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What to Do When You Crash at a Track Day

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Old 09-11-2018, 12:56 PM
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Default What to Do When You Crash at a Track Day

What to Do When You Crash at a Track Day
By Brian Dally

You’re prepared for the track, but are you prepared for when things go south?

Old 09-11-2018, 01:23 PM
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Racer86
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That is why you tow your race car to the track.
Old 09-11-2018, 02:37 PM
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I just installed these front and rear.


Old 09-11-2018, 08:18 PM
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tw78911sc
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stay within 200 miles and AAA will bring it home if it is worth it, else clean out the dashboard and say good bye. If your lucky your GPS alert signal wont be sent to the local police/fire department that a crash occurred and they show up at the track. Saw it happen at Sebring with the PCA.
Old 09-11-2018, 08:29 PM
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Google repair facilities in the area. My boost a pump blew a fuse which I didn't realize. I found out a local corvette tuner was in the area and I had AAA tow it there. Getting an F150 is in my future.
Old 09-11-2018, 09:02 PM
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FAUEE
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The best advice for track day cars... dont track a car you can't afford to walk away from. I don't get these guys using high dollar cars on track, but maybe everyone else is massively wealthy and I'm not? Haha.
Old 09-11-2018, 10:18 PM
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davidfarmer
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I’ve towed cars home for people, and know tigers that have also. There is always a way, some more expensive than others


Old 09-12-2018, 12:24 AM
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Supercharged111
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Originally Posted by Racer86
That is why you tow your race car to the track.
And have a winch in the trailer.
Old 09-12-2018, 06:50 AM
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REVHARD
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Originally Posted by FAUEE
The best advice for track day cars... dont track a car you can't afford to walk away from. I don't get these guys using high dollar cars on track, but maybe everyone else is massively wealthy and I'm not? Haha.
Well that makes 2 of us. If I ball up my C5 oh well. I ball up a C7Z...I'm divorced

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Old 09-12-2018, 10:30 AM
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Originally Posted by REVHARD
Well that makes 2 of us. If I ball up my C5 oh well. I ball up a C7Z...I'm divorced
Old 09-12-2018, 11:14 AM
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Originally Posted by FAUEE
The best advice for track day cars... dont track a car you can't afford to walk away from. I don't get these guys using high dollar cars on track, but maybe everyone else is massively wealthy and I'm not? Haha.
The thing is I probably have over 40k invested in my C6 and it's paid for but I think I speak for a lot of people who drive there high dollar cars on the track. I bought it to drive on the street but I also want to drive legally and somewhat safely on track so I don't pull a boner on the street testing it's performance limits. That's why when I'm on the track and I find my self pushing the car to the point I'm about to lose it I back off. I'm not obsessed with doing the best time.

Too me any one who has a High performance car needs to go to a HPDE at least once.

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Old 09-12-2018, 11:26 AM
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Nowanker
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Originally Posted by FAUEE
The best advice for track day cars... dont track a car you can't afford to walk away from.
Words to live by!
Track day insurance is available, but expensive... If I'd purchased it every time, I would have paid for two race cars before I ever had an incident.
Odds of having your street insurance cover you are essentially zero. They finally caught on that the education in 'HPDE' is on a racetrack.
Saw a guy with a crashed C7 at an event, turned out that it was rented (!). His plan was to stage an accident on the street, and claim it under the rental-car policy. Never heard how that worked out for him... I'd still be in jail!
Always wondered about the rental car insurance coverage from the credit card company. Do they have any racetrack exclusion?
Old 09-12-2018, 04:57 PM
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Rx7Rob
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I stopped going to tracks requiring a long drive w/o a trailer. AAA Plus gets you 100 miles of towing. I've gone 200 miles using two different people / AAA Plus memberships.

When I was racing the dirtbike the saying always was to plan for the crash not the ride! Now I won't go into what happened AFTER the crash when I didn't know I had a concussion (very bad, was in complete fog for over a week) and tried to drive home ...
Old 09-12-2018, 06:57 PM
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Bill Dearborn
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The car could be the least of your worries if you are laid up in a hospital 200 miles from home or laying in a coffin.

Bill
Old 09-13-2018, 10:23 PM
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Originally Posted by Nowanker
Words to live by!
Track day insurance is available, but expensive... If I'd purchased it every time, I would have paid for two race cars before I ever had an incident.
Track insurance for my C5Z is $150 to $170 for $30K insurance, Driver pays first 10% I feel its a worthwhile expense. Even if you don't give it to an insurance company, put it in a cookie jar, if you never wreck, your in the Money!

My introduction to HPDE was in my Brand New 2012 Boss 302, third outting. A 20-something boiled his brake fluid in his ill-prepared Cobalt SS and Tee Boned me at the end of the backstretch at Mid Ohio. My dad always told me the most Valuable lessons in life are the most expensive, he was right. I wrote a check to the bank for $20K and sold it wrecked. I had 4 kids in college at the time . As already said, Gotta be willing to leave it at the track!
Old 09-13-2018, 10:40 PM
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trailer rental was definitely worth it. i ended up buying my own the next year - also worth it.
Old 09-14-2018, 01:02 PM
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Several key activities left out of this article.

1. Take pictures of the accident scene including the guardrail, Armco, etc.
2. Confirm with the track and event organizer of they are writing an incident report. If so, get a copy of it.
3. Find out what your responsibilities are for any damage caused to the track. Make the proper arrangements with the organizer to pay those damages if you are responsible.
4. Call your significant other(s) and let them know you are OK before they see what happened on social media.

Ken
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To What to Do When You Crash at a Track Day

Old 09-22-2018, 07:56 PM
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Took my 07 base for a HPDE event, it was great fun but was worried if I crash it, if someone crashes into me, if someone oils the track down and I crash it no fault of mine.
As I understand it someone crashes into you they are not obligated to pay for your damages.
Old 09-22-2018, 11:07 PM
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You are 100 times safer on a track than any highway. You control your pace, everyone is going in the same direction, you get an extra set of experienced eyes coaching and you control when and where you allow passing. Racing is another deal, depending on the organization some will allow contact, some it will end up with a 13 month probation followed up by a 13 month loss of license. I've done more damage loading my car onto a trailer then I have on the track. There are trucks on the interstate dump debris, pot holes, bad drivers, blind spots, people dumping crap on the streets every day.

Last edited by tw78911sc; 09-22-2018 at 11:09 PM.
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Old 09-22-2018, 11:54 PM
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I bought the annual unlimited-trackday policy from www.opentrack.com for peace of mind!


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