Anyone heard if Mustangs @ Mosport is a go for this year?

[OldSchool]

I was out with race rockets, maclarens, vipers, porsches, Ms and vettes. My old stock cobra and I was out classed but I had a BLAST. Great bunch of guys. The SLOW group was still blazing fast but not many cars in it
I need to make more money LOL

[hammerhead]

Racing has always been a rich persons sport. The saying is if you want to make a million dollars in racing, start with 2M. CTMP has been brought back to a world class track. Just think about how much property costs now a days!! Big bills to pay owning a track and you only get a chance to recoupe that money max 6-7 months a year. $650 a day is pricey though for just lapping when other groups charge less (talking about the mustang club).

yes I realize all that - but you are also channeled into spending money that has nothing to do with the track - like a BS license for starters - I'm not narrowing it down to the CTMP it's just everything compiled together - at nurburg public track session raises as much a 300,000 $'s with a low entry fee that's how many crazies want to try - for now I will stick to track days where I can and lapping and autocross - but it would be really nice to get out a stretch your legs once in a while... racing seems to be easily accessible all over the world except here - in a year or so I would be very interested in putting something together with a group of people as suggested above. Calabogie s probably where I will be going just not quite ready yet - I like your analogy "spend two million to make a million"...lol

[hammerhead]

$650. That’s 5 track days at TMP. I know that’s apples and oranges, but....


Has there been any thought to renting the DDT?

I had some friends try to set this up a few years back - they killed it with insurance from what I've heard - But that was a private open wheel racing - not lapping of testing

[Gr8Stang]

They will likely ask you what other groups / events you have run with, at what level, to get an idea of your competency. I know with DriveTeq, if they have someone new to them who claims to have lots of prior experience and wants to go in the advanced group, in the first session they will get sent out with a coach for a check ride to confirm.

Not sure how 6th Gear vets you before the event, they will explain if asked I'm guessing. I haven't done any events with them, but know people who have and they enjoyed the days.

Just did a little more digging on their site, and you either have to prove to them from your past experience and/OR do the "Check Ride", where an instructor goes out with you for a 20 min. session and determines whether you're skilled/safe enough to participate with them. And if you decide to roll the dice and do the Check Ride the day of the event and fail....you either pay to have an instructor or go home (you lose your registration fee...ouch!).

Here's the FAQ: https://6thgear.ca/faq/

[hammerhead]

that's what I'm talking about ^^^ the more you dig the more discouraging it gets - there's tons of potential for growth but it's hindered with closed minds and membership - fraternity like mentality...you could pay upwards of 500 $'s for a short lesson and still be refused and is the instructor any better of a driver or just a guy who's done some lapping and paid for a weekend instructor course and is now a bonified instructor cause he's a member of the frat way of thinking - it needs to change - it's needs to be organized so people learn and advance at a controlled affordable pace - the setup now in my opinion is just BS and random pockets of money grabbers that I think just limits success - when I and many of the members here where young to rent a movie at the video store in the early days you needed to be a member first and foremost before you could even get a movie...that business model spurred Blockbuster and later Netflix and it will continue to evolve and be a success...it's time to evolve racing!

[OldSchool]

Personally. I like the stricter rules and system. It limits risk for all those involved.. Drivers wrecking and getting a session red flagged for the clean up. Upsetting many and possible serious injuring themselves is a high and present danger. Just because we can afford to drive a fast car does not mean we can control it at speed. Our driving skills and ability should be scrutinized.

Track days are not for the light hearted or thinned wallet. Not everyone can just build and maintain a track like Mosport.

Experience does make a driver better, Doing training days are great. but “Lapping days” are about the fun of up at speed in a safe controlled environment.
The good thing about the other events is you can run what you brung, not just Ford powered

[fast Ed]

that's what I'm talking about ^^^ the more you dig the more discouraging it gets - there's tons of potential for growth but it's hindered with closed minds and membership - fraternity like mentality...you could pay upwards of 500 $'s for a short lesson and still be refused and is the instructor any better of a driver or just a guy who's done some lapping and paid for a weekend instructor course and is now a bonified instructor cause he's a member of the frat way of thinking - it needs to change - it's needs to be organized so people learn and advance at a controlled affordable pace - the setup now in my opinion is just BS and random pockets of money grabbers that I think just limits success - when I and many of the members here where young to rent a movie at the video store in the early days you needed to be a member first and foremost before you could even get a movie...that business model spurred Blockbuster and later Netflix and it will continue to evolve and be a success...it's time to evolve racing!

