What Are Focused Events Like?
Discussion
On the cusp of booking a Car Trackday with them.
They seem to have a less than generous refund policy? > if you have to cancel with less than 10 days notice (a consideration if you run an open top and say on the Sunday before a Wednesday, you find out that it's going to be a fortnight's monsoon), you lose the lot? Whereas with such as Gold Track, they charge you a £50 admin fee if they can get someone to replace you, (which they usually can) only giving you no refund if they can't fill the space, which seems fair enough.
FE also appear to charge you a heavy premium if you turn up on the day and they happen to have a space available? So if someone has to pull the plug at the last minute on a £200 Trackday and someone turns up on the day and then pays a premium price for it, they've made an extra £300 or so? Why a premium at all and particularly one so massive? I must admit I can't understand why they would want to risk losing the revenue from filling a space by requiring someone to pay through the nose for it.
Also, unlike such as Bookatrack & Circuit Days, there's no way of seeing who/what else is doing the day? I find that useful.
So less than impressed with their T&Cs as I read them, but there are often swings & roundabouts - so that said, do they do a good trackday at places like Brands, Oulton & Cadwell?
Would appreciate your feed back as a previous/existing Customer of theirs.
Thanks
They seem to have a less than generous refund policy? > if you have to cancel with less than 10 days notice (a consideration if you run an open top and say on the Sunday before a Wednesday, you find out that it's going to be a fortnight's monsoon), you lose the lot? Whereas with such as Gold Track, they charge you a £50 admin fee if they can get someone to replace you, (which they usually can) only giving you no refund if they can't fill the space, which seems fair enough.
FE also appear to charge you a heavy premium if you turn up on the day and they happen to have a space available? So if someone has to pull the plug at the last minute on a £200 Trackday and someone turns up on the day and then pays a premium price for it, they've made an extra £300 or so? Why a premium at all and particularly one so massive? I must admit I can't understand why they would want to risk losing the revenue from filling a space by requiring someone to pay through the nose for it.
Also, unlike such as Bookatrack & Circuit Days, there's no way of seeing who/what else is doing the day? I find that useful.
So less than impressed with their T&Cs as I read them, but there are often swings & roundabouts - so that said, do they do a good trackday at places like Brands, Oulton & Cadwell?
Would appreciate your feed back as a previous/existing Customer of theirs.
Thanks
did one with them at Brands. was well run, was supposed to be sessioned but due to a few empty spaces was run as open pit. driver briefing was fine, their folks were on hand to talk to and the evening was a success as far as i could tell. that said when i booked over the phone i decided to check and check again as the person i was talking to didnt fill me with confidence that i was actually booking the event that i wanted! dont know of anyone that has used them and had probs with T/C's.
They started as a bike t/day company and have only recently moved into the car t/day space, so they may not compare on the same terms as existing car based TDOs. I've done over 40 bike t/days with them and never had a problem. The proprieter, Kevin Healey, can be a bit self-important at times, but he generally delegates the running to others these days!
What are they charging now? I went along to watch one at Oulton and they were charging about £140. It looked like there were a lot more cars on than I normally see at trackdays with the result that there was lots of queuing to get on track. There were also a lot of red flag stoppages which again I think was the result of lots more cars and therefore a higher chance of someone having an off.
boxsey said:
What are they charging now? I went along to watch one at Oulton and they were charging about £140. It looked like there were a lot more cars on than I normally see at trackdays with the result that there was lots of queuing to get on track. There were also a lot of red flag stoppages which again I think was the result of lots more cars and therefore a higher chance of someone having an off.
The track was no busier than normal on the days I have done, with the exception of a Practical Performance Car day when there was a lot of (I'll be diplomatic here) "mechanically challenged" cars on track. In hindsight it wasn't the wisest one to book but then again it was only £99 which is good for Oulton full circuit. Plus by 2:30pm many cars had either died or gone home.I've never had to queue other than after restarts following offs and generally the amount of off's has been on a par with other company's days. I did do one day in December last year where someone was going off at Druids every 30 mins but it was icy early on that day and to be fair to the organiser, they told everyone time and again that Druids was especially slippery. Not sure if that one was Focussed Events actually, it may have been MSV. In any case it was fun on slicks
Edited by benny.c on Thursday 16th July 12:50
Thanks Guys
So it seems that for the most part that they provide a good Trackday. That's great news.
