[Auto]Why your first post-lockdown drive should be a track day

[Revo]

 

 

There isn’t much good news around in these Covid-infested days, particularly from the beleaguered automotive sector, but there is one kind of business that has thrived since the lifting of total lockdown: track days.

It’s easy to see why. Even before the pandemic, people were increasingly turning to track days, for two reasons. First, modern performance cars are so fast that it’s increasingly hard to exercise them properly in public. And second, if you do attempt to drive fast on the road rather than track, you will at best incur the wrath of the locals, at worst risk anything from your licence to your liberty.

“The track day market isn’t just back to normal but exceeding what could normally be expected,” says Ben Taylor, boss of the British Automobile Racing Club, which lets tracks such as Thruxton, Pembrey and Croft to track day organisers. “Even our own track experiences, where you drive our cars on track rather than your own, are coming back strong. You have to take Covid seriously and be assiduous in all processes, like thoroughly sanitising every car for each new driver, but if you show that level of care and professionalism, customers are now far more likely to be put off by the prospect of bad weather than anything else.”

Indeed, driving a car around a track is one sport you can pursue while guarding very effectively against the risk of coronavirus transmission. You’re usually alone in the car, and even if you have a friend or instructor next to you, there are surely few face coverings more effective than a balaclava and full-face helmet with the visor down. This, combined with people catching up with track days they might otherwise have done during lockdown, likely accounts for most of their current po[CENSORED]rity.

There’s another factor at play here, too: at a time when the greatest restrictions have been placed on our movements since the war, the idea of cutting loose and driving a good car around a great track as fast as possible is a fantastically liberating thought. And so long as you and your car leave in the same number of pieces as you arrived, a track day will deliver on that promise in spades.

So what’s stopping you? For most, it’s a mixture of factors such as cost, thinking you have the wrong car and the fear of anything from not being fast enough to hurting your car or yourself in a crash. My aim here is to answer a few such questions for track day newbies and hopefully put minds at rest.

Perhaps the first thing to say is that you won’t struggle to find a venue: the track day market is so valuable to circuits that if there’s one near you, it’s guaranteed to either host its own or let its facilities to one of the many track day companies out there.
But never do a track day at a circuit just because it’s local. However you do them, track days aren’t cheap, so you might as well go somewhere that presents the best chance for you to enjoy yourself.

So you might want somewhere like Silverstone, with huge amounts of on-track space and run-off to reduce the chances of hitting something; a circuit steeped in history and still in its original form, like Goodwood; or one that combines elements of both, such as Brands Hatch or Donington Park. Speed fiends will find nowhere better than Thruxton, while if you want somewhere beautiful, technical and challenging, you’re spoiled for choice all the way from Anglesey past Oulton Park to Cadwell Park. If you couldn’t care less about scenery or history and just want to go fast in relative safety, Bedford Autodrome fits the bill very well.

There is, of course, an almost limitless choice of circuits in Europe, but we will come back to those another day. All I will say for now is that the most po[CENSORED]r for British punters are Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and the Nürburgring in Germany, for obvious reasons. All petrolheads should try to do a lap of the ’Ring at some stage in their lives but, as a venue for a novice, Spa is faster yet less intimidating and far more fun.

The next question is whether you and your car are up to it, and the answer is almost certainly yes. You don’t have to be Lando Norris and you don’t need to drive a McLaren to safely have fun. You and your car must be fit and safe enough to withstand a day’s hard use, of course, but remember that at least half the fun is driving flat out on a purpose-built facility, knowing there’s nothing coming the other way – and you get that in any car.
Even so, if your car is fundamentally pleasant to drive, nicely balanced and mechanically robust, you will definitely have a better time. But you can buy a Mazda MX-5 that ticks those boxes for a very modest sum, so you definitely shouldn’t consider your wheels any kind of bar to such enjoyment.

So what about you? Well, if you’ve got this far, you’re likely to be an enthusiast and therefore also likely to be more than good enough for some gentle lappery at your circuit of choice. That said, there are plenty of current Formula 1 stars who still employ driving coaches, so you’re never too good to learn. All the big track day companies should provide expert tuition from Association of Racing Driver Schools instructors, and half an hour with one of them at the start of a day will not only increase your levels of knowledge, skill and enjoyment but also improve the chances of you keeping your car pointing in the right direction.