How big is the track-day scene in North America (I refer to the continent, which of course includes Canada...)?
I personally haven't heard much about it on this side (UK) of the pond - perhaps it's because racing's so cheap and diverse over there
(although there does seem to be a large following of 'prototype' style racing...)?
I'm obviously not looking for official stats, just trying to get an idea of how 'our' scene compares with 'yours'! How many
of you guys (N.A.) attend track-days?
Steve.
(edited to make some kinda sense!)
[Edited on 2/2/04 by tadltd]
AFAIK it all comes down to geography over here.
There do seem to be plenty of events available for folks who live close to the circuits but unfortunately the circuits are very widely spread, closest
one to me is about three hours tow, next is six hours, then eight. You seem to have a fantastic situation in Britain with two or three tracks within
an hours drive of most populated areas and a hillclimb or rally every weekend. We do have a lot of autocross competitions (sort of a high speed, all
in forward gears, auto-test) held on parking lots.
[Edited on 3/2/04 by andkilde]
About 25-30 years ago, parking lot autocrosses were all the rage in my area, but I haven't seen one in some time.
Andkilde's right, tracks are regional and few and far between. There's a nice two-mile road course near me (Nelson's Ledges) and they
have very casual track days. Bring your street car and a helmet and drive all day for $100. I see that open-wheeled cars are banned on these days,
and I hope that Locosts are not included in this group. 
Racing's generally considered to be a fairly expensive hobby, like flying, belonging to a country club, or spending a lot of time with hookers,
eh, Alan? 
Pete
PIR (Portland, Oregon) holds many club sponsored "track days" per season.
Hey Ron, do you know about this guy?
http://www.dpcars.net
He lives in Portland I believe. Check out the BEC (4WD!) car he's building... second car up from the bottom.
Back to topic, check out this link I found last night. It's (more or less) a list of track events in California.
http://track-days.org/
It'll give you an idea about cost and how often they're held.
I don't know about the rest of the country, but what was said above is true. Add in expensive land, dumb legal suits, people who (99%)
don't have a clue about their cars, and you end up with an amazingly small number of people interested in driving events.
I always thought England was Heaven On Earth for sports car enthousiasts...
Hey Ron, do you know about this guy?
http://www.dpcars.net
KB,
Unfortunatly I don't. I took a quick peek at his DP1... IMPRESSIVE... I just may have to pay him a visit!
Thanks for the heads up.
quote:
Originally posted by pbura
......Racing's generally considered to be a fairly expensive hobby, like flying, belonging to a country club, or spending a lot of time with hookers, eh, Alan?
Pete
In Ontario track days are pretty popular. There are 4 tracks within 3.5 hours drive and soon to be a 5th one. Most of the track days are run by clubs such as BMW, Porsche, Audi and the compact car crowd (tend to be more crash fests than anything else). Dedicated track day machinery isn't that popular. Most people prefer to drive their cars to the track. I don't think people would be too keen driving for more than say an hour in a seven or LMP style car. Also getting a bike powered LMP style car registered road legal would be a very big challenge. Plus most insurance companies won't touch kit cars in Ontario. If you can find one, expect to pay upward of $3500 CDN a year for insurance.
There are a number of tracks here in the Phoenix Metro area. An area about 100miles long and 30 miles tall... We have Phoenix International Raceway
which is usually an oval for Nascar and IRL, but they do have a road course. Arizona Motorsport Park opened up last year was a 7 million dollar
facility, but they just shut down due to encroaching homes (yes, it grows that fast!) and subsequent complaints about noise. I hear that the owner may
re-open with strict noise enforcement. Bob Bondurant has his school of high performance driving here and the adjoining track/dragstrip/road course is
open once or twice a month to street car floggings. In general it is much less expensive and more convenient to go to the indoor karting tracks...
Seems that most people I meet think "Drag racing, oval track, dirt track" when the word "racing" is mentioned.
It sucks I tell ya!
Graber
quote:
Originally posted by sgraber
Arizona Motorsport Park opened up last year was a 7 million dollar facility, but they just shut down due to encroaching homes (yes, it grows that fast!) and subsequent complaints about noise.
Same thing happened to Ontario Motor Speedway in the Los Angeles area. Only existed a couple years.
Riverside lasted a long time, but the city built up around it, property values went up, so it was closed. Supposably they were to replace it...
I'm still waiting. Unless you count Buttonwillow... which doesn't count...
quote:
Originally posted by ProjectLMP
Also getting a bike powered LMP style car registered road legal would be a very big challenge. Plus most insurance companies won't touch kit cars in Ontario. If you can find one, expect to pay upward of $3500 CDN a year for insurance.
The problem is that I think Coram (or whatever their new name is) aren't producing kit cars any more. So getting them into the country in
assembled form even if they don't have a drive train would be nearly impossible to do legally. They could obviously lie to customs. The only
thing you can ship in to the country legally declared as a kit is a chassis and body parts (excluding suspension, steering, fuel system). People then
get around this by shipping the missing stuff as generic car parts at a later date.
I've spent more time looking at registering kit and home built cars in Ontario than I want to. One problem for the LMP is that you need a
windscreen with working wipers. An Aero screen isn't good enough. Some friends of mine spoke to the chief safety engineer in the ministry who
insisted this was a requirement. Kit cars are exempt from emissions but not home built cars which is just stupid.
On the insurance, getting a 7 type car insured isn't too bad as you can say its a vintage car. Lant won't touch anything other than vintage
and hot rods. My friend tried everywhere to get his Ultima insured but couldn't find anyone except for facility (hence the high prices).
