A Beginner’s Guide To Your First Track Day: Car Prep, Packing List, and Expectations

So you’ve finally decided that this is the year you take your car to the race track — congratulations on getting to this point! A lifetime of adrenaline-filled adventure awaits you on the other side. While it may seem daunting at first, the track day community is vibrant and often very inviting. Consider this post an official invitation to become ‘one of us’.

Who am I and why should you trust me?

There are many corners to the car hobby universe and many different ways to have fun and enjoy your car. However, it’s important to seek out advice from individuals with first-hand experience in your area of interest to ensure that their input is fit-for-purpose. By doing so, you’ll find that you’ll accelerate your learning, be more efficient with your spending (it can get very expensive, very quickly), and have a stronger understanding of how to keep yourself from harm.

For example, while I may be able to provide meaningful assistance on how to prep a track car, I have no credibility in instructing someone on how to complete a restomod on a classic Porsche. Similarly, a car built specifically for show-and-shine will likely not be optimized for the track (but it is true that a race car is always a show car!).

With that out of the way, let’s talk about track cars.

So, what is my experience share rooted in?

First and foremost, I’m a hobbyist and not a professional. What advice I do have to offer stems from nearly a decade of participation in local, grassroots motorsports:

• 9 years of High Performance Drivers Education (HPDE) and open lapping
• 5 years of grassroots endurance racing with Lucky Dog Racing Canada (LDRC) and ChumpCar Canada
• 2 years of HPDE instructor experience with Ontario Time Attack (OTA) and SPDA
• 2 years of time attack competitor experience with OTA, with multiple class wins and class records
• 1 totaled car on the exit of Turn 1 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park Grand Prix track (Mosport)

Everything I share below will draw on this combined experience.

What are Track Days?

Track Days are events, typically held at road course race tracks, where drivers can register and bring any car (that is deemed safe) onto a race track. Most Track Days are fairly beginner friendly. It’s quite rare for Track Day organizers to disallow complete novices (perhaps only when suitable instructors are unavailable).

On-track time is usually split to different sessions, about 15-30 minutes in length. Sessions are typically cycling through 3 groups — beginner, intermediate, and advanced. For more casual Track Days, it may be declared ‘open lapping’ where drivers can enter and exit the track as desired.

Track Days commonly last an entire day (9am-5pm). Some tracks may also offer evening lapping sessions (typically 5pm to sunset).

What is High Performance Driver’s Education (HPDE)?

High Performance Driver’s Education (HPDE) is a special flavor of Track Day where there is an emphasis on providing a safe and academic environment for beginners to learn performance driving. Safety here extends beyond just keeping you physically safe — you’ll be surrounded by other beginners and instructors who are trained to work with complete beginners, thus providing a psychologically safe environment as well.

When attending an HPDE, you can expect:

• Classroom sessions for beginners to go over basics (safety, driver etiquette, driving technique)
• Dedicated instructors to ride along with you and give you on-track instruction and debriefing
• Evaluation of driving for ‘sign-off’ — that is, the ability to be on-track by yourself (commonly referred to as ‘solo’)

My recommendation is to always attend an HPDE for your first on-track experience. While it may be tempting to attend an open Track Day with an experienced friend, an HPDE event will be a better learning environment as you’ll be in a cohort of peer beginners. Attending an open Track Day where you’ll likely be the slowest driver (and rightfully so through no fault of your own) will pile on unnecessary performance pressure. Having other cars constantly on your bumper is not my idea of fun.

How much do Track Days and HPDE cost?

It varies. But the formula is fairly consistent:

[Track rental fee + Event overhead (e.g. event insurance)] / Total Drivers.

This is to say, most Track Day organizations are not-for-profit are doing so out of the goodness of their hearts to promote local motorsports.

For tracks local to me, Track Day participation fees are usually $200 to $500 per day.

You’ll start running into the higher end of fees at premier, ‘bucket list’ tracks with fancy facilities that support professional race series. Most local ‘hobby’ tracks will be in the $200-300 range.

