How to Get to the Track: or, how I learned to stop worrying and love riding shotgun with novices

"WRXforScience" (WRXforScience)
04/01/2019 at 16:24 • Filed to: Track Day, Racing, Raplopnik

In 2018 I made it to 22 trackdays (and 20 autox events) and I’m scheduled for over 30 trackdays this year (only 10 autox events though). I’ve found that there are 3 factors that determine how often someone makes it to the track: desire, money, and time. How much time and money you start with are going to be determined by your circumstances, but the amount you have to spend and the desire you have to get to the track can be optimized with some planning and wisdom.

I started going to the track 4 years ago I had been doing autox for 5 years prior to going to the track with a few events at tracks and even a pseudo-track event where a ‘track’ was drawn out on a huge (half mile by quarter mile) airfield. My first couple of track event was a Porsche Club Time Trial where individual cars ran 3 hot laps at a time spread out far enough to never meet (you’d get red flagged if you caught the lead car and given a rerun to try again for a time, so no passing and no traffic). I also signed up for one of the early SCCA Track Night in America events way back in 2015.

Now, if you are interested in going to the track there are 3 basic goals or categories people typically fall into: bucket list/one time experience, people who want to find out what it’s like to go to the track; enthusiasts, people who want to go to the track and have fun with their cars; and competitors, people who have a race series they plan want to compete in and are working towards that goal. I fell squarely into the enthusiast category and most people I meet at the track are in the same camp. If you’re working towards being competitive in a specific race series you’ll start off the same way as the enthusiasts, and even the ‘experiential’ people will have a very similar experience at least at the very beginning, they just stop sooner along the progr ession path .

The very first step is to go out and do an event, I recommend starting with autox since it is the cheapest, lowest risk, and usually most abundant type of event. There is no better place to learn car control skills than at autox (try to start with an autox school, then whatever events offer the most runs). If you are new to performance driving I recommend doing about a dozen autox events before you start to really get into the track stuff (3 before your first trackday, then keep at them until you’re comfortable with your car at the limit). When you go to the track, find a group that offers instructors and class sessions (and read Speed Secrets by Ross Bentley).

Backwards on track isn’t as fun as it sounds

Make sure you keep an open mind and a positive attitude, the happier and more friendly you are the more you’ll learn and the better the time you’ll have at the track. You will be slow. You could show up in any car you can think of and your Miata driving instructor will be multiple seconds per lap faster than you. Don’t worry about being slow, your goal is to get better and faster. The less ego you bring the better your experience will be. Keep getting instruction and keep attending events, you’ll only get faster with more seat time (only spend money on reliability upgrades like oil coolers and safety equipment (as you see fit) like a good helmet, HANS, a seat, and harness).

Once you start going to the track, the next step is to just keep going and learning. Once you’re confident in your abilities and understand what you have to do to go fast and be safe, then you can start looking into becoming an instructor. There are only two economically feasible ways to get to the track often: becoming a member at a track with reasonable rates or becoming an instructor. The former isn’t always an option and the later requires some work, a strong constitution, and saintly patience. If you aren’t suited to be an instructor, that’s okay. If you are then you’ve got some research to do.

Clubs are almost always looking for new/more instructors. If you’ve been attending events regularly and are a competent driver, you might get approached to encouraged to look into coaching from an organizer or instructor. If not, don’t worry, just ask. Nearly all the clubs you’ll run with have a process for approving new coaches and they are all a little different. The requirements range from anyone with a pulse to a stringent process of classroom and on-track training. If you are ready to coach none of the requirements will be overly onerous, and if they are, you probably aren’t quite ready to start coaching.

The two most important skills to have to be a good coach are: communication and feel. You need to be able to tell what the car is doing from the passenger seat before any problems arise and the only input you have is the seat of your pants. Knowing what the car is doing doesn’t do you much good if you can’t communicate with your student what they need to do/know in order to fix or avoid problems. Keep practicing and honing your craft and you’ll continue to get better at coaching (coaching also gives you new perspectives on track and can help you get faster too).

You’ll inevitably modify your car and adjust your style, if you’re going to do modifications try to only have to do them once. Don’t buy marginal upgrades only to upgrade the upgrades later. Suspension pays more dividends than power (usually), and figuring out your brake system as early as possible saves tremendous headaches and prevents lots of frustration. Power helps the clock but if you’re not in a competition then that really only matters to your ego (remember, you’re only using all your power when you’re full throttle so if you aren’t spending nearly all your time with your foot pinned to the floor you should just push the pedal harder and not worry about trying to add power).

