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It was a white GTI with the usual mods: lowered, sticky tires, an exhaust note that spoke to fellow enthusiasts. Inside, a roll bar.
But this wasn’t an SCCA race car. It wasn’t caged, gutted or flared.
The year was 1992 or so, and I had an early encounter with someone who ran track events–not races, not time trial events. He simply ran on track. Like, for fun.
At the time, this was a fairly novel concept–or at least it didn’t operate on today’s grand scale. You had to know someone. Secret handshakes and all that stuff.
He ran with Car Guys. No lap times, no racing. Just laps. Lots of them. Back in the day, this group hosted events more or less up and down the East Coast.
Four short years later, I’d run my own white GTI with Car Guys. Car prep was typical for the day: coil-over suspension, header and exhaust, and a set of sticky Yokohama A008 RS tires on some used 14-inch alloys. The VW brochure boasted that my GTI made “a full 90 horsepower.” With the cam and some headwork, maybe mine produced closer to a hundred.
Photograph by David S. Wallens
The track was Georgia’s Roebling Road, and I simply drove up in my GTI. In the hatch, my usual autocross gear plus a can of gas and an extra set of brake pads. From the piece I wrote for the July 1996 issue of GRM: “I also had a few quarters in case I needed to call home.”
My instructor also drove a Rabbit, with the day starting with classroom time before three 30-minute sessions. In between those sessions, we’d learn from Peter Krause–you can find his bylines in past issues of GRM. I had fun, learned a bit and vowed to return. Turns out I also didn’t need those quarters.
Track events would quickly grow, with many groups hosting events coast to coast. I’d continue to be out there driving the usual suspects–Volkswagens and Hondas, Minis and Miatas. I ran our Fiesta a few times before we converted it to full-race trim.
I much prefer keeping things simple: Roll in, run laps and roll out.
The ante climbed, though. During a later event at Sebring, I recall doing that little mirror check before entering Turn 17 to find a wall of GT3 Porsches closing in on my tail.
I was in a Subaru–a turbo Subaru, even–and simply held my line through the corner. By the time we all got moving down the following straight, I was already in their wake. I never saw those cars again–well, until it rained later in the day.
A decade ago, we got word that the SCCA aimed to reboot track events, putting more emphasis on the driving and socializing than the never-ending arms race. No race cars allowed, the club stated, in order to turn down the intimidation factor for the first-timers.
These one-day events would usually take place during the week to preserve those all-important weekends. We were in–and so was Tire Rack.
Atlanta Motorsports Park hosted the first-ever Track Night in America on April 7, 2015. Two days later, I ran our BMW M235i at the now-shuttered Palm Beach International Raceway during the program’s first Florida event.
Photograph by Juha Lievonen.
What’d I find? Chillness. Mild builds. Lots of mingling. Very few if any trailers. To help foster community, the rookies got their own space in the paddock.
Everyone present–spectators, family, those looking for some extra laps–could participate in the track touring session. The speeds were kept in check, but it allowed everyone to taste the track.
Photograph by David S. Wallens
Among that early coaching staff: Tom O’Gorman. Yes, he’s fast–and has the hardware to prove it–but he’s also kind, patient and welcoming.
I also got to preserve my weekend. I walked out our front door that Tuesday afternoon and returned in time for bed–and that’s with a track sitting some 3 hours away. There’s a reason I went back–quite often.
In the decade since, I see that SCCA Track Night in America driven by Tire Rack has visited 48 tracks while welcoming more than 78,500 entries. They soon have one coming up at Daytona, our home track. I should check my calendar.
Comments
By the way, felt a little weird quoting something I wrote nearly 30 years ago….
David S. Wallens said:
By the way, felt a little weird quoting something I wrote nearly 30 years ago….
Just imagine how weird it would feel if you quoted that quote in 30 more years.
Meta quoting.
In reply to Colin Wood :
That’s deep.
It’s interesting how getting into track days has changed over the years. I started my first ones in the early 2000’s at the dawn of forums etc. Being able to connect with other special interest people online made finding these things possible. Still you find it buried in the local sub forum and physically mail in a check, etc. I can only imagine prior to forums. Magazine ads? Local SCCA mailer list? Kids these days have it so easy!
Doing my first Track Night next week at Harris Hill Raceway
In reply to j_tso :
Enjoy!
j_tso said:
Doing my first Track Night next week at Harris Hill Raceway
I was Black Flag Marshall (aka Driver Coach) during the TNIA formative years at Harris Hill. I got to meet lots of participants under dubious circumstances.
“So…tell me what happened out there” was the typical opening line. Depending on how the driver answered, the Q&A could go long or short. Most knew exactly why they got flagged — with the agricultural evidence stuck in various places under their car. But others had no idea why their car “just spun out”. Fun times.
Harris Hill is a great place to learn. Not much to hit, and a good variety of turns with significant elevation.
I once got black flagged for putting two wheels off and did the slow cruise down pit lane. Gotta take your lumps, right?
But it wasn’t me. It was the car in front of me. Once I politely noted that I was the one driving through the dust, not creating it, they waved me back on track.
Bit of nostalgia there. Car Guys at RR…I once in about the era David mentioned, had three students, one in each run group. The most memorable of the three was an Airborne Ranger…does fearless come to mind? He drove a 5 liter Mustang with little prep, the car leaned at least 10 degrees in the turns. The passenger seat where I was another ten or more degrees. In spite of all that he improved a lot that weekend.
I have run TNiA since the beginning across Florida. The easy access, low cost, and mid-week track time are hard to beat. If PBIR were still with us I’d be out there at nearly every event.
I wish we could go back to the days of registered entrants running as passengers / coaches. I do these events with my Dad and it was both helpful and rewarding to be in the car with each other.
It is still occasionally a E36 M3-show on track due to the same easy access. I find the racing in ChampCar to have generally more consistency, courtesy, and rule-following than TNiA “Advanced” group. And that is saying something.
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