Nighttime HPDE events?

Does such a thing exist? I thought it'd be pretty cool to do a track day at night. I'd imagine there's a number of good reasons why i haven't heard of anyone doing this though.

Discuss?

There is an EMRA 4-Hour Twilight Enduro that I've run a bunch of times in the past.

~Click Here for '09 Schedule~

Held at Summit Point. Starts at dusk and you race into the night. Everyone has giant driving lights...lots of glare in your mirror all the time. It's kind of interesting in a sick way. One year I did it in an open Sprite in heavy rain. That was a tough one.

That's an awesome idea. I might just have to try running one if the track will let me. I'm not sure they're allowed to run after night, and I don't think they have a single exterior light. But I like.

OK, I just found two pictures from the Twilight 4-Hour...

My Escort from two years ago:

My Sprite the year before:

The group I run with most frequently has an annual nighttime DE at TMS. The first session is late afternoon, the next is twilight, with the last two at night. The oval portion of the roval is lit like it would be for NASCAR, but the infield portion is pretty dark.

It's fun as a novelty, and it helps with the heat, but otherwise I prefer daylight.

I plan on being at the EMRA event this year. The last time I was there (couple years back) the carnage was quite high.

billy3esq wrote: It's fun as a novelty

That's what I was thinking. I'll have to bring it up with the group that I run with since we have a lit oval as well.

Riding motorcycles during the day and at night are very different. I would imagine that track days in those conditions are the same.

The novelty could be fun but I don't know if I would want to do it. I tend to look over the track toward turns I'm not even at yet to gauge various safety factors, speed, track condition. That, at the very least, would be taken away during a night HPDE. Also, corner worker flags would be less visible which is the LAST thing I want.

I'm only considering this in the case of VIR. I would bet the expense of lighting a track of that size well enough to be safe would be prohibitive.

Corner workers use flashlights to illuminate the flags. I swear that more drivers pay attention to them during the night than during the day.

Here in Phoenix we run one or two night events a year, with both HPDEs and wheel-to-wheel racing. We love it because we do it to escape some of the summertime heat. Lighting becomes a major issue. You can have huge bumper-melting headlights but they won't show you your apex because they're pointed in the wrong direction. We use some portable lights in a few key areas and the tracks have some permanent light fixtures. Still, when I coach or instruct, I always tell my students that the first session in the dark will be a crawl/walk/run all over again, since it's like looking at a totally new and different track.

Serious drivers spend a lot of time and effort and some fair coinage on supplementary lights. The ones with good light setups have a significant advantage.

David

DWNSHFT wrote: Serious drivers spend a lot of time and effort and some fair coinage on supplementary lights. The ones with good light setups have a significant advantage.

Yep,

These are from the EMRA enduro in 2005. You need a lot of lights not just on the cars but in the pits too. BTW: I'm the guy with the fire extingusher in the second photo

mistanfo wrote: Corner workers use flashlights to illuminate the flags. I swear that more drivers pay attention to them during the night than during the day.

Cool! That'd work. I bet they are more noticeable as well.

Xceler8x wrote: I'm only considering this in the case of VIR. I would bet the expense of lighting a track of that size well enough to be safe would be prohibitive.

you should come back to VIR the week end of Halloween and watch the

NCR-SCCA "Charge of the Headlight Brigade" 13-Hr Enduro (F)... It's a 13 hr enduro... I crew each yr... no lights out on the track... can you imagine the approach to the roller coaster with only your own headlights ... especially if you happen to be running by yourself

wbjones wrote: you should come back to VIR the week end of Halloween and watch the NCR-SCCA "Charge of the Headlight Brigade" 13-Hr Enduro (F)... It's a 13 hr enduro... I crew each yr... no lights out on track... can you imagine the approach to the roller coaster with only your own headlights ... especially if you happen to be running by yourself

Whoa. No way. Your headlights would be pointed in the wrong direction to help you down that hill. I have a hard enough time picking a place to be on-track without being blind as well.

actually all the cars that run that race have additional large large head lights that are angled outward, don't light up the rd ahead but do give some help with the apexes

come on down and watch the fun...

We used to run these at Calder Park in Victoria, we ran under lights but the cars were only allowed to use low beam to stop dazzling other drivers in the event of a spin. Of course it was a National circuit and had amazing lighting

They were awesome by the way

no low beams at the 13 hr lots of teams put strips of tape across the back windows to cut the glare

besides which the back side of VIR is pitch black at night