What if it breaks (HPDE content)?

Hi guys. I've been autocrossing for a few years now and this is the year that I'm going to man up and take the Miata to a HPDE/track-day (or two). The car's in good shape but I don't have the budget to replace everything that might fail on a 19 year old car with new stuff so there's always a chance I might break it. Maybe the timing belt decides it hates life, maybe a wheel bearing doesn't like the grip levels of the new Rivals, maybe a brake line has had enough, etc, etc, etc. Now breaking the car is no tragedy (It's not my daily driver; I bought a cheap old Miata just for AutoX/track stuff so I don't have to worry about hurting the daily driver and missing work,etc); but I still don't know what to do on the day of the event if it breaks. I don't have a tow vehicle so trailering the car everywhere is not an option (no budget, no parking spot for another car, etc). When you guys drive to track events, do you have a plan for what to do if the car breaks? I might be 75 miles away (Lime Rock) for my 1st event but eventually I'll be 200 miles away (Pocono) or 300 miles away (Watkins Glenn). So what's the plan if it breaks? Find a good local shop before hand that you can have the can towed to and have Enterprise on speed-dial for a rental car home? Upgrade to the super-duper-golden-platnum AAA and ride 4 hours home with the tow truck driver? Something else? Any input that you guys have would be appreciated. I'll feel a little uncomfortable if I'm a couple hours from home beating the crap out of a car if I don't have a backup plan. I don't think it will break...but if it does, what do I (you) do?

Maybe find a friend who has a tow rig and/or trailer for the "just in case"? With that kind of distance it would probably be cheaper to rent a uhaul and trailer to retrieve a broken car than using a tow service.

Probably should do a little research on what facilities (towing/lodging/rental cars)are around the track before you head out. That way if bad things happen you have the resources already researched.

3/5 track days I went to ended with a broken car. Of course I trailered them in the first place and drove accordingly. It's nice be able to run 10/10ths out on track. If I depended on them to get me home I would have taken it a lot more easy on them.

Get AAA+, 100 mile tow range for free.

And that is why I have a F-350 and a trailer. I never could get comfortable racing a vehicle I was dependent on getting me home.

You have a few choices:

1 - Don't go

2 - Get AAA

3 - Borrow truck and trailer

4 - Throw yourself at the mercy of a fellow racer

5 - Replace the stuff that's most likely to break before it breaks

I have been autocrossing since 95 and doing track days since 97. I have run Neons with 155k miles and new cars with under 3k. I never had an issue that I couldn't drive home UNTIL my 30k 9-2X blew a motor while my wife and I were doing a B&B weekend away with a trackday thrown in. Not fun. I was lucky as I run with a great group of guys (3 Balls racing) and I had several people who helped me get our stuff from the B&B and another who put my car on his trailer and I drove his track Miata home behind my car. This dampened things for awhile but I still go regularly with no tow rig or trailer and with my daily driver.

Have a plan.

Check with your insurance company and others that offer roadside assistance and tow policies. Sometimes you can add distance with higher plans.

Consider renting a truck and trailer for tracks far away.

Talk with friends,family, other attendees of the event and see if you can borrow or rent their tow vehicle and trailer. An alternative could also be to rent a trailer from one person or rental company and the tow vehicle from another person or rental company.

You can also go to the event and have the rental/borrow tow set up on stand by in case you break. (this is what I do most often)

One thing a group of regulars tried to do (new babies got in the way)was have three or four people go in together and buy a trailer to be pulled by someones regular vehicle (You could also rent a truck) and then bring the trailer to the event. If any of the participants break then the truck and trailer is there for them and the others drive home in their track cars. The trailer is kept as one of the groups home or business. This can be extended to include a tow vehicle, trailer, dolly and even a rental place to store the tow set up but each changes the costs of entry.

There are options you just need to find the one or two that work best for you and your risk aversion. I built my 155k mile street Neon into a Spec Neon in 16 days, did a three day Comp license school, and did 2 seasons of racing driving the car to and from the track for the first season and never had a problem I couldn't fix and drive home. Bring plenty of tools and spares if you can (Miata without a trailer makes it tough but lots of people run Miatas so you may be able to borrow stuff)

The one time it happened to me, I just called a tow truck...

Edit: Oh wait I once had a breakdown in an offroad rally too (frame break). Also called a tow truck that time.

