jvils

8 DAYS spent at HPDE events (not racing, not auto-x)
0 off-track-excursions with no damage

I put 2-wheels off two times, and I spun twice without leaving track. I've seen two cars totaled; Camaro and e46 M3 (but neither rolled). At another event, an e36 M3 race car had a rotor fail going into a brake zone, rotor shards broke the rim (front left), and car went off and backed into a dirt birm. Driver was fine, but the instructor went to the hospital with a neck injury. Event was on hold 1hr 45min until resuce crew returned from hospital.

Doug Hayashi

It's a 50/50 chance that at least one car at your event will crash and suffer damage. Just don't let it be you. Some suggestions:

1. Find out who the good instructors are. Tell them your goal is to learn the line, and not damage your car. Go in the car with them around the track.

2. Have the instructors point out which turns people usually fly off the track. Be extra careful when you are on the track for these turns.

3. Don't worry about being the fastest newbie at the track. Let people pass you on the straights. Watch them botch the braking zones, drop wheels into the dirt, etc. Learn from them. Avoid them!

4. Have an instructor go out with you every session with them as a passenger. EMPHASIZE that you are not there to go fast, but to learn the line and proper driving etiquette/technique/safety.

If you do the above, there is virtually zero chance you will crash the car.

In my opinion:
If you drive at 7/10ths, you should not be in danger of crashing. 8/10ths your crashing average will go up double. At 9/10ths, your crashing average will go quadruple. At 10/10ths, you go up to 8x your possible chance of crashing.

-Doug

Beware the Go-Fast Crack Pipe. It will make you want to go 9/10ths on your first track weekend.

teamking

Doug-

That all seems like good advice.

As a newbie, I have to confess that it was very tempting to try and be the fastest car in my group. It's very tough not to be comparing yourself to the other cars and drivers that you're sharing the track with.

That said, my time at the track has allowed me to completely lose any compulsion to try to drive fast on the street. There is simply no comparing the level of speed. Now that I know something about the limits on this car, I realize that it is simply insane to get near them on the street. Too much risk, too little reward.

The running totals are now:

529 DAYS spent at HPDE events (not racing, not auto-x)
54 off-track-excursions with no damage
4 off-track-excursions with minor damage (up to $1500)
0 off-track-excursions with moderate damage (up to $10,000)
3 off-track-excursions with severe damage (more than $10,000)

124Spider

That sure seems high, in light of both my experience and the cumulative results posted. Your advice is excellent (how does one make sure your instructor is a good one, when they're assigned by the school and you don't know until half way through the day that he's not helping you?), but I suspect that your statistic is a bit pessimistic.

Fast Miata

Approx. 50 track days
Approx. 15 OTEs with no damage
2 spin-outs

Doug's advices are exactly what you should follow, as much as possible.

May I add that if you do screw up and go off, NEVER TRY TO CORRECT to get right back on the track while still at speed, most of the cars that I have seen going home on a flatbed were results of such action.
Bring it to a controlled stop, if needed to drive off a bit further to get away from traffic I recommend you do that, don't forget that there are other cars on the track, I have been to one day at Buttonwillow with NASA when a vette spun out and went off the track into a mustang that just went off a couple seconds before at the same corner and was just sitting there at the edge of the track almost ...

Moti,
95 Turbo miata.

mikegarrison

Actually, I don't think it is very far off. Depends on what you define as "crash and suffer damage". But I'd say that I've seen about 8 crashes that resulted in some damage (enough to be a bummer, at least) in my 16 HPDEs.

Lets see: VW that rolled, 911 that was totalled into a wall, S2000 that was nearly totalled into a wall, Mini that looped into a wall, 3-series that looped into a wall ... that's only five. Well, I'm sure I've forgotten a few.

twohoos

Doug's rule of thumb is a good one; in fact I'd argue it's optimistic. Keep in mind that the statistics posted here show a rate of 7 incidents with damage out of 529 track days. That's about 1.3 percent, or 1 every 75 track days. Remembering that about 80-100 cars show up at a typical event, you'd basically expect to see one car go home with some damage every day. And in fact, that's been about my experience with HPDEs -- it's fairly rare when you get to the end of a day and there have been zero incidents.

My personal score:
~35 track days
~20 spins/OTEs with no damage
2 spins/OTEs with minor damage

Ludedude

I agree with Doug's assessment up there. I'm trying to recall a single track day that I went to where there wasn't any carnage of any type. Not referring to spins but off-track excursions with damage.

My personal tally is:

HPDEdays: 12
6 off-track-excursions with no damage
1 off-track-excursions with minor damage (up to $1500)
0 off-track-excursions with moderate damage (up to $10,000)
0 off-track-excursions with severe damage (more than $10,000)

fluxen

Uh, pardon me, Ludedude, but I think your numbers are a bit off. I could swear I've seen you offtrack 6 times in one event!

On Doug's numbers: If you're counting *any* damage, meaning even someone damaging a spoilder going over a dirt clod off track, I think it's true; you tend to see them every event. If you're talking *real* damage, meaning contact with something other than the ground, then yeah, I think something happens about 50% of the time.

A lot depends on the track as well. You're going to see a lot more carnage at Sears Point than at Streets of Willow, for instance.

rjosey8385

Alrighteeee then....so Autocross it is!