FTD is chaos.

BigRich

Well-known member
Absolute sh1t show, never again for me and will tell all I know to avoid it. Riders don’t respect flags and the session gets black flagged. Good for THill for doing it, bad in the provider for not doing better on individual penalty.

Never again.
 

Slow Goat

Fun Junkie
Absolute sh1t show, never again for me and will tell all I know to avoid it. Riders don’t respect flags and the session gets black flagged. Good for THill for doing it, bad in the provider for not doing better on individual penalty.

Never again.

More details?
 

BigRich

Well-known member
Basically, across all groups riders were going down - likely do to over excitement, a green track, and not minding tires - and people were slowing for yellow then being passed. Happened too many times, basically in all morning sessions, so they started black flagging for any infractions.

After 3x in a row...I didn’t stick around to see if the riders figured it out, or if the instructors started picking off the specific offenders.
 

Shaggy

Zoinks!!!!
Basically, across all groups riders were going down - likely do to over excitement, a green track, and not minding tires - and people were slowing for yellow then being passed. Happened too many times, basically in all morning sessions, so they started black flagging for any infractions.

After 3x in a row...I didn’t stick around to see if the riders figured it out, or if the instructors started picking off the specific offenders.

That sounds to me like it’s more on the riders than the TDP. :dunno

I’d chalk it up to cold weather, excitement to get back on track, and general buffoonery. I’ve done a few days with FTD and it wasn’t a shit show. It was definitely a slower collection of riders than I’ve seen, but nothing egregious.

I used to ride almost exclusively with Keigwins back in the day because it was mostly fast guys that know what they’re doing. I did one day with them after Lance sold it and it wasn’t the same. Now I stick with Z2.
 

Maddevill

KNGKAW
I think FTD is aimed at more newer riders. Maybe you should stick to providers that cater to more advanced people.

Mad
 

FourThreeSix

Tall Guy on a Little Bike
It got better after the verbal lashings. I don't see FTD as the culprit here. They went over flags in the riders meeting and even handed out pamphlets for folks that needed extra help. After the first session was black flagged, they got on the loud speaker to reinforce it. It's up the riders to absorb it.
 

Hooli

Big Ugly
I've done several FTD days and really never had a problem. Maybe the higher amount of accidents could have been exacerbated by the fact that the pandemic has resulted in a larger number of riders who are really, really rusty? :dunno
 

dtrides

Well-known member
My experience has been cheaper track days attract riders with less skill (ie: newbs) which is ok, everyone is inexperienced at some point....
It also seems to bring in Calamari.... the "hold my beer and watch this!" crowd.
I like to avoid the latter..
DT
 

anh_vo1994

New member
The worst part was the red flag in the afternoon. They let someone go on course while the ambulance still out there then made the guy stopped on top of turn 5 for a bit. Rest of other A group guy just sitting at the entrance for at least 15 minutes.
 

BigRich

Well-known member
Providing all of the benefits of the doubt, particularly first event of the year with excited riders, FTD still left me with a poor first impression. PTT’s season opener was the weekend prior and was ‘cleaner’ despite having several riders going off as well.

And when considering the number of incidents with the number of instructors that were supposed to be on track, I myself will likely just stick with C@TT, PTT, and Z2.
 
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ViperThreat

Well-known member
I stopped riding FTD a few years ago:

1. I was banned from the org after my ex-girlfriend started dating one of the founders of FTD (Bill). She was quickly brought onboard as a staff member because of the relationship, and they decided that apparently my presence would be a "problem". I was eventually invited back once my ex and bill were fired from FTD and started Calitrackdays (which failed not long after it started). Obviously, I didn't care to return.

2. At a Sonoma event, when the track went cold for the lunch break, one of the founders friends showed up in a ferrari and they went out to hoon on a cold track - one of the staffers later told me that they almost got banned from the track for it.

3. At the same Sonoma event, we lost a full session because the bill hadn't yet been paid by FTD. All the riders just sat in the auxillary parking lot waiting for Sonoma Staff to let us in. Losing track time at an already expensive track was frustrating.

4. At yet another Sonoma event, I watched the founder (Augie) show off down the front straight only to end up rear-ending a novice rider in the beginner group.

5. At a THill East event, I asked an instructor to follow me and critique my line/body position. The advice he gave was later laughed at and called "utter bullshit" when I brought it up to another instructor after implementing the advice led to slower laptimes.


Beyond that, I have also experienced the general lack of professionalism in how the org is run - riders regularly ignoring flags, dive bombing riders in corners, unqualified instructors, instructors ignoring poor on-track behavior, etc.


Overall, the extra few bucks to ride with a better org has proven time and time again to be worth it.
 
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