I've tracked multiple Miatas and the only time I nearly didn't make it home was in the one that had been badly turbo'd by the PO. It kept blowing off silicone connectors on the track and even when driving home. Other than that, I don't think I ever needed a tow truck.

That said, I'm not getting massively comfortable with driving my track car to track events for hundreds of miles so I'm contemplating buying a tow rig. After I buy another track car, that is...

I drove my Miata to Lime Rock for my first track day. I had a tire tail on the back and the passenger seat full of stuff. I unloaded everything, swapped the tires and I was sweaty and exhausted by 8am when I got to the driver's meeting. At the end of a long day on the track, I had to repack the car and swap the tires again while everybody else was having a beer.

That was the week that I bought my trailer.

Knowing you're tracking the car you have to drive home will affect your driving. Not necessarily in a bad way - you may show a little more mechanical empathy and be more aware of the car. You may also be slower.

I've driven to quite a few track days and driven home. That mechanical empathy goes a long way. So does having a car that's properly prepared and understressed. Since getting the trailer, I've driven my own car home a couple of times so that another car can go in the trailer, including on 1000 mile trip.

I did HPDEs for ~20 years. Only broke down once - blew the turbo on my RX7 turbo II on the way home from Lime Rock. Got a tow from a flat bed.

I never really needed to load the car with tons of crap for a track day. Do prep and maintenance in advance. Bring extra oil, bring a tire gauge and a torque wrench. Never needed anything else for track days.

Make sure the maintenance is up to date and you'll be OK. Fresh oil change, make sure the coolant system is OK - no leaks or running hot, make sure brakes are good and pads have plenty of life and brake fluid is reasonably fresh and bled, make sure your tires are good and aligment is in spec.

YMMV

Get out there a do it. It is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

And this is why I bought a tow rig. Sure Hallett is only 30 miles away, and I may still occasionally drive it out there on it's own now and again.

But I have no desire to drive a car on R-comps, no P/S, no A/C, etc say roundtrip to Topeka or Houston or even High Plains outside of Denver like that.

I drove my 300k mile Civic to HPDE events for several years before I invested in a cheap tow dolly and a van. I towed it a few years and it was a very nice feeling to know I had a way home. I haven't done much the last two years as I don't trust the tow van as much as I did. If you have a friend who tows or at least has access to a tow rig you might have a conversation about having access to it if there is a serious mechanical. On several occasions friends of mine have towed home other peoples cars and their track cars were driven home from the track to make room on the trailer.

One thing of note: Whenever I've broken down at a track, someone's been willing to help. Once a complete stranger gave me the keys to his brand new $45,000 truck to run into town. Car nuts are great that way. I still hate mooching, however.

If you have doubts about the car surviving the track day, I'd skip it and put the money towards fixing those things first. Sure some big ticket items aren't reasonable to replace but maintenance stuff like brakes, timing belts, cooling system parts, etc should be fairly inexpensive and easy to replace.

I wouldn't want to put a car on the track that I had doubts about something as important as brakes anyways; you know if they fail they're going to fail at the very end of the fastest straight and Murphy will see that is how it happens.

Otherwise I vote for deal with it when the time comes and keep the local U-Haul's number handy just in case. The only time I needed a ride home a fellow club member towed my car home while his son drove their Miata.

I'd agree - if you think the car wouldn't survive mechanically, don't take it to the track, fix it up first.

There's always the rare Oops when you stuff the car into the scenery, but that shouldn't keep you from tracking the car. However in that case you might have to U-Haul it back...

I've done 50+ track days over the last 15 years (mostly in the first few years actually -- before my kids were born), and I've had four incidents where I had questions about getting home. One was caused by a monkey at a tire store (cross-threaded/broken lug studs), one by a cracked downpipe, one by a cooling system failure (resulting in overheat and possible head gasket failure) and one by stripping all the teeth off third.

For broken lug studs, a friend with a trailer towed me 10 miles to the nearest Les Schwab, who attempted to fix it (they got it fixed well enough to drive home, but the track day was a washout). For the cracked DP I just drove it home gently, made it fine. The overheating incident I called AAA and used my Plus membership (although the HG was good enough to drive for another six months, so it would've made it home fine) and for the transmission I had just (literally, the weekend before) installed a winch on my then-new trailer, so I towed it home myself. I still had 1, 2, 4, and 5, so I might've been able to drive the car home with the dead tranny, but I'm glad I didn't have to try it.

