Driver Safety
Required: Helmets meeting or exceeding SA95, M95, K and DOT standards will be allowed. No football helmets, 70’s style biker helmets. We are being very lenient on this, but don’t push it, after all this is YOUR life.
Recommended: SA95 or newer. Other helmets are not designed for multiple hits that can be sustained from a multiple rollover.
Required: Long sleeved cotton shirt, long cotton pants, leather closed toe shoes. i.e. Materials that will not melt and stick to your skin.
Recommended: Fire resistant underwear and/or full driving suit, gloves and shoes.
Required: Factory installed 3 point belt system.
Notice: Aftermarket restraints and harness will provide better comfort and better control of your car (leather seat people) However, improperly installed harness may cause more injury than safety. Even some restraint systems are not intended for HIGH speed auto events. Properly installed harnesses should be accompanied with a neck collar or other head and neck restraint. Although we will allow after market restraint systems each driver should know the risk of using them. Airbags may cause injury when deployed with full face helmets. Again we are leaving this to your own judgment as if you want to disable your system or not.
Car Safety
Remove all loose objects, trash, floor mats, radar detectors. Camera systems must be properly secured.
Battery hold down must be in place and functional.
Throttle cable must have free range of movement.
Convertibles must have a roll bar, hoop or other safety device to protect driver in a roll over situation.
Cars with sunroofs must have roof closed while on track…
Both windows down while on track.
Wheel bearings, ball joints, tie rod ends must be in good working condition.
No Nitrous.
Some more reading material:
http://www.beaverun.com/pdf/vehicle%20technical%20inspection%20form.pdf
Car Preparation
Brakes, brakes, brakes. This is the only must do performance wise. Good pads, high temp fluid, and a recent (within a month) fluid change. Buy some extra pads to bring with you and you can return them if you don’t need them. Buy track purpose pads. Just do something……
Other recommendations:
http://www.beaverun.com/pdf/Flat-Out-Friday%20Tech%20Sheet.pdf
Driver Conduct
Please, please, please auto-X your car just once before this event. I know it does not translate exactly to track driving but you will learn a lot that you can apply to it. You may learn that you car may need additional maintenance. There are three WNY auto-Xs and one WNY auto-X school before this track day.
http://www.nyspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8251
The front straight between turn 14 and turn 1 will be a SLOW SECTION. This allows for drivers to take a breath, look at the gauges, allow for merging cars from the pit to come up to speed and for passing. This is the only place passing is allowed. Passing is done when the overtaking driver receives a signal from the slower car, left hand out window pointing left. Passing is done only on the left. NO DRAG RACING. If a low horsepower car is faster in the back section LET THEM PASS, easily.
Hand signals:
http://www.beaverun.com/pdf/Hand-Signals.pdf
Even though turn 1 to 2 is a straight there will be no passing here. We may open up other passing areas later in the day.
Pitting cars start to signal your intention to pit coming off of turn 11. Stay far left through 12, 13 and 14. This is done by holding your left arm out the window, making a fist.
Keep two car lengths (30 feet) between cars in the back section.
No passengers will be allowed in inexperienced cars.
Don’t “save” your car. If you drop a wheel, lift off throttle and come to a controlled speed. Merge back onto the track as traffic permits. “Saving” your car is considered jerking your car back onto the track, which usually causes loss of control and cutting back across track.
Legitimate loss of control may occur, however you will only receive one warning.
Any car to car contact, no matter how minor, will end of the day for the offender.
“Asshats” will be kicked out immediately via track security, no questions asked. This means:
NO RACING, this is a track day, not a race event.
No drifting, this is not a drift event. Drifting will be considered reckless driving. Tire smoke will cause distractions for other drivers. Yes, there is a difference between getting a RWD car to rotate and deliberate drifting.
No burnouts or smoke shows, again this will be a distraction.
No top speed competitions down the front straight. That is don’t go down the front straight to see how fast you can go with no intention of getting a good line on turn 1.
We may be able to afford course worker if we have a large group, aquiant yourself with flags:
http://www.beaverun.com/pdf/Race-Flags.pdf
Proposed Schedule
All drivers will get at least 2 hours of track time:
8:00 am Arrive at track
8:30 am Drivers meeting
9:00 am Run Group I Acquaintance Laps
9:15 am Run Group II Acquaintance Laps
9:30 am Run Group III Acquaintance Laps
9:45 am Drivers meeting
10:00 am Run Group I Picking up the pace
10:20 am Run Group II Picking up the pace
10:40 am Run Group III Picking up the pace
11:00 am -3:30 pm
Either NINE 30 minute sessions or SIX 45 minute sessions, based on drivers vote. 30 minute sessions are comfortable, 45 minute sessions allow for a nice hour and a half break between runs to work on car, eat lunch….
3:30 – 4:45
Play time, we could do a number of things at this point, stop watches with small groups, switch cars between drivers, we will decide on this based on driver comfort level.
4:45 – on
We can opt to rent the track for extra hours.
After your session is over have a mini meeting about the session with your group. Advise each other on control, courtsey, and technique.
I think that is close to everything. Requirements are subject ot change. We can talk about driving technique and performance stuff later…
