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as has the level of speed that the
cars do. Even a relatively quick
driver in an RS going down Hangar
Straight can reach 130mph. That is
pretty fast and you don’t need to be
that good to achieve that. To get to
150mph you have to be on it, but
130mph with paddle shift and loads
of grunt is easy these days.
“You also see more race cars
these days, as when people take
road cars the compromise is too
great, so they buy a Radical or M3,
for example.”
The pricing has changed over
the years, too. Lockie explains:
“Costs have rocketed. For exam-
ple, our cost for Brands Hatch is
£5k an hour on the GP circuit –
that’s £27k plus VAT, plus wages
etc., so it’s expensive. Silverstone
is similar but a much bigger track.
Some organisers max out the cars.
We won’t, and impose a strict
limit and will turn people and
their money away. If we took more
people on the day it would spoil
everyone else’s fun.”
While organising a track day
might be difficult, Lockie is aware
that he doesn’t normally have to
deal with that side of things. He
says: “I think mainly for Melindi
it’s dealing with individual re-
quests and changes. At Silverstone
she was making changes the
night before until 9pm with clients
contacting her wanting to change
garages, but she does what she
can and the clients feel they have
personal attention, which is unpar-
alleled in the business.”
Track days in Europe are cheaper
to organise but there are added
travel costs. Lockie says: “We
keep the rules the same even if
you are abroad. If there are rules
in place, why would you change
them? If you do, for example, run
days on the left only and then go
to Spa where it’s either side, you
cause a problem. So you need to
be consistent and on the same
page with everyone.
“Getting enough people to go
abroad is the hardest thing. The
benefit of Spa is that it’s beautiful
and there’s Belgian beer. The Brit-
ish circuits are fantastic, though,
and Silverstone is very technical,
very fast - and if you don’t get
the technical parts you will never
be fast. The GP circuit at Brands
Hatch is very special, Cadwell is
great and Snetterton is a fantastic
circuit but we’re sorry to lose the
old layout.”
As a coach it’s difficult to choose
a favourite track, Lockie says: “My
coaching answer is this: I do not get
into favourites, as having a favourite
circuit predisposes you to do less
well at others, but if you said I could
only race at one circuit ever again
for the rest of my life, it would be
the Nordschleife. It’s got everything
and in a Cup car we take off three or
four times a lap and at 164mph. It’s a
very special place.”
Because Gold Track believes in
the quality of its track days, they
often have people complaining
about the price, but Lockie stands
by their pricing strategy. He says:
“The only way you can lower the
price is by having more cars but
less track time. We do get people
saying we are too expensive and
so they try other organisers. But
we speak to them later and they
say it was rubbish and that they
spent half of the day in the pits
waiting for cars to be pulled out of
the gravel, or that there were too
many on track. When you think of
the minutes of quality track time
per pound, ours make sense. So
many people look at price and not
quality as it looks the same on
paper, but it really isn’t.”