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Interest in North NJ Alfa Dragstrip day?

5K views 32 replies 7 participants last post by  MDriver 
#1 ·
I mentioned this in the 0-60 thread that it might be cool if Alfa people in the Tristate NY,NJ, CT and PA area wanted to rent Island Dragway in northern NJ. It seems well situated for people from 4 states here to access. I think it’s $2500 for the first 12 cars and $100 for each additional so if you get 20 peeps it’s only about $150 each. Not bad considering you’d be using the track for like 5 hours with just 10 pairs or so of cars. That’s a lot of runs...

I also mentioned it would awesome if Fabspeed over in PA organized something, only like 90 minutes from Island Dragway, for Alfa owners to see in person their tunning work all wrapped up in a day of fun...

I’ve never organized something like this so any club people interested I’ll happily welcome input. Im just trying to gauge interest level before I bother the track and Fabspeed among others. I’ve done years of auto-X in PCA club and tracked my QV a few times and loved it but I totally understand a track day might be too daunting and too expensive for some so a dragstrip day might be a fun go-between that appeals to a larger subset of people even if only for a an Alfa-centric social get-together. I’ve never even dragged a car before but that’s only part of the reason I’d like to do something like this. Renting a whole track for a HPDE is a mind-boggling thing to do even though I’d love to see something like that one day for Alfas and this might be something to build on. I enjoy going to BMW’s HPDEs but I really would LOVE to start trying to lay the groundwork for Alfa-centric events. Why do cars and coffee when you can do Alfa’s, coffee and a Christmas tree? :)
 
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#2 ·
I'd be in for 150 if the dates work although I just checked the GPS and while it shows only 70 miles from House, that clocks in at 2.5 hours which is a lot. If that can go down to 1.5 hours early in the morning, then I'm in
 
#3 ·
Yeah it’s traffic depending but I think a normal day for them is 11am to 4 pm so depending on the day it shouldn’t be too terrible to to get there from this side of the Hudson.

Also I’ll try to contact Island Dragway this week for dates and other info. Chances are it might be starting to already get booked up for their open dates so who knows. If that’s the case we can always start planning for next year too. This is kinda a cart before the horse situation where I’d be good to see interest, or lack thereof, before I go and bother people about it..
 
#6 ·
Would you be open to other makes and models attending? Just off the top I could possibly add a modded E92 M3, modded clk55, modded F10 535i, and others to the mix. All driven by safe and respectful drivers, fwiw. Could be good for comparison to our cars.
 
#7 ·
Yeah I don’t think it would be a problem. Every drivers event I’ve been to for other clubs opens it up to other makes as well. I think the track allows up to 40 cars but figured it’d be hard enough to get 20 for a weekday event, weekends are doable but I think they are much much more expensive. The good news is I’m in contact with the NYAROC president and he’s going to give a shout out to the membership and see if any of the members are interested.

For $200, and a little less if we get more people, you’ll probably have dozens and dozens of runs. It’s a bargain for the amount of strip time you’ll get.
 
#9 ·
Yeah I was thinking depending on what the costs look like maybe make it Alfa $150 and $175-$200 for other makes to keep it accessible for everyone who wants to join the fun but slightly favor Alfa’s to encourage more of them?

I’ve contacted the manager at the Dragway and will post more info and details as I get them...
 
#10 ·
Ok I finally was able to speak to the track manager at Island Dragway after exchanged a few emails. Here are some more details... They have a pretty open calendar for weekdays because this is so early on in the season still. Fridays are the most popular choice and that is what I’m leaning towards, that or a Monday seems to make the most sense. Standard prep applies and unless your car can break into the 10’s you don’t really need any special prep, it would take some fair modification of a QV for that but I guess it is possible. If your car can break 11.5s you may be require to have a fire jacket at that point but they offer both helmet and fire jacket rentals for $5 each so even if those more casually interested in this you don’t need to even have your own helmet with such a cheap rental. They do have outside catering available if people want food to be brought in but they will open their concession stand for hot food if there will be more than 20 people and asked for, otherwise the snackbar for drinks and snacks is always available if you need something quick. You can bring multiple cars and multiple drivers but each requires a tech car from what I understand so you are essentially paying per person and per car which makes sense and shouldn’t really be a problem.


So in conclusion I think I’m looking to grab a Friday early in May. How does that sound to everyone. If there is a rainout they’ll reschedule to a future date. Any questions or comments I’d be happy to hear!
 
