Opinions on best Track day organisers?

stradman

stradman

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Hi everyone,

As the title suggests. What are your thoughts on Track day organisers, what are your preferences and why?
I've used RMA and Opentrack who seem quite good to me in the past but interested to hear others experience.
Ta
 
Ralf and Henrik are the best TD organisers bar none. You'll find this out at Zandvoort.

Next, Pure Mclaren.

RMA, only because of overtaking both sides but in general Graham got greedy and let every man and his Zafira in and his days are quite messy now with endless red flags.

Melindi at Gold track is okay but this overtaking on the left shit pisses me off especially when you pay top dollar which you do with Gold Track.

I've had some good days with Circuit days but only ever used them at Spa and they are very relaxed about their rules if a car is being driven well.

Don't think I've experienced Opentrack although I must have at some point, so cannot possibly comment.

I have little experience of any others but if Carlsberg did track days, I bet they would have had Ralf and Henrik behind the scenes making it work :)
 
All depends on what you want. Nick isn't quite right on RMA days but on a busy SIlverstone day it can be like that. I'm an RMA circuit club member so I see all the days rather than a slice. Echo his other points but with open track I've found they have a lot of cars and many are low cost and driven badly.

hoping to try some pistenclub and rsr days in Europe. For very well run friendly days but not on major circuits, Motorsport Events are very good.

Not tried the Pure mclaren days but intend to this year
 
I used to be a RMA paddock club guy but Graham that runs it has severely put me off to the point where I wouldn't do another one. Total gobshite
His other problem is he cannot say no to someone just turning up and filling his pockets with cash 💰...... enough said.
 
I'm not convinced by RSR. They just seem to hugely over price. The double header at SPA this year was a prime example of this where they piggy backed an event with another TDO and charged a huge premium over the other organiser for the exact same event. I understand their pricing when they run the day themselves and offer added value by limiting car numbers, providing catering etc but when it's an identical product? And we aren't taking 10% difference, it was more like 70% more expensive.
 
Henry said:
I used to be a RMA paddock club guy but Graham that runs it has severely put me off to the point where I wouldn't do another one. Total gobshite
His other problem is he cannot say no to someone just turning up and filling his pockets with cash 💰...... enough said.
Click to expand...

Fully agree with this. Not really a track day, more a test day for race teams, well was for the day I was on. Also spoke to us all like we are complete tools.....

Goldtrcak
Run well, but let to many groups on with Caterhams etc

Open Track
The PGT day was went well, was about the best out of around 20 or days so this year.

SS Own
About the best track days imv, good quality briefing's, sighting laps for those that have not been on track before. Least stoppages of any days that I have been on. Not stopping for lunch is a big help. Good driving standard's also.
 
Thanks, Nick. If you want to do it right you have to do it yourself. Though we are hardly 'organisers' of course.

I can echo some of what Bren says about RSR. Though the owner is a close friend, i often challenge him on his pricing, but his own days are special. It's so much more fun to overtake everywhere and they rarely have red flags. At the last Goldtrack event it was almost non-stop. Plus I got black flagged during my warm-up laps for too aggressive overtaking. On a track-day you want to be able to drive freely (yet sensibly) without silly rules meant for the lowest common denominator. Also, the way many organisers address their customers in briefings etc often borders on absurd.

One of my favourite organisers is Pistenclub. They let you do what you want and have the highest calibre of drivers. However, they have now switched to race car/road car sessions, which means lots of queueing, which is a shame.
 
Darin - MLR

The crucial thing on trackdays for me is the declarations - its a must that the driver and passenger decs contain a clause where you cant claim off each other or the organisers as a driver or a passenger.
 
As a relative newbie I've got limited experience but the best days this year were the Zandavoort trip, PGT day and Circuit Days at Spa......well atleast from being told off on that occasion for being to aggressive!

RMA are hit and miss for me but I've signed on for the zolder / spa trip as it's a one off so didn't want to miss it!

Gold track I agree are rather expensive but so are some of the others!

To sum up the closed group track days are best which underlines one of many benefits of this forum! 👍
 
My perspective is as follows. There are multiple categories of events:
1. Own organised (e.g. Henrik/Ralf model)
2. Open overtaking rules - RSR/Pistenclub/RMA
3. UK (ATDO) overtaking higher end - Goldtrack, Silverstone, Circuit Days
4. UK (ATDO) overtaking lower end - Javelin, Lotus on track, MSV, etc.

The cost to participate are 1. highest to 4. lowest.
If you are an experienced tracker in the upper quartile of pace then 1 and 2 will give a little more free running. 3 is not too bad for pace but you may need to wait until the last hour of the day to get a totally uncompromised lap (should you be wanting one)
For the UK guys there is another key distinction as well - most track insurance providers will only insure your car on 3 and 4. Some of the more specialist insurers may provide cover for 1 and 2 as well (actually getting insurance cover for 1 is probably easier than 2) though it gets tougher.

