I did my first track day around 10 years ago now, took my ITR to Silverstone and had a great day out with many other like minded people in their daily drives, lots of Elise's hot hatches and other fast road stuff.

I've done many days over the years, a lot with owners clubs which have all been great.

I was fortunate enough to get out at Snetterton yesterday with trackdays.co.uk, via Javelin in my friends PBMWC race car as he is prepping for his first race at Snetterton in a few weeks. I had 3 sessions at the wheel and it was great to get into a race car for the first time. Very low end motorsport, but motorsport nonetheless and I'm seriously considering getting involved next season now.

Anyway, the 'trackday' wasn't really what I once called a trackday, sure there was a track and it was a day, but very few road cars there and very few people seemed to drive what they were running to the circuit, of the 90 cars I'd hazard a guess at the following build up;

Race cars (saloon) 50%
Caterfields 30%
Racecars (SR3's etc) 10%
Road cars 10%

The vast majority of cars were trailored with around 20% coming in race car transporters and seemingly having a team support along for the day also. I was sat in the pit queue behind 2 SR3's with 2 M3 race cars behind me at one stage.

To cut a long story short, if I had arrived in my S (when I had one ) I would have been pretty reluctant to venture out much. Whilst I was in a race car, we were probably one of the slowest things on circuit and some of the real racers were very much treating it as a test day, there was a noble m12 GTO, fully race prepped on slicks, that was... erm .. fast and in my opinion not really suitable for that day, nor the SR3's.

Do you think there should be a split between what people are allowed to run on track days and perhaps have a 2 tier system? I know track days are cheaper than test days, but after my last 2 experiences, I'd be very reluctant to take my pride and joy onto a track day knowing that most of the cars around me are racecars and very unlikely that they will be driven home or required to get you to work the next day. We saw 2 'incidents' and the track was closed for around 1.5 hours in total including a major fuel spill from a race car that resulted in an hour closure while they attempted to clean away the fuel. 2 race cars had big 'off' resulting in major damage and needing to be craned out of tyre wall (everyone walked away). These were racers 'triyng' just that bit too hard on a non competitive track day remember.

I had a great day, but track days are far from what they used to be to me.

 

It varies from organiser to organiser. Here is what Motorsport-Events say:

Their days are mostly at airfields, so there is not much point in racecars testing at those locations.

I've heard a fair few negative comments about Javelin in the past, but I suspect that's down to the costs of their days and the increased likelihood of "dodgy" types turning up. Certainly on the more pricey days I've been on, you tend to get more road cars (albeit very expensive ones) but their owners tend to treat them pretty carefully. There are exceptions to this, but it comes down to manners/attitude in the end.

The organisers should make it clear that it is ok to complain about others' driving, and the best are more than happy to throw people off the circuit if they don't sort themselves out.

 

Fair point, I wasn't complaining as such (although perhaps it reads that way), it was more my intention to just highlight that from recent experience it seems track days are not what they used to be.

I didn't really have much cause to complain about other people driving, although we did get passed a few times by racers in much quick machinery in places where I was not that happy about but that is always going to happen when the speed differential (both on straights in cornering) is so vast.

 

Might also be the time of year?

Just before the season starts......

 

I guess because the racing season is about to start and the trackdays are very cheap compared to test days they just come and use them as test days. There were a few proper racers at Oulton a few weeks back as well.

Did a trackday at Rockingham last year which was a week before a caterham race so they were all there to practice.

I think unless you go to a road car only one like MSV organise you can't do much about it...

 

I wasn't arguing really

I think you are probably right, track days are generally cheaper than they were, and there are more of them, so more people tend to go and thus behaviour worsens. From reading other posters comments on here, it seems similar things have happened to Le Mans and the 'Ring.

 

Race cars being brought to the track for track days can often lead to problems. Agressive driving, not following rules, timing, breakdowns etc can be a problem.

Likewise when you just get serious track dedicated machinery (Radicals)

I think the key is the organisers. No matter what turns up, if they are ruthless with their standards there shouldn't be an issue. There's still the issue of having to move over all the time for the v fast stuff which is frustrating for both parties. That's just pot luck. Quite often it's worht checking if there's a race weekend the same week you are doing a track day, because if there's no official 'test day' you can end up with a lot of race cars there, like the example Winfried gives. It's rare though. You can also get examples like when the Xbow twat owners club rocks up and they all drive like bellends.

Also if you stick to the quieter days you get less race cars there.

I've been on a couple of fairly eye opening proper test days, and you do have to have your wits about you!

 

This. Bit of a gap in the market in my opinion. My experience is fairly limited around southern tracks but I hear a fair amount of frustration and it keeps coming back to the event being too much of a free for all - most particularly in terms of driver ability, car type and the application of the rules.

 

Yep.

Some key points there.

The briefing has to be dealt with little doubt left in the minds of the driver as to what happens if they f@#k around.

And the conviction of carrying it out.

I've seen BaT take multiple transponders off the pit wall and refuse to give them back, I've seen them cut wristbands off a GT3 driver and send him home, and issue fines for running out of fuel.

You most often get what you pay for, but I have been on a couple of very good cheaper days.

 

I Agree,

Good points raised, I've been to some poorly marshalled events in the last 12 months. The organisers I consider to be superior are Bookatrack and Motorsport Events.

I would rather not have to moan to organising staff about transgressions of the rules (like they didn't really need to be obeyed), when there are people at the trackside being paid to do that for me.