Originally published December 9, 2019. Last updated April 4, 2025. 

Learning a brand new track can be intimidating. You may already have the experience of driving a familiar vehicle on a familiar track — but now you’re introducing a new variable: a completely unfamiliar track.

Tracks vary so much around the country that the differences between tracks can be significant. But don’t despair! Learning a new track is an incredibly fun experience and there are standard procedures and numerous resources to help you along the way. Here’s how to get started.

Pre-Event Preparations

In today’s digital age, there are lots of resources to help you begin learning a new track even before you leave home. Look for information that can help you prepare before an event at a new track, particularly anything that can help with memorizing the track’s layout and its reference points.

You should be able to find a wide variety of resources, from track maps to in-car videos, simulation games modeled on the track, track descriptions written by racing experts and online forum discussions about driving the track written by drivers like you. Make sure to visit the track’s official website, YouTube, social media profiles and any other online resources.

During your preparation, try to become as familiar as possible with the direction of travel on this particular track. For understanding reference points, in-car videos can be particularly helpful. However, remember that you will not be driving exactly the same car as you see in the video. While one driver may use a certain point as a turn-in, it might be different for you and your car, so you may need to adjust exactly how you use it.

First Laps at a New Track

When you first get to a new track, things can sometimes be overwhelming. Even with your pre-event prep, there will be a lot of information to take in. While absorbing a wide variety of information is necessary, it often works best to break it down into more manageable portions.

For example, consider using one session to focus solely on taking in visual information. Actively pay attention to what you see and determine what you can learn from it. Then use a different session to absorb the feel, balance and g-forces at play. In another session, you could focus on noticing auditory information.

From sight to feel to sound, all of this information can help you quickly get up to speed with an unfamiliar track. This is because focusing on one thing at a time helps make your learning more efficient.

Post-Lap Notes and Replays

After a session, the experience of driving on the track will be really fresh in your mind. This is the perfect opportunity to write down everything you can remember about the laps you just drove. The more time that passes, the more fuzzy the details will become, so make a habit of jotting down your notes as soon as possible after you finish your session.

For the best notetaking, grab a copy or two of the track map and start adding your notes in reference to the track location where you noticed that detail. Some top items to mark first include shift points and braking points. But almost anything can be included on a map — cracks in the pavement, shapes and placements of the curbs, corner worker stations, signs, bridges, changes in the track surface and more.

After you’ve added notes on as many details as you can remember, the next post-lap step is to replay your session in your mind. You can do this more easily, now that you’ve got a bunch of notes in front of you — it literally works like a roadmap as you make your away around the circuit, remembering each detail of the track in the order it occurs.

Next, repeat this process of replaying laps around the track in your mind several times after your session, as well as later on. Learning will occur from this repetition, so the more times you replay your session, the faster you will learn the new track.

Further Practice and Line Perfection

As you become more familiar with the new track, more and more things will become second nature. You won’t have to consciously make yourself think about shift or braking points, you’ll just do it automatically at the right time and place.

Once you start to reach this level of comfort with the track, you’ll be able to start pushing yourself and your car. Driving at the limit will help you add speed and shave time off your laps. You still may not be able to drive the perfect line yet for this new track, but that’s okay. It can take a long time to achieve a perfect line, and being somewhat off-line for some of the time is common as you continue to learn and improve.

Learning a new track is a great way to challenge your skill and keep your instincts fresh. Plus, if you are like most drivers, you likely have a bucket list of tracks you want to visit. Now you have a plan for how to approach them.

Track Car Protection at a New Track

Whatever new track you drive next, have fun and make sure to stay safe. Remember that most auto insurers exclude coverage for damage to your car while it’s on the track, so you may need additional protection.

HPDE Insurance from Lockton Motorsports offers specific coverage to protect your car from damage while you’re participating in HPDE, Time Trial and Track Day events. Our coverage protects:

• Street-legal cars and non-licensed track cars.
• Modifications you’ve made to your car.
• Two drivers at each event at no additional cost.
• Any demonstration laps your instructor drives.

Policies can be purchased conveniently, either ahead of time or the day of an event, online at LocktonMotorsports.com. Questions? We’re happy to help! Give us a call at (866) 582-4957 to speak to our motorsports insurance experts.