Rules on trackdays from around the world

Malcolm

Supporter
On this thread I would be interested to hear what rules the track day orgainisers from around the world give out at drivers briefings. Are they club specific or track specific? This is not about test days or racing. This is about days when Joe Bloggs can pitch up in his car of almost any description, pay the track day organiser his fee and then go play.


In the UK...

The amount of cars on track is circuit specific. Goodwood either run 10 or 5 cars at a time for 5 laps depending on the days noise limits. Only when numbers get very low do you tend to find it becoming longer periods on track.

Other major circuits such as Donington, Silverstone and Brands Hatch have more cars on track. Donnington and Silverstone allow roughly 30-35 cars on circuit at any one time. At Brands if you are on the Indy circuit ie 1.2 miles the numbers are limited to 25 cars. Often these circuits use sessions of 1/2 hour on and 1/2 hour off. Evening track events are often open pit lane and overall car numbers are lower.

On overtaking in the UK the most common form is on the left only, only with the co-operation of the car being overtaken, not under braking into corners and not in a corner. Only a very small number of clubs have differing rules to this that I am aware of such as RMA (no rules at all!).

Noise limits are a constant issue. Generally on a noisy day if your car can pass a static 105 Db test at 3/4 rpm at 1m in a static test you should be fine. The quiet days run to 98 Db. At Silverstone there is generally no noise testing. Donnington has drive by meters set I think at 96 Db. Goodwood also has drive by meters but I can't remember what levels they are set to

My experience tells me that V8s have trouble with static testing but tend to be ok on drive by whilst 4 pot engines pass the static easily but can fail the drive by more regularly.

On my overseas track days, the Nurburgring has no rules that I recall and seems to be survival of the fittest! Very dangerous but fun place to drive.

In the USA at VIR there were no noise limits, only 6 cars on track at once and overtaking was not allowed in corners. Either side was however ok. I don't know if that was standard for all US track days or not.

What happens in your country? Or if you think I have missed out any UK rules please add.
 
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Ron Earp

Admin
In the US thing are somewhat similar. <o:p></o:p>
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Your experience at VIR was extremely unique and you have the pleasure of experiencing the smallest “track day” run at VIR besides a single team test day. You had a private rental setup with 18 cars max for the day due to workers and separated into in three run groups. A good way to work on your lines!<o:p></o:p>
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With SCCA races and Performance Driving events the rule book says 25 cars per mile. However, this gets altered from time to time for races. The course is 3.27 miles when run in the configuration we used (4.2 is possible) but there were more than 81 cars for some of the events.<o:p></o:p>
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Other sanctioning bodies have different car per mile allowances therefore it is hard to predict what will be allowed. <o:p></o:p>
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Track days are a somewhat mixed bag and I would imagine that others have more experience here than I do. But with the ones I’ve attended, BMW and Porsche Clubs, they generally divide the drivers into four groups such as A, B, C, D based on experience. For a BMW club the D group would be new or inexperienced and will have an instructor riding with them 100% of the weekend. A groups would be signed off to lap at will and can pass on point bys by the other driver. The point bys are supposed to be in designated pass areas of the track that are discussed in the driver’s meeting.<o:p></o:p>
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It’d be difficult to make a general statement about all track days but most are going to work somewhat similar to what I’ve briefly written above.<o:p></o:p>
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All the tracks local to me; VIR, Roebling, CMP, Lowe’s, and Rockingham have sound checks most of the time. The limits are typically quite a bit higher than what you have in the UK or don’t exist – the VIR 13 Hour has under the “Sound” rules – no race engines after 11pm on Friday and Saturday. Sound is typically checked on normal SCCA weekends and most folks know where the sound box is to point pipes away from it during the race (VIR on left side, Roebling on left side, CMP on left side, etc.).<o:p></o:p>
 
On a related matter, what is the liability environment for track days outside the U.S. ? I'm disturbed by a recent lawsuit in California involving 2 drivers, the track, the organizers, and a car manufacturer. An out of court settlement had all these parties paying a total of $4.5Million. Yes there was various blame to go around, but driving in a track day is a dangerous activity and you acknowledge such when you sign a waiver. Apparently waivers in the U.S. are worthless. Have any of you drivers thought about your exposure with no insurance coverage? I always felt safe from lawsuits while racing in SCCA and IMSA, but track days are now a whole different ball game.
 
Most legal beagles in the US will tell you that you can't sign away liability. If someone gets hurt you better be prepared because your litigious friends will be waiting for you!
 

Ron Earp

Admin
The stuff Dave mentions has me worried a bit about driver ed or track days.

If we don't have track days then racing participation will drop off as most of the racers come from this pool of drivers when they are ready to take it up a step. If the track days by various organizations become scarce, or neutered (some are already in danger of having too many rules) then there will be fewer folks participating in the fun of driving on track. And fewer of them interested in racing as they progress. Not good.

I'd also hate to see a large scale move to "Track Clubs" that only allow members of a club affiliated with the track to drive. I don't think we're anywhere close to this happening yet, but we are seeing many tracks adopting the VIR Country Club model with various degrees of success. Is there coming a day where you must be a member of the track country club to drive on track? I don't think that will happen any time soon but it has crossed my mind.

Sorry to get off topic.

As far as rules I don't think they are vastly different from country to country. I drove a track day with Malcolm at Donnington and felt pretty much at home, except all that rotten rain! The organizers will certainly set the flavor of the day. If it is well run, things kept tight, then you'll get a lot of track time with a good flow. Poor organizers can ruin the experience off track, as well as on track if they don't take care of driver issues.
 

Malcolm

Supporter
The insurance thing is here in UK too. A biker on a track day split into ability based sessions became a paraplegic when he came across a slower bike unexpectedly and went head first into a barrier. After that incident track days really became difficult to organise as organisers could not get third party cover for a while. No insurance company was offering it. Then the track owners grouped together and worked on it and got cover again. Now track day organisers have to include a premium for the third party insurance cover. As a driver you can buy individual insurance on a day by day basis here. It also covers crash damage in certain circumstances but not wear and tear or engine or box damage. And the excess is quite high! My road insurance for the 40 gives me some cover on track but if push comes to shove, I bet it is not totally sufficient! You hear of guys taking their wrecked cars from track days and trying to make out it was a road accident. Insurers are wise to this and do check with track day organisers if cars were present at a track day now.

As to liability, I think there was a recent case here where two cars collided. The guy who felt aggreived lost his case because by going on a track day you acknowledge that it is a dangerous activity and there is a possibility that some dipstick will hit you. Don't be surprised when it happens. No personal injury involved in this one as far as I am aware.

As far as I am aware, if there is no negligence involved, proper precautions, warnings and briefings have taken place and the drivers are conforming to the rules, in the UK I would not expect an action to succeed.

Gold Track have to report hourly all day to their insurers certifying that all the requirements of their insurance package are being conformed to. They take it very seriously indeed. As they should.
 
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