While participation fees are only a fraction of the all-in, long-term cost of tracking your car, for the purpose of your first event, the entry fee and the purchase of a helmet ($300-400) will the bulk of your expenses.

What are the benefits of participating in Track Days and HPDE?

Car control

Improving car control is the most obvious benefit.

I always tell friends that I bring to the track that driving a car at the limit is a bizarre experience — you’re in a very familiar situation (sitting in a car) but your physical experience is something extremely unfamiliar. The best way that I can describe the sensation is that it’s like riding a roller coaster equipped with a steering wheel.

It’s truly a shame that most people will go through life having driven nearly every day but never experience how a car behaves at the limit of grip — the motion, the noise, the sounds, and even the smell (ah, the sweet smell of clutch and brakes in the morning).

Packed into this experience is also developing the knowledge of how to control a vehicle at the limit of grip — will it ‘push’ and not want to turn? Will it turn excessively and spin out of control? How do you regain control of the car in these situations?

You might be wondering, how does this translate to everyday driving?

I posit that performance driving is extremely applicable to both defensive driving and driving in adverse conditions.

Take, for example, the following situations:

• Something large fell off the truck ahead of you — should you brake or turn first to avoid impact?
• It’s raining hard and you just hit a patch of standing water on the highway, causing your car to aquaplane — what should your next move be?
• You’re entering an onramp during a snowstorm and the rear of your car starts to slide out — how do you regain control?

You’ll also be able to better assess driving conditions and whether your car or you as a driver are up to the task. I still remember our first trip driving across Iceland in front-wheel-drive rental sedan with all season tires. Having an understanding of vehicle dynamics and assessing road conditions helped inform my decisions on whether it was safe to push forward or necessary to turn back. In these situations, the car is constantly communicating with you, the driver. It just depends on whether you understand the language.

A deeper appreciation for your car

Many of us car enthusiasts own cars that were designed by manufacturers with some racing pedigree. Taking your car to the track to stretch its legs will give you a greater appreciation for the effort and thought that was put into producing the car.

You may have paid top dollar for a sports car that has significant performance potential. If that’s the case, make sure you get your money’s worth by unlocking that potential at the race track in a safe and controlled setting.

Finding community

Finding like-minded enthusiasts can be very energizing for a hobby that can, at times, feel very isolated. There’s a reason why car meets and cruises are so popular among gearheads — it’s more fun when you’re a part of a community

It has always been my experience that the folks you meet at the track are exceedingly generous with their their time and resources.

Just ask and you’ll receive:

• In-car feedback from an experienced driver ride-along
• Tools you may have forgotten (10mm, anyone?)
• Car setup advice from drivers with the same car
• Recommendations on additional events to attend

How to pick the right first event for you

Picking the right first event is vital to ensure that you have an enjoyable and safe experience. You’ll find that most HPDE organizers follow a similar ‘script’ but there may be a few key differences that appeal more to you as an individual.

Below are a few common differentiators for you to consider:

• What’s the split of time between classroom and on-track time?
• Will there be skid pad exercises or just track?
• Will you be able to have an instructor in-car with you at all times?
• Will you have the chance to go solo during the event if signed off?
• Will you be driving your own car? (Most HPDE events will have participants use their own vehicles. There are more ‘all-inclusive’ events that command a higher price point)
• Which track will the event be held at? (Sometimes it’s not even about the track but the facilities — are you okay with a ‘campground-type’ track with porta potties or do you need an airconditioned club house to lounge in?)
• Does the HPDE organization have graduated programming that you can progress through with subsequent participation?

Reputation matters. Ask about HPDE events you’re interested in in your local car online boards to see what others have to say before spending your hard earned money.

