Track Rental at Island on October 25, 2024
 

Hey everybody, I am organizing a track-day rental at Island Dragway again this year, and this is the initial info for anyone interested


Date: Friday October 25, 2024. Gates open at 10 am and racing is from 11am-4pm.

If there is bad weather, we are allowed to reschedule the event for the following Friday.





Location: Island Dragway

20 Island Road, Great Meadows, NJ 08783

www.islanddragway.com



1/4 Mile Drag racing all day, with both lanes glued and prepped until the 330 foot cone. Test and Tune basically, and some grudge racing if anyone wants to get into that. All vehicles must pass their tech inspection, and I can get into more details about that if needed. Make sure that your car and your safety gear are all up to date on SFI certifications too, and plan to wear long pants. (no shorts allowed while racing). They are pretty thorough at rental tech inspection, so beware; they even dug into my car last year, and I had just been racing at this same track 5 days prior on that previous Sunday.

Any type of tire is allowed, street dot tires, drag radials, slicks, etc. We didn't have any problems with the variety of tire types on the starting line last year from what I can remember.

Last year we had a total of 26 cars that participated. Despite a delayed start to that event due to tricky weather and a missing ambulance, everyone had a good time and made plenty of passes; I know I ran 10 or 11 times down the track. Newcomers to drag racing are welcome, but I would like to quickly chat with them (via phone or email) about the car they plan on bringing. Most vehicles at the event will be in the 10-14 second time zone, but some of the faster vehicles will be in the 9's and 8's.



So, the day is booked, FRIDAY OCTOBER 25, and I will start taking payments for entry fee shortly. I have already paid the $500 down payment, so its official.





Costs/Payment:


In full transparency, the Rental costs $3000 for a 15 car minimum, which works out to $200 per person. Each additional car is $200, but Island Dragway requires a minimum of 15 vehicles on site to have the event. You can read all of this directly on their website, under the rental information page.

- However, last year, in order to secure a quick 15 participants, I decided to offer a cheaper price for those who signed up early. Last year that price was $150 instead of $200. I knew I would lose $50 on each car, but it helped me ensure that I would get the participants I needed.

- This year In order not to take a huge loss, but in hopes of getting the required 15 people locked in, I am deciding to adjust the price for the first 15 (14 after including myself) to be $175. Once we reach the 15 participants, the price will go back to being the normal $200 per racer, and thats where it will stay. Having most people pre-register with me is important, but if a few people wait until the last moment, I will probably let them join in. Island does NOT allow people to show up on the day-of the event and just jump right in, so prior communication with me is the only way to get in.

*In the event that you need to back-out of the event, just reach out to me and we will get it all worked out. You will get your exact money back, not to worry.

I can take payment via paypal, zelle, cash, or a check/money order; but paypal is the easiest.





Last year we got lucky and one of our racers brought along Matt, who had a drone camera and made this cool recap video of the earlier part of the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsoP9mzRv7U



Feel free to ask me any questions, I can Pm you my email address and phone number if needed too.

Figured I would bring this up again since we are less than a month away from the October 25th track rental.

Currently have 23 people paid and attending, and a few more on the maybe list.. so aside from any foul weather conditions, the event will be happening.

Feel free to reach out to me soon if you are interested.

Event is happening this Friday
the weather looks awesome, no rain in sight.
We have 28 cars signed up and paid.
Should be an awesome day.
People can come spectate too!

Looking forward to it!

Finally getting around to typing up an event recap.

With a zero% chance of rain, we all showed up for a 10am opening. Tech-inspection was picky, but in an unusually random way. Lanes opened at 11:00 am. We had 36 cars that made passes that day, and some cars made more than 10 passes each. We had a mix of hard tire (street tire) cars and race compound tires and we ran those in both lanes for a while. Some people were able to make a good launch, but overall the surface became too loose. The decision was made to have the Left lane re-prepped and keep this lane for race tire compound only, and the other lane could be used for street or race tires. The left lane did improve, and I saw my sixty foot times drop a bit, but not to their potential. We might have to discuss the lanes/tire compound scenario before next year's event, but any and all suggestions are appreciated. I definitely don't want to ostracize either group, but I want car's to launch good.

There was a good variety of cars, including my buddy Bob's gasser, 2 fast bikes, multiple generations of F-bodys, club members cars from here, a good amount of blower mustangs, and some good Mopar stuff too. A couple people broke, some went too fast and got the boot, some hit personal bests, and some cars were running until the very end at 4:00. We had a fair amount of spectators too; members from here also!

Jerry was the all-star of the day, and he spent a good amount of time taking action photos with his good camera. He also sprung for the large pizza pie order, and we are all thankful to him for those things.
This is the link to his photo album, with several hundred photos:
(I will also include a few of them below)
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...hjQk5mZDJtUEVR


I made 11 passes, most were decent, two were junk, some were great, and one new P.B. for the all-motor timeslip at 11.55.
After my 4th pass, I tried the new-to-me Hoosier QTP Bias-Plys and could tell the difference from the MT radials during every pass.
I was bouncing around all day doing different things, and I am bummed I did not get to take a stack of photos to share. I have front and rear dashcam footage of my runs, but thats boring so I won't post it here.

It was a good day overall and I also want to thank the racers for putting it all out there on the track and keeping the staff at island happy with our group. Well done everyone.

Feel free to post photos, videos, links, etc.





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Looks awesome. Still sad I had to miss it. Always next year!

Thanks for getting this together and looking forward to next year. Agree if you get another decent mix of street vs DR/Slick tire cars to allocate lanes. Weather was great and nice group of cars/people.

as always had fun! i was happy to get back into the 9's, if only the traction was there, kicking myself for not getting new rear shocks before the rental.

thank you for putting this on again, looking forward to next year!

Cant wait to see you soon guys