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Thoughts?


BBQdDude

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Honestly....it's a lot of money for what you get and in the "beginner" portion it may be a bit of a let down doing what will ultimately be relatively low speed lead / follow situation.

 

You don't get 1:1 instruction, you don't get classroom instruction, and you get 3 sessions at twilight for the early dates for $200

 

Porsche Club, BMW Club, Audi Club, etc all offer programs that in my opinion do a much better job of catering to the beginner crowd. You will get classroom instruction before you ever set foot on the track. You will get 1:1 instruction with someone in car with you the whole weekend. You will get ~4 20 min sessions per day (2 day schools most of the time) out on the track going as fast as you and your instructor feel comfortable pushing not dictated at a speed that suits the whole group you will be out there with. You will have at least 2 class room sessions per day, and you will have unlimited access to your instructor to answer any and all quesetions you may have. Thank the insurnace companies for messing up the ride along policy but you'll still be able to hitch a ride with your instructor at a pretty decent clip. New regulations dictate it won't be a "Flat Out" ride but it'll be enough to really provide an additional learning experience.

 

Our local PCA group has it's first event 4/20-21. It's $370 as long as you sign up > 30 days in advance. You don't have to be a PCA member to sign up. Bring a car with fresh brake fluid, enough brake pad material and a good attitude to learn and I guarantee you'll be back for more.

 

http://www.clubregistration.net/driver/event_sign_up.cfm?event_id=4503

 

Andy

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Just do the "Open Lapping" evenings for the same price with no restrictions.

 

For most people the best case outcome for that approach is to either not enjoy it and/or not learn very much and never come back because of those things. Worst case they crash their (probably expensive) car that they very well might be making payments on and the insurance company at the very least tries to deny the claim. Hopefully the don't get hurt in the process.

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For most people the best case outcome for that approach is to either not enjoy it and/or not learn very much and never come back because of those things. Worst case they crash their (probably expensive) car that they very well might be making payments on and the insurance company at the very least tries to deny the claim. Hopefully the don't get hurt in the process.

 

On that post... You can purchase track insurance for your street car when participating in a track day. It is a couple hundred bucks to cover a very nice car (vette, Porsche,BMW...). Anyone looking to track a street car (or any car you can't afford to write off) - look into it. :)

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On that post... You can purchase track insurance for your street car when participating in a track day. It is a couple hundred bucks to cover a very nice car (vette, Porsche,BMW...). Anyone looking to track a street car (or any car you can't afford to write off) - look into it. :)

 

 

Yes, but this typically doubles the cost of the track day.

Looked into 60K of insurance for a day, it was insane, around 500-600.

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Yes, but this typically doubles the cost of the track day.

Looked into 60K of insurance for a day, it was insane, around 500-600.

 

And depending on the company the deductibles are usually $10k or so on track insurance.

 

Westfield is the one carrier in ohio that technically still coveres DE's on their standard policies, though after my buddy had to file a track claim through them they promptly dropped him, they did pay the claim though which was > $35k

 

I say this cautiously because I have seen issues in beginner run groups but only a couple in the years that I've been attending these, but for the most part it's the guys in the higher gun groups that think they know what they are doing and start pushing beyond their own abilities after being signed off for solo runs that have issues out there. The job of your instructor when you are a beginner is to recognize when you are over your head and pull you back to a safe level.

 

Perfect example from last year. I had a student who drove the "school" line at Mid Ohio exceptionally well. He was always on point, never pushed too hard, never got into situations where he was chasing faster cars trying to keep up. He had run the whole Friday solo day by himself without issue. After lunch on Saturday I asked him if he wanted to work on adapting to the race line a little more, push the boundries a little bit with me in the car to start his progression to that next level. He declined and said he was comfortable doing what he was doing, it was his last track day of the year and he was just going to go out there and enjoy it. I signed him off solo then jumped in with another student for a ride along in his session. Not 5 min into that session we come around T1 and I see him spinning off into the grass entering the keyhole!!!!!!!!!!!. Thankfully he didn't hit anything and all was well. When I caught up to him later I asked him what happened and he admitted he was chasing someone through the T2-T3 complex trying to figure out their line because they were much quicker than him through there.....something I would have gladly worked on with him if he had just asked.

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Mid Ohio's club schedule isn't published yet, usually it's pretty standard when each club has their dates but with the addition of the NASCAR Nationwide series weekend this year everyone's dates got moved.

 

Here are the club weekends I know of currently for Mid Ohio, I'll update as I get more info I know KY PCA will have a date in there probably in July, SCCA's got a couple of weekends at least one of which will have their PDX drivers education school and I don't even have BMW club in this listing.

 

April 12-14 - Ohio Valley PCA

April 19-21 - Mid Ohio PCA

April 26-28 - NASA Great Lakes

May 3-5 - Northern Ohio PCA

May 17-19 - Northern New Jersey PCA

June 21-23 - Audi Club **These guys have a FANTASTIC beginner program**

July 5-7 - Mid Ohio Region PCA **Club race weekend no beginner groups available**

July 26-28 - NASA Great Lakes

August 23-25 NASA Great Lakes

September 20-22 - Allegheny Region PCA

September 27-29 - Northern Ohio PCA

October 11-13 - Ohio Valley PCA

Edited by AudiOn19s
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Yes, but this typically doubles the cost of the track day.

Looked into 60K of insurance for a day, it was insane, around 500-600.

 

I've got a friend who gets a $25k policy with a $2k-ish deductible for $190/day. And this is just my opinion, but if you can afford a $60k car and want to do track days with it - you either can afford to write the car off or the money for the coverage won't be a make/break for doing the track day. Taking a car to the track that you can't leave a crumpled pile of trash is always a bad idea.

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One more thought on the insurance, it's cheapest to buy it as a whole track season package instead of by individual event. Obviously for those first timers who aren't sure how many track days they will do this may not be an option but if you get in and get hooked it drops the insurance costs quite a bit that way.
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I'm going to +1 on everything Andy said.

 

And in addition to that, Putnam Park, just West of Indianapolis is a great beginner track in that it is not as fast as Mid-O, there is a lot of run-off if you mess up a corner and it's a fun, technical track.

 

10/10ths Motorsports runs there several times in the summer, and they are a great HPDE group to run with and offer 1:1 instruction and classroom time. I plan on attending at least one of their events at Putnam and it's an easy drive if anyone wants to tag along.

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