How to prepare your car

There’s no need to overthink vehicle preparation for your very first event. Cars that are able to operate safely on the road are usually fit for a driver’s first track day. Safety and vehicle reliability are the focal point and less so extracting maximum performance from the car. With that in mind, common preparations deal with making sure nuts and bolts are tight and fluids are topped off and not leaking. If you’re itching to make an upgrade, then focus on the brakes (pads and fluids). No other upgrades are necessary to learn and have a good time.

Common vehicle checks

Usually, all you need to do is:

• Make sure you arrive with a full tank of gas (or close to it) and perhaps a jerry can of fuel if you drive a thirsty car (6+ cylinder cars may need more than a full tank to get through the day)
• Check your fluid levels (oil, coolant, break fluid) and under the vehicle for any leaks
• Check that brake pads have sufficient life remaining (ideally, 50%+ remaining thickness compared to new) and that there’s no loss of pressure (you can easily test this with the car off by pumping the brake pedal until firm and applying pressure to see if it depresses over time — hint: it shouldn’t)
• Torque your wheels (I like to do +5 ft-lbs over the manufacturer’s spec in case the wrench is slightly out of calibration)
• Install your OEM tow hook to the front of the vehicle (if required by the organization)

Vehicle tech sheet

Many Track Days and HPDE events will have a driver tech sheet that goes over a checklist of vehicle inspection items must be completed prior to entering the track. 

When to upgrade your brakes

If you have extensive racing experience through other means (sim racing, karting) then you may find the limits of the car faster than a typical beginner would. In this case, I would recommend doing (1) a break fluid flush with a performance fluid (e.g. Motul RBF 660 or 700, Endless RF-650, Castrol SRF) and (2) using at least a hybrid street/track brake pad (e.g. Hawk HP+, Endless MX-72)

I’d also recommend doing brake maintenance if you’ve upgraded to sticky performance tires. This is to ensure that your brake fluid and pads are well-matched to your aftermarket tires, as manufacturers design fluids and pads to go with the OEM tire compound only. Because of this, I often recommend new track drivers stick to OEM rubber for their first few events. It’s a better long-term strategy for learning as sticky tires can mask mistakes.

How to set tire pressures

Should you inflate or deflate your tires before going on track? It depends.

Common wisdom would dictate that decreasing your tire pressure is preferred as driving on track will increase the tire temperature, and thus increase your tire pressure (hot air expands). So, if you want to maintain an optimal pressure during the track session, one should decrease tire pressures at the onset when tires are cold.

Tire pressure and temperature are two important factors that dictate the amount of grip a tire has. Pressure changes the contact patch on the ground and temperature changes the grip properties of the rubber (too cold and it’s hard like a hockey puck, too hot and it’s gooey like gum).

However, optimizing for grip (and tire safety) is not so simple a calculation. Additional curve balls in the equation are vehicle dynamics and alignment. A road car will have very little static camber and likely has soft suspension (for road compliance), which will create a significant amount of lateral motion when cornering rapidly. This can create a suboptimal condition where a tire will start to ‘rollover’ onto the sidewall, which offers very limited grip and can damage the structural integrity of the tire (the sidewall is the thinnest and weakest part of a tire). In this situation, adding a few PSI to your front tires will help to reduce the rollover effect by stiffening the sidewalls.

My advice for a first-time street car with factory alignment is to set pressures on a cold car to match exactly what the manufacturer recommends (check your inside driver door sill) for your first session. Then, observe whether the tires are rolling over onto the side walls. If rolling over, add +2PSI before next session and -2PSI if no rollover is observed. Get your instructor involved in helping you visually inspect your sidewalls as to whether rollover is occurring.

It is more important to protect your tires and car (too low pressure and the tire could come off the bead) than to optimize for lap time for your first event.

What equipment to bring

Here’s a list of the most common items to bring for a Track Day. Be sure to check your organization’s forms for additional requirements.