I tend to mainly do the bigger circuits - Silverstone, Spa, Ring - and therefore less time spent with MSV and the like on other UK circuits.

I tend to want track insurance cover so will rarely do one without. Overall though, for me the primary decision is usually the date. Which TDO has the circuit you want on a convenient date? ...secondly, which one are your mates going to be at? ...and thirdly, do I know the TDO such that I can call/email them to get me on even if they are showing booked.

...so I will usually book Silverstone, Goldtrack, RMA, Circuit Days, Destination Nurburgring.
...and only where the date is super convenient Lotus on Track (for Spa), and I have done Javelin before (for Spa). With these two mainly because their dates coincided with a back to back date for another TDO at the Nurburgring.

In terms of which TDO has fast drivers, lots of red flags, etc, I just find they all have good days and bad days - it's almost random. So we will all carry with us some baggage of which TDO had a bad day. However, I don't have enough experience about the European organisers (RSR, Pistenclub, etc), Henrik and Ralf suggest they don't have bad days :)

Finally, there was a time when category 3 (Silverstone, Goldtrack, plus also RMA) used to have higher prices to encourage more 'expensive cars', less traffic, etc on their days. To be honest I am not sure there is much difference anymore. With the growing market for trackdays they all seem to be merging into one - with always a fookin radical causing a red flag! or a trail of caterhams parking themselves on the apex :)
 
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LaSource said:
My perspective is as follows. There are multiple categories of events:
1. Own organised (e.g. Henrik/Ralf model)
2. Open overtaking rules - RSR/Pistenclub/RMA
3. UK (ATDO) overtaking higher end - Goldtrack, Silverstone, Circuit Days
4. UK (ATDO) overtaking lower end - Javelin, Lotus on track, MSV, etc.

The cost to participate are 1. highest to 4. lowest.
If you are an experienced tracker in the upper quartile of pace then 1 and 2 will give a little more free running. 3 is not too bad for pace but you may need to wait until the last hour of the day to get a totally uncompromised lap (should you be wanting one)
For the UK guys there is another key distinction as well - most track insurance providers will only insure your car on 3 and 4. Some of the more specialist insurers may provide cover for 1 and 2 as well (actually getting insurance cover for 1 is probably easier than 2) though it gets tougher.

I tend to mainly do the bigger circuits - Silverstone, Spa, Ring - and therefore less time spent with MSV and the like on other UK circuits.

I tend to want track insurance cover so will rarely do one without. Overall though, for me the primary decision is usually the date. Which TDO has the circuit you want on a convenient date? ...secondly, which one are your mates going to be at? ...and thirdly, do I know the TDO such that I can call/email them to get me on even if they are showing booked.

...so I will usually book Silverstone, Goldtrack, RMA, Circuit Days, Destination Nurburgring.
...and only where the date is super convenient Lotus on Track (for Spa), and I have done Javelin before (for Spa). With these two mainly because their dates coincided with a back to back date for another TDO at the Nurburgring.

In terms of which TDO has fast drivers, lots of red flags, etc, I just find they all have good days and bad days - it's almost random. So we will all carry with us some baggage of which TDO had a bad day. However, I don't have enough experience about the European organisers (RSR, Pistenclub, etc), Henrik and Ralf suggest they don't have bad days :)

Finally, there was a time when category 3 (Silverstone, Goldtrack, plus also RMA) used to have higher prices to encourage more 'expensive cars', less traffic, etc on their days. To be honest I am not sure there is much difference anymore. With the growing market for trackdays they all seem to be merging into one - with always a fookin radical causing a red flag! or a trail of caterhams parking themselves on the apex :)
Click to expand...

I would agree with this, plus to add 3 things:

1. Some insurance policies (e.g. the manning scheme) only cover days with organisers who are members of ATDO - RMA is no longer a member
2. Paying for more expensive days such as gold track is the way to go - better quality cars to look at, usually lower volume of traffic, and you dont get boy racers in 205 GTIs trying to prove they are faster than your GT3 or Speciale.
3. many track days are now attended by people driving racing cars on slicks - if you find this intimidating then it can totally ruin your day - doesnt bother me but some mates get completely fazed by it. RMA days in my experience have alot of GT3 spec race cars and radicals who believe they have a god given right to the racing line.

I used to do alot of RMA dats - gone off them. Prefer Gold track and Circuit days.
 
