| Even though I had a spill trying to push a front 207RR too hard before it had warmed up properly, I'm not convinced about tyre warmers on track days unless you're ultra comitted.
First off, once you get the call for your group to muster, it's often enough of a faff trying to finish your pasty, stub your fag out, put your mobile away, get your jacket, lid and gloves back on and off to the pit lane without fiddling around with tyre warmers and gennies.
Then once you're in the pit lane or other holding area you can be there for five minutes with your nicely warmed tyres cooling off again.
As NBS says a few steady laps building the pace up gradually should see your tyres as warm as they're gonna be before too many laps are out. Depends on quite a lot of variables though, how long is the lap? How abrasive is the track? Is it a hot day or freezing cold? What type of tyres do you have - some take longer to warm than others? Let me tell you now that 207RR's take more than two and a half laps of Rockingham National on a chilly October morning.
Taking steady laps at the start of each session is what you should be doing as a track day virgin anyway isn't it?
I try and do 2 slow laps, then build the pace up gradually until I'm going for it around lap 5 (helps me warm up and get back into the flow as well). I find that I still get plenty of quick laps in - sometimes too many 'cos I'm knackered at the end of a session.
While we're talking about being knackered, most track day spills happen on the first session after lunch and the last session of the day. This is probably because digesting your lunch and the increased blood sugar levels makes you a little drowsy and combined with the fact that you're probably getting a bit cocky by now after the morning sessions. On the last session, beware the little voices inside your head telling you to put a banzai lap in because you'll have been working hard both physically and mentally by this point and you'll be more tired than you think.  |