• Up-to-date helmet (big red flag if the organization doesn’t require a helmet)
  • Currently, SA2015 is the most common minimum requirement for helmets
  • Check out this video on how to choose your first helmet
• Closed-toe shoes
• Long sleeve shirt and pants (cotton preferred, avoid synthetic materials for fire safety; mandatory for some organizers)
• Water
• Sunscreen and a large hat
• Sunglasses (polarized lenses can help with increasing contrast of visual markers and reduce glare)
• Tire pressure pump and gauge
• Lunch (if not provided)
• Torque wrench (if you have one) and lug nut key (if your car has a lug lock)
• GoPro (for reviewing after the event)

It’s always best to be prepared but don’t be alarmed if you forget anything — it’s more than likely that someone can lend you whatever you might be missing.

Track rules and driver etiquette

It’s good practice to be courteous to other drivers when sharing a race track. Track Day participants must balance making the most of the track day experience for themselves while not impeding the enjoyment of others. Luckily, at an HPDE event, much of this falls on your in-car instructor to keep you in line. Lean on them to for advice and trust their judgement when they instruct you to wave cars by or to close the gap to the car ahead of you to make a pass.

Marshal station racing flags

One major part of driver etiquette is a solid understanding of marshal flags. These flags communicate vital information about track conditions. You will undoubtedly review flags and their meanings before any Track Day event at the Driver’s meeting before anyone goes out on track. These flags are a communication system that relay essential information to the drivers as fast as possible (as direct verbal communication isn’t feasible).

Below are the most common flags you will see at a Track Day or HPDE:

• Green: Green means go. The track is clear, so proceed as usual.
• Yellow: Yellow means caution. Be prepared to slow your vehicle so that you are able to deviate off of the racing line if necessary to avoid obstacles, such as re-entering vehicles.
• Blue: Blue means faster car approaching. If the blue flag is presented to you, you should prepare to point the faster car by at the next passing zone. Your instructor should guide you through this process.
• Red and Yellow (striped): The Red and Yellow striped flag indicates debris on the track surface ahead. This could be fluid (oil, coolant) or perhaps dirt and grass that was brought back onto the racing line. Slow your car vehicle and be on the lookout for on-track debris to avoid.
• Meatball (Black flag with orange circle): The meatball flag indicates vehicle damage. When the meatball flag is presented to you, it means that there is something broken on your vehicle that needs to be addressed immediately. This could be loose parts or fluid leakage. If you suspect that you are leaking fluids, it’s best to move off of the racing line when it is safe to do so. Exit the track at pit-in. If you are leaking profusely, it may be best to pull off into the grass.
• Black: Black means report to the pit marshal. When a black flag is presented to you, it means that you are requested to exit the track this lap and report to the marshal for a discussion. Perhaps you’ve had a few off track excursions or have missed previous flags presented to you (e.g. a blue flag). If you see a waving black flag, this means everyone will be exiting the track on this lap (perhaps minor incident on track that requires a tow vehicle).
• Red: This is the flag that you don’t want to see. Red flags are reserved for emergency situations and are typically oversized flags, so that they aren’t easily missed. When a red flag is flown, the track marshals are signalling that an emergency vehicle is entering the track. Each organizer may have their own guidance for drivers as to what the correct procedure should be when a red flag is flown — be sure to get clarity at the driver’s meeting if you’re uncertain. In most cases it’s one of three options:
  • (1) safely come to a stop wherever you are on track
  • (2) safely slow down to cruising speed (where you are aware of safety vehicles around you and can let them by) and stop at the next marshal station for further instruction
  • (3) safely slow down to cruising speed (where you are aware of safety vehicles around you and can let them by) and exit the track

Situational awareness

As an experienced driver, I have no issues with slower cars in more advanced groups. Track Day groupings are typically not done by lap times, but rather by experience and comfort across the following factors:

• Understanding the racing line (so that the driver positions their car predictably)
• Constant awareness of whether there’s traffic building behind them
• Constant awareness of marshal stations and whether they are showing any flags
• Safely signaling and lifting off throttle for faster cars to pass safely
• Knowing the limits of their cars and their driving capability, which manifest itself as not having off-track excursions

Notice that these factors have nothing to do with pace and everything to do with safety, consistency, and predictability. Pace comes naturally when these principles are observed.

