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Novice Trackdays ?

Main Force Patrol

Well-known member
Joined
10 Dec 2017
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301
Hi Guys I need some help !

I did a track day a few years ago in my Lotus Elise @ Anglesey, and while I enjoyed parts of it, I nearly got completely wiped out by a bloke in Nissan GTR who overtook me / missed me by literally inches, I guess I was doing 60mph and passed me half off the track at over 100mph.
Suffice to say it was Open Session type set-up, and the mix left me exhausted and paranoid about either slowing people down or repeating the GTR incident.

It was a sad that this incident has put me off ever repeating havin a go again, but here is where I need your help..... I really can't find anybody who runs closed sessions ( apart from next Tuesday in Wigan :grin: ) they seem to be a bit of a Uniciorn of track days for a novice.

Ideally I'd like a track that isn't 200 miles away and has decent run offs, I live 35 mins from Oulton Park but it's a dead loss if you make a mistake, I'm only 80 mins from Anglesey but no one runs sessioned track days.

Do you any alternative suggestions / ideas ?

Cheers
MFP
 
Does Porsche Club UK not run track days and drivers education?

My local official club here - Porsche Club Finland - offers a combination of open track and restricted track days with drivers education: you start in L1, and need to be promoted to L2, L3 and L4 (instructor level).

It works very well. I've now had a number of passenger rides with instructors (mainly to demonstrate the line, braking and turn in points, handy on a new track) and instruction from 7 different instructors (from 10-20 minutes per session). the great thing about the club events is that they match the skills and experience, and discipline is very strict (there's no passing without being given a indication, only passing on the straight, only passing on the right).

It's great for beginners and for peace of mind.

Open pit lane stuff scares me. I really don't want to be 'the guy in the Porsche'.
 
MaxA said:
Does Porsche Club UK not run track days and drivers education?

My local official club here - Porsche Club Finland - offers a combination of open track and restricted track days with drivers education: you start in L1, and need to be promoted to L2, L3 and L4 (instructor level).

It works very well. I've now had a number of passenger rides with instructors (mainly to demonstrate the line, braking and turn in points, handy on a new track) and instruction from 7 different instructors (from 10-20 minutes per session). the great thing about the club events is that they match the skills and experience, and discipline is very strict (there's no passing without being given a indication, only passing on the straight, only passing on the right).

It's great for beginners and for peace of mind.

Open pit lane stuff scares me. I really don't want to be 'the guy in the Porsche'.

Ahhh sorry my fault I didn't say, I am talking about taking my Lotus, my Porsche is far to precious for me to shove it into a large barrier :hand:
 
Ah, well, that's no hardship. Is there a Lotus Club, or SELOC event?

I've done a few open trackdays, and it's only fun to take a Porsche if it's one of the less powerful cars (so you're not waiting to get torpedoed by some bloke in a hot hatch with more ambition than skill), and you can outbrake and outcorner the big heavy more powerful coupe and sports cars. I'm sure that logic holds in a Lotus. It certainly does in a MINI.

The main track day thread is very good. The two things I'd look for is some tuition and good discipline (marshals, flags/lights). [/i]
 
MaxA said:
Ah, well, that's no hardship. Is there a Lotus Club, or SELOC event?

I've done a few open trackdays, and it's only fun to take a Porsche if it's one of the less powerful cars (so you're not waiting to get torpedoed by some bloke in a hot hatch with more ambition than skill), and you can outbrake and outcorner the big heavy more powerful coupe and sports cars. I'm sure that logic holds in a Lotus. It certainly does in a MINI.

The main track day thread is very good. The two things I'd look for is some tuition and good discipline (marshals, flags/lights). [/i]

Fully agree on the tuition, these Guys really know to fling cars around, unlike me :D
 
MotorSportVision do novice days at most if not all of their circuits at some point through the year - check their calendar. Novice events are sessioned (so you get about 7 20 minute slots through the day) which means that (a) they don't actually appeal to the more experienced/hard core drivers anyway and (b) nobody out there is going to be overdoing the mental fatigue angle. I would strongly recommend them to people for their first few times on track. They tend to mostly attract people on modest budgets with stock road cars (generally warm and slightly hot hatches) and the hooligan potential is fairly low (though it is never non-existent).

If a novice day doesn't fit (or you really don't want to do a sessioned day and want open pit lane) then the next best option from a driving standards point of view is always the owners club events.

Do persist with it though - the enjoyment ramps up once you get more experience. And do take a couple of sessions of instruction - it builds confidence as well as actual knowledge. :thumb:
 
Lotus-on-track

http://www.lotus-on-track.com

I've been with them many times and the driving etiquette has always been first class, whether in OPL or sessioned events.

They are usually £20 more expensive than mainstream TDOs but they have plenty of early birds deals, and they don't book as many cars on their events so plenty of track space.

They're Porsche friendly as well should you wish to take your Porsche, so win win.

As mentioned tutition helps; another thing sometimes when I visit a new circuit I put one of the 'novice' sticker on my car if it's OPL event.
 
Disco said:
MotorSportVision do novice days at most if not all of their circuits at some point through the year - check their calendar. Novice events are sessioned (so you get about 7 20 minute slots through the day) which means that (a) they don't actually appeal to the more experienced/hard core drivers anyway and (b) nobody out there is going to be overdoing the mental fatigue angle. I would strongly recommend them to people for their first few times on track. They tend to mostly attract people on modest budgets with stock road cars (generally warm and slightly hot hatches) and the hooligan potential is fairly low (though it is never non-existent).

If a novice day doesn't fit (or you really don't want to do a sessioned day and want open pit lane) then the next best option from a driving standards point of view is always the owners club events.

Do persist with it though - the enjoyment ramps up once you get more experience. And do take a couple of sessions of instruction - it builds confidence as well as actual knowledge. :thumb:

That's brilliant Colin, thank you they look perfect for my needs :D
I think the reason they never came up in my searches was the fact that I wasn't searching for novice, but anyway I knew the forum would help me out :worship:
 
Y2K said:
Lotus-on-track

http://www.lotus-on-track.com

I've been with them many times and the driving etiquette has always been first class, whether in OPL or sessioned events.

They are usually £20 more expensive than mainstream TDOs but they have plenty of early birds deals, and they don't book as many cars on their events so plenty of track space.

They're Porsche friendly as well should you wish to take your Porsche, so win win.

As mentioned tutition helps; another thing sometimes when I visit a new circuit I put one of the 'novice' sticker on my car if it's OPL event.

Cheers for the post
I did look at LnT last year but they only run open pit, so I actually gave them a call to see if I was missing something from my searches on their website, the bloke explained that they didn't run group sessions etc, only open pit because most members where experienced.
But it's good to know about them once I've done a few more novice days and some more instructor based laps. Also they do use Anglesey which is just perfect for me :D
 

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