for those of you that drive your car to the track, how far are you willing to go?

34 years old -- been driving to and from events for three years in my Miata. Living in CT, I can hit just about all the tracks with NASA_NE within a 250 mile radius.. still, that's just one way and through the tri state area in a Kirkey aluminum seat bolted to the floor, 6 point harness, backstabber, etc. Oh and I'm 6' 2" -- long days, for sure but doable and mostly enjoyable. I camp out at the track when I can to give myself a break and connect with people at the paddock. That's 80% of the fun right there.

I've never felt unsafe with RS-4's or RT660's on the road through rain but it takes maximum concentration and 4 hours easily feels like 7 in those cases. I'm building it into a Spec Miata with no plans for a truck/trailer so I will continue to rough it, just need a tire trailer and some yoga. lol 

tldr; I'll drive 500 miles in a day in a track prepped NA Miata through New England and mostly enjoy it. 

Folks I'm a one lapper. The answer to this 2 year old question is "yes."  
 

currently trying to plan getting to and from laguna this fall. That's 2300 miles one way. 

My local track are 30 or 70 minutes away, but have on many occasion driven from Grand Rapids to Road America for a weekend and track time.  GR to RA 5.5 hours.

One Lap is on my bucket list, so driving to the track is always part of my build plan.

Before COVID, I know not a good reason to stop, but I did.  I would regularly travel 6 hours from Ottawa Ontario to Watkins Glen New York in my 1977 Porsche 924.  Car loaded up with tools, suit case, spares.  I also did it a couple time with my 2 kids and wife in the car!  The border crossing guys always gave me a strange look.  Then drive 2 full track days, drive home on the Monday.  Contingencies, was my family always towed 1 car so if my car broke down it got the trailer. 

Worse things to happen to me.

1. Exhaust came apart on the 400 series highway once
2. Fouled a spark plug and nearly gassed us with the fumes on the way home until I swapped it out at a gas station. 
3. Some very worn brake pads after the first day of driving (always carry spares)

I've driven 8-10 hours to tracks out of state before.  Thankfully didn't have an issue but I had tow coverage, the tracks were in larger metro areas with shop support and I had friends at the tracks with trailers, in case something really bad happened.

At this point I really just do a track day here and there, so stick to local tracks, which is anywhere from 1-2ish hours from my house.  Those are well within tow coverage range, so I don't worry about them at all.  I tend to not push as hard as I could at the track, then dial that back even more if I'm out of state.  I'd like to get home, wait, let me rephrase, I need to get home.  If I miss a day of work at the office, that's a really bad thing for me.

My past experiences with engine swap cars and taking cars too far down the "mod road", has taught me to OEM+ mod cars.  It's served me well when I've gone to tracks far away, as the cars have been reliable and if something does pop up, I can get parts anywhere and find shops that can fix it...

I've done the 4.5 hours + stops to Watkins Glen a couple of times and like Mike above I've gotten some curious looks and questions at the border like "do you always drive around with tires on your roof?"

That 5-6 hour range gets me to a lot of good tracks from where I am but I think I'm crazy enough to do a longer drive to VIR or Road Atlanta which are both high on my want to drive list. The car is packed full of spares and tools so provided I don't blow it up or put in a wall I should be able to get home. The car is a lot less comfortable than it looks though, race seats, stiff suspension, no A/C and with the back half of the interior missing a lot of tire and diff noise. My window is usually down so I run earplugs to quiet things down and just turn up the radio enough that I can hear it again. 

3 hours is my limit. That covers 4 tracks (Laguna Seca, Sonoma, Thunderhill, Buttonwillow). Any further than that and I'll rent a trailer. 

Ten hours one way to Barber Motorsports park from NE Indiana in my NC Miata with my 12 year old great nephew riding shotgun. Contingency was a buddy trailered his ND so in theory I could drive it home and he could trailer the NC. More common is 2.5 hours one way to the closest track. 

In reply to berdoostremmpes :

so how far do you drive your canoe to the track? Or is that paddle?

I did a 1000 mile one way trek and back to HRDW this past year.... that's on top of the ~900 route miles...