You won’t be expected to get all of this right away as a beginner but you can bet that your instructor will be thinking through these concepts as they evaluate you for solo sign-off.

Pre-event learning and mental preparation

You’ll learn everything you need to have a successful first Track Day with an HPDE event through the classroom sessions and in-car coaching. However, if you’re a keener and want to read ahead, there are a few concepts that are helpful for you to get more out of your on-track time and perhaps accelerate your progress toward sign-off.

Learning the racing line

The racing line is the optimal positioning of a car on a race track that minimizes lap time. Often, the racing line is generalized as the shortest distance between two points — when applied to a single corner, this means ‘straightening’ the path of travel as much as possible to reduce overall distance. In practice, this usually looks like a corner entry at the outside of a corner, followed by an apex on the inside, and then a track-out at the outside.

For your first track day, the racing line is about building predictability and consistency in your driving, as well as developing good habits. It’s more of a ‘wax-on, wax-off’ approach that will reveal its usefulness in subsequent sessions. You’ll begin to feel that your driving is smoother, faster, more repeatable and that there’s a ‘flow’ to large sequences of corners when you drive on the racing line.

As you become more advanced with performance driving, you’ll come to realize that the racing line isn’t quite just about minimizing distance travelled. Technically, if you were to absolutely minimize distance travelled, you’d be hugging the inside edge of the race track for the entire lap — trust me, this isn’t going to get you anywhere fast! It’s really a combination of things related to optimizing a singular resource, grip, across many actions that consume grip so that your lap time is minimized. The racing line impacts several factors that consume grip, such as steering input, breaking, and acceleration.

I would suggest that a slightly more advanced framework for determining the racing line has to do with (1) maximizing amount of time on throttle (ideally, wide-open-throttle) and (2) minimizing steering inputs. Ultimately, the stop watch is the final judge, so there’s always experimentation involved with finding the ideal racing line, even at the professional level. This is what keeps things exciting when revisiting the same track over and over again.

Understanding the traction circle

The traction circle is a racing concept that illustrates the absolute limit of grip available from a cars tires under certain conditions in a 2-dimensional plane. It’s typically measured in g-force with longitudinal and latitudinal axes.

The general idea is that tires only have so much grip before they start to slide. Things like breaking and accelerating will consume grip in the latitudinal axis and turning left and right will consume grip in the longitudinal axis. The combination of multiple inputs will have a result that is the sum of the inputs as vectors — remember high school physics? For example, a car that has 1 G of grip available in any direction can handle up to 1G of pure braking. But what happens if we call for 0.9 G of braking and 0.5G of turning to the right? The ol’ Pythagorean theorem can give us the answer:

Total grip required (G) = [0.9^2 + 0.5^2 ]^(1/2) = 1.03 G

So, we can see that while the car can handle either action in isolation, the combined action exceeds the level of grip available to the tires (outside of our traction circle). In the above example, the car will likely ‘push’ (understeer), where the car fails to turn despite steering input as well as having a longer braking distance.

Thus, understanding the traction circle means driving the car where you’re constantly balancing your acceleration, braking, and turning. This is why the common visualization tool of imagining a string tied between your right foot and your steering wheel works — you must share your grip between these inputs!

Does the limit of the traction circle ever change? Certainly it does — stickier tires are usually the easiest way to expand your car’s limit of grip. Additionally, better weather conditions (optimal temperatures for tires and track surface) can also increase your grip limit. Suspension components that better distribute load across all four tires can also have a sizeable impact on grip as well.

Managing weight transfer

For a beginner, weight transfer is a more advanced topic that usually manifests itself through in-car instruction where you’ll be asked to be smooth with your inputs. The gist of it is that the weight of the car is constantly shifting front-to-back and side-to-side based on your inputs. When this occurs, the level of grip available at tire will be different — generally speaking, a tire with more load will have more grip.

