Video of the Day: ‘10 secrets for getting a great first track day’

Preparation is everything in making your performance debut a joyful experience

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Knowing basic rules and good manners go a long way on track day

Everything has to start somewhere, and that includes your first time driving on a race track.  Most of us have seen videos of inexperienced drivers cracking up their cars on a track, be it on the famed Nurburgring in Germany or some local road course.  It’s ugly and nobody wants to be that guy or girl.

Much of the drill for avoiding such unpleasant and expensive shunts, and making your track day the joyful experience it was meant to be, can be summed up in one word: preparation.   Both car and driver, by the way, since you should know something about performance driving before taking the plunge.  Many track days have instruction available.  Go for it.  It’s like skiing lessons; you gotta know the basics.

But taking your daily driver or hobby car out for its first track drive also requires some basic steps.  This British video is a good primer for newbies, entitled “10 secrets for getting a great first track day.”  While it’s set in England and the steering wheel is on the wrong side, i.e. the right side, these tips translate well to U.S. events.

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Bob Golfen
Bob Golfen is a longtime automotive writer and editor, focusing on new vehicles, collector cars, car culture and the automotive lifestyle. He is the former automotive writer and editor for The Arizona Republic and SPEED.com, the website for the SPEED motorsports channel. He has written free-lance articles for a number of publications, including Autoweek, The New York Times and Barrett-Jackson auction catalogs. A collector car enthusiast with a wide range of knowledge about the old cars that we all love and desire, Bob enjoys tinkering with archaic machinery. His current obsession is a 1962 Porsche 356 Super coupe.

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