Mid-Ohio Supra Track Day

jorligan

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Also - has anyone done or considered Mid-Ohio's 3 day High Performance Course? It's not cheap, but looks like it could be well worth the cost based on curriculum / seat time over the 3 days.

It's about 2-3x the cost of HPDE events at Mid-Ohio put on by AutoInterests, ChinTrackDays, and NASA Great Lakes. Mid-Ohio 3 day course has skid cars and S2000 you get time in, but not sure of other benefits over these other companies.

https://midohio.com/courses/high-performance/3-day-high-performance-course

***EDIT - for those interested, here are some of the costs of other companies for events at Mid-Ohio specifically. Prices are similar for events at other locations too like Pitt Raceway

NASA - 2 day HPDE $479.00
ChinTrackDays - 2 day HPDE $750
AutoInterests - 1 day only offered, HPDE $270-$365 depending when you sign up
Mid-Ohio School - $2050 for 3 days. ~$750-$800 per day if you sign up individually
My son (16 y/o) is going to do the teenage drivers course and then the midohio 3 day school which allows him to do events. Otherwise, tracks have an 18 y/o age limit unless they have a racing license.

NASA and Chin both offer HPDE events with class room and instructors which are superb. I remember that at a Chin event at VIR, my friend who was a complete novice had an instructor who was the SCCA rookie of the year. You will get as much track time with the others and equivalent education. Other groups with HPDE and great instruction include Porsche Club, BMW Club, Audi Club and NSX Club. I will be at the Porsche Club events in my Supra, will definitely be there is August as both my son and nephew will be doing the teen defensive class.
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handsoffsam

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***EDIT - for those interested, here are some of the costs of other companies for events at Mid-Ohio specifically. Prices are similar for events at other locations too like Pitt Raceway

NASA - 2 day HPDE $479.00
ChinTrackDays - 2 day HPDE $750
AutoInterests - 1 day only offered, HPDE $270-$365 depending when you sign up
Mid-Ohio School - $2050 for 3 days. ~$750-$800 per day if you sign up individually
While a cost comparison is great, I really think the focus should be cost/seat time.

Not to bash NASA as I've raced with them for years, but they typically prioritize race groups and the session count for DE is smaller compared to other groups -- not to mention hard stop session time limits. The DE groups also take the brunt of race issues / towing / fluid spill cleanup eating into the schedule. Also worth mentioning that a lot of the times it will be instructor roulette - you may get someone whose mind is on car setup for race 2 or fixing a frayed belt while also instructing another student in DE1 ---- and not your development...speaking from experience here ?

+1 to Chin - An excellent group to get involved with. Schedule around the country is excellent so you're not having to start from the bottom with a new group when you hit up different regions. Format is amazing with a happy hour typically at the end of each day -- tons of seat time. Best of all, they typically limit instructor assignments to 1:1, so the development is there as well.
 

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While a cost comparison is great, I really think the focus should be cost/seat time.

Not to bash NASA as I've raced with them for years, but they typically prioritize race groups and the session count for DE is smaller compared to other groups -- not to mention hard stop session time limits. The DE groups also take the brunt of race issues / towing / fluid spill cleanup eating into the schedule. Also worth mentioning that a lot of the times it will be instructor roulette - you may get someone whose mind is on car setup for race 2 or fixing a frayed belt while also instructing another student in DE1 ---- and not your development...speaking from experience here ?

+1 to Chin - An excellent group to get involved with. Schedule around the country is excellent so you're not having to start from the bottom with a new group when you hit up different regions. Format is amazing with a happy hour typically at the end of each day -- tons of seat time. Best of all, they typically limit instructor assignments to 1:1, so the development is there as well.
As an Instructor of NASA North East Region, sorry for your experience. But from my experience, instructors in our region dedicates to DE1 & DE2 and all of them are NOT participating in race. seldom, some will participate in TT but they usually don't have student assigned to them. Even in instructor clinic, we stand against doing double duty as instructor and race. having said that, there are differences between region to region so I can only speak for my region, North East. We also offer HPDE only days.

As for race incidents... It's not much different than HPDE car spilling oil on the track or buried tire. These incidents usually occurs on DE2 or DE3 where drivers are a bit more "overly" confident and cars a a bit more aged with more power.

