Sometimes, just knowing how to find an HPDE can be tough. This is doubly true if it’s your first track day. I covered some useful resources in a previous post previous post and have recently discovered another. The site is hpdejunkie.com. It essentially aggregates many of the events happening around the country and allows a few different ways to filter to find what works for you. It is similar to a site I mentioned before, motorsportreg.com, but HPDEjunkie can be more user-friendly when you aren’t sure what to look for.
As an example, my next track event is scheduled for the end of August, which means about 2 months of no track time between now and then. I’d like to set something up, but I have an autocross scheduled at the end of June and work travel in the middle of July. On msreg, I could search for a track or organization, see what dates are available, and then see what fits my schedule. With HPDEjunkie, I can use the calendar function to select the weekends I have available and see what events are scheduled.
I find this to be a little easier to find an HPDE when you need to work around a schedule. HPDEjunkie has a pretty comprehensive and up-to-date list of events, but it doesn’t have every single one, so you may need to use it in conjunction with the other sites to exhaust all your options.
Another way I think the site can be useful is a bit hacky, but it works. Let’s say you just moved to a new area, and you are itching to find an HPDE. Alas, you don’t know of any. You can go to HPDEjunkie’s “Track Search” section. Here you can see a list of all the tracks in the country alphabetized by name. Of course, you don’t know the name in the first place. Instead of scrolling through the whole list, I use CTRL+F (or the Apple equivalent) and search for my state’s postal abbreviation. This way you can jump around to the local tracks quicker.
Depending on your appetite for travel, you may want to search a few neighboring states to expand your options. Pro-tip: search for your state’s abbreviation including a comma (e.g., “VA,”) to avoid picking up all text that includes those two letters.
I’ve found a couple candidates for a mid-summer track day using HPDEjunkie. Unfortunately, I need to sort out some mechanical issues on my Miata, and I’m not yet sure when I will be able to get these done. Rest assured, when those are all settled, I’ll be looking for some more seat time.