That said, one or two things that have been said coincide with things that concerned me from my initial conversation with them >
When I called them, as I was apparently asking some pretty detailed questions, I was passed on to a very pleasant chap, one assumes someone with more in depth knowledge >
I mentioned that a couple of us with Radicals were thinking about booking; he asked me what a Radical was, which I found shall we say a surprising question for anyone involved in running Car Trackdays.
I asked him how big the garages were at Oulton (to check whether or not a couple of Radicals could share mainly in case of rain); he didn't know and gave me MSV Oulton's telephone number to call to find out; there aren't that many tracks in the UK and if I was a TDO, I think I'd expect/make sure my staff were able to answer basic Customer questions like that immediately, by having the information to hand.
Then came the two questions (see Boxsey's post), the answers to which rather amazed me >
I asked how many entries they take/accept for an open pit lane at Oulton; he said he couldn't reveal that as this was confidential company information(!)
I asked how many cars they allowed out on track at any one time on an open pit at Oulton; again, he said he couldn't reveal that as this was confidential company information(!)
I found this extraordinary; to think a hopefully ridiculous scenario, 250 entries, 100 of which are allowed out on track at any one time? And let's not forget, this is open pit lane rather than sessions with the chance of more variability of car performance and/or driver experience on track at any one time.
He did say that the track owners themselves (obviously not just at Oulton) do have H&S type limits on numbers (I guess in terms of the maximum allowed out on track at any one time), but he didn't choose to reveal what those are. For sure, TDOs like Gold Track, Bookatrack and RMA do have total number and out on track restrictions (to make sure their Customers get the quality of trackday they've paid for), I suspect they may well be lower than the track owners themselves would allow as a maximum and I am confident that they would reveal them if requested, which I now do; Melindi, Jonny & Robin, your figures (for Oulton at least) would be appreciated and you might at the same time wish to take the opportunity to confirm your Refunds Policy? I would also appreciate if FE could clarify their refund and turn up on the day policy because I do struggle to find this on their website.
To answer Boxsey's question, this is way more than an £140 day; Basic car plus driver cost is £225 (it's a Saturday), additional drivers are £25 and a garage is £25. Given the vagaries of the British climate, for a (slowish) guy like me who does Trackdays with his (faster) son in a (fastish) Open Topper, that means £275, so by no means a bargain/cheap Trackday.
So it seems that for the most part that they provide a good Trackday. That's great news.
That said, one or two things that have been said coincide with things that concerned me from my initial conversation with them >
When I called them, as I was apparently asking some pretty detailed questions, I was passed on to a very pleasant chap, one assumes someone with more in depth knowledge >
I mentioned that a couple of us with Radicals were thinking about booking; he asked me what a Radical was, which I found shall we say a surprising question for anyone involved in running Car Trackdays.
I asked him how big the garages were at Oulton (to check whether or not a couple of Radicals could share mainly in case of rain); he didn't know and gave me MSV Oulton's telephone number to call to find out; there aren't that many tracks in the UK and if I was a TDO, I think I'd expect/make sure my staff were able to answer basic Customer questions like that immediately, by having the information to hand.
Then came the two questions (see Boxsey's post), the answers to which rather amazed me >
I asked how many entries they take/accept for an open pit lane at Oulton; he said he couldn't reveal that as this was confidential company information(!)
I asked how many cars they allowed out on track at any one time on an open pit at Oulton; again, he said he couldn't reveal that as this was confidential company information(!)
I found this extraordinary; to think a hopefully ridiculous scenario, 250 entries, 100 of which are allowed out on track at any one time? And let's not forget, this is open pit lane rather than sessions with the chance of more variability of car performance and/or driver experience on track at any one time.
He did say that the track owners themselves (obviously not just at Oulton) do have H&S type limits on numbers (I guess in terms of the maximum allowed out on track at any one time), but he didn't choose to reveal what those are. For sure, TDOs like Gold Track, Bookatrack and RMA do have total number and out on track restrictions (to make sure their Customers get the quality of trackday they've paid for), I suspect they may well be lower than the track owners themselves would allow as a maximum and I am confident that they would reveal them if requested, which I now do; Melindi, Jonny & Robin, your figures (for Oulton at least) would be appreciated and you might at the same time wish to take the opportunity to confirm your Refunds Policy? I would also appreciate if FE could clarify their refund and turn up on the day policy because I do struggle to find this on their website.
