Trackday Passengers - anywhere does under 16s?

[supertouring]

I have recently purchased a non roadgoing trackcar and wanted to be able to take my 13 year old son out in it.

I have noticed that most trackdays require passengers to be over 16 years old but does anyone know of anywhere I can drive the car with an under 16 in it, either as a trackday or whatever?

The only place I know of would be The Ring but this is for road legal cars only.

ASDA carpark is likely to be my only bet

[bigbadbikercats]

Hi,

MSV allow passengers over the age of 14 at all the events they run at their circuits (Bedford, Brands, Snetterton, Cadwell). Other operators and other circuits may have their own individual policies but I know Gold Track are quite happy with this as I took my son (Matthew, age 14 and about a fortnight) to an event they ran at Brands Hatch this Saturday and we had an absolutely cracking day. Matthew was particularly delighted that, in addition to riding with me in my Audi he was able to blag rides in both a Porsche 911/997 Turbo and a Noble M400 :-)

I'll try to post a bit more information on how the day went later but in the meantime feel free to drop me a message with any specific questions - for the moment I'll just say that it worked very well for Matthew and I as a way of getting some real "quality time" and sharing a "boys day out" experience together. We'll definitely be doing more days together in the new year!

--
JG

Edited by bigbadbikercats on Monday 11th December 10:18

[elderly]

bigbadbikercats said:

for the moment I'll just say that it worked very well for Matthew and I as a way of getting some real "quality time" and sharing a "boys day out" experience together. We'll definitely be doing more days together in the new year!


JG

Edited by bigbadbikercats on Monday 11th December 10:18

You just wait until he gets
some kind of license and you become his passenger ...... that IS unconditional love

[bigbadbikercats]

elderly said:

You just wait until he gets some kind of license and you become his passenger ...... that IS unconditional love

That'll be a euphemism for "sheer naked terror" then...

I'll probably skirt the issue by A) Making him use his mum's car (currently an elderly Proton 1.3 Aeroback...) and B) Not getting into a car with him until I've seen one of Melindi & Calum's instructors get out of it unaided after a session with him

Mind you, if you want to see scary try taking half-a-dozen hyped-up 12/13 year olds karting as we did for Matthew's last birthday party. All of them seemed to subscribe to the "See god, Count to three, then brake" school of driving, all of seemed to have some form of selective color blindness which made yellow flags/lights invisible, one of them ended up in casualty with a broken thumb, and when one of the marshalls got run over I thought we were all going to get thrown out...

--
JG

[cw42]

That's a poor attempt at justifying your new excellent purchase mr touring! Good luck, and don't forget to pack the sick bags for the wee lad

[gtdc]

We can arrange it at certain venues - email me for more info

[e-mail]

[supertouring]

You stalking me Mr CW?

Email sent.

Thanks for the responses.

[Alpinajez]

Interesting thread. There might be a reason for not letting your son get behind the wheel too soon but it probably isn't the one you are thinking of. Don't think for a moment that a 13 year old kid can't drive the pants off most adults given half a chance. I have taken my (admittedly 15 year) son on the caterham slalom day and the Rally training with Pentti Arrikila (sorry Pentti probably misspelled your name)and he beat me and many of the adults in the timed runs. And by the way it was with the Under 17 car club and most of the kids beat most of the (very keen) adults. I consider myself a hardened petrolhead but the session sitting in the back of the 325i while he drove on gravel goes down in history for me. I was laughing so much I almost wet myself. He was absolutely determined to enjoy himself and showed fantastic control catching the tail and using the handbrake to negotiate a tightening bend. Go along to any karting club and see 8 year old Cadets naturally taking the racing lines around tracks and you will realise that the limitations on what most kids achieve are placed there by us (supposedly) superior adults.

[bigbadbikercats]

Alpinajez said:

Interesting thread. There might be a reason for not letting your son get behind the wheel too soon but it probably isn't the one you are thinking of. Don't think for a moment that a 13 year old kid can't drive the pants off most adults given half a chance.

Heavens yes, you've only got to catch a few of thre "Junior Ginetta" races (which actually starts at age 14 if I recall correctly but that's a slender distinction) on Motors TV to see that - absolutely fantastic stuff!

--
JG