If you are the kind of person that likes to stretch the legs of your car every now and then, it can be hard to keep it under the 110km/h speed limit.
Thankfully, there’s no shortage of options out there for petrolheads to drive their street performance vehicle fast in a safe environment, with racetracks around the country hosting a wide variety of track activities. Torquecafe.com got the chance to sample one of the newest kind events recently: Roll Racing Brisbane. Roll racing is a new kind of track day event, that’s similar to drag racing but with a rolling start (hence the name) to create a different challenge.
Those in NSW can find roll racing at Sydney Motorsport Park, while drivers in Perth can compete at Wanneroo Raceway, and The Bend Motorsport Park plays host for those in South Australia.
Held at Queensland Raceway, Ipswich, Roll Racing Brisbane is billed as ‘all the street style racing you can handle without the risk of getting in trouble’. And it more than lives up to expectations. It’s not just an opportunity to race your mates and see whose car is fastest anymore, roll racing is quickly becoming a serious sport.
Almost all performance cars are welcome, resulting in a diverse range of domestics, imports, high-end supercars and some of the craziest builds you could imagine. How about a twin-turbo V10 Audi R8? Or a couple of 1000hp+ Nissan GT-R R35s? There’s not much you won’t see.
Torquecafe.com was lucky enough to participate in Roll Racing Brisbane but in something far tamer than the GT-Rs. A Stage 2 MK7 Golf GTI Performance Edition. Our GTI is running a safe 22psi on its factory IS20 turbo, tuned by Underground Performance at German Auto Dynamics on the Gold Coast.
How does it work?
Entry costs $110 once you add the entry fee itself and a single day RACERS license on, but you can also opt for the slightly more expensive one-year license if you’re a regular.
Drivers’ briefing on the night is a rather serious affair as there are some critical rules to follow, but most of it is common sense stuff.
The QR team have some very logical processes in place around lining up to race, transiting back to the pits, and preparation zones to get some heat into your tyres.
Right lane sets the rolling pace into the starting zone, usually 40km/h while the left lane matches, and once the red light goes green, it’s get down the road as quick as you can.
The social experience
You meet a lot of people at these sorts of community events and it’s a great way to make friends, but also learn from others too.
It’s a friendly environment, no matter what you are behind the wheel of everyone is treated equally. The marshals are always smiling and you can tell they genuinely enjoy what they do. Their priority is your safety, but also maximising your time on track.
When it comes to the racing aspect, while you are waiting in the staging lanes there’s a high chance you could get called out to race for the next time around. It’s hard to know exactly what the driver next to you has got under the bonnet and usually, you really don’t until you’re staging and brake boosting or literally until you are halfway down the road, which adds to the fun element.
Catching up with the person you ran against in pit lane at the end of the night is where friendships are sparked.
The atmosphere really is built on the smell of E85 and rubber as the front-wheel drives and rear-wheel drives try to lay down their power in the first 100m.
Keeping it off the streets
The frequency of events over the course of the year is more than adequate, giving those who want to enjoy their cars plenty of opportunities and also helping to keep these kinds of activities off the streets.
Having more than 10 roll racing events a year has arguably cultivated it into the full-blown competition it is. Which is certainly not a negative point.
Even as first-timers we started to take it very seriously by the end of the night playing with tyre pressures to find the best grip window and improving the brake-boosting technique. It’s all part of the excitement.
It’s easy to enter, get out on track and stay out of trouble.
Discussion about this post