Track day car prep: brakes, tyres and tech inspection.

This page reports what a tech form, a federal standard, pad makers and a tyre engineer say. It is not a maintenance manual for your car. Follow your car maker's specifications and the instructions supplied with any part you fit, and if you are not sure your car is ready, have it checked by a qualified mechanic before the event. How NASA and SCCA run their tech inspections nationally is on track days.

What a tech form checks

Tech forms vary by club and region. As one example, the SCCA Milwaukee Region's tech form, used for a 2025 event at Road America, asks for:

• Brakes: clear brake fluid with a full reservoir (the form recommends DOT 4), pads less than half worn, rotors that are not cracked or discoloured, no leaks from the calipers or master cylinder, and a firm pedal.
• Wheels and tyres: every lug nut present and torqued, hubcaps removed, adequate tread, a suitable speed rating and tyres in good condition.
• Battery: secured without bungee cords, with the positive terminal covered.
• Interior: no loose items in the cabin or the trunk.
• Helmet: Snell K, M or SA 2015 or newer, or an SFI or FIA helmet.

The form makes the driver responsible for the car's safety. The driver signs that the car was prepared, and the organizer reserves the right to inspect cars at random. Your event's own form and rules are the ones that apply.

Brake fluid

In the US, brake fluid grades are set by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 116 (49 CFR 571.116). It sets minimum boiling points for each grade, measured dry and wet:

These are minimums for the grade, not the figures for any particular fluid. FMVSS 116 also says:

• DOT 5.1 is a DOT 5 grade fluid labelled "DOT 5.1 NON-SILICONE BASE".
• DOT 3, DOT 4 and DOT 5.1 must be colourless to amber, while silicone-based DOT 5 must be purple.
• Containers must warn users to keep the fluid clean and dry and the container tightly closed, because absorbed moisture or contamination can cause brake failure.

We did not read any racing brake fluid maker's data sheet, so this page gives no figures for specific fluids. Check your car maker's specification before changing fluid type.

Brake pads

The tech form above wants pads less than half worn. New pads need bedding in, and pad makers publish their own procedures, which differ. Two are summarised below so you can see how they differ. They are not interchangeable.

EBC's procedure for its RP Series race pads

EBC's instruction sheet for its RP Series racing pads (the PDF file is dated April 2022) says the pads are for closed-circuit use only and are not ECE R90 approved. Its bedding procedure has four stages:

1. Replace cracked or damaged discs, and sand residue off discs being reused with 80 to 120 grit paper, because old compound left on the disc makes bedding take longer.
2. Mate the pads with 10 light-pressure stops from 150 to 80 km/h (90 to 50 mph), about 600 m apart.
3. Heat the system with 10 hard stops from 180 to 60 km/h (112 to 37 mph), accelerating fully between them, then drive about 3 minutes at 80 km/h, barely braking, to cool.
4. Finish with 5 light recovery stops from 150 to 80 km/h, 600 m apart.

EBC says pedal feel may be poor at first and improves during bedding. It gives 300 to 650 C (570 to 1200 F) as the pads' best operating range, and says temperatures held above 650 C call for more brake cooling.

Ferodo's racing pad bedding sheet

Ferodo's racing pad bedding sheet, which we read as hosted by the UK retailer Race and Rally (undated), takes a different approach: a pressure ramp and a temperature target instead of fixed speeds. Ferodo says the aim is to bring the pads up to race temperature gradually, because heating them too fast glazes them. Its sheet says:

• Make at least 15 brake applications, starting at about half of normal race pressure and building to full decelerations, ideally getting the pads above 500 C.
• Pads with the suffixes WB, ZB, GB, TL180, DB or FB are thermally pre-treated at the factory. They need only mechanical mating, and the 500 C target is not critical for them.
• For its DS1.11, DS3.12 and DSUNO compounds, the sheet gives 500 to 700 C.
• Brake cooling ducts may need closing to get heat into the pads.
• Afterwards, let the brakes cool, ideally below 100 C, which may take more than five minutes. Then check that at least 80% of the pad face shows contact, without glazing. Smoke during cool-down is normal.
• Going straight into racing without the cool-down costs perhaps 10% of pad life.

We did not read bedding sheets from other pad makers.

Tyres

Treadwear grades

The treadwear number on a US road tyre is a Uniform Tire Quality Grading (UTQG) grade, set under 49 CFR 575.104 on NHTSA's test course near San Angelo, Texas. It is relative to a reference of 100: in a 1980 interpretation letter, NHTSA explained that a tyre graded 150 should wear one and a half times as well as one graded 100 under the same conditions. NHTSA also notes that harsh conditions, abusive driving or poor maintenance can stop a tyre reaching its graded performance.

R-compound and 200-treadwear tyres

In a sponsored 2021 Grassroots Motorsports article, a Maxxis tyre engineer compared two kinds of tyre used at track and autocross events:

• R-compound tyres: much shallower tread and stiffer casings, with compounds that warm up quickly and grip hard but wear faster. They have a narrow temperature window and poor wet and cold performance. The engineer recommends them for dry competition only, citing a harsh ride, noise and weak wet and cold traction on the street.
• 200-treadwear "extreme performance" tyres: more tread for street use, made for events that require a 200 treadwear minimum, but they run hotter on track and wear faster at track temperatures.

In that article's own test, R-compound tyres lapped an autocross course in 27.703 seconds against 28.114 seconds on 200-treadwear tyres, with higher measured cornering g. That is one test. Check whether your event or class sets a treadwear minimum. For why tyres grip, see how grip works.