Track Day – The Bend Motorsport Park

It was a very early morning wake up call as my alarm started blaring at 4.45am – of course I was up immediately as I was heading to The Bend Motorsport Park. I have been there before but this time was a first for me, I was entered to complete laps in my own car!

I hopped in the car, met up with my mate and we started the hour or so drive from Adelaide to The Bend. The weather was quite poor with overcast conditions but more concerningly, rain falling… Fortunately by the time we passed through the Adelaide Hills and out to the track we were greeted by a dry surface!

The car park made it perfectly clear there would be no shortage of cars hitting the track!

Whilst it would have been easy to get distracted by the cars arriving there was work to be done, emptying the cars, setting the garage up and just generally preparing for the day. All this before the mandatory drivers briefing.

It just so happened that the track being used was the GT Circuit, which at 7.7km long, is the second longest permanent race track in the world behind the Nordschleife, Nurburgring! We are very fortunate to have this facility here in SA.

This map, from The Bend’s website, shows the circuit which was used, it is hard to get context of length but I can confirm it is long! You can also see the other possible *configurations* achieved by sending cars through different corners.

With the briefing over we were free to hit the track, there were 50 entries on the day with 38 cars (some people were sharing cars, etc.) so we let all the keen bodies hit the track straight away. Over the course of the day there was a vast range of cars racking up the laps, everything from street cars to full blown race cars! I didn’t focus (no pun intended) on taking too many pics as I was primarily there to drive but here are a few cars I snapped around the track.

This Huracán Super Trofeo EVO was one of the fastest (& loudest) cars of the day. Its 5.2L engine absolutely screaming down the main straight.

There was a huge variety of cars out though.

Turns out the new 400Z had its Australian debut, not to mention world wide track debut?!

By my count Porsches were by far the most popular marquees, with the GT models leading the charge.

A 996 Carrera Cup car I have been following on social media, this one being returned to its original race livery from when it debuted many years ago.

I only saw one M3 on the track which was a little surprising.

In fact, there were more Hyundai’s than BMWs!

After watching it was time to head out on track, first of all as a passenger, in my far more experienced mates car. After a few laps we went back in to check tyre pressures and that the car was holding up. Soon enough it was my turn! Heading out of pit lane it was all going well until about five corners in when I decided to have a little spin – rookie! Cold tyres, not to mention the extra speed were the lessons to be learnt. One thing I did notice over the day is just how much faster I was going than I would have guessed, I feel the sheer size of the track and the lack of reference features played a part in this. Anyway, no more spins were recorded and whilst I didn’t set any new lap records it was still a blast being out on the track. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately in my case) I don’t have any pics of myself to share with you.

With some 7 hours of track time there was plenty of time to take it all in, including a look at the cars in the visitor centre and a break for lunch

There was some serious machinery at the visitor centre, this Senna GTR being one such piece.

There was also a ‘regular’ Senna next to it.

As far as exotica goes, this P1 GTR would be my pick!

After lunch there were more laps to be had, even though the day was quite cool (low 20s) I was surprised at how warm it got inside the car! The day wrapped up and it was time to head off, it was a great day and I would like to do some more track days, time will tell!

Some serious set ups with pit crews meant that people were coming and going in pit lane all day.

An R35 would be high on my list of track capable yes still streetable cars.

There was plenty of variety to watch between hot laps. Everyone seemed to get into a natural groove of similar cars being on track at the same time. That said with such a long track it was rare to see other cars as you were lapping anyway.

This older Porsche was not giving away much in terms of speed on track.

Some cars blasting down the main straight.

AMG GT-R Pro ready to go out and do some hot laps.

Being a JDM fan I was stoked to see this trio of Toyota Sedans lapping all day.

I must admit the Toyota Verossa looks much better in flesh than I imagined.

An iced coffee livery race car, what a combo!

This BMW looked like it was ready to go for the 2020 Adelaide Rally.

Passengers were allowed so there were plenty of cars giving people hot laps!

With monthly events hopefully there will be more experiences in the future.