Some good advice and info. I've been down a drag strip.........fun, but no where near as much fun and EDUCATIONAL as having a good instructor in your car at a road course. I'd rather have eight 30 minute sessions than several 11 second runs. Two different venues.

Fun stuff:

 

Why not do some autocrossing? This could've been you yesterday, 12 runs (~60sec each) for 40 bucks:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...09617173350235

Still FAR more fun than drag racing (in my 14sec car at least)

Jon

 

A lot.


/thread.

 

Man autocrossing has always looked soo confusing to me, i dont know how people tell were theres suppose to go. I guess I could give that a try. I know Phil(Philbert on here) use to do some AutoXing in his stang. What kind of car was that in the video?

 

It's not as confusing in person if it's a big lot (like that was) without much crossover or course repetition (like that course.) It also helps when you walk the course a few times that morning. And with NASA at least, you always get plenty of runs to figure it out (twice as many as most other groups.)

Anyway it's just an example of something cheap you can do that uses some of the roadracing/open track skills, but without as much cost, and with cornering involved... unlike drag racing. ;-)

Jon
PS- that was a very well driven Honda CRX in the vid. 5th fastest car at VMP on Sunday, behind a bunch of Corvettes. Several seconds faster than me in my M3.

 

The local NASA Chapter has a program where you work 2 events and you can earn credits to go to one for free, so its not bad. I also hear from a couple people that after you finish HPDE and get certified as an instructor, as long as you work as and instructor you can get free track time (Not event time, just track time)

 

One thing to keep in mind is that you register for the event at least a month in advance, so your not dropping a lump sum over the weekend.

Cheapest events like Nasa will cost you $350 for a two day event. You can either camp or share a Hotel room which can run you $30-$200 for the weekend. We brought a small grill and drinks so we spent $0 on food at the track, and I bring 3 5-gallon gas cans and fill them up which I think came out to around $70.

So, for the last track event I spent $170 that weekend, and the month before I spent the $350 to sign up. I think I did the last on about as cheap as I could.

My goal is to become a instructor and they get to run for free, so then it becomes alot cheaper!

As far as safety, you only have to have a helmet to run. The only other thing I would say you need is a good race brake pad and fresh fluid.

It can be expensive, but its what you make it. The hardest thing is doing you first event, then you become hooked and dropping the $$ becomes alot easier.

 

ditto.

 

Instructors do run for free with NASA but it takes years of regular full price HPDE weekends to get to that point. And once you're an instructor, that's your job for the weekend. You have very little time to deal with your own car, you will probably miss some of your own track time, and you're still staying to help your students all weekend even if your car explodes on your first lap. There is no "Hey Mr. Chief Instructor, I need to replace my broken widget valve so I don't miss any more of my track time - can you find someone else to deal with my students while I turn wrenches?" And you will be on the track 2-3x as much as usual, which will wear your ass out.

If you're instructing just for the free track time, you will very soon be saying "gosh this was so much easier and less stressful when I just paid and drove." But if you're doing it for love of sport... it will make you a better, faster, safer driver in the process. And once you've been doing it for a while you might actually get paid to instruct on a special-request basis.

Jon

 

Yep:

http://www.nasaracing.net/work_event.htm

Good stuff,

Jon