Here are a few common concepts related to weight transfer:

• Applying the brakes will load up the front of the car, giving more turning grip
• Applying throttle will load up the rear of the car, making it more planted
• Lifting off of the throttle will bring back more weight to the front of the car, giving more turning grip
• Letting a car reset to ‘neutral’ after a heavy left hander will allow the car to more easily make a right hander (imagine rapidly changing direction, the car will be slow to react)

As you can see, the name of the game is grip. The best drivers are the ones quickly recognize their available grip limit and orchestrates their inputs to make the most of what they have.

The Track Day: what to expect

The Track Day is finally here. Hopefully you got some decent sleep the night before!

A typical Track Day or HPDE is usually broken down as such:

• Arrive and final preparation on vehicles in the paddock
• Driver’s meeting
• Alternating classroom and on-track sessions
• Lunch break
• On-track sessions
• Track goes cold

Track sessions are typically broken into a few run groups, often with the cycle repeating on the hour. 

Depending on the organization, you may be paired with the same instructor for the entire day or you may receive a different instructor for each session. There are pros and cons to either setup — having the same instructor makes it easier to build upon previous sessions while having a new instructor exposes you to different insights.

By the afternoon sessions, you may be evaluated by your instructor for solo sign-off. Don’t worry if this doesn’t happen as some organizations may have policies that require one or many completed Track Days before solo is an option.

When you’re being evaluated for sign-off, your primary focus should be on consistency and awareness. Your instructor will be looking for a solid understanding of the racing line, marshal and flags awareness, and your ability to safely pass and be passed. Rarely does pace come into consideration.

As you progress through the day, it’s important to understand that you should not feel pressured to complete each on-track session. It’s tempting to think about ‘getting your money’s worth’ but you must listen to your body for physical and mental fatigue. It’s common for many experienced drivers to start packing up before the official end of the track day. Understand your physical limits and get advice from your instructor on how to self-evaluate appropriately.

Post-event: analyzing and reflecting on your experience

Personal reflection

It’s good practice to take some time to reflect on your first Track Day experience:

• Did you have fun?
• Did the experience meet your expectations?
• What preconceived notions were confirmed or refuted?
• Do you want to improve or are you happy to just ‘have fun’?

It’s common for a new driver to be ‘hooked’ after their first experience and immediately start thinking about ‘how do I go faster’. This often leads them down a rabbit hole of costly performance modifications to their vehicle. Ironically, the faster you upgrade your vehicle, the slower your pace of learning will be.

Adding more and more performance parts will mask your mistakes. For example, sticky 200 treadwear tires can have such high peak grip that they will completely mask your mistakes when it comes to managing the traction circle and weight transfer. You may not experience loss of traction at lower speeds, which is vital to build corrective inputs through muscle memory and sensory training. When you do lose traction with performance tires, it will be at higher speeds with a lower margin for error, such that you may not be experienced enough to recover safely.

Take it slow. Enjoy the process. Prioritize seat time over go-fast parts.

Reviewing on-track footage

I’m a huge advocate for recording your track days. I spend significantly more time reviewing footage after a Track Day than driving on the day of the event. With a recording, you’ll have the opportunity to:

• See your progress throughout the day
• Identify areas for improvement
• See the differences between what you think you’re doing and what you’re actually doing
• Get feedback from others and compare footage side-by-side

When setting up your camera, try to have your steering wheel in frame, so that you can see your inputs more clearly. This will make it easier to evaluate your turn-in points and steering motion.

Further reading

Looking for more content on performance driving? Check out Ross Bentley’s Ultimate Speed Secrets — regarded by many drivers as the bible for performance driving.

Wrap-up

Phew, this was a long one. Props to you if you read through this entire article! Hopefully you’re coming away feeling more confident about your first on-track experience.

If you only take away one thing from this article, let it be this:

Attend a proper HPDE with a strong reputation. Everything else will follow naturally.

See you at the track.