DISCUSSION (13)

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > WRXforScience
04/01/2019 at 17:30

Are you getting free track day entries for doing the instruction sessions? I know I would definitely become motion sick riding as a passenger for those 20 minutes of a ride since it always hits me hard when not driving. I also feel like I dont have the experience to really instruct someone but I guess the main goal is to get someone from “never did this before” to safely become “can drive on their own with intermediates”.

My main motivation for switching from autocross to track days was to save money. I was spending $5 0-$80 per autox event to get 4 -8 runs for lets say 7 minutes of track time. When doing 20 events per year, this was costing me upwards of $1000 for the season. Whereas I now have a track group that runs events with four 20- minute sessions for around $200. For that same $1000, I ran 5 events last year and got 400 track minutes versus 140 autocross minutes. Plus I saved gas not driving to so many events and was more efficient because of not working the course or waiting doing nothing at bigger events with three or more groups. Having other weekends available for other hobbies and just getting all the racing done at once is super convenient. Girlfriend is much happier that I spent 5 single weekend days doing racing stuff instead of 20 of them.

Now, is it possible track days broke my Miata? Maybe. But the car crossed 200k before I ever took it on the track so it’s days were numbered either way. At least that means I managed to kill the engine before the car rusted away.

Poor_Sh > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/01/2019 at 17:55

What about the added cost of track insurance? Track events make more sense for time/money for me too but not with insurance.

WRXforScience > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/01/2019 at 17:59

Most groups give instructors free entry. SCCA Time Trials is the only group that I still have to pay for while instructing (they offer a significant discount for instructors so you end up paying about $100 or less than half price).

Seat time isn’t a direct comparison between autox and track, an autox event is about the same as 1 or two 20min sessions as far as driving experience. I priced out how much I spent on autox and it was about $70 (about half entry fee and half consumables) over the last 5 years or so. A set of autox tires would get me about 150 competitive runs or about 20 events and brakes would last multiple seasons. For the past 7 years I’ve done about 35 or so events a year mixed between autox and track. I’ve been transitioning to more track events over the last 3-4 years but mostly due to time constraints.

The cost ratios are pretty close for me when instructing since I’m spending around $150 per trackday on consumables and averaging just under $200 per trackday (including fees for events that I either don’t instruct at because there isn’t instructing or SCCA TT) . Instructing is work, many people prefer to just pay the entry fees and not in struct (especially in the summer here in Texas ).

If you are just looking to save money and don’t have any interest in the instructing, becoming a member at ECR is currently the best route ($2500 one time fee and $200 per month with unlimited trackdays). You have to do 10+ trackdays a year to come out ahead, but if you have the type of schedule where you can get off on weekdays that’s easy to do (plus you can do half days or individual sessions and not commit to an entire day). They’ll probably raise their rates after they reopen, so I’d recommend jumping on the deals now if you’re interested (the renovations are amazing and ECR is going to be the best track in Texas when they’re all done).

WRXforScience > Poor_Sh
04/01/2019 at 18:05

After one trackday I realized that I don’t need track insurance. Also, many insurers cover trackdays/HPDE (my insurance agent was one of my racing friends so we made sure to sign me up for a policy that actually covers non-timed, non-competitive events).

At the tracks I run at, there is lots of run-off room and few places where you are in danger of doing major damage to your car. Once you know what you’re doing and are in the advanced/instructor groups your chances of hitting another car are very low.

The cost of track insurance versus the likelihood of an event don’t make financial sense for me. If you think you need track insurance, get a cheaper track car. A track Miata worth under $10k or my $15k BRZ are easier to throw around at the track than a $70k+ Corvette or $40k BMW.

Poor_Sh > WRXforScience
04/01/2019 at 18:08

I’ve seen way too many argument s on the “normal insurance will cover hpde” stories that I just don’t want to weigh-in. But, your point about cheap track cars is well noted. I know it’s not bright to drive my moderately expensive DD on a track, but I guess insurance is the cost for me to do it confidently. I guess I’ll see where I stand after a few events.

WRXforScience > Poor_Sh
04/01/2019 at 18:15

If I were in a $25k + car I’d get track insurance even though my agent friend assured me I’d be covered (from the stories I’ve heard it’s a crap shoot). Really, if you aren’t prepared to write-off whatever you bring to the track you probably shouldn’t be on the track (I think the track insurance is a great stopgap to take a car you can’t afford to write-off to the track).

Track driving is much safer than street driving, but it isn’t without risk and how much risk you are willing to take is a very personal decision.

E92M3 > WRXforScience
04/01/2019 at 19:36

TNIA events are some of the cheapest track day opport unities you will find. I highly recommend them to a nyone wanting to try HPDE’s, without commiting to a full day or a whole weekend. Cheaper entry fee, and less wear & tear. It is addicting though, so don't blame me if you get the bug.