That's why events like the DaSilva days at TMP are a great place for people to get their feet wet giving this a go for a pretty reasonable price. No membership of any kind required, you pay the entry fee, and show up with a vehicle in ready condition and the proper attitude. Any private group that puts on a lapping day is free to create and enforce their own rules, which I certainly agree with especially at a dangerous circuit like Mosport. You are speculating about the ego and attitude of people that you've never met ... I'm not saying that I haven't come across ones like that, it certainly happens. Once you have done a sufficient number of track days to consider attending a lapping event at the Mosport GP (which should be at least half a dozen if not more), you and people that have ridden with you will have a pretty good gauge of your competency. Then it won't be a roll of the dice as to whether or not you're going to be allowed to run at an event after getting checked out. The event organizers are always looking for repeat customers, they are not going to let their instructors send people home for trivial reasons.


Having been involved with circuit racing and instructing for almost 30 years now, I am reasonably experienced and competent, but certainly don't consider myself an expert,. I'll give you an example of why people need to be checked out before being allowed to run in an advanced lapping group. Two summers ago I was assisting at an event run as its own deal by some people who were affiliated with the BMW Trillium club. Two students that I got paired with, one advanced and one intermediate, were sharing the intermediate student's late model BMW M5. Neither of them had ever driven the GP circuit before, but had some previous lapping experience. The organizers' criteria for putting him in the advanced guy in that group was that he had been to the Nurburgring.

It was raining pretty steady all day, and in the first session with the "advanced" driver he decided that even though he'd never driven this circuit, he was going to push his friend's very fast and capable car to the point where the electronic aids were intervening multiple times per lap. He did slow down a bit after being repeatedly admonished, but this behaviour continued throughout the day. I told the chief instructor that he should be in intermediate, and the car owner who was already in that group should be in with the novices, because he was struggling, but they encouraged me to keep working with them in their current groups. Compounding the problem was their scheduling for the sessions, after lunch they were combining the novice and intermediate groups so if we had moved these guys as I was asking for, they would no longer be able to share the car that day and get all of their sessions.

Finally by mid-afternoon and the advanced guy still not heeding my direction to slow down (he did have some decent skills, but he didn't realize how much the car was intervening and saving his ass), I told the chief instructor to pair someone else with him because I did not feel like being in a crash that day. As I've got past 50 yrs old my self-preservation instincts kick in at a lower threshold, especially at Mosport. If I had been the chief person that day, I would have been telling this person that he either slowed down, or be sent home. He is an example of someone who claimed to have adequate experience, but should not have been in the group that he was ... partially the organizers' fault there as well to suit their scheduling with him sharing the car. Sure he'd been at the Nurburgring, but unless he mastered it while he was there, it's not really much help on a rainy day at Mosport.

Driving quickly on a race track with others around you is NEVER to be taken lightly. In almost all cases the people organizing these types of lapping events and schools have a pretty solid background and track experience. These are first world problems when you boil it down ... if you feel that you can do a better job cheaper running an event, then by all means get a group of participants together and rent a day at the track!!

/ RANT OFF

[RedSN]

that was the most polite, well written rant EVER.

[1BAD92LX]

No amount of money ever would get me in the passenger seat of a car with a driver I don't know and drive around CTMP in their crazy fast car in the rain. Instructors earn their money for sure.
To me its all driver attitude. Don't take it personally that your put in the "slow" group. We all started there and at CTMP I'm more than happy in the slow group. Just because your car is fast, doesn't mean you are.

[Stephen06GT]

...Just because your car is fast, doesn't mean you are.

This, and check your ego at the gate.