Pukekohe Test Days

[Maxwedge]

Anyone ever done one of these test days at Puke? Whats involved, licence, extinguisher,cotton overalls, scrutineering, rollcage???? I would be keen to give it a blast, any info appreciated.

[doin donuts]

i did one few years ago in my s13 200sx, all i needed was wof, reg and helmet, they broke it into groups...1.motorobikes 2.grip racing 3.drift 4.fun driving

was great fun, really worth it, when my ae85 is done and the 4age is tuned im heading out there

[malc]

http://www.countiesracing.co.nz/motor-r ... g-events/5

[postfach]

Yeah, the rules are pretty basic:

You need a helmet
if you want passengers, you have to have a proper race harness, and they have to wear a helmet too
Doesn't look like you need wof and reg, but there will be some form of scrutineering that your car will have to pass before being allowed on the track (If you don't have wof and reg, dont drive there, sometimes the cops are hanging about outside the entrance)
Your car can't be louder than 95dB

pretty sure they don't allow drifting at those test and tune days anymore, because of complaints about the noise level, they've limited the number of days per year for drifting, and also its a bit of a safety thing.

[Emperor]

Lol they're pretty sweet with the sound limit.

and out of about 7 test days ive been to, never had the car scrutineered.

but still pays to have a safe, legit car.

[postfach]

Lol they're pretty sweet with the sound limit.

and out of about 7 test days ive been to, never had the car scrutineered.

but still pays to have a safe, legit car.

Yeah those pro 7's are pretty rowdy I went to Thunder in the Park a couple of weeks back.

I didn't get scrutineered at Puke when I went either, but it was a private day so I thought maybe it was just them being poorly organised/not caring.

[Emperor]

Haha, was it fun listening to all the old shitter ones take off?

I drive the red one, I was winning for about 3 laps.. then I found the grass

[Meadzy]

there very relaxed about having to have harnesses with passengers, everytime iv been they dont care

[postfach]

Haha, was it fun listening to all the old shitter ones take off?

I drive the red one, I was winning for about 3 laps.. then I found the grass

haha yes, they sound so rickety, but it was awesome. i knew you drove one of the cars but i couldn't remember which it was

[mr2_t]

IMHO they are *really* lax with the regs. I've been to maybe 10 of those days and have never had any scrutineering. You basically pay your money to Hairy McSweary (Gary, the track manager) and get on the track.

they broke it into groups...1.motorobikes 2.grip racing 3.drift 4.fun driving

This seems to depend on what turns up, if theres not many road/slow cars you'll be out with everything except the single seaters/bikes. Last time I was out me and a mate with a 944 provided a moving roadblock for John McIntyre..

[fxgt race]

is anybody heading out to this,i will be there tomorrow with a few others,need to see if the six speed box can handle some abuse.

[Meadzy]

saw you there. wer you the white fxgt? if so..good stuff on hustling henrys dc5 around

[fxgt race]

if that is the suicide doors integra it is a fast car but i did give it a go for awhile but my mate didn't hit the record on the video as it would have been some good action,i do have some other action and will post it up showing him overtake me on the back straight.

[Meadzy]

yep thats the one, haha understandable though normally hes running nitrous for the back straight..

[fxgt race]

at sometimes it was pretty even and others it made me look like i had the hand brake on,but under brakes and around corners i was giving him a push,there is some youtube action but he isn't on this one.

[2jayzgte]

Those Puke test days sound like how the open-days were run at Manfield about 7-8 years ago rock up pay your money and away you go.But now at Manfield for any day the bare minimum is Scrutineering Helmet 100% cotton overalls and no passengers unless your fully caged safety and all.

[Bazda]

pukekohe is....hmmm they dont giv a toss lol.

I just paid my money, and they said as long as my car has wheels its sweet lol.

I took passengers all day as well.

+ u get so many runs, each session is 20min long and you get about 3-5 of them depending on how many classes they have there.
So you really get ur moneys worth!

[Leon]

pukekohe is....hmmm they dont giv a toss lol.

Wait until they kill somebody, or get their track licence taken off them. Then suddenly they will care.

[rolla_fxgt]

pukekohe is....hmmm they dont giv a toss lol.

Wait until they kill somebody, or get their track licence taken off them. Then suddenly they will care.

Surely they should loose it, its only giving the rest of the motorsport community a bad name. & playing with peoples lives is just stupid

[atmosports]

Unfortunately it seems the safety standards for test days at Puke seem to be slipping all the time. I can remember going back quite a while now but they had a string of fatalities & bad accidentsduring test days & it was really tightened up & you had to go through a fair bit of paper work & checks before going on the circuit, I also know at one stage that they proposed everyone would have to do at least one session with the driving school before being let loose on their own. Which given Puke is one of the fastest circuits down this end of the world & also probably going off my recollection has had probably more deaths than any other circuit in NZ it would make sense to have some sort of screening process to make sure everyone knows where the track goes & the rules etc.

I think they really need to go back to having seperate race car & road car days like they used to. While this doesn't get round the speed differential issues I think it would go some way to making things safer as I've generally found that you end up having to dodge people with no motorsport experience as they tend to move across on you without warning and/or don't hold their lines. This would also give people with race cars a fair chance to test without having to worry about running over road cars all day & would mean the road car guys wouldn't have to worry about gt3's,super gt's & NZv8's flying past them. Sure still doesn't get round the fact that some cars go round there in under a minute & other take over a minute & a half.

When we used to test at Baypark(anyone remember that track??) & Taupo we sued to go testing with about 5 cars max on the track & be able to run non-stop the whole day if we wanted, except for when the crazy maori lady at Baypark would run onto the front straight & wave her brrom at you cause she hated the noise. Unfortunately I don't think getting 3 or 4 sessions at 20 minutes long is really a heap of mileage,especially if your trying to back to back test stuff as you end up only getting 2-3 laps than make a change & 2-3 laps again & by the time the next session is up for you the track can change dramatically.

Rather than everyone whinge & moan on internet forums(DINZ has a similiar topic from memory) why on't people write to the Counties racing club, Motorsport NZ, Speedsport, NZ racer etc magazines & voice their opinion as that way something might happen, just don't go to OSH else we won't have a track no more. I think like everything else in life now, it's a minority of $&#$% that spoil it for everyone else. I've seen people stop on the outside coming over the hill & climb under their cars to check stuff in the middle of a session, I've also seen people drifting with full cans of petrol bungee corded into there cars sloshing onto the floor. That's just to highlight a point, I've been going to most of the tracks here in NZ for over 25 years so could tell plenty of other stories. No one likes getting hurted or killled & from my own experience when it does happen to someone even if it's someone you don't know it can really ruin your day & makes you think how vulnerbale you really are.