Track Food

We're doing a track food show ina couple weeks. Here's the pitch:

We need your favorite track food recipes!
December 27th on GRM Live!, we'll be doing a sampling of the best take-to-the-track and make-at-the-track eats. So here's what we want:
• Tasty bag-lunch ideas
• Fast food and convenience store food hacks.
• Easy trackside cookables/warmables (with and without electricity).
• Easy grocery store meals for the road.
• Stuff that will fill you up and give you energy, but not make you feel like a bloated load behind the wheel.
• Stuff you can cook on your exhaust manifold a plus.
Best ideas get made on the show.

You gotta eat at the track or autocross, right? What's good? What's not? We want your best ideas for fueling the human machine for our special holiday-week show!

(PS: "Just go to Road America all the time and eat grilled corn and bratwurst" is not an acceptable answer, sadly.)

PB&J. Easy to eat with one hand, no mess if you build it right, no hassles to store. Bonus points for using my mother-in-law's jalepeno blueberry jelly for extra pop.

Yes, boring. But like an LS swap, sometimes things work just because they're right.

Favorite autocross food is Nutella on a rolled up tortlla. I can easily cram four in a single sandwich bag, they don't get smashed, don't require refrigeration, and I can run for cones with one hanging out of my mouth like a big cigar.

I might have to tell my wife about that one. She digs Nutella. And if you pretend your tortilla is a crepe, it's even fancy.

Keith Tanner said:

PB&J. Easy to eat with one hand, no mess if you build it right, no hassles to store. Bonus points for using my mother-in-law's jalepeno blueberry jelly for extra pop.

Yes, boring. But like an LS swap, sometimes things work just because they're right.

Oh, c’mon! Just kidding. That made me lol a lot just now. And he’s right, PB&J is great for the track mostly because it doesn’t need stored or refrigerated

Recipe is badly overstating it, but my standby is a small cooler with a bunch of club soda, one or maybe two Cokes, and turkey sandwiches (just bread, turkey, and Swiss or provolone), either actually assembled or in component parts in the cooler, depending on the event.

I don't actually usually take a Coke for an autocross, and if I'm looking longingly at the second Coke at a track day, it's probably time to use its energy burst to put the bike back in the van.

Breakfast Burrito's in the morning, pickup a couple on the way to the autocross. Usually Subway for lunch. Recently there's been a food truck that comes to the autocross so I try to support them and grab something, usually a pulled pork sammich. May have a diet coke at lunch but often stay away from sodas, I'm pre-diabetic. Alternate water and gatorade during the day and have a diet green tea or 2 at the end of the day driving home.

If i pack lunch it's sandwiches with Lebanon bologna and sharp cheddar. Otherwise whatever i can buy close.

My son who started accompanying me to autocross events a few years back when he was 6, likes to pack the lunch for us. . . PB&J and granola bars for him and a crunchy vegetable sandwich for me, complete with carrots, tomatoes, and celery (but no mayo!) and held together with a half dozen toothpicks. (For some reason he decided he needed to make sure my lunch was extra healthy.) The toothpicks can be kinda dangerous the first time when you don't know they're there.

I warmed up a can of Chunky soup on the turbo of my WRX at an ice race. Does that count?

Meat. 

Meh the best track food is the free food it’s why you hang out with teams with big haulers transporters and motorhomes they usually always have too much food and beverages lol.

At the Chump (Champ) races we use lots of tortillas.  Eggs, hominy, bacon bits, and cheese in tortillas for breakfast.  We also pack ham, salami, cheese, in the pit cooler to stuff in tortillas for lunch/ snacks.  Pringles go over well and the packaging is trailer/pit road friendly.  Individually wrapped meat sticks are also popular.  Ive tried packing things like granola bars, fruit snacks, bananas etc, but most of that stuff gets taken back home.  My crew and drivers LOVE their processed meat in tortillas!

Track food.   Hummmmmm.  What ever the track sells?  We would bring coolers of all kinds of drinks. Soda water sports drinks and lots of them.  Hydration was always the most important.  If you were not making bathroom trips you were not drinking enough. Beef jerky was also a staple.  After that I just packed cash as track food was either very cheep or way over priced. But for some reason it always tasted great. 

