When you go to a track event for the first time, it’s easy. You bring your car, a chair perhaps and maybe some snacks. Later on, it gets more complicated. You see other folks showing up for their weekend, and unloading a whole pit full of stuff. Other folks show up and simply start opening bays on the RV to expose tool bays, air compressors, and more. So what do you need to REALLY bring?
Starting Out
When you first start, just get a torque wrench and a socket that will work with your wheels. A tire gauge is also a very good idea. Once you get to the track, someone will have air if you need it, but you will want to take care of torquing the lugs yourself. Always store your torque wrench unwound, so it doesn’t fall out of calibration, and don’t use it to loosen your lugs! It will degrade and break the mechanism.
A Bit Later
So now you find you like this track stuff. You’re still not bringing a set of track wheels, but you’re more than a beginner. Now you need to bring a few more things. Fluids are first on the list. Know how to look at your brake fluid, clutch fluid, coolant, oil, transmission fluid and power steering fluid. I use a five gallon bucket to carry my stuff in. Along with fluids, you will want funnels for all of them. DO NOT mix brake fluid and oil in any funnel! Best to not mix any of them, really, but most folks don’t want to carry many funnels. You may want to carry spare brake pads, if your car is in need of them during the weekend. You also want to start thinking about your energy level now. If you need to bring gatorade or some other electrolytes, do it. Snacks for blood sugar? Yep. Try to start establishing habits for what you eat and drink at the track so it becomes a reliable pattern.
Advanced
Now you’re in real trouble. It’s a real hobby, and you may be in for the long haul. The tool thing goes up quite a bit here. You may want to consider contracting a race prep service to come to the track with you, but it’ll cost you. If you’re going to do it yourself, you will want to bring more stuff: Racing wheels with sticky tires, and all the stuff to change them. Breaker bar, perhaps a cordless impact wrench. You will want a compressor or a high pressure air tank, for tire filling. Jackstands and a jack to go under the car. Always bring four! You may have to have all the wheels off at once. Brake bleeding supplies, including a bleeder bottle and perhaps a power bleeder (or a friend to hit the pedal) and the wrenches to bleed brakes. Wrenches for the other common size bolts and fasteners on the car (torx if you need it, some metric if you need that, any specialized sizes). Spares for stuff that can break on your car. I carry spare rotors, oil filter (and oil), a wheel bearing and hub, belts for everything, brake pads and at least one tie rod end. Then you need stuff to fix things you can’t forsee. Zip ties and racer’s tape are the staples here, but also some wire and pliers to bend and shape it. And a hammer. Sometimes, you will want to start trailering at this point, because all this stuff, especially the tires, take up loads of room. A tire trailer is another option, but a trailer is good because you can always get home if the car breaks.
Addict
When you’re all in, the sky is the limit. You can’t quite build a new car from what’s in the tool chest, but you can sure fix almost anything. Rather than list what you need to carry, I’ll give you a framework for thinking about it: Bring whatever you think you need to save the weekend, IF the fix can get done realistically at the track. So spare engines are not likely, but spare half shafts? Maybe. Spare splitter? Yep. You’re almost certainly trailering at this point, unless you have a very low threshold for car repair. Nothing wrong with that, you know, but I’ve had several weekends where I was able to save the weekend by staying up late Saturday night and working with stuff I brought with.
Pro
If you are racing and someone is paying you, you are not working on your own car anymore. It’s both a blessing and a curse. You may feel a lack of control, but at the same time, you are freed up to drive, and nothing else. It’s liberating, which is why you don’t see Fernando Alonso with a wrench in his hand. Track support and setup and data analysis are all key to getting top performance out of a driver.