How Much Track Experience Do You Have?

[PointByPatrol]

I had my very first track day ever this Sunday at Buttonwillow. It was the Beginner Day with SoCal Drivers Club and it was an awesome experience. I was always nervous about driving at the limit/my limit but the org did a great job of slowly teaching and building up the pace. By the end of the day, I was hooked and I'm counting down the days till the next one.

@PointByPatrol your youtube channel helped me a ton with getting the car ready and knowing what to bring.

I'm glad you got out there! You'll be amazed what seat time will do for you both on and off the track! What was your favorite part of the whole experience?? I'm glad my channel was helpful. What products did you choose to prep the car?

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[Tuxedo Mask]

I'm glad you got out there! You'll be amazed what seat time will do for you both on and off the track! What was your favorite part of the whole experience?? I'm glad my channel was helpful. What products did you choose to prep the car?

The day was broken up between class room sessions and track sessions. A gradual build up of speed and technique from recon laps, braking, racing line and point by passing, and finally 2 open sessions. The first open session I asked one of the coaches to ride along. That was probably the best in terms of learning cause he coached me through braking, turn in, throttle on corner exit and specific feedback for me. I ended becoming friends with him and a few other advanced drivers he knew who offered to help me grow at more track days together.

I didn't do too much to the car. I used paragon R5 front pads (kept the rear stock since I figured I wouldn't go that fast) and Motul RBF600. The braking feedback and power was strong and consistent the whole day. I'm considering doing the rear pads for the next track day, but that depends on how the rest of the months bills look ?

 

[TW00Si]

If you attend track days where they offer track walk, take it. Adds a new perspective.

 

[menikmati]

Currently none, but am looking to get my feet wet in autocross this year.

I will expect to be the slowest person there, but I'm going to have a ton of fun.

 

[Jester04]

Currently none, but am looking to get my feet wet in autocross this year.

I will expect to be the slowest person there, but I'm going to have a ton of fun.

You will only get better, so go in with a open mind and you will see the improvement each time.

 

[madsedan]

I grew up around Camel GT and Trans Am racers in the 70's and 80's. My dad used to street race an early 80's capri with a 302 and NoS on 400 north of Atlanta early Sunday mornings with friends, I learned how to read the bottle and open the it before we raced. We always had sports cars around the house, my mom drove vette's, Supra's, a Triumph TR8, etc. but my dad was hardcore into German stuff.

Started SCCA stuff when I was 15 in an 83 Celica GT. My first car was a Datsun 510 with no carpet and individual motor cycle carb's with a roll bar, I drove that shit to high school everyday until I blew up the transmission and started tracking/daily an 85 Celica GTS notchback with nice suspension upgrades. I grew up driving in the 2 lane mountain roads of north GA and Birmingham, AL. Had a timex for timing equipment strapped to my steering wheel and used to go drive by myself and time passes on Sunday mornings. Not safe at all but the 80's were a different time lol.

My first full track experience was Road Atlanta in 1991 with one of my dad's buddy '78 930 track car, back then driving schools didn't have radios so you had to watch for hand signals from the instructor in the passenger seat. I didn't really do much else besides college/party/marriage/career until I bought a 92 325is around 98 and started going to BMWCCAQ events at Heartland Park in Topeka. I move back from KC to Birmingham in 2004 and was on the advisory board for Barber Motorsports and spent allot of time running laps and volunteering at the facility, beautiful place.

After 7 years of track rat stuff with BMWCCA and PCA I had an opportunity to work with a pro BMW race team in the Speed touring car series in 2004 when I moved back to Alabama. Traveled all over North America and eventually that team became Rolex Grand Am, Continental Tire and I don't even know what all Bimmerworld is into now but its allot. I still do the occasional PCA HPDE at tracks near my home in Texas like COTA but for me the fun is the smaller tracks like Hallett near Tulsa or Eagles Canyon north of Dallas.

My last few cars were a mix of S550 Mustang GT track packs and modern Porsche cars, just sold my last 991.1 S the month before I bought the Type R. Porsches are perfection as a daily driving GT car in my opinion but I had always wanted a Type R for a daily and took the opportunity for car #45.

 

[GWonder]

400+ days...I lost count. 2 days with the FL5. Less then 10 total with fwd. The only other fwd I had was a Focus ST.

 

[optronix]

400+ days...I lost count. 2 days with the FL5. Less then 10 total with fwd. The only other fwd I had was a Focus ST.

Ok... I'm going to be that guy but 4 HUNDRED?

