STREET CARS ON THE TRACK
There are several ways to get your street car on the track. This page briefly discusses some of the most common ways:
High Performance Street School
Car Clubs
Private track rental or lessons
Autocross (or Solo II)
Drag Racing
The Next Step - Racing your street car
High Performance Street School
Probably the most common way to drive on a race track. It is relatively
inexpensive, moderately safe (no form of motor racing is completely safe)
and can teach you driving skills that if properly put to use on the street,
can make you a better, safer driver.
Most racetracks are affiliated with a high performance driving school, some organize their own. One resource to look up the driving schools at your local track is: www.roadracetracks.com. Select the U.S. map, then your State, then the track you're interested in, and go to the track's listed website.
The cost of a typical school is about $250 for a full day of on and off track lessons (mostly on track). The instructors are usually required to be licensed race car drivers and many have years of racing experience. The pre-requisites for participating are a current, valid driver's license, a car in good and safe condition, and a crash helmet (which can usually be supplied at an additional cost).
Some schools will offer you a rental "race car". In a high performance driving school this is not usually recommended since it defeats the purpose of improving your driving skills in your car - and using your car is best for tranferring the learnt (safety related) skills to the public roads. Another downside is that these "race cars" are rarely fully prepared race cars since such cars would be challenging for the amateur to drive while learning driving skills. Also, if you do get into an accident, there is very rarely any insurance with supplied cars, so be prepared to open up your wallet. In short, stay away from rental cars at a driving school (racing schools are a totally different matter - see my Road Racing page).
The usual 7 to 8 hour schedule typically involves a breakup of the students
into various levels of prior experience and car performance: veteran street
school drivers or experienced race car drivers (yes, some of these also attend
street school) or drivers with top-end performance cars (Ferrari's etc); drivers
with some racing or street school experience or with particularly high powered
cars; and novices to a high performance street school.
The groups are first oriented to the days activities and then take to the
track one group at a time.
The first on-track session typically starts out with a careful track orientation,
during which good cornering lines are emphasized along with basic handling
skills. No passing is common in the first session.
The next on-track sessions then progress you through better cornering, better
car handling skills, and teach you the handling characteristics of you car.
In between the sessions in some schools, slalom and threshold braking lessons
are provided.
All of this leads to a final "high-speed" session (still with safety
foremost), in which all of the skills learnt come together. By this time,
limited passing is often allowed.
In summary these are usually great programs. In my experience in teaching at these schools (see my Instruction page), I have never met anyone who did not thoroughly enjoy the event, and take some valuable lessons away with them. They are a must for those with high powered cars - exercise them on the track, not on the street.
Car Clubs
Most race tracks will rent out their track to any recognized automobile
organization, provided it is done well in advance (typically 6 months to a
year), and some automobile organizations take advantage of this (particularly
the clubs for high-performance cars such as Porsche and BMW). The organization,
structure, requirements and cost for getting on a race track through this
means varies from organization to organization. Contact your local organization.
The websites of several organizations can be found at www.roadracetracks.com,
just select your State and then select "Club Racing" from the drop-down list
of "Racing Types".
Private track rental or lessons
It is rare for individuals to rent a track, but not unheard of, although
several challenges must be overcome: (a) not all tracks offer their track
for rent to individuals, (b) it's expensive (think minimum of $6K before insurance),
(c) you're normally required to provide adequate insurance which will not
be cheap, (d) some tracks (and insurance companies) will require hard evidence
that you are capable of providing a well organized and safe operating environment
while at the track, (e) typically you need to plan well ahead since most tracks
set their schedule months in advance. Sometimes a track will offer shared
track-time for lower costs, but this type of arrangement is more often available
only if you are a race-team, or at least will be running a racecar at the
track which will "fit in" with the others who are sharing the track.
Autocross (or Solo II as it is known by the SCCA)
Autocross is occasionally known as parking-lot racing since many of the events
are held on parking lots with the course laid out with traffic cones. It's
one of the easiest ways to test your car's handling ability and your own driving
skills. Although autocross courses rarely include real road racing tracks,
the setup of the courses can vary tremendously, challenging your ability to
adapt to configurations that can test the acceleration of your car, and test
you and your car's ability to handle multiple types of corners (anything from
fast "kinks" to slalom turns and hairpins).
