Round 1 of the 2022 NSW Supersprint season held at Wakefield Park on 13/02/22.

I returned to the NSWSS for 2022 after finishing the 2021 season in 2nd place in my class. I am hoping to further push the car this year and maintain that position/get closer to 1st place. There are however a few new entries/returning cars this year so it is going to be a bit tougher. Bring on the competition though!

I decided not to fix the gearbox after the failure three weeks ago at SMSP as I don't use 5th gear at Wakefield and figured it would be okay to run. I had no issues on that front all day but overall the car felt like it was lacking grip and I was actually a bit weary of the brakes for the first time in a long time. I'm pretty sure the RE71RS tyres are now past their 'peak performance' period after doing two half days and two full days on track, this event being their third full day.

Session 1 was a bit cold and damp and I got the car set up. The first flying lap of session 2 proved to be my best lap achieving a 1:07.01 and I was up on the next lap by 0.3 heading into the fish hook where I caught traffic and had to pull out of the lap. After that the day got too hot and any chance of bettering my time was dashed. 

As I mentioned before there was an overall lack of grip with the car and it was moving around much more than usual. There was also a few times where the brakes just didn't want to seem to pull the car up, especially heading down the hill into the fish hook. This hasn't happened for quite a while and the brakes have always been rock solid. I was running low on front pads initially but even after swapping them over to new ones the long pedal and ABS kicking in much more than usual, combined with the fluid being fresh and speeds being normal is what leads me to believe that the tyres just couldn't keep up with the braking demands. I will head back again soon, this time on the fresher A052 and see if the problem persists. If it does then it may well be time to start looking at BBK for the car.

Round 2 of the supersprint season isn't until early April and the next several rounds are all at SMSP so I will get the gearbox pulled and replaced with a rebuilt OEM one this time as I will be needing 5th gear again. Hopefully no more gearbox issues after that and I can focus on a diff build/front brakes if I deem them essential.

Thanks!

Modifications are:
2001 AP1 S2000 (94,000km) W/
- OEM F20C
- Js racing intake
- BYP 70mm titanium exhaust w/ test pipe 
- OEM transmission 
- Toda lightened flywheel
- OEM differential
- Amuse S tyre spec coilovers, 12kg springs
- OEM brakes
- Winmax W5 brake pads 
- 17x9 +40 CE28N
- 255/40 RE71RS
- Voltex street front bumper
- Voltex type 7.5 1700mm GT wing 
- Mugen hardtop 
- Sparco circuit driver's seat 
- Sparco 6pt harness 
- Momo mod88 suede steering wheel
- Defi advance ZD gauge screen
- Custom weld in roll bar
- 200kg of weight reduction