Ever want to just rip some corners properly, but don’t approve of canyon-carving or taking on the local windy road? Don’t feel like spinning off into a corn field when you’re going 10/10ths? Take it from someone who is 100% guilty of doing both of the above…the only way to legally get that same feeling is to hit a road course. A mixture of straights, corners and elevations will give you that “out on the backroad” feeling behind the wheel is a thrill. Trust me, I’ve spent plenty of time at NCM Motorsports Park, the entire course, and I’ve run it in everything from upper-end sports cars to beaters that honestly should have never seen the parking lot of the track, let alone the actual track surface, and behind the wheel of any of these vehicles, the sensation is just like ripping up a good canyon road or that backroad everybody knows.
One thing that tends to be a problem to a novice is the feeling that they aren’t worthy of going to a track day. They don’t have a Porsche, or a tuned, modified machine, they aren’t on slicks. Don’t let that be a diversion. There is no reason why you can’t take your street-stock, daily driver to the track to run it if you want to. We’ve ran the Angry Grandpa Chrysler at Track-X events and while we were nowhere near the fastest thing out there, we were out there and we were giving the Hemi all sorts of hell, letting third gear bark all the way to the braking zone.
If you haven’t considered a road course day, get out there and give it a shot. Between you and me, reader, this is as close as you can get to that quiet backroad run at illicit speeds without putting yourself in the target reticle of Johnny Law. You’ll be on a safe, controlled surface, you’ll have support and medical nearby, and best of all, it will only be you and other racers out on the surface…no unwitting or innocent drivers or bystanders nearby. We highly recommend it!