[Edited on 4/2/04 by ProjectLMP]
[Edited on 4/2/04 by ProjectLMP]
Originally posted by pbura
......Racing's generally considered to be a fairly expensive hobby, like flying, belonging to a country club, or spending a lot of time with
hookers, eh, Alan?
Racing.................$0
country club........$0
Hookers..............$0
Flying..................$27,500 and counting
Although expensive for a hobby, I also get a career out of it.
Scuzzer, you get your hookers for free!
I was already aware that Canada was off limits for the LMP in it's current guise (i.e. no screen). What I was more interested in was the
prevalance of 'track-day' only cars, like the XTR2's and SR3's in the UK.
Although these cars can be road registered in the UK, they're pretty extreme and really only suited for the track.
What about importing a UK/European registered car? Is there a 'sliding scale' of roadworthiness that vehciles are subjected to before
they're approved for Canadian roads?
ProjectLMP: are you intending to use your car only as a racer/track-day weapon, then?
Steve.
Having attended many track days over the last 3 years I have never seen a Radical, westfield or even a seven. Having spoken to a lot of people, most
are put off having to trailer a car. Also when you mention that they cost upwards of $50,000 (nearer $100,000 for an SR3)including duties and taxes,
they just laugh at you. I do know of one SR3 being used for regional racing this year. In fact we do have a Radical distributor.
I intend on using my car for track days mainly. I currently trailer a BMW M3 race car and expect to do the same with the LMP. However, I haven't
given up hope on making the LMP road legal, its just not a high priority.
Originally posted by sgraber
Scuzzer, you get your hookers for free!
Yeah. Just call me da pimp daddy. I do racing and country clubs free too, of course.
quote:
Originally posted by ProjectLMP
I've spent more time looking at registering kit and home built cars in Ontario than I want to. One problem for the LMP is that you need a windscreen with working wipers. An Aero screen isn't good enough. Some friends of mine spoke to the chief safety engineer in the ministry who insisted this was a requirement. Kit cars are exempt from emissions but not home built cars which is just stupid.
On the insurance, getting a 7 type car insured isn't too bad as you can say its a vintage car. Lant won't touch anything other than vintage and hot rods. My friend tried everywhere to get his Ultima insured but couldn't find anyone except for facility (hence the high prices).
Steve, IMHO our colonial cousins must like padded seats in their cars now I know there is somthing missing between our lug holes if we are not meant
to spend more than an hour at a time driving this thing Mind u at my age it beats relying on viagra for cheap thrills
Shug.
What's "viagra"..?....
quote:
Originally posted by Alan B
What's "viagra"..?....
Tut Tut Alan, Used by Scotsmen to help flagging/drooping tackle from the effects of frostbite from wearing the kilt (especially at this time of year
in the Highlands), anyway I buy mine from the same source as u (chuckle chuckle) Heard the one about the Irishman that swallowed a viagra
tablet...... got stuck in his throat and he got a stiff neck
Shug.
Ted,
Don't worry, I haven't given up on making the car road legal. I am just going to get the thing on the track first. I suspect it
won't make a very good road car anyway. However, I just want to see the looks on peoples faces driving it on the highway. I may take you up on
your offer regarding safety/emissions nearer the time. However, don't hold your breath. At the rate I am going I don't expect to finish for
another two years.
quote:
Originally posted by ProjectLMP
Ted,
Don't worry, I haven't given up on making the car road legal. However, don't hold your breath. At the rate I am going I don't expect to finish for another two years.
). sorry to resurect this from the bowells of page 5, but after reading this I have a few comments.
Track days here on the east coast are great. Within 3 hours drive from my house I have 4 world class race tracks like lime rock, 5 drag strips
Englishtown is the closest to me, 15 minutes. And an amazing number of scca solo events on any given weekend I can attend 1 or 2 different solo
eventsand not drive more than an hour. I also have 2 major cities with many various "unsanctioned events". I also know of a few guys last
summer who participated in an event called DC to B, Which was an all nighter from Washinton DC to Boston (in the spirit of the Bubblegum 3000) First
one there takes the flag, I havnt been able to find any info in this event, but have seen photos of the start some driving and the finish. Sometime in
early summer and again in late sommer there is a rally in central PA, about a 4 hour drive. Then there are the circle track guys, there are probably
10 small dirt circle tracks withing a 2 hour drive of me, they hold races usually between 2 and 3 times a week, one weeknight, and on the weekends.
Basically between the months of March and November on any weekend I can do 1 of 4 types of racing (drag, solo, track, or stoplight) with costs
varying between 35 to 1000 dollars US.
Plus myself and alot of people I know also race RC gas cars, 1/10 scale 4wd on and off road. There is a track about 15 minutes from my house which has
3 tracks, an asphalt track a dirt circuit and a dirt circle track. I compete on the asphault and the dirt circle track. Usualy race there on
weeknights every other week.
I believe, but am not certain that there are also a number of motoX tracks, ATV tracks, and go Krat tracks locally, but since I dont do any of them I
havnt bothered to look into it.
[Edited on 23/3/04 by derf]
[deleted most of my original post now that derf has edited his]
It's very easy on the net to make off-hand remarks without backing them up. If you have genuine information that someone has a bad eBay or other
business record, post the info. Otherwise, refrain from casual slander.
Dominic (who is offended by careless remarks that often turn into truth on the net.)
[Edited on 23/3/2004 by TheGecko]
Dominic:
Well said.
Derf:
Well edited.