A few points to raise... renting a track and getting permission to use it for 80+ cars takes a fair bit of planning ... and money. Renting a track is expensive. Not to say it can't be done. But I looked really quick at how the S2Ki guys did it. They leveraged it off an existing NASA track day at Sonoma. And the entrance fee per car was $10. That's not bad at all but probably took a lot of hard work and planning by the organizers to make it happen.
The good news... we have 86CUP and a fairly good relationship with some of the track day organizers like NCRC and SpeedSF and Exclusive Trackdays.
For the last 2 years, we've held NorCal's 86CUP season finale at Laguna Seca with NCRC in December. Our plan is to do the same this year. A number of both NorCal and SoCal time attack racers will be there. At both these previous events we got permission from the NCRC organizers to go out on track at the end of the day, and take a group photo. We did not do a full parade lap, but we got to line up on the track and take some cool shots.
Photo by @
Pwolf:
The best part? Because of our good relationship with NCRC and how they operate -- entry into the Laguna Seca paddock is FREE. We had a number of guys who weren't racing on the track that day, just came through and hang with us all day at the track, and at the end of the day it was not only the competitors we were all invited to go out on track for the photo. I think that is a really cool opportunity for those of you who have never been on the track before.
For more photos from the day, see our coverage of last December's event:
http://86drive.com/2015/12/26/86drive-end-of-season/
How can we make this happen? Well this is just my opinion but I think we need to continue to foster the relationship with these organizations. That means recruiting more 86 drivers to participate and attend these track days with organizations like NCRC, SpeedSF, and Exclusive Track days. If we don't show up with good numbers throughout the season, they have little incentive to help us with the access to the race track. So if you are on the fence and thinking about checking out a track day, or signing up for a driving school, and are interested in learning more... come out and hang with us. You can watch the action, ask questions, maybe even catch a ride in our cars on track if you have a helmet. We are a friendly bunch and would love to have more people join us in the sport. Come out to an 86CUP event this season and help us grow.
For more info on 86CUP and the schedule visit :
http://www.mkivsoopra.com/86cup/
2016 Schedule
Date Track Config Organizer Remarks
1 Mar 13 Sonoma Raceway SpeedSF
2 Apr 17 Thunderhill Raceway SpeedSF
3 May 30 Thunderhill Raceway 5-mile Exclusive Trackdays
4 Jun 4 Buttonwillow Raceway Park 13CW NCRC 86CUP SoCal vs NorCal
5 Jun 5 Buttonwillow Raceway Park 13CW NCRC
6 Jul 23 Thunderhill Raceway West SpeedSF
7 Sep 10 Thunderhill Raceway East NCRC
8 Sep 11 Thunderhill Raceway East NCRC
9 Oct 1 Thunderhill Raceway West Exclusive Trackdays
10 Nov 5 Sonoma Raceway SpeedSF
11 Nov 26 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca NCRC
12 Dec 10 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca NCRC
13 Dec 11 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca NCRC 86CUP SoCal vs NorCal
That is my $0.02 but I believe that is the best chance for making this happen.