5 simple rules for avoiding a track day nightmare

"I'm fine." An innocuous statement at face value, but perhaps the most frequently abused falsehood in all of humanity. I was many things in that moment, but I certainly wasn't fine. I'd just put my car — one I loved and hoped to keep forever — into the wall at about 60 miles per hour. The driver-side airbag hung limp at my shoulder, brushing against my helmet in the gentle breeze through my open window. The safety marshal whose concerned inquiry prompted my empty assurance had gotten there in a matter of seconds, but even if it had taken minutes, I wasn't going anywhere. My training had kicked in. Stay in your car unless it is on fire.

It wasn't, so there I stayed, letting that safety mantra loop through my head because it was preferable to contemplating the reality of my situation. I'd screwed up, and badly. Like any spectacular mess, this was the result of multiple errors, some committed hours, days and even weeks prior. It was an all-too-predictable example of a cascade failure that set me back mentally and financially. And to make matters worse, I knew better. People more experienced than myself had been repeating the same basic advice since the first day I set foot in a track paddock. For the most part, I'd listened. But on one early spring morning, my series of individually minor missteps led me directly into a concrete barrier.

I was reminded of that particular calamity this week when a YouTuber named Chet became the subject of a near-endless stream of dunks after posting a video depicting his rather spectacular shunt in his Tesla Model S Plaid. Presumably, Chet didn't set out to put his Tesla into a wall at triple-digit speeds, but it was a consequence that many — myself included — found entirely predictable. Hindsight's funny like that.

If you're here for the schadenfreude, skip to the end for the rest of my story. But if you're here because you're eager to get on track and learn how to drive fast in a safe, educational and spectacularly fun environment, this next part's for you. Heed this advice, and you could find yourself immersed in a fantastically rewarding hobby.

1 - Don't modify* your car for the track

See little baby Byron up there? That photo was taken in 2008. 2008 Byron really couldn't stand the idea of driving a stock vehicle anywhere, so my 6 had an intake, ECU piggyback, lowering springs and a handful of other mods, plus a set of beat-to-crap FD RX-7 wheels wrapped in some unremarkable summer rubber. None of it made me any quicker. Several of those parts actually cost me time, especially when my zip-tied solution to mounting the aftermarket electronics gave up midway down VIR's back straight, letting a box the size of a classic Game Boy dangle precariously in the footwell until I could pit in and come up with a fix. Did I need those extra 13 horsepower badly enough to become a potential rolling hazard to everybody else on track with me? Nope. But I sure as heck had wanted it.

To be clear, this is not the car I put into the wall; that would happen nearly a decade later. Almost-40-year-old Byron looks back at that photo and shakes his head (that ridiculous expression notwithstanding). And it's not like I had any shortage of 40- and 50-something track rats giving me the exact same advice, but of course I wasn't interested, because those alterations were what made the car mine. I wasn't there to drive a car. I was there to drive my car. And there's a twinkle of rationality to that. If you're going to explore your car's limits, you probably want them to be predictable. But do yourself (and your fellow participants) a favor by just leaving everything the hell alone until you know what you're working with. And trust me, if it's your first track day, you know a lot less than you think you do about what you're working with.

Here's the big secret: There's no such thing as a car that isn't "fast enough" for the track, nor one that handles too poorly.  You're there to learn how to drive your car fast, not to learn how fast your car can go. If that reads to you like a distinction without a difference, I'll borrow the expression my instructor used to articulate the fate of some of my fellow novices: O.S.B. — other sports beckon. Translation: Maybe this whole track day thing ain't for you. Mod yourself now; mod the car later.

2 - *But don't skimp on safety

I can guarantee that at least a handful of readers will go straight to the comments after reading rule #1, frothing at the mouth about how this whole piece is junk because it ignores basic safety. Here's the asterisk: While you shouldn't modify your car before your first day at the track, you absolutely must maintain it at a level appropriate to the environment in which you intend to drive it. That means upgrading your brake fluid, bare minimum. Upgraded pads and rotors are good ideas too, especially if you're driving something that wasn't really meant for track duty, which is most cars — even enthusiast models. Never assume your car is track-ready off the showroom floor. My Blackwing came with DOT3 in the reservoir and a note in the owner's manual stating that it should be upgraded prior to track duty.

My omission of tires here is intentional. I'm not going to sit here and tell you not to replace your street rubber with something more appropriate (especially if your stock tires are all-seasons; they'll just get destroyed), but I would steadfastly discourage anything that might be a more substantial upgrade in grip. Traction is great, but novices often don't recognize that trap even when they're barreling into it at triple digits. More grip means more wear on your suspension components as they're tasked with greater loads. It means more wear on your engine as your oiling system fights against potential starvation from increased lateral g-forces. More speed means your brakes are working harder and forced to dissipate more heat. If they can't, your fluid boils and you find out the crappy way just how much it can cost to flatbed your baby back to civilization. Now, on that note ...

3 - Don't track a car you can't afford to write off

The simplified version of this rule is to never take your daily driver to the track, but not all DDs are created equal. More broadly, you should never track something you can't afford to write off — be it financially, logistically or emotionally — and I don't just mean long-term. If you don't have a contingency plan in place for the entirely-possible scenario where you're unable to drive your car home at the end of the day, you have no business being there at all.

There are insurers that offer policies for track days, usually on an agreed-value basis. They're affordable, too — generally no more expensive than your entry fee for a weekend with NASA or SCCA or whatever track day org you choose to patronize. While this won't do you any good if you total your car and need a ride home, at least you know you'll be made relatively whole again at the end of the day. Make sure you understand any applicable deductibles and exclusions before you purchase.