How To Throw The Greatest Track Day In The History Of Track Days

When we announced that we were hosting our first official track day (or, 1rd official track day), I half-jokingly said it would be the Greatest Track Day In History. This was partially because I thought it would be a fun event, and partially because I was afraid no one was going to show up. About 70 people did, and most of them brought cars, and many those cars were not ones that had ever seen the track before that day.

There was a moment during lunch, right before we started, when our two awesome instructors and Stephen, our very pumped Lime Rock Park sensei, pulled me aside. There was a big concern. Ok, there was a little concern over a big van. Multiple vans. So many vans. The staff wanted me to politely communicate to the members who had those high-profile vehicles that, should anything seem unsafe, they might get black-flagged.

While the FCP Euro Proving Grounds track at Lime Rock is kind of the perfect place for new drivers and questionable cars (it lacks both straights and things to hit), it’s still a race track and safety is always paramount. Lime Rock has a great reputation for a reason. I asked the drivers to be please drive carefully so that we could make it to the end of the track day.

What ended up happening was not what any of us expected. The van drivers absolutely sent it all day and, rather than black flag the vans, the instructors and staff started cheering them on after some insane laps. Thus, my half-joke about this being the greatest track day in the history of track days was maybe not a joke at all!

Here’s a quick video to give you a taste:

 

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First Things First, Let’s Check People In And Give Them Citroën Rides

The first job of the morning was to set out gift bags, start checking people in, and taking Citroën laps.

A huge thanks to my buddy (and member) Scott, who took time off his normal job of designing cars to crash with us the night before, stuff gift bags, and check people in. Just look at this mix of cars. It feels extremely Autopian.

Gift Bags!

The checking in process was a lot of fun, and people brought their cars (and family) from as far as Maine and Virginia. It felt like a miracle some of these cars even made it and I didn’t specifically count on all of them surviving the track, though they somehow did.

Amazingly, we had three Toyobarus, a bunch of Porsches, and a ton of Mazda3s at the track day, to go along with all the other stuff you’re not likely to see on a track.

Look, two Chryslers (sort of). While we were doing this, Jason took some… ahem… sighting laps to make sure the track was in good condition.

While that was going on, Dave showed up in a Maverick with a freakin’ Grandfather Clock (as he’d promised to do, so long as I didn’t tell Jason ahead of time). You can read more about that here.

Jason almost immediately clocked what was happening and rushed over to see if he could get it loaded.

I think Nick is there for supervision.

As if drawn to the track by the presence of a grandfather clock, we had another member (and his future dad) show up to complete the french duo.

As Jason wrote, this turned into a trio when Jamie Kitman brought his Renault 4 to the track, which we’ll cover in a future article. After this, Jason started doing more reconnaissance laps with the clock and some of our members.

Lime Rock in the summer is a wonderful place to be, only beaten by Lime Rock in fall or Lime Rock in winter if there’s just enough snow on the autocross and they let you run it. The catering is also outstanding, as you can see folks enjoying here, amid the mountains.

I’m not even sure what we’re pointing at here, but after lunch we gathered everyone into the lovely trackside chalet at LRP and went over the rules. Basically, we’d split the cars into a fast group and a maybe-not-as-fast group and had one on the wet skidpad and the other on the autocross track.

Everyone seemed game and off we went.

A Wet Skidpad Is A Lot Of Fun

I may or may not have put the NISMO Armada on the wet skidpad just to make sure it was safe. This is a wonderful adventure, especially in an older car, and the only risk was knocking out a sprinkler head (a sign nicely reminded us it would be about $300 to replace one). I’m excited to say we maintained all the sprinklers, if only barely.

As we did this a crowd gathered to encourage everyone.

Which was fun.

Some, like our Grumman Diesel Van (formerly an Air Force work truck) driver Karl, needed no encouragement and went full tilt like a Peterbilt from the jump.

As did JCat in his Conquest (showing this photo before it goes a little wrong) and Vanguy.

While the slower (in theory) cars were on the skidpad, the rest of the cars were bonding at the faster track.

Fast Times At The Proving Grounds

After a quick and slow lap behind a golf kart, we were ready to send out folks in groups under the excellent guidance of LRP’s instructors.

Dylan got a lot of great photos, including this one of Parker scaring his brother in a friend’s Audi. I guess Bard is more comfortable in the driver’s seat.

One of the best parts of the day was just having all the different car owners from different brands and backgrounds having a great time together.

It was really heartening to see.

And it wasn’t just fast car fans/slow car fans, it was everyone hanging out and enjoying the company of everyone else.

Because we had an instructor, we were able to have four cars going at the same time, which meant that drivers got a lot of laps if they wanted to.

We even had spectators, like our buddy Andrew Collins from The Drive, who just wanted to hang out. I love his Mitsubishi so much.

After doing the faster cars on track, it was time to swap groups.

The Van Race We All Needed

By coincidence, two of the three vans there ended up in the same autocross group and it was like watching a bizarro IMSA.

This pleased everyone greatly and there was no longer talk of black flags, just a desire to see it never end.

I should say the “slow” group had a lot of fast cars and drivers, and sometimes our split was a little arbitrary so that we could get roughly even-numbered groups.

Vans!

Subarus!

Crosscabs!

Mazdas!

So many Mazdas!

And Stef in a hot rod Subaru.

And Prius.

One of these cars was rented, but I’m not going to say which one…

While this was going on, the other group was having fun at the skidpad.

Including a BMW driver who made the rest of us BMW drivers proud with his driving, and also by never using a turn signal.

Parade Laps!

I can’t say enough about how awesome it was to have the LRP staff supporting this event and encouraging our zanier ideas. They’re car people and they get it, so they even let us do a bunch of parade laps.

NISMO!!!!!!

The Award Ceremony!

 

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One of the cool things about doing this event is that we gave out awards, though not necessarily for being fast. We gave out awards for things like being slow, having a car that didn’t seem like it would make it home, having the oldest car, et cetera, and gave out prizes that included some PB Blaster merch, a t-shirt, a butt pillow, and a $200 Gift Card from eBay Motors (thanks eBay Motors!).

Jason even made these amazing certificates to give out.

We may have even (ahem, this is my fault) accidentally given away that one of our members and frequent commenters is engaged. Oops!

When we asked if anyone would like to do this again, we got an enthusiastic yes:

The goal is to do another one of these in winter at LRP, and as many of these in other places as possible (some of these are in the works).

How To Have Fun Like This

This was a member-only event, so the first step is becoming a member! The second step is to take planning very seriously, and yourself not seriously at all. One of the reasons why this event worked is that literally everyone there was cool. While many people put in a ton of work to make this happen, it wouldn’t have worked at all if everyone didn’t bring the right energy.

As much fun as it was driving, the hanging out was probably the best part. It’s awesome to be with car people.

A huge thanks to the LRP staff and ownership, to Parker for helping organize, to Dylan from LRP for all the video/photo support, to Scott and Otto for their help in checking people in/putting togehter gift bags, and to the amazing readership for making this the greatest track day yet.

All photos Dylan Madden