"Track Days"

In general most track days are organized by a club at a road course. For example the SE chapter of Ferrari club is having a track day this Saturday at Talledega Grand Prix Raceway. The club rents the track and then sets a number of available slots that they sell (this event is $250.00). Usually they will break the total number of drivers up into several groups to limit the number of cars on the track at any one time. Most have limited passing - require a point by from the driver being passed, usually only on straightaways. You can really push your car in a relatively safe environment. Many will have people with racing experince available to ride along with you and give pointers. They are a lot of fun and quite addicting.

 

what happens if I total my car? Does my insurence cover me? Do I have to devluge in advance to my insurence that I wish to do this. I know that my policy does not let me race my car but does booting it around Tremblant constutute racing?

 

Just recently the Insurance Companies have been putting track day clauses into there insurance policy. Almost no insurance company will cover you if they know you totaled your car at the track.

I still track my viper but am very careful to understand the risk.

 

Not true, most insurance policies say nothing about track days, they just have clauses against timed competition use. Call your agent to be sure, but most companies cover you as long as you weren't in a competitive, timed event.

 

I don't think so. This has been discussed many many times and you are on your own for collision damage and liability to other cars. There is now some recent liability insurance available for damage to other but not your own car. As my insurance agent told me "are you crazy, do you think we are stupid to insure you guys on the track?"

 

Two excellent sites are trackpedia.com, and mytrackschedule.com. The trackpedia site has all the tracks with layouts, in car video and telemetry.

 

Same set up, as described by Mike, takes place regularly here in Vancouver, Canada. I participated in one yesterday, cost was $245 for the day from 7:30am till 5pm, with three clusters of drivers/cars, based on experience. In each cluster, drivers/cars were paired and assigned one instructor. When it was time for the cluster to go onto the track, the lead car of each pair (with instructor) would head off, with the other car in the pair following. No passing of other cars unless the instructor does it, with the second car in the pair following. With a cluster of about 10 cars (5 pairs) on the track, things can get pretty fast. But at no time was there any sense of pending danger. In fact, one comes away with the feeling that damage to one's car is far less likely than might have been imagined. No incidents, although a few spin outs, among 40 cars that participated. I think this is the usual situation for most tack experience. Once one becomes more confident, buying track time and speeding around with other cars, with unknown drivers, driver capabilities and/or car capabilities, is a natural progression, though more risky of course.

Btw, during lunch break our track day had a chairty ride offering with 5 race drivers and 5 top cars, including a GT3 cup car and a 700hp race modified 997tt, plus others. I signed up for the whole lot but began in a modified Ford GT40 with 650 HP. What a hair raising ride, and the lurching about was almost enough to barf my lunch. This was immediately followed by a ride in a Carerra GT, another 600hp monster. Wonderfully balanced car! But, again, hair raising. I spent most of my time fighting nausea, something that never happens to me if I drive myself. I was shocked at the nausea level, had to decline the other rides, and took an hour to recover.

 

was this the MCL event @ mission?-- was going to respond to the invite, but something came up, so couldn't make it..

any f-cars there?

 

Yes, photo attached of the special cars for the charity runs.
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nice shot.

did you take your f?

and what's ICBC's stance on these track days? ( I had heard they had flip flopped back and forth a bit ---depending on whether the event was called "driver training" or not)...do you know if this is still the case?

 

No, took my 993tt. No idea about the ICBC position but would like to know. Posted the pic in the Cdn section too, and perhaps we can solicit responses on the ICBC question there. Thanks.

 

good idea -- will post up the question in the Canadian section..

Here's the thread I just started in the canadian section for folks wondering about ICBC (British Columbia government insurance) for track days.

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?p=136938105#post136938105

Cheers

 

As Mike has stated above -- that is the typical car club arrangement. There are also some private track days with very few cars (12-15 cars total), open lapping (no run groups per se -- go out when you want), but the cost is higher than the typical 45-90 car "club" track days. Depending upon the organizer/location -- private coaching may be available from professional race car drivers at additional cost. These type of track days happen on a somewhat regular basis at a few Southern California tracks.
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