[to_riffic]

Hi guys,

I figured it was easier to ask here than my SoCal peeps. I'm from SoCal and wanted to make a trip out to Austin to hit up COTA, what vendors are out there that setup trackdays? I want to make this my kinda summer retreat so hopefully there are events and I can meet you guys!

Best,

John

[RoundelM3]

There's a track day being set up for Texas BMW CCA chapters in June, but it's costing nearly $100,000 to rent the track facilities for this event. Aside from that, there may be some other organizations setting up private track days, but your best bet would be to contact COTA directly via their website http://www.circuitoftheamericas.com.

[Wookie420]

The BMW CCA event at COTA is long sold out. There are other organizations doing events there, but not sure of the specifics.

[to_riffic]

Originally Posted by roundel335

There's a track day being set up for Texas BMW CCA chapters in June, but it's costing nearly $100,000 to rent the track facilities for this event. Aside from that, there may be some other organizations setting up private track days, but your best bet would be to contact COTA directly via their website http://www.circuitoftheamericas.com.

that's ridiculous. i guess i'll have to pass on cota and find other tracks to attend this summer.

Originally Posted by Wookie420

The BMW CCA event at COTA is long sold out. There are other organizations doing events there, but not sure of the specifics.

ah darn...

[RoundelM3]

There are events at Texas Motorsports Ranch near the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and at Texas World Speedway in Bryan (about an hour's drive from Austin). A small track, Harris Hill, is located just north of San Marcos (south of Austin). There's another track in the Houston area, although it may be one of those "private-club" type tracks. You can probably use Google to locate tracks/organizations within the state that hold driving events.

[RioGrandeValley]

High Plains Raceway in Byers, CO.
Hallet in OK.
MSR in Cresson, MSR Houston.
Eagles Canyon near Decatur (NE of Dallas) and the others mentioned above. Club events and DEs for mixing it up.

Good Luck, have fun and most importantly stay safe.

Tomato

[jphughan]

Driver's Edge is one of the more popular HPDE organizers out here. I've run with them many times, as have other members here, and they've got HPDEs down to a science. Everything runs smoothly all the time, the instructors and classes are great, and it's just always a good time had by all. The times I've thought about moving back to California I've always been bummed that there doesn't appear to be a Driver's Edge equivalent out there that offers a consistent experience at multiple nearby tracks, possibly because California doesn't have a ton of tracks all in the same general area.

But anyway, although Driver's Edge ran COTA this past January, they're waiting to hear whether they'll be able to again. COTA management was really happy with how the Driver's Edge event went, but the organizer that ran COTA after they did (can't remember who) didn't do things as well. That group had several single-car accidents, including one car dumping enough oil in the pit area that 32 bags of Oil-Dri were required to clean it all up -- that's an enormous amount of Oil-Dri. So COTA management got pissed and started thinking maybe they'd go back to only allowing professional racing teams and automakers to use the track after fulfilling the obligations they'd already made, including BMW CCA. If you followed COTA drama, late last year they agreed to host HPDEs with some groups, then around Christmas they called everyone to say they'd changed their mind and were cancelling everything, even events for which deposits had been paid and contracts had been signed -- and then 3 days after that they reversed THAT decision and said everything was back "on track", as it were. As far as I know, there hasn't been a firm decision one way or another as to future HPDEs after that other organizer's fiasco earlier this year, but at the moment I don't think they're booking any new HPDE events, so everybody is just waiting.

There are lots of other fun tracks in Texas, though. The nearest one to Austin is Harris Hill Road, which is a slower course but it's very technical and has very gentle runoff areas pretty much everywhere, all of which makes it a great choice for novices -- not sure it would be worth a trip from SoCal though. Driver's Edge used to run it but stopped because it's not really large enough for the number of cars they usually get. The next nearest track would be Texas World Speedway in College Station (about 100 miles northeast of Austin), which is a TON of fun and which Driver's Edge definitely runs. Faster track, rewards higher horsepower cars, not as technical as H2R but can still teach you a lot, though there are some pretty nasty runoff areas compared to H2R, so you'd have to be more careful. TWS is also relatively easy on your brakes since it's more of a momentum course, which is kind of nice.

[to_riffic]

Interesting. I definitely heard about the fiasco late last year about the groups being cancelled, then reinstated. It looks like I may end up going to H2R, but I'll have to rethink my options. I was hoping to make my way east since I have a project in Atlanta later this summer, so a visit in Texas was going to be a nice stop for a few days visiting friends and colleagues at Ft. Sam Houston before I made my way to Georgia.

Thanks for all the input guys.