I'm thinking about possibly renting a track for a weekend for a car club. It will be an HPDE event. I have a few question and concerns. Maybe someone can enlighten the unenlightened.

Which track is good for beginner and intermediate drivers? It should be somewhere in the east. Summit Point? CMP? Mid-Ohio? Watkins Glen? Lime Rock? Roebling Road?

Cost and number of attending drivers. How many drivers would be reasonable? What is the usual range? How much would the entire weekend cost?

Insurance costs? How does that work?

Ambulance attendance. How much?

Course workers and instructors. How do I go about attaining them?

Any other concerns I should address?

Thanks.

 

I have not had to deal with costs in a few years so I am not sure what they would be now. A really big problem at most tracks is finding an open weekend. Most are fully booked a year in advance with no open time left over. I know the only days the Glen has open all season are a few days before and after Nascar is there for setup and cleanup. Every other day is booked. Most groups that have already been there have "traditional" days they run.

I would say check with any tracks in the area you are thinking of. See who has open dates. Remember that some tracks have various configurations, which will have different costs. You may want to try and partner with some existing group to get your foot in the door. For a lot of beginners I find a shorter track is easier for them to remember where they are on track sooner. Many groups try to limit it to 20-25 cars per mile of track so a longer track will allow for more cars, but will require more instructors.

 

I appreciate your time.

 

The internet is not a good place to do your initial research. You need to spend some time at the track and on the phone talking with people who run these things already to get an idea of what's going on. Best thing to do is to start by partnering with one of the numerous organizations already on the east coast and try to fill your need there. I can tell you from first-hand experience that it can be challenging to cover your costs unless you have a big club backing you, or a lot of rich friends.

The safety and liability considerations are paramount. If you want to run a track event with more than just a handful of friends, you're going to have people there you don't know. Expect every possible bad thing happening and have a plan for it.

I guess a better question would be, why are you thinking of doing your own event rather than running as an entrant in other clubs? But I digress.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Wont be beat &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Which track is good for beginner and intermediate drivers?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Every track has its shortcomings, but any is good for beginner and intermediate. I would recommend Roebling as a good learning environment.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Cost and number of attending drivers. How many drivers would be reasonable? What is the usual range? How much would the entire weekend cost?
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Plan for $10-15k in total expenses for a weekend depending on the track. Much less for a weekday. 50-75 paying people for a weekend event at a 250-300 price would break even. If this is an HPDE as you mention, you need to attract and incent instructors. Not always easy.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Insurance costs? How does that work?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Fairly straight forward. Ask the track what and who they would recommend.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ambulance attendance. How much?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Again, included in the $10-15k total - ask the track for specifics.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Course workers and instructors. How do I go about attaining them?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Course workers - the track can usually provide. Instructors - lots of marketing, emails, and phone calls. Helps if you already know a lot of them and they know you and they trust you.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Any other concerns I should address?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, yeah. But I don't even know what they all are. I have helped organize HPDEs for 4 years now, but only the main dude in out club really has a handle on all the concerns. I can say this - any event has to focus totally on (1) safety and (2) customer satsfaction. Any other plan will be doomed.

Good luck.

Thanks.[/QUOTE]

 

email me and I will give you the number of a guy who has run at Pocono and might be interested in "teaming" up with another group.....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by whitney &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I guess a better question would be, why are you thinking of doing your own event rather than running as an entrant in other clubs?</TD></TR></TABLE>
Reason being that I'm an admin on a fairly new automotive and rapidly growing internet forum with the capacity for a thousand ACTIVE members within a year. Of those thousand, I think 10% may be up for it and will be willing to pay. Many current members are right on the edge of getting their foot in the door (as well as myself) and I'd would just like to help things along instead of just organizing the generic "Honda meet."

Any idea how far in advance most track will make you book?

Thanks for you time. I guess the internet is a pretty good place after all.

 

Our club has already pretty much booked dates for next year, Roebling, VIR, etc. I think you prediction of 10% participation based on an internet club of 1000 is way off. Figure closer to 1-2%. How many in the club are willing to travel to the track, for example.

Look at the tracks you listed...

Someone in Ohio might travel to Watkins Glenn, but they sure as heck are not likely to go to Roebling Rd.

Have you attended any HPDE's yourself? If not, I sure would do a few before organising one!

Look into smaller events at smaller tracks too, for example the Talledega GP track. I know lots of people that rent it for the day on a minimal budget. There is a catch though, you can't run more than a few cars at a time (that means no corner workers or ambulances to pay for).

Good luck in your quest, but always ask youself who pays if things don't work.

