FormerHangie
En-Route
I'd been having an itch to do some track driving, but hadn't found an opportunity that I liked. While I haven't raced in 20 years, I wasn't exactly a novice, but many of the track day providers wanted me to start with an instructor. Last year, the Sports Car Club of America came up with what they call Track Night in America. You get to the track at 3 PM, put yourself in either the Novice, Intermediate, or Advanced category, and off you go. You get three 20 minute sessions, and you're done by 8 PM. Sounds great, sign me up!
I went to Atlanta Motorsports Park. It's one of those automotive country club sort of places, more designed for driving than for racing. As you can see it's a twisty place:
with lots of elevation changes:
It was designed by the Tilke design bureau, which has done most of the recent Formula 1 tracks. It's a very technical course and would keep you busy learning for many laps.
I drive a plug in hybrid, which I didn't want to take to the track for fear of torching the battery, so I rented this lovely Ecoboost Mustang:
Turns out it was a good choice.
I quit racing in 1997. Since then I've been to two supercar driving experiences, which gave me a total of 12 laps driving and 6 laps riding around this very track over the last three years. While I'm certainly too rusty to put myself in the advanced group, I didn't want to go in the novice group either, so Intermediate it was. I was a little concerned about not knowing the track or the car, but figured I'd pick it up pretty quickly.
The first half of the first session was pretty intimidating, but towards the end I was getting a feel for the track and the car, starting to get my groove back. The second and third sessions were an absolute blast, really fun. I was still a little cautious, both from being rusty and being a little nervous about using a rental car.
Honestly, I was expecting to be kind of meh about this. When I was racing, just lapping wasn't that interesting but at this stage in life, it's just right. There are more events later in the year, and I'm going back towards the end of summer. If you're having a need for speed, there are events all over the country. If you've never track driven before, definitely go into the novice group, they'll get you going, starting with a lead-follow group, then progressing on to open track driving. By the end of the evening, most of the novice group members were gettin' it done pretty well.
If you're interested, all you need is a street legal car, an approved helmet, and about $150.
https://www.tracknightinamerica.com/events
I went to Atlanta Motorsports Park. It's one of those automotive country club sort of places, more designed for driving than for racing. As you can see it's a twisty place:
with lots of elevation changes:
It was designed by the Tilke design bureau, which has done most of the recent Formula 1 tracks. It's a very technical course and would keep you busy learning for many laps.
I drive a plug in hybrid, which I didn't want to take to the track for fear of torching the battery, so I rented this lovely Ecoboost Mustang:
Turns out it was a good choice.
I quit racing in 1997. Since then I've been to two supercar driving experiences, which gave me a total of 12 laps driving and 6 laps riding around this very track over the last three years. While I'm certainly too rusty to put myself in the advanced group, I didn't want to go in the novice group either, so Intermediate it was. I was a little concerned about not knowing the track or the car, but figured I'd pick it up pretty quickly.
The first half of the first session was pretty intimidating, but towards the end I was getting a feel for the track and the car, starting to get my groove back. The second and third sessions were an absolute blast, really fun. I was still a little cautious, both from being rusty and being a little nervous about using a rental car.
Honestly, I was expecting to be kind of meh about this. When I was racing, just lapping wasn't that interesting but at this stage in life, it's just right. There are more events later in the year, and I'm going back towards the end of summer. If you're having a need for speed, there are events all over the country. If you've never track driven before, definitely go into the novice group, they'll get you going, starting with a lead-follow group, then progressing on to open track driving. By the end of the evening, most of the novice group members were gettin' it done pretty well.
If you're interested, all you need is a street legal car, an approved helmet, and about $150.
https://www.tracknightinamerica.com/events