confuZion3 said:hosz said:I appreciate all the comments, especially the funny ones. It is making me rethink this whole thing. I was hoping to show my friends that track days are nothing to be afraid of and another way for them to enjoy their cars. They are interested in tracking their cars but are too intimidated to go to a real track day. Don't argue with me on this. I know. They just have whatever fear they have and feel more comfortable if everyone there was part of our friend group. I figured this would be a low key way to introduce them to the hobby and make them realize there was nothing to be afraid of.
The original plan was it was going to be just me and a couple of my closest friends. It might be better to go back to the original plan.
Ohhhhmygod you were serious.
Instead of a private event, why not just foot the bill of getting them all an HPDE entry at the same event? If there are enough of them, then they'll be a majority of the novice group anyway, and they'll meet some new friends. Plus, you'll have access to instructors, classroom training, and the organizers' insurance.
Besides... and people may debate me about this (and I welcome it), but you might not want to be the instructor for close family and friends. I never instructed people I was close to, though, occasionally, I'd go out with them for a session just to see how they're doing.
let me offer you an alternative...
partner /w somebody. The cost of track rental is very expensive, and if you're willing to subsidize the event you can probably find a club in your region that already knows how to run an event (including insuring it, registration, waivers, tech, etc etc) that will help to run it because they can get cheap track time for the rest of the members...
here is an example that you could probably learn from. a few years ago my local SCCA chapter was approached by Hagerty for their Hagerty sponsored track day. Hagerty had rented out Autobahn Country club and was offering a discounted track day for Hagerty members. The event was broken down into 3 sessions (morning, afternoon, and evening) The morning and afternoon were lapping HPDE days and the evening was a track sprint.
in your case you could offer the morning as a private day for those 20'ish friends that you were considering and in exchange for the clubs support they get heavily discounted / free track time in those later open sessions. a full track day these days is $300+ and evening a 3 session 1/2 day is $200, so if you can give instructors the ability to run 3 sessions in the afternoon in exchange for 3 sessions of coaching in the morning you would probably find some takers and if you lean on SCCA/NASA/etc. they already have an established process for welcoming new drivers to the track...
