Why are there no track days in the South Island?

[ducobsessed]

yes, there are test days, and the very occasional 'advanced riding' days, but why oh why are there no organized track days?

do we not have the population? has there been companies proving this in the past without success? or has no one pulled themselves together and gone and done it?

[racefactory]

What's wrong with a test day?

[puddytat]

Training/trackday @ Ruapuna on the 13th March
Have a go day, April 16th @ Ruapuna
HAGD 14th May @ Ruapuna
Thats according to the little calender Ive got, but you might want to check out
www.motorcyclingcanterbury.org.nz

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

Ruapun, Levels, and Teratonga all have track days, usually run by various clubs through out the year... best bet is to join a club that is into racing and has them and they will be in contact with other clubs that has them as well... Yah just gotta know where to look I guess

The OMCC
http://www.otagomotorcycleclub.org.n...vels-have-a-go


and as puddytat said
Have a go day, 16th April at Ruapuna
Have a go day 14th May at Ruapuna

[Grumph]

I see you're in ChCh - are two days a week at ruapuna not sufficient for you ?

Timaru is not quite so readily available due to the terms of use of the track.

It would appear that in the SI we are not prepared to pay a middleman organiser when we have tracks available at very reasonable cost and clubs doing have a go days on a regular basis.

[FROSTY:Me]

yes, there are test days, and the very occasional 'advanced riding' days, but why oh why are there no organized track days?

do we not have the population? has there been companies proving this in the past without success? or has no one pulled themselves together and gone and done it?

You have identified a hole in the market--why not organise a track day

[ducobsessed]

thanks for the comments all.

for sure the test days are good and cheap. however, they can be intimidating for track noobs. very difficult for a rider on a ninja 250 whose never been to a track before cutting it with guys doing mid 30's at ruapuna or worse, cars doing 14's. in england there has been a recent backlash to the 'tire warming' culture at track days and events are becoming popular where riders can only circulate on what they roder to the track

on a test day you don't get insurance, immediate medical, lines assistance, catering, fuel/tire service, etc but more importantly the opportunity to run with guys of similar pace.

finally, test days are not on the weekend

have a go days are better but they can be very disorganised. props to the clubs and i am glad they do them but i think they could be better controlled. guys 'borrowing' a vest, running in all groups then crashing 'cuz he was buggered at the end of the day is not good. they are cheap mind you

@FROSTY : thanks mate, i wonder if there is the population here to make it possible to break even?

[Nonbeliever]

I went to a "have a go day" at ruapuna with a mate a couple years back when I was in town. What a joke.
It was a day for club riders subsidized by joe public more like.
I was under the impression these days were for road riders , not club racers to boost their overinflated egos to go out and "carve up" some roadies.
I think their was 6 classes? and only 3 of those were for roadbikes (alot of racebikes in there too!) and they only got maybe 3 sessions for the day! the club guys would go out in any group they wanted.
There was even a very bad crash caused imo by a race bike, and a motard racer in the roadbike class.
Blood on your hands motorcycling canterbury.

[FROSTY:Me]

thanks for the comments all.

for sure the test days are good and cheap. however, they can be intimidating for track noobs. very difficult for a rider on a ninja 250 whose never been to a track before cutting it with guys doing mid 30's at ruapuna or worse, cars doing 14's. in england there has been a recent backlash to the 'tire warming' culture at track days and events are becoming popular where riders can only circulate on what they roder to the track

on a test day you don't get insurance, immediate medical, lines assistance, catering, fuel/tire service, etc but more importantly the opportunity to run with guys of similar pace.

finally, test days are not on the weekend

have a go days are better but they can be very disorganised. props to the clubs and i am glad they do them but i think they could be better controlled. guys 'borrowing' a vest, running in all groups then crashing 'cuz he was buggered at the end of the day is not good. they are cheap mind you

@FROSTY : thanks mate, i wonder if there is the population here to make it possible to break even?