To answer Boxsey's question, this is way more than an £140 day; Basic car plus driver cost is £225 (it's a Saturday), additional drivers are £25 and a garage is £25. Given the vagaries of the British climate, for a (slowish) guy like me who does Trackdays with his (faster) son in a (fastish) Open Topper, that means £275, so by no means a bargain/cheap Trackday.
Did Oulton Park a couple of months back, no problems that I remember other than the noise tester (who may have been an Oulton Park employee) think my car was a GT3 and told me to rev it to 6K...
Hasn't stopped me booking again for August 1st though..
Didn't realise you were looking at the same date with your goKart,..terrible company best avoided!
Hasn't stopped me booking again for August 1st though..Didn't realise you were looking at the same date with your goKart,..terrible company best avoided!
Edited by PHOENIXUK on Thursday 16th July 13:00
PHOENIXUK said:
Did Oulton Park a couple of months back, no problems that I remember other than the noise tester (who may have been an Oulton Park employee) think my car was a GT3 and told me to rev it to 6K... Hasn't stopped me booking again for August 1st though..
Didn't realise you were looking at the same date with your goKart,..terrible company best avoided!
As it looks that you'll have at least 350bhp extra at the rear wheels than us Radical blokes, you'll just waltz away .............. won't you .............. Hasn't stopped me booking again for August 1st though..Didn't realise you were looking at the same date with your goKart,..terrible company best avoided!
Edited by PHOENIXUK on Thursday 16th July 13:00
splitpin said:
Thanks Guys
So it seems that for the most part that they provide a good Trackday. That's great news.
That said, one or two things that have been said coincide with things that concerned me from my initial conversation with them >
When I called them, as I was apparently asking some pretty detailed questions, I was passed on to a very pleasant chap, one assumes someone with more in depth knowledge >
I mentioned that a couple of us with Radicals were thinking about booking; he asked me what a Radical was, which I found shall we say a surprising question for anyone involved in running Car Trackdays.
I asked him how big the garages were at Oulton (to check whether or not a couple of Radicals could share mainly in case of rain); he didn't know and gave me MSV Oulton's telephone number to call to find out; there aren't that many tracks in the UK and if I was a TDO, I think I'd expect/make sure my staff were able to answer basic Customer questions like that immediately, by having the information to hand.
Then came the two questions (see Boxsey's post), the answers to which rather amazed me >
I asked how many entries they take/accept for an open pit lane at Oulton; he said he couldn't reveal that as this was confidential company information(!)
I asked how many cars they allowed out on track at any one time on an open pit at Oulton; again, he said he couldn't reveal that as this was confidential company information(!)
I found this extraordinary; to think a hopefully ridiculous scenario, 250 entries, 100 of which are allowed out on track at any one time? And let's not forget, this is open pit lane rather than sessions with the chance of more variability of car performance and/or driver experience on track at any one time.
He did say that the track owners themselves (obviously not just at Oulton) do have H&S type limits on numbers (I guess in terms of the maximum allowed out on track at any one time), but he didn't choose to reveal what those are. For sure, TDOs like Gold Track, Bookatrack and RMA do have total number and out on track restrictions (to make sure their Customers get the quality of trackday they've paid for), I suspect they may well be lower than the track owners themselves would allow as a maximum and I am confident that they would reveal them if requested, which I now do; Melindi, Jonny & Robin, your figures (for Oulton at least) would be appreciated and you might at the same time wish to take the opportunity to confirm your Refunds Policy? I would also appreciate if FE could clarify their refund and turn up on the day policy because I do struggle to find this on their website.
To answer Boxsey's question, this is way more than an £140 day; Basic car plus driver cost is £225 (it's a Saturday), additional drivers are £25 and a garage is £25. Given the vagaries of the British climate, for a (slowish) guy like me who does Trackdays with his (faster) son in a (fastish) Open Topper, that means £275, so by no means a bargain/cheap Trackday.
