Open pitlane!

[G]

Yes without a doubt, whenever we went on car trackdays it specifically said no inexperienced drivers.

If you turned up and it was clear to see you had no track experience, i.e not letting faster people pass, taking very dodgy lines etc then you were black flagged and that was the end of your day, no money back nothing.

You used to get chavs turning up in E46 M3's thinking they could out drive anyone, but in reality they were holding us up in a 1.6 106 rallye and putting everyone in danger.

I will definately be doing some sessioned bike trackdays before doing an open pit lane of the bike variety regardless fo how many car days i have under my belt.

[yorkie_chris]

I'm led to beleive that in the novice group there's a bit of no-overtaking warm up time at first?

This on its own is probably the best thing to get used to the track without as much stress.

[tonyt]

I'm going to have a go in the spring.... I'm hoping Focused Events do a open pitlane on there evening sessions they do at Brands Hatch....

So basically focussed cant fill the days even when they are cheap that early in the season so instead he makes big claims about them being open pitlane and then charges more for the pleasure!!!

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

I'm led to beleive that in the novice group there's a bit of no-overtaking warm up time at first?

This on its own is probably the best thing to get used to the track without as much stress.

Yep - Most of the UK organisers do anything up to 3 sighting laps on the first session and then a single sighting lap on each subsequent session after that for novices - no overtaking.

It's a pretty good idea as one common mistake on TD's is binning it on the opening laps with cold tyres! I remember a few months back this guy on an SV coming up to me in the holding area saying 'I think I'm as fast as you so i'm going to stick with you'. After the first lap, I'm still warming my tyres and he rockets past me. 2 corners later I catch up with him as he is lying in a gravel trap after his back slid out - cold tyres!

Originally Posted by lukemillar

I remember a few months back this guy on an SV coming up to me in the holding area saying 'I think I'm as fast as you so i'm going to stick with you'. After the first lap, I'm still warming my tyres and he rockets past me. 2 corners later I catch up with him as he is lying in a gravel trap after his back slid out - cold tyres!

- I remember that one, and no it wasn't me. An open pit lane sounds interesting, I may look into it.

How many track days do y'll think I should do before I do one of the open pit lane days?

[G]

It could be 1 or it could be 10.

It depends on how you take to it i guess. I have known people to get on the track and feel very uncomfortable when they thought they would be ok, they still go to sessioned days and still go out in the novice group after 6 or 7 days. I also know people who have gone to a sessioned day for the first time and started in the novice group, by the end of the day they were in the fast group, setting the pace and would be more than comfortable on a open pitlane.

Originally Posted by graemepaterson

It could be 1 or it could be 10.

IMHO at least ten!.

You WILL be out with people ALOT quicker than you.

On a normal day mixing the novice group riders with the Advanced group would send most people into a brown bag moment!.

[johnnyrod]

I've not tried open pitlane but it doesn sound liek that'd be the case. I'm riding in Inters now and generally in the bottom half of the field, but I know I'm a lot faster than most novices. So to see some of those guys, or even meself, out there with the fast boys (you know what I mean Sarah), would indeed give me the willies. What about riding like a grandad for the warm up lap(s) while the rest of them are already roaring around?