RyanR0101

I've searched for the last 10 minutes and can't find anything in relation to my quesiton, so here it goes....

I'd like to attend my first HPDE. Can anyone recommend one close to me? I've heard good things about the NCM ones, but they are awfully far away. I haven't heard a lot about other ones other than when someone posts that there's one here or there, etc. I'd like to know if there is something good around me where the instruction is good, etc. for a first timer. I don't just want to show up green for one of these things if the instruction isn't very good and they just turn you loose.

Any recommendations?

vms4evr

Read the FAQ in this section that says New to Autox and Road Racing. There are threads in it that list websites that show track schedules all over the country.

That said, "Don't do it!" It is a horrible addiction. You'll burn up all your money and time.

Btw, Hi, My name is graham, I'm an addict...

I'm sure the rest of the evil crew in this section will tell you all kinds of things to enforce the habit

AU N EGL

Tracks near Milwaukee

Road America ( Plymouth - Elkhart Lake Wis )

Black Hawk Farms - Rockford ILL

Autobaun - SE of Chicago


This is where most of the HPDEs are listed east of the Mississippi river
http://www.trackschedule.com/sched.html

NASA Midwest should have their 2008 schedule up soon
http://www.nasamidwest.com/season/


Upper Midwest is about down for the year.


My Name is Tom. I'm an addict too....

Aardwolf

Joel makes a nice track event listing in the Great Lakes section:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1607077

Basically, pick the track you want to drive on, then pick the club you want to do that with.

I live very close to Road America so I always go there. I attend the MFBA spring and fall event. http://roadamerica.fbody.us/ They have instructors available to go with you or ride with them.

I recommend the book, Going Faster! To help learn about what you should be doing.

You will need a helmet, good brake pads and fluid, and brake ducts are highly recommended.

If we attend the same event, I would be more then happy to help you out.

The MFBA events are the opening and closing weekend for Road America. So there will be no events because of winter till around April 14th.

A video I made:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...08422587506673

I LOVE to drive!

Steve49841

Hi my name is Steve and I'm an addict also. Just fininshed my first year and would highly recommend NASA first and MFBC second. NASA is big on instruction and getting comfortable. Mid West Fbody is great for going fast once you get the basics.

Z06 Whisperer

Madison area addict Anita checking in too!

All the above folks have given great advice already! Road America is so close to you if it were me, I'd really be tempted to start there. Seriously, I've run with various BMW, Porsche clubs/ F Body, Northwoods Shelby, NASA up there, some of the same clubs and others at Blackhawk and a few a Autobahn. I think we are really lucky to have these tracks/clubs/events so relatively close to us!

So nothing to add really except to say watch for the schedules to start coming out in about January for events starting in about April, right people? (unless you do ice autoX's and such ).

WNeal

Recommendations.

Start hording your mad money now. If you do it just one time,
there will be others, and others and others and then you will start buying stuff

Wheels
tires
trailer
tents
consumables
more chit
more chit for your chit and then some spare chit

It never ends so be prepared.

96CollectorSport

Ryan,

My recommendation would be to start out at Miller Park doing some autocrossing. The Milwaukee SCCA puts on an Autocross school early in the year, I would start there. This will give you a basic feel for your car at the limit. It is also a safe environment to learn what your car will do when pushed.

Next I would recommend running NASA at Autobahn in Joliet IL. This is a safer track than RA and will be a good track to get up to speed at. NASA runs a very good HPDE program and you will learn a lot, the classroom and in car instruction can't be beat for the price. You could also try running at Gingerman, MI or Blackhawk in Beliot. Gingerman and Autobahn are safer, Blackhawk has a lot of walls.

After that I would say that you are ready to tackle RA, some people will say to just go out and try RA but you are almost always over 100 mph there and things happen pretty fast. Since you are new to DE's I think its better to get youf feet wet at these other events first.

We have a good sized group that runs 9 to 10 track days a year, I'll PM you my phone number so you can meet up with us. I would suggest going for a ride along with one of the guys (or girls Anita comes to mind) to see what you are getting yourself into.

On a side note you may be better off just picking up a bad drug habit instead of doing track events, I think in the long run the drug habit will be chaper.

AU N EGL

From the guy who only wanted to do one or two events a year . .

