[VIDEO] NCM Motorsports Park Shares Tips on How To Prepare Your Corvette for a Track Date

So you’ve got that fabulous Corvette – no matter the generation – and you’re ready for your first track day, huh?

First you might want to take a look at this YouTube video posted by a couple of knowledgeable guys from the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park staff – Matt Busby, track operations manager, and Daniel Decker, Corvette mechanic.

In this three-minute video, these two guys take you through an overview of a few things you need to make sure are right on your car to keep you safe and sound for your first – and subsequent – track days.

“We’ll go over some technical items that you may or may not know about to get you ready to go 150 miles per hour,” Matt begins.

It’s a good idea to check your brake pads and brake rotors. The pads need to be 5/32 to 6/32 to start your first track day, and the rotors should be nice and clean, with no lips on the edge, no deposits, and definitely no cracks, he says.

“So when you go to hit the brakes, everything works the way it’s engineered,” he says.

As for tires, Matt says a common misconception is that you’re going to go through a whole set of tires for one track day.

“This couldn’t be further from the truth,” he says, “especially in our Michelin Pilot Super Sports. We’re getting about 2,000 to 3,000 miles out of a set of tires, track-only miles.”

Even if a tire looks like it has a good amount of tread left, however, he says any tire older than 4 years old may not perform the way it was engineered to and it may not be predictable “which makes for a really interesting situation in the car or for your instructor!”

Inflating tires to the manufacturer’s track-use recommendations is important, too, and “finally you want to always make sure that your center caps are removed and your lug nuts are torqued to 95 ft-lbs,” Matt says.

Daniel, meanwhile, says brake fluid is vital. “You want to make sure it’s clear and topped to the proper level, and I would also recommend because of the extreme braking conditions that you’re gonna go through on the track, you go ahead and step up to DOT 4 brake fluid.”

Make sure belts don’t have any visual frays and hoses are not soft and spongy “because when you’re out there on the track, you don’t want anything to break,” Daniel says.

Matt stresses that safety equipment is important, too. “A factory three-point harness is perfectly okay for your first track day,” he says, “but if you do plan on putting any kind of racing seat, racing steering wheel, or five-, six-, or seven-point harness in the car, it’s a package deal. You can’t just do one – you have to do the whole thing at once or just leave the vehicle stock.”

The most important safety item, according to Matt, is your helmet, noting that a SA2010 is the lowest rated helmet you should use. SA2015 helmets are available at the NCM Winding Road store, he says.

If you still have questions, Matt says to visit motorsportspark.org. “We hope to see you out at the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park for the upcoming season,” he concludes.

Source:
NCM Motorsports Park

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