This is a general guide to trackdays, please feel free to add your own points to the guide!
Your first track day
Track days are pretty informal affairs, but there’s still a process to get through before you’re allowed out on the circuit.
Where track days really beat racing hands down is with the general lack of hassle and hanging around. No trailering, no scrutineering, and no waiting for nine other practice sessions to finish before you get to have your blast on the big black track.
That’s not to say it’s just a matter of driving to the circuit then slotting left onto the track for instant action though. Nothing’s quite that simple after all, and all track days operate to rules and regulations of some sort. These tend to differ depending on the organiser and some will be stricter than others – often with the highly worthy intention of maximising the track time for all involved. This affects the price and quality of the day.
At the track.
First job is to sign on, showing your driving licence and handing in your pre-signed indemnity form – sent through the post with instructions and directions the week before. Once you’ve signed the sheet you’re given a handful of stickers and a voucher. One of the stickers will be your number which is stuck to the rear screen – so you can be pulled off the track if you’re especially naughty – while another will indicate the sessions you will go out in.
The groups you go onto track in are loosely based upon the experience and ability of the driver and the performance of the car, so that the quicker guys will not continually trip over the slower, and the slower runners do not feel they are getting in the way of the hotshots. Different companies operate different systems. Wheeltorque, for instance, has an open pit lane, which means you can go out when you like. Each has its advantages, and it’s really a matter of deciding what suits you best.
Once the stickers are fixed on you need to tape up your headlights – this really brings out the track-beast in the car – and then run through some safety checks, sometimes from a checklist provided.
It’s mostly common sense: tyre pressures checked, mirrors adjusted, wheel nuts tightened, loose odds and ends taken out of the car, is there enough fuel, that sort of thing.
By now it’s about time for your briefing, which again is largely informal – though compulsory – and dwells upon the safety aspects of the day. Track procedure is explained – such as driving on the right where the line allows and overtaking on the left and not in the corners – and the flag signals in use are also made clear.
Something else to listen out for is the way the corners are marked. Most operators use a system of cones to mark the line as closely as possible - turn in, apex and exit of the corner. Braking points are not marked, after all, when there’s anything from a Mini to a Supersports racer on track that sort of thing is pretty subjective.
The local knowledge of the instructors helps too, after all these guys are the experts, and at Silverstone they warned of the amount of rubber laid by the F1 boys just a week or so earlier – apparently that gets pretty slick should it rain.
There are other warnings, mostly along the lines of don’t beach it in the gravel bed as it ends the session and your day, don’t overtake in the braking area, and always use your mirrors. Also, the point that this is strictly non-competitive is hammered home – any sort of timing equipment is banned from track days, which is why they’re allowed in the first place so please abide by the rule.
Come on then, what are you waitng for?