Last event we had, we had 100 minutes of track time (20 minutes x 5 sessions) in a day without any delay At NJMP /w NASA. There were about 15 ~ 20 cars so there were plenty of room to run around as well.
 

Dannyvandelft

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Nice! will you get insurance for the one day mid-ohio? It will be my first time on a track and not sure if I should pay $324 for insurance.
No I'm not. It's a very controlled setting, and unless you drive like a lunatic, it should be fine.
 

handsoffsam

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As an Instructor of NASA North East Region, sorry for your experience. But from my experience, instructors in our region dedicates to DE1 & DE2 and all of them are NOT participating in race. seldom, some will participate in TT but they usually don't have student assigned to them. Even in instructor clinic, we stand against doing double duty as instructor and race. having said that, there are differences between region to region so I can only speak for my region, North East. We also offer HPDE only days.
As an instructor and racer with NASA for going on 11 years, not sure why you're apologizing to me :D But you nailed it, every region is different and I'm very happy hear this - it sounds like you guys run a great thing up there and I've only been for nationals.

As for race incidents... It's not much different than HPDE car spilling oil on the track or buried tire. These incidents usually occurs on DE2 or DE3 where drivers are a bit more "overly" confident and cars a a bit more aged with more power.
I'd argue it very differently as the odds of something happening (fire, binning it, oil spills, coolant spills) in a race group are considerably higher. But my point is, when they're squeezing this in with DE groups, I often see the DE group get the short stick for the sins of the race groups. Again it sounds like your region has an emphasis on DE since you have have DE2 and DE3 broken out, which is awesome.

Last event we had, we had 100 minutes of track time (20 minutes x 5 sessions) in a day without any delay At NJMP /w NASA. There were about 15 ~ 20 cars so there were plenty of room to run around as well.
Back to referencing Nocturnal LE's post with costs, taking 100 minutes versus 4 x 25 minute sessions + 60 minutes with Chin is what I'm driving at. Cost & seat time.

At any rate, I'm happy to see the Toyota program feeding into NASA and always happy to see more people approach the sport, whatever the organizing group.
 
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Nocturnal LE

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Thanks - great to get some instructors feedback. Well I'm doing NASA supra sunday on the 30th, and I'm on the waitlist for Chin on May 31 and June 1. Would be a solid 3 days if I get in.

I will say NASA Great Lakes communication has been excellent, both Eric and Chris seem to be passionate about the program!
 

Dannyvandelft

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So this will be my first track day. I just checked out the entry list and thereā€™s got to be between 200 and 300 entries listed. https://nasaproracing.com/events/3513/entry_list

does it feel pretty chaotic at these events?
No it's very well organized. We run in groups. HPDE 1 is very straightforward. You can only pass when pointed by on the straights. Other than that you have to stay behind the car in front of you.
 
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Nocturnal LE

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No it's very well organized. We run in groups. HPDE 1 is very straightforward. You can only pass when pointed by on the straights. Other than that you have to stay behind the car in front of you.
Cool! Looking forward to it. Sunday it says it will be the 13 turn Pro Course (Saturday is 15 turn Club Course).

Here is what the Sunday schedule looks like for the Supras.
60 minutes total of track time.

Supra Sunday Schedule.JPG
 

Dannyvandelft

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Cool! Looking forward to it. Sunday it says it will be the 13 turn Pro Course (Saturday is 15 turn Club Course).

Here is what the Sunday schedule looks like for the Supras.
60 minutes total of track time.

Supra Sunday Schedule.JPG
Oh so we're not even part of HPDE 1, we're separate.
 
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Nocturnal LE

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Oh so we're not even part of HPDE 1, we're separate.
right. But looks like HPDE 1 only has 75 minutes on track, so not a big difference. Interesting because the ChinTrackDays HPDE Iā€™m running Mon/Tue has about 3.5 hours on track time each day for 7 hours total
 

Dannyvandelft

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right. But looks like HPDE 1 only has 75 minutes on track, so not a big difference. Interesting because the ChinTrackDays HPDE Iā€™m running Mon/Tue has about 3.5 hours on track time each day for 7 hours total
Are you going down the Saturday before for the early check in?
 
 




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