martinc

I signed up for a PCA track day at Laguna Seca. I was bummed to find the email in my spam that was letting me know that I was wait-listed. The only track days that I've done have been with the Diablo PCA. That's essentially why I joined. I'm anxious to get the GT4 on the track. I'm looking for an alternative to PCA to get on Laguna, Thunder Hill, or perhaps Sanoma.
I'd prefer to run with a group that leans in on safety.

Thanks

Martin

sharkster

Martin have you tried getting in with hooked on driving, speed district (although further south) and guys like that?

Mech33

There was just a Diablo PCA event at Laguna Seca yesterday. It was a fantastic day.

If it's one of your first times tracking, I recommend signing up with PCA, HOD, Audi Club, or BMW Club (they all have great coaching, so I hear).

orthojoe

Start with HOD and branch out from there.
I run with HOD, TMR, speedSF, and PCA
Run away from NASA
Be very wary of NCRC and DO NOT run in their novice group

laranja

GG Lotus Club is good too.

Leuz

I ran a couple of times with HOD in my GT4, and once with Trackmasters in my previous car. HOD is a better experience by far and their coaches are pretty awesome.

sharkster

Bummer to hear that as back in the mid 2000s they were safe & fun. Heard this from more than a couple of folks in the past few months too

orthojoe

I used to run with them (Ncrc) back in 2010-11. Went downhill as the sport got to be more popular.

Any group is at risk for a moron showing up, and I've seen it happen with every group I run with multiple times. The ratio of morons is much higher with ncrc. Be wary of a tmr day that precedes a NASA weekend. Last time I did that, hoods and exhausts were flying off of 'race cars' down the straights

orthojoe

I saw another great example of the Dunning Krueger effect recently. There was a 'pro' racer that was running 10-15 seconds slower in pace than the entire group that was blocking everyone from passing. He managed to **** off the ENTIRE run group. When confronted his response was (and I'm NOT kidding),

"I'm faster than all of you in the corners and you need to EARN your way around me." - this is a NASA mentality, BTW.

After the initial shock, F-bombs started to fly, stare downs, and insults proceeded. It was quite a scene. LOL. Turns out he was a mechanic on a USTCC race team that got conned into buying into the race car by allowing him to 'race' in the series with no prior experience or training. The series he 'raced' in had 2-3 competitors, so he made the podium almost every single time and got a big head. He was demoted to the novice group. LOL.

Unreal. Dunning Kreuger.

martinc

I've driven Laguna Seca a couple of times with PCA in previous 911's. I really like that track. I got wait-listed for the recent event...
Thanks for the heads up on NASA and NCRC
What is TMR?
Just to confirm, can a GT4 run in the BMW, Lotus groups? The club names imply that they stick with a brand.


I'm glad to hear good things about HOD, they seem to have a lot of events going on.
Getting anxious to open this car up a bit.

gvtesse

http://trackmasters-racing.com

arter

Tryh the GGR PCA group.
Also look at motorsportreg.com site. It has lots of track dates across many track groups.


lotus, audi, & BMW clubs usually allow other car makes in their events.

bk_911

Definitely hooked on driving. They run low pressure events and stress structure and proper driving. The coaches in the A group are great for a first timer / novice. They build your comfort very quickly. As an added bonus if they see you are doing a good job usually they'll have you promoted to solo or B group almost right away.

Almost all the people i've met at HOD norcal events are approachable and up for a friendly chat.

Lastly the crowd tends to skew toward people who have well cared for cars, and want to drive home what they brought.

Yargk

I've done an NCRC day or two in the last year and had good experiences in the advanced group. A handful of track days a year is a very small sample to draw conclusions from. Although, we all do this just for fun, so I understand caution at the first signs of trouble. Dave Mills, who runs the club, seems like very consciousness and smart guy and from what I can tell is very proactive with regard to mitigating any issues. I had an interesting conversation with him in which I learned that they try only to do Laguna and 3 mile Thunderhill because they are aware that they get a variety of cars and so they want to have lots of passing zones.

My warning would be about ongrid. A lot of drivers in their open group were putting wheels off and kicking up gravel, without it appearing like they were saving any time out of the silliness. Also, I spoke with the organizers because their website's open group description of "race-like" conditions raised my eyebrow. They couldn't seem to understand that anything could be wrong with that and conveyed a very "bro" attitude. (While I understand the notion that drivers in that group need to be aware, I don't think they should say anything that even hints about competition in an HPDE unless everyone has HANS/full SCCA approved cage/yada yada yada, I hear 'real' racing is a very different thing than HPDE and I'm thankful for that. I'll I've done is LeMons and that was enough for me.)