That's interesting, I assumed all main UK TDOs would be part of the ATDO. My performance cars are all insured (at a significant premium) for unlimited ATDO track days so it's news to me that going with the higher end UK organisers might mean Im uninsured. You learn something every day, I'll investigate.

Is overtaking on one side only part of ATDO membership? Is that why RMA aren't a member, so they have the freedom to let their customers overtake using their own intelligence?
 
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All great input guys! But I guess as someone already said a lot of it may also boil down to when and what date suits you as well.. I'm also sure that there will be people who have a great time with one organiser on a given day and then find others had a shiite time on the same day so it can be hard to come to any solid conclusions. But a lot of food for thought anyway...
 
Bren said:
That's interesting, I assumed all main UK TDOs would be part of the ATDO. My performance cars are all insured (at a significant premium) for unlimited ATDO track days so it's news to me that going with the higher end UK organisers might mean Im uninsured. You learn something every day, I'll investigate.

Is overtaking on one side only part of ATDO membership? Is that why RMA aren't a member, so they have the freedom to let their customers overtake using their own intelligence?
Click to expand...

Yep, ATDO stipulates a proper briefing, marshalling, and overtaking on the left by consent.
RMA have opted to come out as they wanted to retain their both sides overtaking differentiator. A lot of this kicked off after one particular Sep Spa trip when Graham had one of his outbursts at all attendees for poor driving and it got a lot of air time on Pistonheads. Them some busy body reader (who was not even at the event!) reported them to the ATDO
 
Not a particular fan of RMA too. Been on a couple of days, lots of red flags (brands gp admittedly mainly that always has quite a few) and if I want to pay that kind of money to get abused it would be by someone rather better looking than Graham.

The euro organisers are pretty good, I've got good experiences with schnelleschwaben and trackdays.de at the ring and Spa. Have done a day with curbstone too which was pricey but very low numbers and the road/race car sessions didn't bother me as i tend to stop after half an hour or so usually anyway.
 
InsBro said:
Darin - MLR

The crucial thing on trackdays for me is the declarations - its a must that the driver and passenger decs contain a clause where you cant claim off each other or the organisers as a driver or a passenger.
Click to expand...

Good point you raise Jezz

Have spent few hrs this week with a rep from a insurance Co going through security and flood damage prevention on a property I have close to River Severn.

He informed me that he was handing a RTA in which a passenger had suffered life changing injury's . The claim was put at 4mill. Cover only went up to just over 2Mill, this was for a RTA not even a track day.
 
The best track day organisers I have ever come across was Curbstone. I did a day with them at Spa, it was about £600 and they would only allow you on track if you have a 300 bhp car. The drivers briefing was along the lines of, have fun guys, strawberry's and champagne is served at 6 pm. One of the Brits asked about the overtaking rules to be told, "yes we like overtaking"

Graham from RMA is a legend for his drivers briefings, several times he has stopped the day to give everybody a bollocking, I remember one track day at the ring where he gave us a bollocking before we even got on track on the basis that we would probably misbehave. Last time I did one of his days I turned up late and the briefing was "ok, don't f..king crash"
 
I beg to differ with the consensus but i love rma days . Fast race cars , overtaking both sides and i thing graham is a good sport. He really makes me laugh when he bollocks people . Its like a mini test day on the good days . Everyone knows what they are doing .
BAT and Gold track are also good , they are the best of the overtake on one side days .

The dozen or so RSR days i have seen have been piggybacked off other peoples days for a 50 per cent price hike . So i cant comment , ron is a gent though . Helped me out big time once .

Finally , Too cheap a track day means cunts in shitters but that can be fun too .

It depends on what you want out of it , remember its a fucking track day . I hate hearing bitching about getting a bollocking , aggressive overtakes , rules , regulations and briefings . To the above theres no place for being aggressive or racing the villagers or civilians on a track day , no wonder graham goes mad . You explain to a customer whose pride and joy has just been destroyed by some twat that its normal .
Its a track day , its for the common denominator . People need to get over it . Id choose that rather than some cunt in a bathtub crash into one of my precious cars . I race a 4 million pound RSR (slightly optimistic pricing LTD), if i smash it to pieces in a race thats fine . Some cunt hits me on a track day because they dont respect everyone enough to follow some basic rules and the cunt gets educated with my big black boots .
Anyone thats seen me on track knows how i drive , there is no quarter asked or given with poeple i know BUT when i come up to a strange car i Follow the rules . Im sorry to repeat myself but its a track day .
If you are that hard go and race

Rant over
 
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I remember when RMA was a club of 100 members, they were the only people who would be allowed on the day, usually 50 or 60 people would turn up and you knew and respected the other guys, great days.
 
Classic graham quote of the night

"Put your hands up if you drive. A radical"

People put hands up
"You are all cunts"😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
 
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