Recommended track days (with an instructor)

[georgeassface]

Greetings all,

I was hoping to draw on some of your experience when it comes to track days.

Im based in the North East (Northumberland) and have been looking to attend a track day for some time but havent got around to booking anything. As I havent been on one before id ideally like one with an instructor where you dont have to use your own car.

I dont mind travelling to a circuit as long as the instructor is good and its not over priced. Im flexible when it comes to dates however weekends would be best. Is anyone able to reccommend any good instruction track day for a beginner?

Thanks in advance.

[PATTERNPART]

Don't worry too much about using your own car. You will be the one deciding how fast to push it. Instruction is a must though and it shouldn't bee too difficult to book some (this is what racing drivers do to make ends meet). The MSV events let you book an instructor in advance for an extra £25/£30 and they will at least give you an idea of lines and stop you doing anything silly in the first instance. Good luck. I wonder if Croft is your nearest circuit. It is supposed to be great.

[BenElliottRacing]

I could help with that.

We could do a day at croft in a car rented from www.track-club.com which I could bring up with me.

take a look at this thread for more:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[ginettajoe]

George, I have sent you a PM. If I can help in anyway, I will, Howard

[ol]

Hi George,

I don't know if it will be of use to you, but there's a track day happening at Croft (near Darlington) THIS Sunday (19th October). It's with an instructor and you use their Civic Type-R's so you would be getting instruction in their cars. I booked it through www.imaginedoingthis.com and the instructor is Graeme Glew (heard good things about him).

Feel free to PM me about it if it's of interest.

Whereabouts in Northumberland do you live?

I'm from near Hexham - you should have a look in the North East forums, there are sometimes topics about other local track action and meets etc.

Hope this helps!

[georgeassface]

Thanks to all of you for your replies.

Croft is my nearest track and will attend one of the days there. By all accounts it should be excellent.

I shall let you all know which date and track day Im going to attend and will post when I return.

thanks to all P H ers!

[georgeassface]

Thanks for all the replies.....

Just thought id update ther post, ive booked on to do a trackday tomorrow at croft! I cant wait! I checked the web and alot of people seemed to be impressed with croft, ive booked through www.imaginedoingthis.com.(it may be the same day as ol is going so I may see you there!) I looked and the day looks amazing! (check the link for more info) we get instruction with Graeme Glew (which will be invaluable to me as a novice!) who is a legend and then we get some solo time in the civic type-r's!

I am expecting great things and will update you all upon my return...

[ol]

If it's at Croft tomorrow then it's the same one i'm booked on!

Come and say hello, it's always good to meet fellow track day enthusiasts! I'll be there from 11am ish.

[speedypork]

How did it go at croft ?

[georgeassface]

speedypork said:

How did it go at croft ?

Hi all,

Apologies for the delay in posting my review however ive been in bed for the last week with flu.... However on a brighter note the track day at croft was bl**dy fantastic!

As id never been on a track day before I wanted tuition so I had a look around and the best value (for what you get) seemed to be through www.imaginedoingthis.com (the same site I presume as Ol although I didnt meet up with him unfortunately). The cost was £248 for the day which is really good value as that covered all 3 sessions,(which I totally ragged the car in!) 1 on 1 tuition, helmet, car and insurance so if I wrecked the brand new civic type-r, it would all have been covered! However there were no hiccoughs im pleased to report. We got a de-breifing at the end of the day and a touch which I really rated, a personalised report (emailed to me) on my performance throughout the day and tips and pointers on what to focus on to improve!

The civic tye-r was amazing to drive. It handled superbly and took all the abuse I could throw at it with out incident (the astonishing levels of grip are supposedly largely due to the vredestein tyres being used, I even got given a free vredestein baseball cap!) Anyway I did about 30-35 laps throughout the day (truth be told I could have stayed longer but was starting to tire by the end of the day as it requires alot of concerntration so it realistically was enough time on track.) To begin with people were passing me (I have to say dissappointingly) often but by the end of the first session I was holding my own and by half way through the second session I was passing people! I have to say that this is largely due to the instructor Graeme Glew, who I was told is one of the best in the country (one of the other instructors was chatting with me), apparently he takes s**t racing drivers and helps them get onto the podium with quite alot of success. Anyway he was a proper sound guy who got me up to speed really quickly, he was really patient and knew exactly what to do/say to help with my lines, braking and turning points etc (actually I was Surprised to be told not to follow a few of the other racers lines which looked to my novice eyes to be the right lines when in fact they were totally wrong!)
I couldnt get enough and so have decided to book on to two more track days one at cadwell park (meant to be a good track and also where Graeme Glew ran the racing school so should get some good pointers!) and also at snetterton, so hopefully ill see some of you guys (and gals) there?

Anyway the whole experience was amazing and I loved it! Never mind the flu, ive got the track bug!

Be safe.

[Paul.B]

Speak to Mike at http://www.drivertuition.com/

He'll sort you out and you'll have an absolute wail of a time.

Paul.B

[glewstick]

Jonny from Bookatrack mentioned to me that there had been some positive feedback on Pistonheads about imaginedoingthis. I am Graeme Glew and i'm the one who has been teaching George and Ol amongst thousands of others over the years. My reason for posting this message is to let everyone know I am at Oulton Park on Friday if anyone wants to have a chat or some advice. I only have a couple of drivers so if anyone would like some one to one tuition I probably have the time. I can offer a special rate to pistonhead users!! Thanks for the good write up George looking forward to seeing you at Cadwell on the 8th, where I can show you a few tricks - I ran the racing school there for ten years!