The patron saint of tracktards?

When you have a few minutes look at this interview with Jonathan Palmer, what he says about track days is gospel. We have been saying the same for some time but of course we have neither the resources nor the knowhow to follow a business model which I do not believe has been quite realized or even explored in quite the same way in the US. Motor Sport Vision is an extremely impressive operation and I perhaps a better model than the "country club" one spreading around on this side of the pond.

But back to the interview. Interesting, given the need for more tracks and the difficulty of their coexistence in an increasingly dense housing environment, are the comments about noise. Noise is an issue on tracks we know well, Lime Rock for one. The trend, pushed by EU legislation, for manufactures to engineer what essentially will become "personal sound environments" within the cockpit is...disturbing, yet probably helpful to the future of our hobby and sport. In an interview for High-Performance Driving magazine, circuit designer Alan Wilson brings up precisely the same point. And though I'm sure someone would always find a way to complain, maybe because too many bugs are being slaughtered by cars driving on track, I think Audi proved with the R10 that one need not be noisy to be fast.

Interview by Chris Harris, Autocar