So that's about an 8-10% questionable-to-get-home rate, although 3 of those events were directly caused by having the turbo kit on the car.

As for plans for getting home -- the key is flexibility. AAA Plus will do 3 100 mile tows per year, and AAA Premier will do a single 200 mile tow, although I'm told you might need to push it to the street outside the racetrack for them to pick it up (they didn't care in my case, but that was 5 years ago).

I've seen numerous cases where person A has a trailer and person B's car fails, so person A tows B's car, while B drives A's car, go to B's house, then swap the cars. This kind of thing is one reason why it's nice to have a tow rig that's a bit overkill for my Miata -- I have the option of helping out a friend.

Before I had the tow rig, my last-ditch plan was to leave the car at the track, find a ride home somehow (get a ride with someone else at the track day, rent a car, whatever), then rent a U-haul truck and trailer and go pick it up the next weekend.

I completely agree on fixing anything that you know ahead of time is questionable as far as reliability goes, though.

DaveEstey wrote: You have a few choices: 1 - Don't go 2 - Get AAA 3 - Borrow truck and trailer 4 - Throw yourself at the mercy of a fellow racer 5 - Replace the stuff that's most likely to break before it breaks

Perfect list.
I've been at the track when people were having problems and I must say, together we are a very resourceful group.

I will point out that if something breaks, you want it to happen at the track. It can be a real thrash sometimes but I always had offers to assist anytime I broke a car or tow vehicle.
I do remember a time when the water pump on the 'Burb went out and despite a track full of mechanics, I couldnt get the truck fixed and had to have it towed to a dealer because the 454 in my model required a different pump than any of the parts stores had in stock. It might not be as big of a deal nowadays with all the different parts stores looking for business but Faulkville Ga on a Sunday wasnt the place to be looking for car parts.

I used to drive a 250,000 mile Audi at HPDE days and breaking the car was certainly on my mind a lot of the time. Luckily I never had to use it, but my plan was to get a ride home and rent / borrow a trailer to retrieve it on another trip. My logic being it wouldn't be too hard to find a seat with someone heading my direction and I could return within the a day to get the car. The one thing that I was unsure of was where I could leave the broken car. I expect that most tracks don't want dead cars littering their facilities after an event has ended.

Certainly something that is still a concern for me with a 170,000 mile Audi doing autocrosses and HPDE days, but now I have a friend or two with a trailer who are willing to go on an adventure and bring a car back. Seems to be a common theme here that people work together to get everyone's junk home but no one wants to have that as a primary method.

If it breaks it breaks. Do your best to prep and go have fun. Seriously. People obsess over this like it's somehow different if it breaks while you are on vacation or on your way to work.

disclaimer:
I mean, sure, you can crash (or wreck someone else) if you go out on bad ball joints, cracked de-laminating tires or dry rotted hoses full of anti-freeze... but if you did that it would make you a fool for not addressing obvious safety issues before going on a race track. Lets assume you are not outright being stupid and dangerous... Do what needs doing so you are not a liability to yourself and worse - someone else and then put it out of your mind.

Have fun.

Funny story: I drove My Stalker V6 to Thunderhill one time, and my cousin brought his Mustang. The Mustang broke down. I had a trailer hitch on the Stalker for a tire trailer, and I'd used a full-sized reciever. Ended up towing the Mustang back on a dolly with the Stalker. Fortunately I never had to brake hard

In reply to kreb:

I think you surpassed the factory tow rating on that stalker.

Now he has the long wheelbase version

Keith Tanner wrote: Knowing you're tracking the car you have to drive home will affect your driving. Not necessarily in a bad way - you may show a little more mechanical empathy and be more aware of the car. You may also be slower. I've driven to quite a few track days and driven home. That mechanical empathy goes a long way. So does having a car that's properly prepared and understressed. Since getting the trailer, I've driven my own car home a couple of times so that another car can go in the trailer, including on 1000 mile trip.

This ^^^

I used to rally-X an Outback and I drove it there and back. You do tend to back off once and a while and although it might hurt your speed a little in the end its easier on the car.

One item to note is that you might want to pack a "break down" kit. Lubricants, gloves, etc. Ear Plugs too! (I knocked the exhaust off my Outback and drove home 3.5 hours. I was damn near deaf when I got home!)