance track day

Recently I spent a day driving around Wakefield Park, near Goulburn. The day was run by MRT Performance and I had a cracking time, it must be said. This was my second MRT track day following a Marulan Driver Training Centre outing back in May.

The circuit at Wakefield is technical enough to keep you chasing for that perfect lap, but not so intimidating to deter newcomers. And with dedicated instructors on hand from MRT the track day experience is a level above the regular “Speed Off The Streets” days. Getting out on track by yourself and going hell for leather might be fun, but if you want to improve your technique, then track time with an experienced instructor is a great start.

For a day of track time, as much driver tuition as you like and catered meals MRT charges $250. It’s pretty good value and the MRT staff generally put on a trouble free day where the emphasis is on fun and learning.

Also in attendance on the day was the Osborne Motorsports race team with their two Mazda 3 MPS production racecars. Sensing a good opportunity Mazda Australia booked a few places with MRT and offered them to some of their more dedicated customers. A great initiative, it must be said, and with any luck other manufacturers are taking note.

There’s a few pics below from the day and an extensive gallery can be seen over at the MRT Performance flickr site.

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MINI Motorsports

2008 MINI Challenge – Round 2 TV highlights



The MINI CHALLENGE is currently in winter hibernation, so if you’ve missed out on the action, keep an eye on AUSmotive as we help bring you up to speed. Here are two clips from Channel 7’s highlights package of Round 2 at Wakefield Park in Goulburn, New South Wales. There’s some great tight racing action, including a balls of steel overtaking move into turn two by David Turner at the 8 minute mark of the clip above. The round saw electrical gremlins ruin Pual Stokell’s chances, which enabled series debutant Nathan Geier to take his first race and round victory.

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MINI Challenge

2008 Australian MINI Challenge in pictures – Round 2

MINI Challenge

AUSmotive.com attended today’s MINI Challenge meeting at Goulburn’s Wakefield Park. Click HERE to see a gallery of all the action. Or you can click below to read the rest of this entry and see a selection of images.

The first series of images are from this morning’s Race 2, followed by some colour and detail from pit lane before finishing off with pictures from Race 3.

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MINI Challenge

Nathan Geier wins Wakefield Park MINI Challenge

Nathan Geier

Melbourne’s Nathan Geier has won Round 2 of the 2008 Australian MINI Challenge, held this weekend at Goulburn’s Wakefield Park Raceway. Yesterday’s Race 1 winner, Paul Stokell, from the DecoRug team, looked to have Race 3 and the round win in his hands until he mysteriously lost all power in his car and was forced to retire on lap 6. Geier had his Split Image Project Management MINI sitting safely in second place, and was able to fully capitalise on Stokell’s misfortune to inherit a lead he would not surrender, ultimately taking the chequered flag on lap 15.

The 25 year old Geier was full of excitement after his round win, “It’s kind of surreal! I’m still in shock to be honest. Paul (Stokell) was driving real well, it was really unlucky for him. I was following him and heard his car shut down and from then on started worrying about mine! I was trying to concentrate on my lines and not worry about how far Grant was behind me. Next round will be interesting. We’ll have an additional 25kg on board, which means it’s a totally different ballgame. It was a great weekend all round and really sets us up well for the remainder of the season.”

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MINI Challenge

MINI Challenge at Wakefield Park



Thanks to AUSmotive reader Tiaan for sending me this footage of the opening lap from Race 3 at today’s MINI Challenge held at Wakefield Park. This meeting was Round 2 of the 2008 Australian MINI Challenge and the round win was secured by Nathan Geier. Stay tuned for more details soon.

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MINI Challenge

Stokell wins Race 1 at Wakefield Park MINI Challenge

MINI Challenge at Wakefield Park

Paul Stokell has brought home a one-two for the DecoRug Motorsport team in the first race of the second round of MINI CHALLENGE at Wakefield Park Raceway today, leading home team-mate Grant Denyer.

Stokell staved off an early charge from Melbourne racer, Nathan Geier (Split Image Project Management). Geier, who has been the revelation of MINI CHALLENGE to date, put in a solid performance until a small mistake at turn nine on the eighth lap cost him significantly.

That allowed Grant Denyer to close up, and a lap and a half later, he advanced into second when Geier ran wide.

Denyer had been involved in an early fight with Neil McFadyen (Scope Signs & Graphics). That lasted until the end of lap one, when the Seven Network personality dived late under brakes at turn one and got through, with minimal room to spare.

McFadyen had a lonely race in fourth, but was able to close up on Geier on the final lap. The success ballast of 25kg from his round one victory seemed to have some effect on the Sydney-based racer.

Starting on pole for tomorrow’s race two will be Gary Young (Salta Constructions) when the top six finishers from today are reversed. The Melbournite was involved in a race long battle with Perth’s Paul Fiore (Shell Helix Ultra), a superior start by Fiore proving decisive.

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MINI Challenge

Close racing assured this weekend at Wakefield Park

MINI Challenge, Eastern Creek

Round 2 of the exciting new MINI Challenge series kicks off at Goulburn’s Wakefield Park this weekend, with the great news that new drivers have signed on as the series continues to grow. The ingredients are there for this to be a fantastically competitive series and I know that MINI Australia staff have been working feverishly in the background to ensure the series is a great spectacle for all motor racing fans.

I’ll be tagging along to Wakefield this weekend with clubMINI and if you’re nearby and can get out to Goulburn this weekend I highly recommend it.

The action starts on Friday with the MINI Challenge cars having practice sessions at 9:55am, 12:25pm, qualifying is at 3pm. There will be three races for the MINIs, the light goes green for Race 1 at 1:15pm on Saturday, and there’s two races on Sunday, Race 2 begins at 9:30am and Race 3 starts at 1:45pm. The weekend’s events will also see racing from the Porsche Carrera Cup, Formula Ford and the Fujitsu V8 Supercar. Plenty of value for your $35 entry fee.

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MINI Motorsports

Paul Stokell looks forward to new Wakefield success

MINI Challenge racer Paul Stokell is looking forward to an “unpredictable” round at Wakefield Park this coming weekend (4-6 April). Stokell has plenty of experience at the tight 2.2 kilometre circuit just outside of Goulburn, including stints in a Lamborghini Murcielago in the Nations Cup and a Volkswagen R32 in the Australian Production Car Championships. When Round 2 of the MINI Challenge series kicks off he will be behind the wheel of the DecoRug Motorsports MINI. Leading up to the event Stokell said, “It’s a nice little racetrack and being front-wheel drive, the MINI Challenge racecars should be perfectly suited to the circuit.”

Both Stokell and series leader Neil McFadyen will be burdened with extra weight, or “success ballast” on account of their good form at round 1 held at Eastern Creek. Stokell will carry and extra 15kg and McFadyen will have 25kg ballast added to his M3 Motorsports team MINI. In what will be a new experience for McFadyen he commented, “It will be the first time I’ve driven in a class with success ballast, so I have no idea yet how it will affect my times or driving. I know what having a passenger in a racecar does to the handling, whilst it won’t be quite that dramatic, I have no doubt the 25kg will alter the way in which we approach the weekend.”