WRXforScience > E92M3
04/01/2019 at 19:57

TNiA is fine if you are already a solo/ a dvanced driver; however, they don’t offer any instruction and the novice (and often intermediate) groups are downright dangerous.

At Motorsports Ranch in Cresson, TX a TNiA costs $150 (there’s always a $25 discount if you look) for 3 sessions. APEX Academy costs $200 for 6 sessions with instruction (they even offer advanced instruction with data analysis).

From my experience, the average “advanced” driver at TNiA is really an “intermediate” driver with most clubs (barely solo approved). It’s not a place to do anything but get some seat time, and often you’re in traffic with people who don’t know what they are doing and are dangerous because of it. I don’t recommend people do TNiA until they are solo approved and can run in the “advanced” group without causing problems (TNiA has started allowing open passing in the ‘advanced’ group, which is fine for the actually advanced drivers but that’s usually only about half the ‘advanced’ group).

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Poor_Sh
04/01/2019 at 19:58

I have never seen the value in insurance for that. I mean I would never race a car that I had more than liability on it in the first place. The Miata is worth more in pieces than it is as a car and that has always been the case. That’s why the people who track brand new Ferarris and GTR’s, while I respect that they are using the car as it should be, i could never justify the cost of doing so. But then again to buy something in that price range, you have the income to pay for insurance and not really worry about it.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > WRXforScience
04/01/2019 at 20:09

See the group I run with in Socal is just very cheap in comparison I guess. Even with zero membership fees, I am paying under $200 per event. And yeah I would have to do more than one per month for that setup to come out ahead and even so, it would take a few years for the one time fee to pay off. There are even cheaper groups but they are not organized well, attract “bottom feeders”, and give less track time. I think I have found the right balance of cost to well organized track days.

Interesting about consumables though, I have never even kept track of it. Last year I just ran one set of 200TW tires for everything but I also didnt daily the car very much since the Subaru was mainly in that role. I burned through the one set which cost me about $500. I think I literally put in zero other costs for the car all year. Miatas are just so cheap its funny to me.

Do you find that you enjoy instructing or is it basically just a tool to get discounts? I’d certainly consider it to save some money. I hadnt thought of it that way but it would be worth my time for sure. I would think it requires some sort of “teaching” skill but I guess it just depends on the group.

WRXforScience > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/01/2019 at 20:29

I enjoy instructing but I’m also a High School Physics teacher so it’s very much in my wheelhouse. I’d jump in and coach people at events even is I wasn’t an official instructor getting free track time (TNiA used to allow this but doesn’t starting this year). The only drawback to instructing is that most clubs give you 2 students and you end up on track either driving or instructing 15-18 20min sessions which is 5-6hrs on track over a 9-10hr day. A single student is easy and is a great deal, you can refine your technique and learn through teaching and you’re not in the car so much that it wears you out.

I’m currently running 255/40-17 Hankook RS4's as my track tires, they should last a total of about 15 trackdays (nearly twice what I budgeted for) and cost right at $600 shipped and installed. I also used up a set of front pads over the same period at a cost of about $200 (I’ve been experimenting with pads and they are $140-$220 per front set). Rear pads last 2-3 times as long and cost about $160. I use a set of front rotors over 30ish events at a cost of $240, and I also use 1.5- 2 tanks of gas (including the drive out to the track) at about $60. So, consumables are costing me around $150 right now per trackday.

Last year’s 22 trackdays averaged out to just under $200 per event and that included the entry fees I paid averaged out over all the events (6-7 events I had to pay to do).

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > WRXforScience
04/01/2019 at 20:51

That sounds pretty affordable for that many track days. I definitely have too many other hobbies that take a higher priority to do that many, but its pretty cool to see the cost breakdown. And yeah I hadnt thought about the tiredness factor. Especially on hotter days, there was one day where it hit about 108 as a high and I was completely wiped on the way home. Even drove home with the top up and AC on which a rare thing for me. It was interesting how the last session of the day was almost empty aside from 3 or 4 cars left in my group. Everyone else had heat issues with the car or just got sick of it I guess. While yeah it was warm for my body , the car gave zero complaints so I happily made it through.

WRXforScience > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/01/2019 at 21:20

We had a 111F day, but luckily the organizer took pity on us instructors and changed from instructing to lead/follow which also meant that only 1/3rd of the instructors had to be out at a time and we could lead with the windows up and AC running (it isn’t usually hard to stay in front of the followers at a relaxed pace, I typically run 3-10s faster than the quickest novices in my 178whp BRZ).

The July event is now the “Annual Snow C one Event” where a snow cone truck comes out and we get free snow cones all day! I should probably invest in a cool shirt, I’ve got a cold towel and I drink over a gallon of water at the events (if I’m not in a car I’m drinking, I freeze a gallon jug the night before and down the whole thing and a few loose bottles at the summer events).