There are two tracks within driving distance, one is 5 minutes from my house (Vaucluse Raceway, where we do autocross these days) and the other is half an hour (Bushy Park Circuit). Others can only be reached by boat or plane.
There are two tracks within driving distance, one is 5 minutes from my house (Vaucluse Raceway, where we do autocross these days) and the other is half an hour (Bushy Park Circuit). Others can only be reached by boat or plane.
Lime Rock, NJMP, and Watkins Glen are all within a 3-4 hr drive for me. VIR and Summit Point are closer to 6 hrs. Mid-Ohio is probably 8 hrs.
But I'll routinely drive 9-10 hrs to get to Mosport, Calabogie, or Tremblant. Those tracks in eastern Canada are phenomenal. Anyone in the northeast who hasn't run them should be ashamed.
When I was in living in Montreal, we drove some 2000 miles to Sebring in my Evo VIII for the 2005 PBOC Winterfest. That's the record for me so far.
I don't race, I HPDE. 1:15 door to door gets me to the 3 tracks at Summit Point. My wonderful wife thinks we're going to relocate to some sunny isle after the nest finally empties out, but I haven't told her she will also need to plan on waiting until my HPDE jones empties out as well.
VIR and the Glen are both about 5-6 hours depending how messed up the traffic is.
25 minutes to an hour and a half for autocross.
An hour to four hours for track stuff.
Three hours and 20 minutes for rallycross, which is quite frankly stupid, but I do love it.
Like girlfriends, it depends. For Laguna Seca I'm willing to make the 9-10 hr tow. For other events, even a 2-hour tow sometimes ends up being "meh."
In reply to JBasham:
Look for a sunny isle with a race track!
tomtomgt356 wrote: Move to Atlanta! We have more to offer than just rust free cars! I don't race, but I do track days. I've got at least 9 tracks within 6 hours and the mountains to get to them aren't that bad. Plus, you only have to deal with snow a couple of days a year. These are just courses I have driven or I'm planning to drive and does not include drag strips or autocross sites. Atlanta Motorsports Park - 30 min Road Atlanta - 30 min Atlanta Motor Speedway - 1.25 hrs Talladega Gran Prix Raceway - 2.25 hr Barber Motorsports Park - 2.75 hr Roebling Road - 4.25 hr Carolina Motorsports Park - 4.25 hr National Corvette Museum - 4.75 hr Virginia International Raceway - 5.5 hr
I'm calling foul on this. You are not taking Atlanta traffic into account 
According to Google maps, it's 59 minutes to get from Road Atlanta to AMP. And that's going nowhere near Atlanta. What place is 30 minutes from both? Springdale? Add AMS into the mix and the numbers don't add up. No question Atlanta has a bunch of options, as does Dallas. I'm jealous.
1 hour to High Plains Raceway 1.25 hours to Pikes Peak Int'l Raceway 1.75 hours to Pueblo Motorsports Park 7 hours to Hastings Motorsports 8ish hours to Miller Motorsports Park
I mostly go to High Plains and Pueblo, I'm not a fan of the roval at PPIR...
In reply to Keith Tanner:
I'm actually in Cumming, GA, about an hour north of Atlanta, but still considered a suburb. Yes, traffic adds more time, but it's usually not that bad at 6am on a Saturday or Sunday. Plan your travel time to avoid rush hour and the traffic isn't that bad.
tomtomgt356 wrote: I'm actually in Cumming, GA, about an hour north of Atlanta, but still considered a suburb.
Yeah, like Baltimore is a suburb of DC.
Distances/sprawl in the south and west astound me sometimes.
mazdeuce wrote: 25 minutes to an hour and a half for autocross. An hour to four hours for track stuff. Three hours and 20 minutes for rallycross, which is quite frankly stupid, but I do love it.
Where do you RallyCross? A friend and I are wanting to build a car in the next year or 2 to play locally.
I'm not into dirt track circle jerking, but there is a dirt track about an hour from me in madras,or. It's ghetto, but if really want to get my rocks off.... how fun is "go fast, turn left"???
Wow, I didnt realize how blessed I am. UMC racetrack is 40 minutes away. Most autocross venues are 20 minutes away. My favorite local rallycross venue is about a half hour away...
Dashpot wrote: Lucky enough to have three tracks at about 1.5 Hrs away each (NHMS/Loudon, Palmer/Whiskey Hill & Thompson CT). Used to do 6-10 TT's & DE's a year. Unfortunately have done exactly none in the last 3 years since Palmer & Thompson opened up.
