Today I decided I will be doing a track day at Pocono Raceway in the early Spring. It's a 7-hour session that includes instructional lessons (both in class and in car), driving one of there 600hp cars (Corvette from what I gather) and two 20 minute laps in your personal car. Price is $769 and also provides you with the prerequisite to do 3-hour track days in the future for $300. Not sure if the prices are high or not, but Pocono is only about two hours from me. Also, the one instructor is a friend of the family's brother.

Just curious if you guys/gals can give me any advice on track prepping. I plan to check/replace if needed: tires, brake pads, rotors, alignment, brake fluid, transmission fluid, differential fluid and of course oil. Car is stock except for buddyclub n+ spec coilovers; lowered about 3/4". Anything else that I am missing? I'm super excited to be doing this, but want to make sure everything is dialed in 100% first. Please note that my car will only be on the track for two 20-minute sessions.

 

I was just there with Bertil Roos last week, you're going to have a good time. My basic suggestion for track prep:
Hi temp brake pads and brake fluid (Hawk HP+, carbotech, etc and a dot4 fluid)
Summer only 'extreme' tire (star spec, etc)
Full face helmet (if you don't want to rent a stank loaner)

Make sure your car is up to date with service (fluids, plugs, etc)

Your car will get a tech inspection which will mostly include battery tie down, wheel torque, fluid leaks, and a bounce check of your shocks.

Bring a cooler with water, snacks and lunch. There are places to go out for lunch, but I'm lazy. Perhaps a lawn chair to relax between sessions. You'll be sweaty, so a fresh t-shirt for the end of the day will feel great.

 

What school are you going with?

 

Get new brakes and high temperature racing brake fluid. Stock pads will go in like 2 sessions with hard braking. And OEM brake fluid will start boiling and get squishy pedal like immediately with continuous hard braking. Change your engine oil if you have in a while, and transmission oil since that is over looked a lot. Make sure your tires have plenty of rubber (40% or more).

Bring lots of water, so you save money. DOT spec helmet that isn't outdated. Torque wrench for your wheel bolts. Extra oil just in case you burn a lot when tracking at high RPM.

 

If this is your first track day ever and your only doing 2 sessions than you probably don't need anything. Preventative maintenance is always a good idea (fresh fluids) but as long as your pads and tires have meat you'll be fine (tires 4/32 or more, pads 5mm or more). Just bring or borrow whatever safety equipment the organization requires and save some money.

 

You asked about price....sure it's expensive, but that's sort of relative. Anytime you are gonna drive the schools cars, and not yours, it'll cost way more. So, given that, it's not that expensive. The deal for $300 on subsequent days...if that's just to bring your car on track, and not drive theirs, it's very expensive (about 3-5 times more than the average HPDE day).

You didn't say what school it is, but if it's a well known school, the good thing is that the instructors are probably vetted. The so-called "instructors" that I've seen at local HPDE events can absolutely suck sometimes. As I've said before, the fact you have a lot of experience, or that you are fast, has absolutely nothing to do with how good an instructor you may be. So of the best instructors I've seen are definitely not the fastest on the track.

 

HPDE costs usually are dependent on how much it costs to rent the track. I imagine pocono raceway is not cheap. $300 is still expensive but Autoclub speedway here in a SoCal (also a NASCAR level track) costs about $190. That's 50-100 more than some of the more local level tracks.

 

250-300 is about average for a one day HPDE in the north east.

 

Bertil Roos I assume?

OP said 2 - 20 minute sessions. This is his first ever track event. New(ish) OEM pads and new(ish) fluid will be just fine.

OP, do you know what course you will be on at Pocono?