WNeal

Fixed

AU N EGL

ahhh we trained you well Grasshopper

Steve49841

All great advice. Start easy and go with someone who knows the ropes. I started at Grattan with some friends last June and had a blast. It would be very easy to get into an overload condition without some help. I did fbody at R/A in Oct and we had a couple of real first timers, man I felt sorry for those guys. Blasting up the straight at 140+ is something you should work your way into.

xsiveone

Gingerman is a great track for beginners. It's over in South Haven, MI, directly across Lake Michigan from you. Too bad we can't drive on water. It's the track where I learned. It's a pretty technical 2 mile track with not much to hit.

Steve49841

One more thing I forgot. If you don't already get Grassroots Motorsport magazine a subscription is included with a NASA membership. Grassroots is a great place to pick up information about the hobby, sport - okay - obsession. Take a look at "nasaproracing.com".

RyanR0101

Thanks to all for your comments and recommendations. I especially appreciate your insights as to which tracks are better to start at, as I have not driven any of them, and what may look fun from the sky can be another matter once you get on it. Same goes for the various organizations. I had not even heard of some of them.

96CollectorSport, my line of thinking was similar to what you said about doing the autocross first. I have seen the SCCA school in spring and was thinking about that one. Special thanks for your hospitality...it would be great to meet your group sometime and see what I'm in for.

Z06 Whisperer

As a member of 96CollectorSport's group I wanted to let you know you are more then welcome to ride with me during one of the events that allows passengers (F Body, NASA and Northwoods Shelby come to mind. I'm sure the others would be more then happy to have you also.

I did do autox also and even though you are in the Milwaukee area, want to let you know that the club I ran with was the Madison Sports Car Club (part of Midwestern Council). This was in 2003 and I did the full season of low (parking lot) and high speed events with them. I just want you to know that even within autox there are different clubs, course set ups, etc. so I would encourage you to try the different ones. For example I did okay on the ones that were set up using parts of actual tracks (hey it's easy to be a class winner if there are only a few of you in the class LOLOL)--but the only one that was set up in an actual parking lot looked like a sea of cones to me (OK others had trouble with that day's course design too, but still I absolutely reeked )(and I was a horrible cone runner--don't ask LOL). I really enjoyed high speed events too.

The Madison Sports Car Club, at least in the past, offered a classroom "driving school" too. It was free and when I did it it was over I think 3 evenings (now it looks like one) and they covered everything from autox to wheel to wheel and even volunteer opportunities (timing and scoring, corner working, etc). The most fun I remember about those meetings was afterwards going into the parking lot and popping hoods--I didn't know squat then and know just about as much now, but it was just so neat to be around folks so enthused about each others' cars (and these were some cold nights in February I'm talking about). And no I didn't light it up leaving the parking lot like the others did--I would have if I could have! LOL Maybe SCCA offers something like that too before the season starts.

I did have a unique opportunity that started my addiction and that was a 2.5 day what I'll call a car control clinic at the BMW Performance Center in South Carolina (RIP Ben Burrell)(The factory tour there is well worth the visit too. Plus a trip to a local Spartanburg mall was full of BMW's--employees I'm guessing) It was part of the purchase of my M5 and delivery of the M3 and used those two cars. It was taught by former professional drivers/instructors and I spent 1.5 days on course and one actually driving the backroads up to the Biltmore in Ashville, NC (they kindly allowed my then 10 yr to attend ((he was strapped in the back seat for nearly all the stuff on course too--poor kid LOL)) so I ran tail in an X5 SAV-the husband hollering when I'd squeal the tires), trying desperately to keep up with everyone else in the two seater Z4s.

The course work itself involved both timed wet courses and dry courses, panic stops, skids, braking in stop boxes, avoiding these sprays of water that would shoot up, running full bore at an instructor who would at the last second signal you to either go left or right around him, etc, etc. And we all had radios in our cars and the person in charge was a grouch, so you could hear everybody's mistakes in agonizing detail as he pointed them out LOL. One of the things that impressed me the most was when an instructor in an M5 would come out to pick up a cone or something, he would almost just dance the car out and do it--made me realize what you can really do with a car.

And you can totally laugh at how ignorant I was of cars and fast driving when I tell you this. Because the husband got motion sick early on I did double the stuff (things were set up to alternate between 2 drivers) and he would be usually near by. Well it first comes time to do one of the timed things and I ask him "Like how should I drive it? When do I shift?" He's like "Well run it to right before the red line then shift" D'uh And yeah while the family passed out at the hotel right after that first day, I had to go and walk (and walk) for a long time after. That was it--I was hooked!

So loooong story short, there are many ways, many styles for having fun with your car! ENJOY!