So I have been put in charge of planning a bachelor party for 4 guys this summer and I am considering Grid Life MW. I would really like for us to be able to do the HPDE together, but none of us have a car or any track experience. Are there options for car rentals that 4 guys could share?
Any input about planning or general thoughts about doing a bachelor part at Grid Life would be appreciated!
I've never been to Grid Life, but from the photos of the event and cars there, I'm not sure it's a great place for a group of 4's first time on track. Hopefully I'm wrong about that.
In reply to Lof8 - Andy :
This is exactly what I'm wondering about.
Look into a Corvette experience at NCM. You can rent new vettes and take them out on track for brisk laps.
It'd be far safer and less chaotic than the free-for-all of Gridlife.
And after NCM you can go on the bourbon tour and talk about how fast you could have been.
We are all in Northern Michigan and staying in state, but I like the idea!
Rent ay car and enter HPDE. done.
I'd like to recommend go-karts. The advantage there is that you can go much longer for less money and bounce off each other, instead of taking turns with the car. But if money isn't as big a concern: The Richard Petty experience keeps you in state and gets you driving a better car than you could probably rent for gridlife.
Not to mention isn't Gingerman their biggest event? By all means go and enjoy, but I've been waitlisted every time I've signed up for that.
Not that its local to you, but just anecdotal.
One of the best batchelor parties I have been to had us Karting at NJMP, lunch in clubhouse at NJMP, shooting sporting clays local to NJMP, then an Italian dinner in Baltimore, followed by getting VERY drunk in the inner harbor. It gets hazy at the inner harbor, but it involved separate bars with dueling pianos and a mechanical bull...
Cactus said:I'd like to recommend go-karts. The advantage there is that you can go much longer for less money and bounce off each other, instead of taking turns with the car. But if money isn't as big a concern: The Richard Petty experience keeps you in state and gets you driving a better car than you could probably rent for gridlife.
Not to mention isn't Gingerman their biggest event? By all means go and enjoy, but I've been waitlisted every time I've signed up for that.
Waitlisted for the HPDE or whole event of Grid Life?
The Richard Petty Experience sounds awesome but it would be a big ask for some of the guys. The reason I though Grid Life might be good is that there is a ton of stuff going on for the whole weekend (concerts, beer garden, car show, motor sports, HPDE) and four VIP tickets cost $725. Karting was suggested by another guy which started the thought process leading to HPDE/Grid Life.
TT, actually, but it's probably my own fault for forgetting how crowded it gets and signing up too late.
I think you could have a good time with it even if you don't drive, but splitting one car between 4 people doesn't leave you a lot of seat time and I think you still get charged full HPDE price each. I'd reach out to gridlife, let them know what you want to do and see if they have any leads on a track car rental. It's worth it to get somebody's prepped car with decent tires instead of whatever comes from Hertz.
As stated above, Midwest Festival is the most popular on track event of the year for Gridlife and has the least spots available in each discipline.
HPDE always has a backlog of people looking for tickets because it basically sells out instantly.
I instruct with Gridlife HPDE and I'm not going to say it's impossible to have multiple people share a car, but it's not within how most of our weekends work and I'm not aware of any other orgs who would allow that either in instructed HPDE.
If everyone had experience and could be signed off to go out in intermediate or advanced that might be a different story, but again.. it's not the norm.
This is before we even get into the cost of renting a vehicle for the weekend that would be properly prepared to have beginners in it out on track.
I would recommend you guys go participate in rental karting.. it's the most cost effective way to get everyone out and driving on track.
In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :
Thank you! This is exactly the info I was looking for.
I love Gridlife, and their events are awesome... but yeah, not sure getting out on track with four people at a bachelor party is going to be do-able, especially if you've never been on track before. Your first time on track is scary, stressful, and tiring, and not really what I'd suggest for a relaxing party.
I've done go-karts for two bachelor parties, though (mine and then for a buddy of mine who drifts). We found that for about $100/head, you can have a few hours of fun without the pressure and stress of a real track.
In reply to 80sFast :
I also forgot, beginner HPDE was scrubbed from Midwest Festival starting this year. We had it at PPIR Alpine Horizon Festival this year, and it was at midwest festival in prior years.
Yeah, beginner is scrubbed from Midwest Fest because of limited track time over the weekend and full sell out paddock.
However....Bachelor party at GridLife Midwest Fest is a great idea...and a new thing this year was Drift/Lyft sessions which was a combination of open drift and hpde for competitors in which ride alongs were given to spectators. So my suggestion would be to show up and try to get rides/organize some ahead of time. Just bring helmets. It was a big hit and I expect it will be done again next year, maybe even have a few more sessions of it over the weekend.
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