I wondered that about 5 years agowhen I ran the first KB trackday. its pretty easy maths. -add up track hire,staff wages etc and then figure out how many riders you need to cover that much at say $100 per rider

[Kickaha]

I went to a "have a go day" at ruapuna with a mate a couple years back when I was in town. What a joke.
It was a day for club riders subsidized by joe public more like.
I was under the impression these days were for road riders , not club racers to boost their overinflated egos to go out and "carve up" some roadies.
I think their was 6 classes? and only 3 of those were for roadbikes (alot of racebikes in there too!) and they only got maybe 3 sessions for the day! the club guys would go out in any group they wanted.
There was even a very bad crash caused imo by a race bike, and a motard racer in the roadbike class.
Blood on your hands motorcycling canterbury.

Sounds like you're full of it

They run one class for MNZ licenced riders and the rest are split in three groups (not 6) and they may also run a class for learner/SS150 riders

The club guys don't get to go out in any class they want unless they are helping with training and if they do they are wearing hi vis vest to identify them

I've seen club guys pulled out of the A, B, C groups by the club because they weren't meant to be there

What roadbike class did the crash happen in? was the rider a MNZ licence holder or had he borrowed a mates race bike? because plenty of them do

I've talked mates into doing these days and their main complaint was to much riding, two of them fucked off part way through the day as they were so rooted

Did you bother raising any of your concerns with the club?

[schrodingers cat]

The 2 test days per week are very assessible if you can get time off work but can be quite intimidating getting dive bombed by the serious guys who are out there all the time. I'm sure they get sick of passing me every 4 laps too

Give Llyod a call at the Canterbury Car Club office 349 6003
What you will find is that the track is at about 97% useage so getting a weekend slot isn't that easy. Getting a weekend slot where it doesn't rain is even harder...

'B' track is often under-utilised and is a fun little series of corners so that is a possibility

Also during daylight savings a twilight session is possible.

If you choose to organise such a thing my advice is to get a non refundable 50% deposit up front and make sure you are financially rewarded for taking the risk.
Money talks, bullshit walks

[schrodingers cat]

cars doing 14's.

I don't think a superkart can do a 14 at Ruapuna.

There is the occasional toy in the 18 - 22 brcket but not many and not driven by dickheads.

It is VERY rare on a test day to have cars and bikes on track together. If there is one bike and 2 cars SOMETIMES it happens but since bikes use the dipper and cars, as a rule, don't then sessions are the order of the day.

The regulars at the track work amongst themselves if numbers are low on the day.

[Kickaha]

I don't think a superkart can do a 14 at Ruapuna.

There is the occasional toy in the 18 - 22 brcket but not many and not driven by dickheads.

Nothing has ever done a 14 at Ruapuna

The fastest Superkart has run around 1.28 using the dipper without they'd probably be around 1.20 flat

The outright record is Daniel Gaunt in a 301 DALLARA SPEISS HOLDEN, 25/01/2004 at 1.18.099 this was not including the dipper

It has to be a pretty quick car to get into the 1.20 bracket and that wouldn't be using the dipper either

http://www.canterburycarclub.co.nz/T...%20Records.php

[schrodingers cat]

Nothing has ever done a 14 at Ruapuna

The fastest Superkart has run around 1.28 using the dipper without they'd probably be around 1.20 flat

The outright record is Daniel Gaunt in a 301 DALLARA SPEISS HOLDEN, 25/01/2004 at 1.18.099 this was not including the dipper

It has to be a pretty quick car to get into the 1.20 bracket and that wouldn't be using the dipper

http://www.canterburycarclub.co.nz/T...%20Records.php

TraNZam's could do 20's. F5000 can do 18's. TRS dip into the 19's. There are a couple of toys around (Mugen Reynard F3000 and a Lola LPM Le Mans car) that could go faster driven properly but are not able to race as they are too fast for the track licence.

[Kickaha]

TraNZam's could do 20's. F5000 can do 18's. TRS dip into the 19's. There are a couple of toys around (Mugen Reynard F3000 and a Lola LPM Le Mans car) that could go faster driven properly but are not able to race as they are too fast for the track licence.

All "proper" race cars though

Actually now I properly checked that link I posted the outright record is actually Scott Dixon in a Formula Holden 1.15.810

When they ran the Drink drive 500 a few years back both bikes and Cars used the same track configuration, on day one the fastest car which was a TraNZam or OSCAR was something like a couple of hundredth of a second faster than the quickest bike

Tim Gibbes put $100 up for the bike that beat it , dunno if it was claimed or not