£50 charge for damaging grass?

[CarsOrBikes]

I expect these costs are easily covered by track hire fees, it's like many other businesses adding additional charges, it's like a forced upsell.

If a driver is being an idiot repeatedly and goes off wrecking stuff despite warnings perhaps it would be fair, but grass? Pathetic.

I'd be just using another track. If Mallory is struggling financially, perhaps come up with ideas that support the business rather than destroy it, but it could just be the organiser capitalising in this way.

Perhaps the tracks would do better organising cheaper track days directly anyway, rather than the current TDO's raking it in, it's a business that's getting bigger so it's daft to ignore the potential.

[Wh00sher]

Order66 said:

Yes and no. The whole point in track days is to push the performance of your car. There is inherent risk in this. If you have to dial it back to the point you drive with the same safety margin you do on public roads then there really is little point.

You don't need to dial it back to road levels and stay on the tarmac.

If people driving so much beyond their capabilities that they could venture onto the grass at any moment, I suggest they need to back off a bit or change their driving style.

When it's been raining and the circuit dries out, people know the grass is wet and slippery and stay off it. It's not that people can't stay off the grass, just that they don't get penalised if they don't.

I've been on the grass on very few occasions and if I know there is a penalty for doing so I try even harder to keep off it entirely.
Of course there will be the odd issue that means going on the grass is unavoidable, but I suspect that isn't what this is aimed at.

[sunbeam alpine]

Blimey - on that basis I would owe Zolder a small fortune!

On the plus side, a couple more trips into the gravel trap and my drive will be finished!

[davebem]

Essential track day kit:

[MOTK]

maybe I should switch out of the M and take one of these bad boys?

[88racing]

Would circuits really have the cheek to charge £50 to track day drivers for minor excursions - then host truck racing the next day? No need to answer that...

[4.7]

If the bill for hosting a trackday was the same as the bill for hosting a race meeting then probably not.
If someone came off the road and crashed into my wall I wouldn't be ok with them loading up the car and clearing off without paying for my wall.
Trackdays were supposed to be for us to experience what is like to drive on a race track. Nothing more. We have evolved it into a different expectation. Who should pay for our mistakes?

[davebem]

4.7 said:

If the bill for hosting a trackday was the same as the bill for hosting a race meeting then probably not.
If someone came off the road and crashed into my wall I wouldn't be ok with them loading up the car and clearing off without paying for my wall.
Trackdays were supposed to be for us to experience what is like to drive on a race track. Nothing more. We have evolved it into a different expectation. Who should pay for our mistakes?

But if I was inviting people around my private road to drive as quickly as possible and explore limits of car in a track environment, Id expect and accept the odd sliding on grass and bouncing off a tyre wall?

Edited by davebem on Sunday 18th February 14:52

[Order66]

4.7 said:

If someone came off the road and crashed into my wall I wouldn't be ok with them loading up the car and clearing off without paying for my wall.

They have paid for the wall - they paid in advance in the fee they gave you to use the track. If the tracks weren't making money due to all the bent barriers I could understand - but this is patently not the case. This is greed/profiteering.

[4.7]

We pay to 'use' the facility. It doesn't cover damaging it. I don't want to pay extra to cover other people losing it, but if I screw up then it's no fault but my own. Drawing the line in the right place is the tricky bit.... Oh, and no doubt getting the money!