Does anybody else get anxiety as bad as I do before a track day? I can't reasonably explian why I get the anxiety. I fly jets for a living and I don't get this anxiety. Is this something that goes away after time? I get it pretty bad which prevents me fro mgetting more than 1 or 2 hours of sleep the night before. Anyone else have this?

 

I road race motorcycles and I know what you mean. I could never sleep the night before my first few track days. Especially my first track day. When I saw the bikes going 150mph plus on the front straight, I got gag reflex. I think the anxiety is due to the fear of performing poorly (not holding your line, crashing, looking bad in front of people) more than anything else. At least it was for me. By the way, after I started actually racing, I could care less what people thought during track days

Go out there and have fun. Being on track is too expensive to NOT have fun. Remember that it is not your job, its a hobby. And yes, once you do it more often, the anxiety goes away. Its like anything else really....be happy your surrounded by a cage. I've bounced off walls at some tracks here on the east. I'm still injured from it.

EDIT: Go at your own pace and don't drive over your head

 

Yup, I pretty much spend hours the day before wondering what the h-ll I was thinking when I signed up. Especially when I'm getting into a formula car.

Then I get out on the track and get down to business, and the butterflies go away.

I recall reading somewhere (from a professional driver!) that if another driver tells you that they aren't scared about getting on the track, they're lying.

 

After doing HPDE track events for a while, I don't get nervous for them anymore. But when I was racing karts, just before the race started I'd get pretty anxious. Even though they're just karts, wheel-to-wheel is just so much different from non-competitive driving.

 

First few track events, I couldn't sleep the night before. Now, I can barely get up in time to make the events!

 

haha!. i feel ya jetpilot! i get very excited too but not to the extent that i dont get to sleep the whole night!

on the day itself all i do is imagine the layout of the track, staring at photos of the circuit, watching vids posted in youtube.

The moment i line up at the pitstop - i feel like im about to fap or smthing. .
here's one of my trackdevenings.

 

I used to also, but now i sleep like a baby.............i get all worked up all week prior though............lol
-j

 

The first track day was the worst for losing sleep. I'm getting better over time. Having a checklist for items to pack, and having a prep-list for the car to be prepared help to reduce some anxiety. I still get pretty excited until after the first couple laps.

Plus I am garaged for a few months - the first track day for next year will surely bubble up some stored anxiety from the winter downtime.

 

How much stuff can you crash into in the air? Clouds? That’s about it.

 

I am sure that he isn't worried as much about what he will hit 30k feet off the ground, he is probably more worried (if worried at all) about what he will hit on the ground and how fast he will hit it .

 

Damn I got anxiety just by reading this thread! LOL

 

After 17 years of autocrossing, road racing, and open tracking I still get nervous sitting in grid waiting to go. What relaxes me is to close my eye and image driving the course or track, with all the turns, shift, braking, and acceleration points. The effort to do this as accurately as possible calms me down.

 

i feel it's when we take our Z's to the track that we're getting its true value. driving around town/highways just doesn't do the trick.

 

i havent done many track days but for all times i did go, the night before i feel like a kid going to disney for first time...i get all nervous and excited...

 

Absolutely, this car cannot reach it's full potential on public streets. At least not legally or safely.



On topic though, I still get nervous, but I've only done 4 weekends so far. After I've done a few laps I calm down and get comfortable with it again and start picking up the pace.

I don't know of many things more satisfying than turning a few good back-to-back laps and feeling like I've done everything right. When it is just a fluid trip around the track, smooth and fast.

 

JetPilot, I would feel anxiety of going so fast that my car would disintegrate upon re-entry. Isn't your car putting down 500+ hp...could that be the reason? :-)

Kidding aside, I think some heightened anxiety should always be present before entering the track, and it helps people stay on their toes. The more track days you do, the less anxiety you feel, but after 40+ track days, I still feel the butterflies before entering a hot track. It goes away very quickly though.

I don't lose sleep at night, but I remember when it used to. When I partake in a timed event, I definitely feel a bit more tension. If I started doing competitive racing, I wouldn't doubt that my anxiety would skyrocket.

 

Not at all , did the first couple ones.

When i raced sportbikes i had it bad starting with the warmup lap and into the first corner with the green flag.

 

No not at all. However, I do make sure that everything that is going to the track is already loaded into the car the night before. Just grab the lunch and plenty of water and off I go.

Going through the track in my mind and reviewing my log book also helps with focusing on task at hand and not being nervous.

I seem to sleep easier knowing I have everything organized and ready to go.

 

I'm very interested into tracking my car can some one give me a link of good information, school, ect ect. I know Buttonwillow holds races.

I go to the drag races but its not that fun in a stock Z


Edit: Im in southern cali

 

http://www.raceschool.com/index.html SCCA accredited school. I did a search in Google and found it.