I try to road race 1-3 times per year, and autocross 10-15 times a year. Whichever car I feel like.
Pocono is closest (90 minutes) so I go there most often; I've been to Lime Rock, I love it because it's short and quirky (I could spend years mastering it), the problem is it's a 5-6 hour drive.
I want to work in some other tracks within driving distance over the next couple years -- Watkins Glen, VIR, Road Atlanta, Mid Ohio... I also want to do a few Skip Barber-type classes and maybe that will get me to places like Laguna Seca.
I say "try" because in the last 2 years I've been so busy and exhausted from work that I haven't raced at all. The dirty secret for track days is it requires you to get up vuuuury early.
I need a new job that doesn't interfere with my racing! Working on it...
EDIT: My $.02 on drag racing. That was the first thing I tried. It is exciting, the first time you do it. But really, beyond finding out how fast your car *really* is, I got bored quickly and moved on to autocross. OK, you play with tire pressure and put ice bags on your manifold, and debate about where to drop the clutch and when you shift and if you can hold it in 3rd, but I don't get much excitement out of it especially beyond the time trial level. Plus, while it's cheap, it's maybe three minutes of adrenaline per pass (staging, burnouts, pass, etc.) and an hour of waiting in the pits. Whereas track days on a road course are 10 times more expensive, but give you about 50 times the seat time adrenaline. And, oh yeah, involve the steering wheel and the brake pedal.
My average night drag racing at Englishtown: Show up at 6:00 pm for tech inspection. On a good night, wait 45 minutes in the pits fiddling with your car and checking out other cars. Your line gets called up for staging. A few minutes of excitement and one pass. Back to the pits. Repeat. And pray nobody spews oil on the track, which stops everybody cold for an hour while they clean up. On a good night, you can get 4-5 runs.
My average day autocrossing: Get up at 5:00 am, show up (Englishtown or Giants Stadium) around 7:00 for registration, tech inspection, drivers' meeting, and walk the course. The day is split into 4 "heats", you drive during 2, work the course during 1, and you're off for 1. When you drive, you're on the course with 2 or 3 other cars spread out, for a minute or two of seat time. You get 3 or 4 runs per heat, in between you stand around in the pits, watching other drivers or looking at cars. It usually takes around 90 minutes per heat. When you work, you stand in the middle of a parking lot with your head on a swivel for oncoming cars, running after knocked-down cones and seeing if anybody went off course. By around 5:00 it's time to break down the course and head home, exhausted.
My average day road racing: get up at 5:00 am (or drive there the night before), show up for tech inspection and drivers meetings. Heats are divided up by driver skill, you spend 40 minutes or so on the track (if nothing breaks), with other drivers, and then you're off for one or more heats licking your wounds, watching other drivers, and checking out the cars. You can get in 3-6 heats, so you get the most seat time here, justifying the expense. By the end of the day you've taken a pounding, the car's taken a pounding, and assuming your car still moves it drives itself home somehow.
One thing I don't like about road racing: much like the big boys in American LeMans, they allow different types of cars on the track at the same time -- I don't like it when they put street cars out there with bug eyed sprites and open wheeled lightweights, it's asking for trouble. And I don't like the high horsepower pure race cars on the track with street cars at the same time either, they're going to run rings around a street car so you're always being cautious around them and worrying about THEIR circuit not your own.
. I have respect for them for giving me essentially a noise violation rather then a rather huge 6 point reckless driving ticket.
