I noticed that the Panoz Racing School at Road Atlanta does about 5 track days a year... Since Road Atlanta is the only road course close enough for me to actually want to go, I was wondering if anyone has any opinions on their track days.

It's ~275 bucks for one day... and you get about 2 hours of track time.

Isn't that significantly less than what you get with a similar NASA track day at RA? (2 days = ~350 bucks?)

I suppose that would probably be enough (for both me and more importantly, my car), not to mention there's 3 times as many actual events, so not having to wait 6 months in between RA events is also nice... And technically if you just want to race for a few hours you could save money by going to a shorter, cheaper event (not to mention saving on hotel and food costs).

...and you get a professional instructor, although I can't really say whether that's better or worse than a volunteer instructor...

...someone really needs to make a list of all the area HDPE/track days... because there are a lot of opportunites that aren't listed on the RA or other local track sites, or on any major forums or SCCA/NASA sites.

 

I've been to several of these. They are good track days. I"ve also done a ton of NASA events and I like NASA better. There is better instruction. Panoz isn't a racing school, it's really just an open track day. At NASA you have an individual instructor in the car with you teaching you the line/technique. At Panoz, there is a lead follow session that is rotated around.

Here are some of my in-car videos of NASA events.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=trackhorx8

The RX-8 Club goes to the NASA events a lot. I'll be taking the RX-7 from now on, so it's really just a group of guys who go and have a good time. Let me know if I can answer any other questions.

You can go to http://www.opentrackaction.com to get trackday/HPDE info. It's a great site. Plus, the top left corner header car is me at Road Atlanta!

http://www.trackschedule.com/ is also a searchable trackday database.

 

...how can they teach you anything if they're not in the actual car?...

Well, a track day is a track day... and sometime scheduling is more important than anything else.

 

There are several NASA trackdays at Road Atlanta. I'd recommend the March one. There will be a big rotary crowd there.

 

Not much, but they show you the line. Having and instructor in the car taught me so much though.... That's why I probably won't go back to Panoz.

Chin Motorsports is also great and they go to Barber in Birmingham.

 

hmm. interesting. i hope my car is ready so i can go to this.

 

We initiate a lot from the RX-8club site. There is a group of about a dozen of us who attend. We usually hang out at Mazcare before the events on Friday evening. Charlie's a great guy and a wonderful host.

Here's the RX8club link where most of the planning takes place. There are several 7 owners there too. It's just a good group of gearheads.
http://www.rx8club.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30

BTW, NASA is offering a Holiday Coupon sale where you get 4 events for $899. Much cheaper than the usual $325. Plus, you can split them with others if you want.

Application:
http://www.nasa-southeast.com/2007holidayapp.pdf

NASA 2007 Schedule:

http://www.nasa-southeast.com/schedule.html

CMP
Road Atlanta
Rockingham
Roebling Road
Rockingham
CMP
Road Atlanta
Roebling Road
Rockingham

All good tracks in the Southeast.