Have any of you done an Open Lapping track day? I just recently heard about these from an Old Timer buddy of mine. He said they used to be the norm. Any idea why they died off?
They do open sessions here in Germany on rain days. You can get a ton of laps in. Once it dries up they go back to 3-4 groups.
I've been to a few track days that have done that in the afternoon, when the groups are only getting a few riders in each session. This is usually preceeded by having another quick riders meeting to let the newbies know that experts will be blowing past you, and to hold your line and also tell the experts that there are no trophies for "winning" the trackday.
Mid Ohio does LED track days once in awhile. The are on the schedule on their website. It is fun to go with some friends and just ride till you can't go any more. Tiring as hell, but good practice.
NESBA has done "Skills Enhancement Days" where they take one group (say B) and give then the track for the whole day. 250 miles or more are possible. Hasn't been in fashion lately...probably due to the cost???
Done it at Chuckwalla. Pridmore passing ya on the straight and backing it in to T1 on a stock GSXR/tires is very cool to see.
Yeah, he did that into turn 3 at Pahrump...with me on the back. Makes me feel like such a Sally! SoCal Trackdays used to run the open format all the time.
Ive done open lapping days a few times. You have to be really careful, because of very fast closing speeds, and beginner riders riding erratically. I prefer to have a track day divided by skill level in to at least 3 groups.
They still do. i ran three open days last year/earlier this year with them at chuckwalla. I love open TDs. Although they now primarily only do it at chuckwalla, i wasnt riding on the track back when they did it at pahrump. bummed i missed out on that.
There are still a handful of tracks that do "open" sessions on weekday evenings, especially before race weekends. Gingerman and Nelson did Wednesdays and Fridays respectively. I think both cost $75 for 5-dusk. But the ultimate reality of that format dwindling might be the almighty dollar. If you run three 20-minute sessions each hour, you can book three times as many riders for the same track. honestly, "open" track is more than I need. 30-minute sessions are fun though with a faster/slower grouping, or grouping by displacement.
did an open trackday at Chuckwalla once... and it sucked. all the slower riders grouped together on track, like at least two groups of 6-10, making it impossible to nicely pass them without completely screwing up my lap. i think i got about 8 hot laps (not one without traffic) in before lunch because quite a few riders decided that the tight off-camber turn was a good place to try to pick up time. the providers threw another riders meeting right b4 lunch to try to diminish the crashing & red flags... but, we never went back out after lunch because of sandstorm-like conditions.
I agree... But the problem with that is there are people in each of the 3 groups that don't belong, but won't man up to either bump up or down to the group they should be riding with.
Only time I've seen them down here is either private days (limited to like 25 bikes or so) or way off season days thta attendance is low...and usually those are broken to two 30min sessions not open.
Uh... cant the same thing happen in a combined race?? I like the open format because you can go out make some changes... not have to wait 40mins to try them out. It was nice setting up a quick shifter and trying out different peg positions.
There is a company down here that only does no session track days. They say you should have some decent track experience going in and should be at least a B group rider, but obviously you are going to have those people that lie about it. When that happens it gets a little annoying but usually they go off without a hitch.
