Track time

Ripping around Albert Park last weekend in a couple of racing cars was rare old fun.

There is something special about cutting loose in the 21st century with no restrictions and no speed cameras.

It's the automotive equivalent of clearing your sinuses after a terrible head cold. You can breath again, your eyesight is better, your head is clear and things just seem to be crisper and sharper.

I was lucky to be asked to sprint a BMW 135i in a three-way run-off against a V8 Supercar and a Formula One racer in the Ultimate Speed Challenge and even luckier to be given a miniature Toyota Aurion to run in the Aussie Racing Car contests at the AGP.

Track time in the 135 convinced me I was right to rate it as a real-world alternative to an M3. The baby BMW is quick, balanced and real fun - particularly with the traction control switched off and all the space at Albert Park to throw it around.

The track car was very mildly tweaked with a free-flow exhaust, but was lapping quicker than a Z4M I drove a year earlier. This time I managed a win over the real racing cars, although Greg Murphy scored the overall win with two victories in his Sprint Gas Commodore.

The Aussie car was something else again.

I was not sure what to expect from the scaled-down V8 Supercar, because lots of people joke that they should be carrying clowns from the circuit.

But there is nothing silly when you strap inside and uncork the 1.2-litre motorcycle engine fitted to a race-bred chassis. Except, perhaps, your smile.

The Aussie Aurion was of the most demanding and rewarding cars I have driven, with supercar punch and cornering grip that trumps a real V8 Supercar. The braking distances at Albert Park, after topping 220km/h down the straight, were stupidly short.

I never got close to the front-runners in the Aussie class but my race on Saturday was the best I have had in more than 25 years of motorsport, with more passing between two cars than you often see in a whole V8 Supercar contest.