Simply put, autocross is an event in which you must navigate your car through a tight but typically short course in the fastest possible time. Time penalties are given for hitting cones, missing gates (two cones spaced apart through which you must drive your car - but often set at a difficult or challenging angle to the likely direction of the car), or veering off course. The car (within a specific class of cars) with the fastest time wins!
Autocross is considerably safer than most other forms of racing since the speeds are lower and each competitor takes on the course one at a time. Still, being a motorsport, it can not be considered a "safe" sport, and so a license is required. Unlike road racing, an autocross license is easier to obtain, with many event organizers including a licensing program on the weekend of their events, especially at the beginning of the year when most people look to get involved in the sport. Again, just like road racing, the criteria for successfully obtaining a license is the ability to demonstrate that you can race safely and follow the instructions of the officials.
Once you have your license, there are so many places that you can race, no known website provides a comprehensive list of events, so you'll need to hunt around for the local events that are likely taking place on a weekly basis. The SCCA's Solo II website is a good place to start.
And, autocross can become a serious competitive hobby. There is even a nationally prestigious championship, and a professional division for aspiring racers.
Drag Racing
Although most of this website is dedicated to road racing, drag racing
is mentioned here because it's an extremely common and fun way to test the
performance of your car in a competitive environment. Almost all drag racing
tracks support what is known as Street Night in which anyone with a road worthy
car and a driving license can race on the drag strip. It's one of the safest
forms of racing when using a street car (no form of motorsport is safe) since
the objective is simply to cover one quarter of a mile in the fastest possible
time from a standing start. For most cars that means a 15 plus second race
in a straight line, reaching only 90 mph or so before slowing and completing
the run by turning off the track. It's very similar to accelerating onto a
freeway from one of those traffic control lights on the entry ramp. Especially
since your run begins with a series of lights that are similar to traffic
lights. And the cost can be extremely low - often as little as $20 for an
evening of racing. However, because of the low cost the events are often crowded,
and while this can provide some interesting competition, it may also mean
long periods of time waiting for your next run down the track.
Each run starts with the driver creeping up to the start-line (when instructed to do so) and tripping two sets of two small orange staging lights (the proper order is to trip the first set, and wait for your competitor to trip their first set of staging lights before you trip your second set of staging lights). Within a few seconds of all the staging lights being lit (yours and your competitor's), three main orange lights will light up on your side of the track, one after the other with only a 0.5 second interval between them, culminating in a green light coming on which signifies that you can drive down the track (as fast as possible is the idea). Move too soon and you get a red light - which doesn't mean stop, it simply means you've fouled and probably lost the race before you even started. Move too late, and against an experienced competitor you've probably lost the race on the start line. The time you take to react (Reaction Time - RT) is measured and is normally provided to you at the end of the run. An RT of less than 0.05 seconds is cutting it close to getting a red light. An RT of between 0.05 seconds and 0.10 seconds is about perfect for an amateur. Between 0.10 second and 0.15 seconds isn't bad. Between 0.15 seconds and 0.20 seconds is slow - and will be difficult to make up during the actual run. Anything over 0.20 seconds is very slow (anything over 0.5 seconds and people will come up to you and ask if you were sleeping!)
The competitive angle comes from racing against another car in the adjacent lane. Before an actual race (rarely during practice), each car must show on their windows a target Elapsed Time (ET) known as a dial-in time. This is the time you believe it will take you to cover the quarter-mile. If your dial-in time is one second more than you competitor's then you're given a one second head-start when given the series of orange and green lights to start your run (your sequence of main orange lights and your green light will illuminate one second before your competitor's). At that point, assuming neither of you has a red-light foul, the first car to reach the finish line normally wins. You may ask then, why not simply put a dial-in time on your windows that is unassailable by your competitor? That's because you cannot go faster than your dial-in time, and if you do you "break-out" and automatically lose (assuming your competitor doesn't start too early and trip their red light, or "break-out" by a greater margin than you did). So the bottom line is you must try to get as close to your dial-in time as possible without going faster.
