Grand Bend Day at the Track

[ZL1Bullet]

Hi Folks,

In another thread here, we were discussing some track days. I had described a Lapping Night I had participated in at a local track. Some interest was generated so I did some digging to find out what the possibilities were for a day at that track (Grand Bend Motorplex) here in Ontario.

First the bad news... Saturdays are pretty much spoken for from April till Oct. incl. But read on. I think it gets interesting.

During the week the options open up wide. So for interest sake, lets just think about a Friday. Keeping the number of cars below 36 keeps the insurance down and thereby our costs. If we go above 36 cars, the insurance company deems the event a competition and the insurance rate goes up another $500/day. Because it's a weekday that might not be such a challenge as some people won't be able to get the time off work. The cost of the track is $250/hr depending on the configuration. I will find out more about that later. I believe by configuration he means if we want to have the flat track only or if we want both the flat track and the drag strip. Both tracks need to have medics and spotters. He could also mean the configuration of the track since there's about 5 different ways they can set it up. (I ran the technical).
http://www.grandbendraceway.com/race...d=15&Itemid=26

So 10 cars is $25/hr. for instance. Unless you have beefed up brakes (or a ZL1), you're not going to want to run for more than about 15 min or you won't have any brakes left. After 15 min with my brother's 2SS, we had to cool them due to fade.

They can also run 3 cycles for different level of drivers. Remember there's no course necessary to run this track. So you can be a beginner, intermediate or expert. This is not racing. You don't make passes unless the driver ahead of you signals to do so. It's more about 'being at one with your car.'

Things you need are: A car fit for the track, long pants, full toed shoes (no sandals or flip flops), a SNELL 98(?) or higher helmet. It was 95 or 98... it's on the website I believe. I'm not sweating the details just yet.

Here's an exert from our conversation:

"BTW, we don't really have a 'minimum' number of cars that we need on a rental. It's based more on a per hour basis (depending on the configuration, it's usually around $250/hr including medics and spotters).
Our maximum number of cars is usually 36 (12 cars X 3 experience levels). After that, the insurance company considers the event a 'competition' and the cost ratchets up about $500 for the day."

Lap times on the technical track ranged from 1:16 to 1:25 or so. On the straight away (airport runway), I was hitting 110 MPH or about 178 Kph.

This is an active runway and we did get pulled off the track for a whopping 5 min. while a small plane took off with a load of sky divers. The plane landed on a grass strip which didn't require us to pull off the track again.

So how does that sound so far?

[KW Kruser]

I'm definately interested ....

[B-rad]

I would be up for a day at the bend