#14 ·
Yeah a Saturday private event starts at $6000 and Sunday $7000 both with $2000 deposits, the deposit is almost as much as an entire weekday event. These events are designed for up to 200 cars which means you’d only get a few runs at best anyway so that kinda sucks. Its hard enough to get a few dozen Alfa’s together lol. Weekdays are just the way to go, nobody is so important they can’t call in sick on a Friday to turn some gasoline into smiles:wink2:
 
#17 ·
Funny how life works and plans change. I now have spare Fridays.

Is this still happening, and when is this planned for?
 
#18 ·
Funny how life works and plans change. I now have spare Fridays.

Is this still happening, and when is this planned for?
 
#19 ·
I’m still hoping to do this. I’ve been slightly disappointed in interest but have talked to the track and am seeing if we can get some kind of limited sponsorship of sorts. I’d still like to do something the end of the month or sometime in June.
 
#21 ·
I still want to do this Italian Test & Tuneup Dragstrip Day but the only way I can make it work is to ask for $250 up front for the first 10 cars. Once the $500 deposit it put down for a specific date the money won’t be refundable unless it’s a rainout and we can’t get another agreeable date. I don’t expect it will actually cost $250 as if we only get another 10 cars it will lower the cost per car to around $175 at which point you’ll get $75 back. I’d be happy to handle this and make the financials all a public spreadsheet or something so people don’t think I’m trying to make money off of this, what do people think?
 
#23 ·
I'd be interested depending on the day.

N00b question, but would I need special insurance for this?
 
#25 ·
I'm going to shoot for a Friday.

As to insurance unless you’re in a sub 10’s car I don’t think there is a huge amount of things to worry about but you could look into the insurance companies that offer regular track insurance if you need peace of mind. You don’t really see too many stock street cars, or even ones tuned and modified a little get into too much trouble on a dragstrip but I can’t make any promises. Best bet would be to just leave the nannies on for a few runs and get comfortable. The best thing about a private dragstip day like this where we probably won’t even approach 30 cars is that you are gonna run many many times so there’s zero pressure to get everything out of every run like most test and tune days where you’ll get a couple of runs...
 
#26 ·
Ok sorry I haven’t been updating you guys here. I’ve been talking to Phil a.k.a. Auto Fanatic to team up and promote it in some way and film the event for his YouTube channel and potentially a series of them. I figure the people already on board here can do it for $200 but let other makes attend for $250.

The only potential downside would be maybe a lot more cars show up and less runs overall but still way way more than a normal test and tune on a weekend. I still don’t think more than 30-40 cars total would show up for a Friday. Does that amount of cars sound ok to the more experienced people here? Would an upper limit of 40 cars just to be safe be good?

Any input would be appreciated.
 
#27 ·
Ok sorry I haven’t been updating you guys here. I’ve been talking to Phil a.k.a. Auto Fanatic to team up and promote it in some way and film the event for his YouTube channel and potentially a series of them. I figure the people already on board here can do it for $200 but let other makes attend for $250.

The only potential downside would be maybe a lot more cars show up and less runs overall but still way way more than a normal test and tune on a weekend. I still don’t think more than 30-40 cars total would show up for a Friday. Does that amount of cars sound ok to the more experienced people here? Would an upper limit of 40 cars just to be safe be good?

Any input would be appreciated.

I jumped on an open track day at Atco a few weeks ago. It was $150 from 10-4. There was about 40-50 cars. I showed up at 1230. Got 9 runs in, on stock perrellis, taking my time and even stopped for an hour to let car rest while smoking a cigar. Left at 3pm. So I would say even with 60-70 cars in a 6 hour period you could easily get 12-14 runs in. Imo That seems a little excessive honestly to drag a giulia that many times unless you grudge matching etc. I think $200 person is very reasonable and I’m in for two cars. I would offer same price to other makes/models also cause you never know when they will have a track day and invite us.
 
#29 ·
Yeah sorry I didn’t follow up with this thread. I’d still love to get something like this going in the spring but it was getting tight timing wise this past fall and complicated dealing with the track etc. They seemed irritated by my questions but it’s tough laying out thousand of bucks for an event you have no experience running not exactly sure how well it will go off. They said maybe it’s better to start laying the groundwork in the offseason for something like this...
 
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