On on a side note it would be interesting as to what track people think has the best food. 

Fueled by Caffeine said:

Meat. 

Me and you? I think we could hang out.

dean1484 said:

On on a side note it would be interesting as to what track people think has the best food. 

If anyone says anything besides Road America, they're wrong.

There's also this one stand at the Nurburgring that serves a big helping of french fries covered in mayo and chopped onions. It sounds disgusting—mostly because it is—but it's effin' delicious.

After this past season, my current favorite is basically a cheater grilled pizza.  I've got a Weber Q2000, heat it up during food assembly.  Take a naan/flatbread and brush it with pesto.  Add diced cooked chicken, then top with mozzarella and toss on the grill for 5-6 min.  Once the cheese is melted, eat.

I've done some variations of this now and all have been good.  I've added frozen corn and red pepper flakes to the chicken.  Another time, we had leftover jerk chicken with peaches and peppers and diced up, hat was also delicious and super easy.  The key is to minimize the actual amount of cooking that needs to be done at lunchtime, so this one all total is about 15 min. from lighting the grill to eating.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

I make own beef jerky. It’s portable and high energy. 

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

You pretty much have to start with Road America Brats and work backwards from there. 

The craziest "track food" thing I ever saw was at a drift event. Super nice kid who was trying to make the leap from amateur to pro. His parents were the bulk of his crew. We're standing there talking to him about the car and what it takes to move up a level and his mom gets out a cutting board and pulls piece after piece of fresh fruit out, cuts it, and arranges it like a pro level fruit plate and insists we have some. Half the kids there were vaping drift hobos, snagging a slice of kiwi as they carried destroyed tires to the tire trailer to get changed. It was surreal. 

JG Pasterjak said:

dean1484 said:

On on a side note it would be interesting as to what track people think has the best food. 

If anyone says anything besides Road America, they're wrong.

 

They have lobster rolls at Lime Rock.

Woody said:

JG Pasterjak said:

dean1484 said:

On on a side note it would be interesting as to what track people think has the best food. 

If anyone says anything besides Road America, they're wrong.

 

They have lobster rolls at Lime Rock.

This!!!!

A cooler with 

- Water, LOTS of water. When not in the car I have a bottle of water in my hand.

- Loaf of bread, deli meat, deli cheese, and some mustard. Not bothering with all the fixins' when just trying to get some sustenance. 

- Also PB&J to go with the bread, strawberry jelly please. I typically have friends and/or family at track days with me so I can take them out on track.

- A few Red Bulls (sugarfree), bananas, and granola bars. 

I don't know how guys can get in the car in the afternoon after eating a cheeseburger and fries for lunch.

Pasta salad with oil and vinegar dressing, chopped veggies (onions, celery, carrots, cauliflower, etc.) and a can of tuna mixed in, or a can of salmon on the side.

Easy to make up the night before and it has everything you need.

That's my go-to race day food

Grills are great at the track - and if I'm firing up a grill, whether at a track or at home, I like to cook all the sides on the grill too. Here are some of my favorite things to grill alongside meat:

Peppers. Brush them with olive oil or use an olive oil aerosol can, and thrown them on the grill until the outside is a bit blackened. The skin then will peel off. You can use the "mini sweet" peppers, jalapenos if you want spicy, or poblanos if you want something in between.

Asparagus. Again, just needs some olive oil.

Green beans. Just needs... wait, those I cover in melted garlic butter instead.

Mushrooms. Another one that works better with garlic butter. I pull the stems off and pour the garlic butter into the opening so it fills the gills, then initially cook them with the opening facing up so the insides get soaked with the butter.

Corn on the cob - wrapped in either water soaked husks or aluminum foil, and covered with butter, salt, and pepper.

Turkey based pre-wrapped deli meats (I am being generous using the term "meat" ) individually wrapped "cheese" slices (again, being generous), loaf of bread, and mustard.  The meat and cheese are tolerant of being soaked in the cooler, and the mustard isn't fussy about temperature.  Tastes great with brake dust!