Just doing the math here. Let's say you went every single weekend, both days... cut that in half for the winter months... it would still take you over 15 years to hit 4 HUNDRED track days.

What are you counting as a track day?

I'm genuinely curious because I see hardcore track rats out there and sometimes wonder just how much experience they have... but never in a million years would I guess over 400 track days. That seems like a grizzled racing car driver number to me... which if that's the case then I'd feel better.

In that sense I know a couple folks like that. Dirt track, oval track, etc... it's basically a second job if not a full-time job, definitely not your typical enthusiast but I can't reconcile my 4.5 track days to 400 lol. Especially coming in at $275+ a day, plus typical maintenance and wear items for consistent track use... plus with that much time there has to be some mechanical/physical damage thrown in... just staggering costs in money and time. Some extenuating circumstances going on here I'm sure, right?

 

[PointByPatrol]

Ok... I'm going to be that guy but 4 HUNDRED?

Just doing the math here. Let's say you went every single weekend, both days... cut that in half for the winter months... it would still take you over 15 years to hit 4 HUNDRED track days.

What are you counting as a track day?

I'm genuinely curious because I see hardcore track rats out there and sometimes wonder just how much experience they have... but never in a million years would I guess over 400 track days. That seems like a grizzled racing car driver number to me... which if that's the case then I'd feel better.

In that sense I know a couple folks like that. Dirt track, oval track, etc... it's basically a second job if not a full-time job, definitely not your typical enthusiast but I can't reconcile my 4.5 track days to 400 lol. Especially coming in at $275+ a day, plus typical maintenance and wear items for consistent track use... plus with that much time there has to be some mechanical/physical damage thrown in... just staggering costs in money and time. Some extenuating circumstances going on here I'm sure, right?

400 definitely seems high. I've been tracking for about a year and 3/4ths and I've got 30 days under my belt.

 

[yeaitsahonda]

Ok... I'm going to be that guy but 4 HUNDRED?

Just doing the math here. Let's say you went every single weekend, both days... cut that in half for the winter months... it would still take you over 15 years to hit 4 HUNDRED track days.

What are you counting as a track day?

I'm genuinely curious because I see hardcore track rats out there and sometimes wonder just how much experience they have... but never in a million years would I guess over 400 track days. That seems like a grizzled racing car driver number to me... which if that's the case then I'd feel better.

In that sense I know a couple folks like that. Dirt track, oval track, etc... it's basically a second job if not a full-time job, definitely not your typical enthusiast but I can't reconcile my 4.5 track days to 400 lol. Especially coming in at $275+ a day, plus typical maintenance and wear items for consistent track use... plus with that much time there has to be some mechanical/physical damage thrown in... just staggering costs in money and time. Some extenuating circumstances going on here I'm sure, right?

It's probably more common than you think. Race weekends are typically the same people and a lot of them run the full season. Each race weekend for us is a test day Friday then two days of racing. So 3 days about 10 times a year. Then add in HPDE practice weekends and a lot of racers are doing close to 40 days per year. I'm not saying it's the best use of ones money and time but once you get addicted to it somehow it doesn't seem unreasonable. There is also a reason why I was able to afford the FL5 after selling my race car lol.

 

[Xian]

Yep, and the longer you race/run DE’s, the more opportunities you get for free or reduced cost track days… and there are some of us who’ve been doing this stuff for 20-30-40+ years. IIRC, I did my first autox in 2001 and first DE shortly after that. In the ensuing ~23 years, I’ve bounced between autox, DE, club racing, DE instruction, enduros, LeMons/Chump, and GridLife.

My best guess would be that I’ve done somewhere around ~200 days at the track with some of those being 8, 14, and 24 hour endurance races where I had ~4-8 hours on track. Thinking back, I probably learned more about driving and race craft during some of those 2-3 hour stints than I did in a season of sprint races.

 

[GWonder]

Been tracking for about 25 years. Started with a few events a year. For the pass decade I do about 40 days a year.

 

[optronix]

Ok, wow. Guess it really adds up!

Also- and I mean no offense- explains why most of the track guys are old dudes.

 

[MooMoo]

400 does not seem crazy at all, there are some guys that are always there. I guess easier for people in the west coast that can track all year long but I know dudes east that do 30-50 days/ season so thats not even that many years.

I do 3-8 days a year, this year is looking more like 3, last year was 7.

 

[PointByPatrol]

I feel like when you get in to the 100's you need to finish it with "hunnit" just sounds cooler. "I have three hunnit track days."

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