Here's an example of how dial-in times work: the Ford Mustang in the left-hand lane dials-in with 14.8 seconds and you, in your Honda Civic in the right-hand lane dial-in with 16.8 seconds. You get a 2 second head-start. Since you get your green-light 2 seconds ahead of the Mustang, you're already an eighth of the way down the track before the Mustang starts. The Mustang must now catch you and beat you across the finish line, but in a time no faster than 14.8 seconds. Let us say that your Honda can really cover the distance in 15.8 seconds, and you only dialed-in with 16.8 seconds to get the extra second head-start (to assure you of the win). Problem is, if the Mustang takes exactly 14.8 seconds to cover the distance then you must go faster than their 14.8 seconds plus your 2 second head-start = 16.8 seconds, to beat them. Since your Honda can go faster, beating 16.8 seconds wasn't a problem, except for the fact that going faster than 16.8 seconds causes you to break-out and automatically hands the win to the Mustang. So there was no advantage to posting the "easy" dial-in of 16.8 seconds. With other examples you might think there are definite advantages to dialing-in with an "easy" time (known as "sand-bagging"), but years of racing by thousands of drivers has demonstrated that it is physically impossible to apply human judgment to beat a good competitor through sand-bagging. Poor competitors who make their runs with margins of seconds difference from their ideal times tend to be the only victims of sand-bagging. In fact, there is often satisfaction in making a good run and seeing your competitor, who has a reputation of sand-bagging, breaking-out and losing.
Finally back to examples of time and speed of the runs. A 1999 Volkswagen Beetle should take 17.3 seconds to cover the quarter-mile, traveling at 78 mph across the finish line; a 2000 Lincoln LS, 16.6 seconds at 82 mph; a 2000 Nissan Maxima SE, 15.4 seconds at 94 mph; a 1999 Acura Integra Type-R, 14.7 seconds at 95 mph; a 2000 Pontiac TransAm, 13.5 seconds at 107 mph; a 1999 Dodge Viper GT2, 12.1 seconds at 121 mph. Anything faster than 12 seconds is very likely a highly modified car built for acceleration. Motorcycles are different - for example a stock Kawasaki Ninja can run as fast as 10.5 seconds at upward of 135 mph - quite an impressive sight. At the most extreme end, the world ET record is 3.628 seconds, and the world speed record is 339.87 mph (NHRA records) - from a standing start in just quarter of a mile!
Your nearest drag racing track may be found at www.roadracetracks.com. Just select your State and then select "Street Drag Racing" or "Drag Racing" from the drop-down list of "Racing Types".
The Next Step - racing your street car
Actual racing is the ultimate test for you and your street car, although by
far the most dangerous. It is suggested that when you race a car you should
be prepared to completely lose the car (i.e. write it off in a crash) within
5 years. There is practically no insurance for actual racing (and what's available
is extremely expensive, and needs to be acquired through a specilist insurance
firm), so all crashes result in out-of-pocket expenses, and if you race seriously
and frequently in a year (say 10 races), you should expect to have at least
one major crash per year. On the plus side, racing is addictively fun, and
tunes your driving skills like few other avenues can.
To go racing with your street car there are a few (expensive) prerequisites. Firstly you will need to build into the car all of the racing safety features that are demanded by all racing organizations. For example, a rollcage, racing seat, seat harnesses, window netting, fire suppression system,etc.Check with the organization you plan to race with to get the full list of modifications you'll need to make, making sure to look at the classes that allow street-legal cars. It is also worth checking that the class of racing you'll be joining demands a street set-up for the car. For example, if the class rules allow the catalytic converter to be removed, you would have to do this to be competitive, but it will make your car illegal for the road, so you'd either have to give up your car as a street car, or find a class where such a change is not permitted (such as the "T" classes in the SCCA). You'll also be required to stick a prominent number on the side of the car, and possibly advertisements for the organization with which you'll run. All of this results in a car that you (or your family) may not be very comfortable driving on the street (spouses may not like having to climb over roll-bars and buckling into a seat harness to go to the local grocery store!) But as I have mentioned - it is incredible fun, and I have seen many people do it. Among the people I have seen take this path, some drive their car to the races, and then drive home. This is risky because of the risk of crashing the car at the event (then how do you get home), so this is the next big expense - a car trailer and something to tow it with. Then there is the license - all organizations will demand that you are licensed to race a car - see my Qualifying School page. There are the personal safety needs: a firesuit, helmet, gloves, race shoes, etc. Finally there will be expendables: event entry fees, racing tires, frequent refreshes of oil, etc.
But it is all worth it. Just be sure you and your family can afford it.
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