Track day

Your first track day

The bare minimum to get started:

Pads

One step up from the factory pads, if your car isn't a sports car ready for the track already.

Brake fluid

Fresh.

Tires

A matching pair on each axle.

Alignment

A decent one.

No need to chase speed

Most people on their first day aren't going fast enough for the car to be what holds them back. The adrenaline and excitement are plenty, and learning to drive the car you already have is an experience in itself.

Then the mods

Once you know this is a sport you want to keep doing, that's the time to go down the rabbit hole of meaningful mods. You'll feel the difference at the next track day, between how the car was and how it is now.

Track prep at the shop

Book ahead

Book at least a week before the event, and tell us the date and the track.

Alignment

A 3D aligner, and settings for how you drive: street, dual duty or full track, with changes to dial out understeer or oversteer.

Corner balancing

The last step for a car on coilovers. We set cross-weight to 50%, so the car turns the same left and right and brakes evenly on all four tires.

Your weight

Tell us roughly what you weigh. The car is balanced with the driver's weight in the seat.

Brakes

Pads, rotors, lines and fluid for repeated hard stops. Being able to slow the car down matters on track, and it's a safety factor on the street.

Tires and wheels

Mounted on a leverless changer that won't mark your wheels, and balanced on a Hunter Road-Force balancer.

What to bring

What Will brings to the track.

Water

Bring water and stay hydrated.

Helmet

Check which rating your event asks for before you go.

Jack and torque wrench

If you're going as a group, make sure someone has both. The most common lug sockets are 17, 19 and 21 mm. It's good discipline to double-check your lug torque before each session, the first one mainly.

Wheel chocks

For after a session. Don't put the parking brake on if you can avoid it.

Folding chairs

Some folding chairs.

Shade

A canopy, an umbrella, something for shade. If you bring a canopy, bring weights and something to tie it down. It gets windy, and canopies fly. Will has seen it happen.

Looking after your brakes

Cool down

After warping expensive rotors at Laguna Seca, Will cools the car down after every session, often a little longer than most people, to be safe.

Temp gun

Bring one to check the heat coming off the rotors, as a reference.

Black or red flag

If the whole group is called into the pits after hot laps, leave space to the car in front and roll the car now and then, so the heat doesn't concentrate where the pads meet the rotors.

Reading the car's balance

Balance is which end runs out of grip first. Understeer: the front slides and the car runs wider than you steer. Oversteer: the rear slides and the car turns more than you steer.

Find where it happens

On entry, braking and turning in, understeer is often too much speed, and oversteer often braking too late or lifting sharply. Mid-corner is the car's own balance, the truest read of the setup. On exit, a front-drive car tends to push wide and a powerful rear-drive car can step out.

The driver first

Most balance problems on a first track day are inputs, not setup. Smooth, earlier braking, patience before the throttle and no sudden lifts mid-corner fix more than any part.

Tire pressures

Less understeer: front hot pressures into the tire's window, a little more at the rear. Less oversteer: the reverse.

Anti-roll bars and springs

Less understeer: softer front or stiffer rear. Less oversteer: stiffer front or softer rear.

Alignment

Less understeer: more front negative camber, a touch of front toe-out. Less oversteer: more rear toe-in, with rear camber set for even tire temperatures.

One change at a time

Make one small change, drive the same corners, and write down what it did. Keep a baseline to go back to. Every change trades something: more rotation is less stability.

When it's the car

Balance that changes from one day to the next, or differs left from right, is often worn parts, a bad alignment or mismatched tires, not setup. That's when to bring it in.

On track

Your ego

There will always be someone faster than you. Check your ego at the door.

Letting people by

If someone is catching you fast on a hot lap, let them by, especially if you're not on one or you've already messed up a corner.

The community

The community is small and we have enough douchebags. Don't be one of them.

After the event

Tell us how it felt

Where it pushed, where it stepped out, what the brakes did. That's what we set the next alignment from.

Check the wear items

Pads, fluid and tires wear faster on track. Have them looked at before the next event, not the morning of.