Scott

 

tracks out here on the west coast are booked WAAAY in advance - clubs like the porshe owners club, et al, all make arrangements for weekend events at least a year in advance. your best bet would be to aim for events during the week - as inconvenient as that may sound at first, you'll have much better luck booking time within the next six months to a year, plus it will be much, much cheaper.

a small local group that started hosting its own events out here, redlinetrackevents.com, has been hosting weekday events for almost two years, and will be hosting their first ever weekend event this coming december.

as far as insurance/ambulance/corner workers etc, the track your planning on using should be able to provide you with the necessary info.

and like someone mentioned, expect a lower turnout.

good luck.

 

Talk to Jon Felton from Richmond. He ran a events a few years ago under the Speedtrials USA (East) name. I'm sure he'll tell you it's a pain in the ****. I attended a few of his events and the first few were rough and the last few were quite good - proving once again that practice does make perfect.

 

Also IM Trey Commander. He has been putting on DE events for the past couple of years. He also did the logistics for Expo3.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by celica73 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> I think you prediction of 10% participation based on an internet club of 1000 is way off. Figure closer to 1-2%. How many in the club are willing to travel to the track, for example.</TD></TR></TABLE>
This isnt your average forum ie clubsi.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by celica73 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Have you attended any HPDE's yourself? If not, I sure would do a few before organising one!</TD></TR></TABLE>
I've attended but not actually drove. None the less, agreed.

 

A track day with your club where you don't have to worry about actually running the event might be more fun for them (since you could simply attend another group's well-organized event) and you (since you can hang out with your members, chat, etc.) Running a track day will be a full-time job the day of, and you won't have much time to talk or spend time with anyone on a one-on-one basis.

You can make the event more special for your group by bringing some EZ-Ups, ice chests and chairs and making a "meet" of it. You get your little area in the paddock, maybe do a pre-event prep day together, and go out to dinner after the event. It's almost like your private event, but better because none of you will have to be concerned about all the organizational details for the day.

Just something to think about.

-Adam

 

As much as I like the idea of having an accord only track day, we would probably be much better off bumming a ride with one of the already formed groups. NASAva, NASAse, porche club, turn1, chin motorsports, tarheel sports car club. We should see about getting a group discount for xx number of cars.

 

I've been the president of our local Solo 1 club for three years now in Quebec and I'm the one in charge of track rental, insurance and ambulances. We are lucky enough to have a couple of small local tracks we can rent for 1500$CAD + tax. Once we give a little money to the volunteer corner workes and pay for lunch and insurance, our break even point is about 35 drivers at 80$ per person (we've run HPDE at the same cost). You'd be surprised how difficult it is to get even 35 members to come out, even though we're the only Solo 1 club in a privince of 6 million people, in a city of 3 million. It's tough. If it rains, you lose money, it's as simple as that.

Our club wanted to run bigger tracks, but could not afford the rentals. We therefore negotiated a special rate for our members (10-20% discount) with Ontario Solo at Shannonville and with EMRA at Watkins Glen. EMRA does not put a cap on entries at some of their events and even if they do, you can often "reserve" 15-20 spots for your club members. We brought EMRA 15 people this fall and they really seemed to appreciate it. Meanwhile, we had no financial risk (and no profit either) for our small club but got to run a legendary track. This is definitely the way to go for your first events. Check with EMRA about tacking your event onto one of theirs, which is well-organized and friendly.

 

I'm good friends w/ Trey and talked to him when we were at TGP, and he always had an Ambulance there when we were on track, and we didn't have that many people. I've participated in a few HPDEs myself, car problems have kept me from doing any this year though , anyways, I am going to be helping WBB try and setup this event, we aren't looking at doing this for profit or anything, we just want to try and do something just for our friends, who are interested in getting on track, but some don't want to deal w/ scca, pca, nasa, etc for various reasons.

 

I say at first tag onto a NASA event like MachV did at Summit, or the ITR boys do every weekend

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Wont be beat &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Reason being that I'm an admin on a fairly new automotive and rapidly growing internet forum with the capacity for a thousand ACTIVE members within a year. Of those thousand, I think 10% may be up for it and will be willing to pay. Many current members are right on the edge of getting their foot in the door (as well as myself) and I'd would just like to help things along instead of just organizing the generic "Honda meet." </TD></TR></TABLE>
Not really what you asked, but a low cost alternative (to help judge what kind of participation, etc) could be organizing a day at a kart track. Especially if it's a bunch of people looking to get their foot in the door.

 

Thanks everyone for your insights!