First track day

Your First Track Day!

If you have any advice, tips etc please add them to the wiki just click edit.

Only done a couple of these, so i am sure i am not the most qualified person. However, here are a few thoughts. Tyres and pressures, ensure these are up to the job. The pressures make a massive difference in handling, check when cold. Arrive early, find a nice spot. Ensure your car passes the noise test early, if not then don't worry. i have seen many people with a Coke can with a few holes cut in them cable tied to their exhaust, often filled with wire wool! learn the circuit, build your speed throughout the day. try different gears for the same corner (where possible) to see how the car behaves. Take some food, falsk of tea/coffe, sun tan cream, a few tools just in case and a pump. there is little need to abuse your car on the straights, try short shifting a bit and save your engine, all the fun is to be had in the corners! the thing i have learnt most from track days and the instruction i took was how to brake and turn in, and just how late i could do this. Thus, actually trying to learn something on the day was very useful. Remember that you want to drive home with a smile, not on the back of a lorry.

Bedford Autodrome

A great place to do your first trackday for a number of reasons:- there are no gravel traps to get stuck in, almost nothing to hit in the way of barriers and tyres, loads of tarmac/concrete run-off if you go into a corner too fast, very long track (if using the four little circuits combined into one big circuit) so plenty of space to be found on track. The down-side of the long track is that it has a lot of bends and corners, and so takes a long time to learn the layout. Also, it is very flat and featureless, so it's quite difficult to get your bearings until you're familiar with it. Noise levels are quite strict (87db drive by @ 20m), but any factory spec road car should be fine - my slightly tuned TVR Griffith with factory exhaust had no problem, and they're quite loud.