Was at Sonoma track the past Sunday. About 10 minutes into my 3rd session, I suddenly wasnt able to downshift from 3rd to 2nd gear. Gear just refused to go in.
The first two sessions were great, and this never happened in the last 5 track days this year.
Came off track and everything was normal again.

Has anyone experienced similar problem?

 

Could be a shift cable/linkage issue assuming it’s a 6 speed.

 

Is this common in a low mileage car?!

 

Not uncommon. I had one. Of the shift cables snap at a relatively low mileage but I’d have to look to see exactly when it occurred.

 

Yes, it's happened before (at least 2 other threads on RL about this), and it's a driver issue not a car problem.

What's happening is that you're getting too enthusiastic bringing the gearshift lever over to the 1-2 channel and blowing through the reverse-block detent. At that point, you are in the reverse channel, and can't pull the lever back because there's no gear there.

If you don't believe me, try this: Sit in the car, move the shift lever to the left slowly and then into the reverse channel. That reverse-block seems very stiff, right? Now, move the shift lever all the way to the right and quickly move it left into the reverse channel -- if you do it "right", you'll blow right through the reverse-block like it isn't even there. That's what happened to you on the track.

Try shifting a little more gently and with your fingertips/wrist instead of your whole arm -- you'll be able to feel what you're doing better.

 

What @BillC3 writes makes sense. One the guys in another thread posted this interesting ATI. Worth having a look.

 

I wonder though would the subject of the ATI be "transient" - i.e happen occasionally as with the OP?

 

Yeah, failures I've read do seem like they are either connected or not connected. Good point sir.

 

that being said, I'm still a little in shock over PAG recommending resolving a shifter cable issue with tie wraps!!!

I think if this happened to me, I'd be looking at some Numeric cables ...

 

Yessir...Numeric's on my list for upgrades next season. Along with a dedicated set of track wheels, and potentially a new exhaust to open it up a little more. Did and like my Akra OAPs.

 

If the car goes back to normal after coming off the track, as reported by the OP, then the problem isn't the shift cables. Plus, a cable breaking or coming off presents a different symptom: the shifter flops around in one axis (or both, if both cables break or come off), not refusing to go into gear like the OP said.

 

Yeah sounds like a "better" fix than a couple of tie wraps - albeit a little costly!

Since I forked out for "wheel" insurance I feel obligated to use the OEMs for track!

yeah that's what I thought too...

 

Dont want to admit but this sounds very logical and reasonable

I am doing my first free oil change today and my dealer is going to check if there's any fault code. Probably none though. Will report back.

 

seems like a numeric shifter may be your solution. Even with the standard spring, it’s difficult to accidentally go into reverse.

 

Did you find anything at the dealer? I was at Sonoma today for my second track day with my new (to me) 2020 GT4 (manual). On the fifth run of the day, right out of the pit, I couldn't downshift to second gear in the first corner (from third, at 3k RPM). It felt like there was a plastic/rubber stopper in the way. I shifted back to third, carried on, and then had the same issue on turn four, at which point I exited the track. I was unable to get the issue to happen off the track. I went back out for one more lap and had the same thing happen again on turns two and four. On the drive home I tried downshifting from third to second at 40, 50 and 60 mph, and had no trouble with any of those. All of this was with auto-blip enabled, by the way.

I'm coming back to driving a manual after a fairly long hiatus, so this could definitely be user error, but I'm struggling to understand how I wasn't making that error the rest of the day, or why it suddenly worked fine when I was off the track. In any case, I'd be very curious to hear what you learned from your dealer. I'll be calling mine on Monday.