What Should I Pack For A Road Course Track Day?

As many of you guys know, I do road course track days a lot. 16 days scheduled this year up to November. About 14 last year from March forward. Also... obviously ... I drive a station wagon. I have cargo capacity and I use it. As one Porsche pilot wistfully opined as he watched me unload

"If you can load your whole garage in the car, why the hell not?"

Exactly. In fact, on occasion I am the go-to guy for tools in the paddock for other drivers and I don't mind this one bit. Sharing with another driver in a jam is a part of racing, and besides... wouldn't I feel stupid if I needed something, had the room for it and left it at home? Especially if it meant the difference between a tow truck or a drive home?

My "track pack list" is always with me. I keep it on my cell phone. Most of this stuff is bagged up in one of my tool bags and just need to be tossed into the car. Heck, sometimes it never leaves the car. I have been known to come back from the track, park the car in the garage and not unpack it before the next track day.

Do you need to carry all this crap? Thats your call. I'm just telling you what I carry in. Besides, as I said I drive a station wagon. You guys driving those sparse little sedans... get a trailer or have your wife follow you in a pickup

THE TRACK PACK LIST (very loosely organized)

MISC...

• Track Wheels. I bring along six of them. I fold the seats down and stack four of them up on their sides to the roof at the front, on the seatbacks. The last two go on the lower floor of the trunk, standing up (I remove the upper floor)
• Laptop (gives you something to do the night before track day... like make up self-indulgent threads like this)
• Gas cans ([email protected] gal ea. Only rookies buy track gas. Mark my words.). I line them up side to side behind the front four track wheels and ahead of the back two
• video camera, mount and lanyard (most tracks require a lanyard so the camera, if its mount disengages, does not become an in-cockpit UFO).
• timing gear (football!)
• extra batteries (for timing gear, video and flashlights... all race tracks are at least 100 miles from the nearest Radio Shack, so bring batteries)
• flashlights (track day ends at twilight. Repairs often start at twilight. Nuff said.
• Leather work gloves. Deerskin are the most usable but calfskin Wells-Lamonts are the standard. Reach into your wheel and grab your brake rotor for a lesson on why you need these. Those cute "contractor" cloth/faux leather gloves stay home.
• Tools (all of them). Two bags go down low on the rear passenger compartment under the folding seats, along with a couple of .308 ammo boxes that hold specific groupings of tools that I expect to use during the day (one, marked with shoe polish on top, holds all my brake tinkering tools, fluid funnel etc.)

Clothing (all fireproof Carmyth except helmet)

• Helmet (SA 2005... just buy the damn thing and quit complaining).
• neck ring (looks silly. A skinny whiplash collar. Worth the $20 if you ever bounce your head off of something inside the car. And you will.)
• fireproof Long johns
• fireproof under shirt
• fireproof socks
• nomex flight suit (DoD spec CWU-27/P... look it up on EBay: cheap fireproof coveralls for working on/driving car and not catching on fire if one breaks out)
• fireproof balaclava (no smartass I am not going skiing. STFU).

Quality fireproof underwear is hideously expensive but serves a purpose. It will give you 2-3 seconds of protection so you can jump the hell out of a burning car, and you can wear it and not look like a jackass. Few track guys wear full racing SFI/5 suits, and of those who do, probably half are posers who can afford the suit and the car ... but shouldn't be driving it.

Clothing misc.

• floppy hat (sunlight all day long. My rule: The skinhead wears a hat).
• raincoat (seldom needed until you do and then indispensable)
• garbage bags (for gear in during rain, or raincoats for sale to the fools who brought no raincoats).

Kar Krap

• Tranny dipstick
• Tranny fluid level chart
• Tranny fluid
• brake fluid (bring lots more than you need until you know how much you will need thru experience)
• brake pads (one extra set front and rear... they don't have to be new. Just enough to get you home in case your mains fail).
• Brake tools (get some VERY sturdy scrapers. You will need them to pry back your brake pistons so that new pads will fit into brakes that formerly had worn down pads in them. I call this my Cam tool (ask Cam).
• bleeder bottles (two for me is enough. One is not unless you want to dump hazardous fluid in front of witnesses).
• bleeder pail (sit the bleeder bottle on top of it, upended, while bleeding fluid)
• at least TWO bleeder wrenches (the little fokkers are way too easy to lose and your day is done without them if misplaced)
• Floor jack (get an aluminum one barely capable of lifting the car. They are easier to lug around and don't require ramps to get the car lifted so the jack will fit. Double party bonus).
• torque wrench (mine NEVER leaves the car).
• electric impact hammer with 1/2" socket fitting. The poor people use drills. Use the impact hammer once and you will never go back. The world's most wonderful powerr tool. Ever.
• lug nuts (you will scream very loudly if you bring your track wheels and forget the lug nuts that go with them).
• Lug nut sockets (my track wheels require different lug nuts that are different sizes. Make sure you have a socket or you will be way pissed).
• air gauge. (Bring it or beg someone else for one)
• laser temp gauge (useful for determining at what point your brake rotors melted into a heap of slag under your car).

More Misc Krap

• Ice Chest. I like to use the stand-up jug-type ice chest as it is a WAY better fit with all my gear. Just big enough to carry everything I could want.
• drinks
• flask (purely medicinal and solely for the night before. See Laptop above).
• WalkStool (google it. Buy it)
• tarp (crawl under it in the rain in between sessions)
• GPS (all race tracks are in BFE ... or BFNY).

Thats my list. Really. I copied it right off my cell phone list that I use. The useless commentary was added here for your enjoyment.