Welcome to Worcester!
Dont bother trying circle track. Its not fun at all. Sounds like you should just stick to hotwheels.
Trackmouse wrote: I'm not into dirt track circle jerking, but there is a dirt track about an hour from me in madras,or. It's ghetto, but if really want to get my rocks off.... how fun is "go fast, turn left"???
I'd seriously consider dirt tracking if I found cheap car ready to go. Especially if they have a division that runs Figure-8. I'd even consider building a car for that.
With circle track in general, longer races with small fields can get boring pretty quick. But door-door in a tight pack will get your hair to stand up. Mini classes usually have larger fields and are super cheap to keep running but don't generally run figure-8's
One thing about circle track - no boring straights. You're in a corner basically all the time. That's gotta be interesting to drive.
Keith Tanner wrote:tomtomgt356 wrote: Move to Atlanta! We have more to offer than just rust free cars! I don't race, but I do track days. I've got at least 9 tracks within 6 hours and the mountains to get to them aren't that bad. Plus, you only have to deal with snow a couple of days a year. These are just courses I have driven or I'm planning to drive and does not include drag strips or autocross sites. Atlanta Motorsports Park - 30 min Road Atlanta - 30 min Atlanta Motor Speedway - 1.25 hrs Talladega Gran Prix Raceway - 2.25 hr Barber Motorsports Park - 2.75 hr Roebling Road - 4.25 hr Carolina Motorsports Park - 4.25 hr National Corvette Museum - 4.75 hr Virginia International Raceway - 5.5 hrI'm calling foul on this. You are not taking Atlanta traffic into account
Yes, Atlanta traffic is foul... 
Road Atlanta and AMP are probably almost an hour apart, but that's not a traffic thing. The road between them is actually very rural (great road for a summer cruise in a Miata). It's just 35 miles of twisty road with a 35mph speed limit in many spots. Atlanta Motorspeedway is on the other side of the city, in a really nasty traffic area. In rush hour, to get from AMP to AMS would be 2 hours easily. But yeah, lots of great options out here. I live northwest of Atlanta, and can get to Barber in under 2 hours.
Drove 10hrs. once to run track day at Waterford Hills
Lots of dirt tracks in the area and autocrosses, all within an hour.
Lime Rock is about 2 hrs. Done several events there.
2hrs. to Tupper Lake for ice racing. Many lakes closer.
Circle track looks like a ton of fun.
Big turnoff for me though is the rule mentality. From what I gather from questions asked on other boards I am on (a lot of guys run Saturns in the 4 cyl classes), basically everyone is cheating to some extent.
ProDarwin wrote: Circle track looks like a ton of fun. Big turnoff for me though is the rule mentality. From what I gather from questions asked on other boards I am on (a lot of guys run Saturns in the 4 cyl classes), basically **everyone** is cheating to some extent.
Circle track racing has always been something I want to try. At heart, I love road racing and plan to continue that as my main racing, but I've always wanted to try roundy-round. 4 cyl does seem the way to go and get into it cheaply, though like you said I've heard of ridiculous cheating. I don't want to get involved in that crap. I just want to find a car already built, buy it, race it, sell it, and check it off my "bucket list". I live within 40 minutes of a couple of dirt ovals, but I'd rather try a paved track.
Closest autocross 2 hrs.
Closest 1/4 mile dragstrip... Well, that would be Gainesville Raceway! 3 hrs. That's why I go to the Challenge!!
Circle dirt tracks are run in every peanut field south of the gnat line. 
Crackers wrote:mazdeuce wrote: 25 minutes to an hour and a half for autocross. An hour to four hours for track stuff. Three hours and 20 minutes for rallycross, which is quite frankly stupid, but I do love it.Where do you RallyCross? A friend and I are wanting to build a car in the next year or 2 to play locally.
San Marcos. I run with Lone Star RallyCross. You can find them on Facebook or send me a message and I'll get you the info.
Keith Tanner wrote: One thing about circle track - no boring straights. You're in a corner basically all the time. That's gotta be interesting to drive.
Although from what I saw on the website for the track Trackmouse mentioned I'm pretty sure 90% or more of the time is spent counter steering while flat out.
15-20 second lap times means you probably only straighten up long enough to flick it back out again. 
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