To be honest, if you're taking a radical, I'd probably suggest you go with a more established company like GT, BAT, RMA, etc, as not even knowing what a Radical is sets a tone in my opinion. As for not divulging how many people will be allowed out on track at any one time - do they want your money or not. Given the questions/answers above, personally, I'd go with another TDO....So it seems that for the most part that they provide a good Trackday. That's great news.
That said, one or two things that have been said coincide with things that concerned me from my initial conversation with them >
When I called them, as I was apparently asking some pretty detailed questions, I was passed on to a very pleasant chap, one assumes someone with more in depth knowledge >
I mentioned that a couple of us with Radicals were thinking about booking; he asked me what a Radical was, which I found shall we say a surprising question for anyone involved in running Car Trackdays.
I asked him how big the garages were at Oulton (to check whether or not a couple of Radicals could share mainly in case of rain); he didn't know and gave me MSV Oulton's telephone number to call to find out; there aren't that many tracks in the UK and if I was a TDO, I think I'd expect/make sure my staff were able to answer basic Customer questions like that immediately, by having the information to hand.
Then came the two questions (see Boxsey's post), the answers to which rather amazed me >
I asked how many entries they take/accept for an open pit lane at Oulton; he said he couldn't reveal that as this was confidential company information(!)
I asked how many cars they allowed out on track at any one time on an open pit at Oulton; again, he said he couldn't reveal that as this was confidential company information(!)
I found this extraordinary; to think a hopefully ridiculous scenario, 250 entries, 100 of which are allowed out on track at any one time? And let's not forget, this is open pit lane rather than sessions with the chance of more variability of car performance and/or driver experience on track at any one time.
He did say that the track owners themselves (obviously not just at Oulton) do have H&S type limits on numbers (I guess in terms of the maximum allowed out on track at any one time), but he didn't choose to reveal what those are. For sure, TDOs like Gold Track, Bookatrack and RMA do have total number and out on track restrictions (to make sure their Customers get the quality of trackday they've paid for), I suspect they may well be lower than the track owners themselves would allow as a maximum and I am confident that they would reveal them if requested, which I now do; Melindi, Jonny & Robin, your figures (for Oulton at least) would be appreciated and you might at the same time wish to take the opportunity to confirm your Refunds Policy? I would also appreciate if FE could clarify their refund and turn up on the day policy because I do struggle to find this on their website.
To answer Boxsey's question, this is way more than an £140 day; Basic car plus driver cost is £225 (it's a Saturday), additional drivers are £25 and a garage is £25. Given the vagaries of the British climate, for a (slowish) guy like me who does Trackdays with his (faster) son in a (fastish) Open Topper, that means £275, so by no means a bargain/cheap Trackday.
splitpin said:
PHOENIXUK said:
Did Oulton Park a couple of months back, no problems that I remember other than the noise tester (who may have been an Oulton Park employee) think my car was a GT3 and told me to rev it to 6K... Hasn't stopped me booking again for August 1st though..
Didn't realise you were looking at the same date with your goKart,..terrible company best avoided!
As it looks that you'll have at least 350bhp extra at the rear wheels than us Radical blokes, you'll just waltz away .............. won't you .............. Hasn't stopped me booking again for August 1st though..Didn't realise you were looking at the same date with your goKart,..terrible company best avoided!
Edited by PHOENIXUK on Thursday 16th July 13:00
You track god you..Probably not, but then I will be driving to the track under my own power and all been well hopefully driving back in a similar condition...
benny.c said:
The track was no busier than normal on the days I have done, with the exception of a Practical Performance Car day when there was a lot of (I'll be diplomatic here) "mechanically challenged" cars on track. In hindsight it wasn't the wisest one to book but then again it was only £99 which is good for Oulton full circuit. Plus by 2:30pm many cars had either died or gone home.
Benny that was indeed the one I watched - the mention of £99 and practical performance car fits with what I remember. The paddock was so full it looked more like a race day rather than a trackday hence to me it appeared as if there were a lot more cars on than normal which would be needed to make it economical, unless the mag subsidised the day? The organisers worked really hard to minimise the stoppages, including calling everyone for a second briefing at lunchtime IIRC.PHOENIXUK said:
splitpin said:
PHOENIXUK said:
Did Oulton Park a couple of months back, no problems that I remember other than the noise tester (who may have been an Oulton Park employee) think my car was a GT3 and told me to rev it to 6K... Hasn't stopped me booking again for August 1st though..
