BMW M Track Day at Sonoma Raceway

I recently got back from a visit to California, where I participated in one of BMW's track days at the Sonoma Raceway. It had three different events where your group rotated from one to another.

1. Lead follow on the main track - This is pretty much the main event, you drive an M3 and an M4 on the main track in a group of up to three other cars with an instructor in the lead car. The instructor will drive as fast as they think the group can go all while narrating the optimal inputs and tire placement over the radio.

2. Auto Cross - This is a compact track set up with cones and timing beacons. You have three attempts to drive through the course to get a fast of a time as possible without hitting a cone and stopping in the designated spot at the end. If you hit a cone or fail to stop in time, you are penalized 2 seconds. This event features the M2.

3. Drag Race - With a variety of different vehicles, you are put side by side with another driver in the same vehicle model and you accelerate in a straight line with the goal of stopping in the designated zone sooner than your opponent. Because of some mechanical problems, we did an all-electric version of this.

BMW really puts a lot of trust into you with their vehicles and compared to my last time participating in a track day which was at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Sonoma Raceway is more difficult. There are a lot of turns and elevation changes that you must watch out for. In the 30-minute classroom session ahead of getting behind the wheel, they said they had someone spin out badly the previous week. In fact, a group that day had a spin out but miraculously the driver at fault didn't hit any barriers and he and the car were okay.

I am not the biggest risk taker, but the M3 and M4 certainly get me excited to see how well their brakes work and how hard they can take turns. While I thought I was doing well in my final session, I was quickly informed otherwise. At the very end of the day the instructors take the wheel for a hot lap and you get to be a passenger, and my instructor for the hot lap was an incredible driver. I'm not normally a nervous passenger, but he got within inches of walls and other instructor's out on the track. He also managed to get the M3 going sideways a few times and got past 115 mph in the track's short straight by timing his braking and turning points extremely well. It showed I still have a lot to learn if I ever want to drive like that safely.

At the end they also had one of their motorcycle developers showcase a racing bike.

Here are some more pictures from the event.