Phillip Island Track Day - Mazda MX-5

Winter in July in Melbourne, Australia and the thermostat read 1 degree Celcius as I jumped in my MX-5 at 5AM to start the 2 hour journey to Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. I couldn’t complain though with perfect weather conditions forecast for the day which was to be my first track day at Phillip Island.

But before we get into my day, an overview of Phillip Island!

Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit is a motor racing circuit located in Victoria, Australia. The track hosts a number of international and Australian motor racing events most notably being MotoGP. The circuit is generally regarded within the local motoring community as the best in Victoria and certainly one of the best in Australia.

Turn 1 is one of the fastest corners in Australia. Coming down the main straight the right hander can be taken at close to top speed in my standard Mazda MX-5. Starting out wide and turning your car into the apex of the corner sees you ideally driving over the inside rumble strip. The corner has a slight camber to the inside which helps pull your car in and around once you’ve committed to it however, committing to entering this corner at high speed is the biggest challenge for a newcomer like myself. I still remember asking my Club Captain “can you take Turn 1 in my car without braking”. The answer was a quick “Yes” but with the day seeing a number of interruptions and red flags I unfortunately never progressed to the point of attempting this. Something to save for next time!

Turn 2 is a long sweeping corner which I found to be best driven in a double apex style. I started the day entering the corner from out wide but quickly found this was certainly the wrong approach as the outside of the track falls away making it difficult to pull the car back in and achieve any sort of apex. The end result sees too much speed being wiped off giving a poor drive out and onto the short straight. As such, I found the best approach is to enter on the inside portion of the corner braking late on entry and letting your car drift out to mid track before pulling it back in, aiming to clip the apex on exit as you drive out.

Coming out of Turn 2 sees a short straight followed by Turn 3 which can be taken with your foot planted firmly on the accelerator. The point to watch here is ensuring correct car position for Turn 4 which means not letting your car drift out wide on the exit of Turn 3. Turn 4, commonly referred to as “Honda”, is a tight hairpin and sees the heaviest braking zone at Phillip Island. As with most tight corners the best approach is to brake deep into the corner before turning into the apex and letting your car move out wide on exit.

Taking the correct line through Honda should see Turn 5 being effectively non existent as you drive a straight line into Turn 6, “Siberia”. Siberia is, in my opinion, one of the trickiest corners of the circuit and to be honest I don’t exactly know the best way to tackle it. The corner should be as simple as enter wide on the outside kerb, turn in, hold a constant radius, clip the apex and let the car drift out wide on exit. However, the exit of the corner is uphill meaning even the smallest mistake can see too much speed being wiped off and your car struggling to drive up the hill and out of the corner. Given you don’t touch the brakes again until Turn 9 any lost speed through Siberia will be reflected in your lap times.

As I’ve just referenced, Turns 7 & 8 are taken flat out in my MX-5 with the potential for some feathering in a much quicker car. The aim here is to just touch the inside rumble strips of each corner and reduce the amount of steering input to avoid washing off any speed.

Turn 9, commonly being referred to as “Lukey Heights”, is by far the most fun but also technical sections of the track. The corner is long, sweeping, off camber, uphill and finishes with a crest where the track proceeds to quickly drop off. Tackling the corner sees you positioning your car at about mid track and braking into it as you start to drive up the hill. I found the best approach from here was to get the car onto the inside kerb of the corner and feather the throttle to keep it here with the ability to drift out to mid track by the time you reach the crest.

Upon reaching the crest the track quickly drops off into the Turn 10 hairpin. Being any further out than mid track at the crest is therefore not advised as you’ll have to pull the car all the way back to the left in order to set-up for Turn 10. Many refer to this corner as one of the most important on the track as it ultimately governs your top speed at the end of the main straight. This is again because you won’t need to touch the brakes (unless in a high powered car unlike mine) until reaching Turn 1 of your next lap. The goal of Turn 10 is to therefore get the best drive out of the corner as possible. It sees a relatively short braking zone as a lot of speed is wiped off during Lukey Heights however, given that the entry is downhill it’s easy enough to overcook it.

Turing into the apex should see your car getting onto the inside rumble strip before driving out wide on exit leading directly into Turn 11 which sees you holding an inside line as you follow the kerbing around the corner. Coming out of Turn 11 will have you moving out to the outside kerb of the track to set-up for Turn 12, the final corner before the main straight. Driving off the outside kerb Turn 12 simply requires you to aim for the inside kerbing which feels very instinctive as the track turns into the corner itself. Exiting takes you onto the main straight which will see you reaching into the upper echelons of your cars top speed.

And that’s Phillip Island! Below is a link to a video of my best lap on the day. My first running at Phillip Island saw a 2:04.4716 which placed me second in class for the day. I was pleased with this result and whilst my time was just a tad over one second off the lap record for my class I was disappointed in my driving on the day. This was in part due to numerous interruptions and red flags on the day which meant I struggled to get into a good mindset resulting in me not learning enough from my mistakes session to session.

As the video will clearly demonstrate most of my problems were confined to Honda (Turn 4) and Siberia (Turn 6). For Honda I simply struggled to pick and stick to a braking point which affected my ability to concentrate on the correct line through the corner. Ultimately, I believe I was consistently carrying too much speed into this corner which saw me struggling to get to the apex and having to fight to keep the car from drifting out too wide on exit.

Siberia is where I was the most disappointed with myself though as I can’t really pinpoint how exactly to improve. All I know is that I was losing a decent slab of time through this corner which was affecting my lap times. I feel as though my braking points and line were all wrong and I was missing the apex my a country mile… or two. I was therefore washing too much speed off through the corner as I tried to get the car back where I wanted it. This meant my RPM’s were dropping too low for my MX-5 to drive up the hill and out of the corner. It felt like I was driving on a treadmill and the car just wasn’t moving up the hill. Changing down a gear (to 2nd) wasn’t an option as the corner speed was right in the range whereby the car would be sitting on the rev limiter in 2nd gear.

So all in all an enjoyable day at Phillip Island but a few frustrations and some areas to work on and improve for next time. Entering the day I had heard many a driver state that Phillip Island was there favorite track to drive in Victoria. Despite my troubles, I’d had to agree! It’s fast and flowing yet technical and challenging at the same time. Can’t wait to get back!