Didn't realise you were looking at the same date with your goKart,..terrible company best avoided!
As it looks that you'll have at least 350bhp extra at the rear wheels than us Radical blokes, you'll just waltz away .............. won't you .............. Hasn't stopped me booking again for August 1st though..Didn't realise you were looking at the same date with your goKart,..terrible company best avoided!
Edited by PHOENIXUK on Thursday 16th July 13:00
You track god you..Probably not, but then I will be driving to the track under my own power and all been well hopefully driving back in a similar condition...
Tis true that one needs a trailer for a Radical and that we are more likely to get a wet crotch (from rain!), but like you, touchwood, so far I have always managed to bring it back in the same condition as I took it; most Porker & Rad Trackdayers do, so I'm not sure there's any 'bragging rights' to be claimed there.
Hope to meet up with you sometime - that's a really nice bit of kit you've got there. Perhaps we can swop passenger rides when we do. Cheers mate.
boxsey said:
benny.c said:
The track was no busier than normal on the days I have done, with the exception of a Practical Performance Car day when there was a lot of (I'll be diplomatic here) "mechanically challenged" cars on track. In hindsight it wasn't the wisest one to book but then again it was only £99 which is good for Oulton full circuit. Plus by 2:30pm many cars had either died or gone home.
Benny that was indeed the one I watched - the mention of £99 and practical performance car fits with what I remember. The paddock was so full it looked more like a race day rather than a trackday hence to me it appeared as if there were a lot more cars on than normal which would be needed to make it economical, unless the mag subsidised the day? The organisers worked really hard to minimise the stoppages, including calling everyone for a second briefing at lunchtime IIRC.
king than a second briefing we got at lunchtime!I'm not sure that there was actually that many more cars on track that day but there were a lot of people there who had come to watch. Certainly way more than a normal trackday milling around the paddock. The main problem that day was a high percentage of novices in not particularly reliable/suitable cars - in my opinion anyway.
I certainly wouldn't judge Focussed Events by that day though as all of the their "regular" days have been superb.
One more thing which may be of interest to the OP - Focussed events let you book a garage at Oulton as you have mentioned whereas on the MSV days up there you can't (first come, first served). Not a problem for me in a saloon and I only live 30 minutes away so can get there early. More of an issue if you have an open car and live further away. The garages are pretty big BTW so I reckon you'd squeeze two Radicals in.
Edited by benny.c on Thursday 16th July 23:18
We did a day earlier this year at Cadwell.
We got rear ended by a caterham that came over mountain on full chat ignoring yellow flags. Said Caterham was dta logging, this was seen by the MSV marshalls. Without getting into the details of how the incident happened the worrying thing was Focused events washed there hands of it, they never made any effort to check the welfare of the parties involved never looked into or asked any questions about the incident and did not even want to talk about it when we approached them.
Sorry but I would not use them again, for me the measure of a good company would have been how these kind of things are dealt with.
We got rear ended by a caterham that came over mountain on full chat ignoring yellow flags. Said Caterham was dta logging, this was seen by the MSV marshalls. Without getting into the details of how the incident happened the worrying thing was Focused events washed there hands of it, they never made any effort to check the welfare of the parties involved never looked into or asked any questions about the incident and did not even want to talk about it when we approached them.
Sorry but I would not use them again, for me the measure of a good company would have been how these kind of things are dealt with.
adymcd said:
For me the measure of a good company would have been how these kind of things are dealt with.
I get the increasing feeling that a lot of TDOs are taking the 'sign the disclaimer, then it's over to you' type attitude. They are keen to play school teacher in terms of enforcing discipline, but only the better ones seem keen to get involved in anything further... i.e. anything which doesn't have a direct impact on the majority of other drivers, and could be likely to result in them having less participants at future events (like being seen to tolerate bad driving/riding).
Incidents at the circuit are usually dealt with by the circuit officials not the TDO. This is the other way round when racing (other than emergency issues, where the circuit always prevails).
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