5Series Takes on BMW’s M Track Days

By Danny Korecki - October 9, 2019

Once a year at four premier race tracks across the country BMW brings its current fleet of ///M cars to let enthusiasts test them out.

I have been attending BMW’s M Track Days for the past three years. This year, M Track Days visited the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas; the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, Illinois; the Monticello Motor Club in Monticello, New York; and your last chance on the 2019 tour is happening at Thermal Club in Thermal, California, from October 10 through 16.

I attended this year’s event at the same location I did for my other visits; the beautiful Monticello Motor Club. Monticello is a rather large stone’s throw away from my southern Pennsylvania home. Getting there clocks me at four hours each way, and I do it the morning before and after the event in my personal daily driver, a 2012 BMW E92 M3. It is painful, but worth it.

The Program

There are two M Track Days options: A half-day event, and a full-day program. Half-day will run you around $500, and a full-day comes to around $1,000, definitely an increase from the $250 it has been the prior two years. Last year marked the first year a full-day option was offered. You may have been lucky to attend the first year they did it when admission was free, but sign ups went like hotcakes.

When signing up for the event, you have to reveal your track driving experience. I believe that this information is used to determine what run group you will be going through the activities with, because my groups usually seemed to have the same track speed as myself. That is key, because during the lead/follow laps, the instructors can only go as fast as the slowest driver. (I run Intermediate/experienced at track days.)

Since I didn’t do the full-day event, there were a few things that I missed out on. Most regrettable was missing some guaranteed one-on-one time with BMW racing legend Bill Auberlen. Along with the standard ///M models, participants were permitted to drive “competition” models, and even get to take the car around the skidpad, and get some drift practice. But, now on to my adventures.

Timed Autocross

The first activity my run group enjoyed was getting behind the wheel of some BMW M2s on Monticello’s go-kart track. BMW set up an autocross course on the go-kart track for the timed autocross. You go one at a time, giving your best shot at making the fastest time. The catch is, you’re not blasting through the finish line. You take off from the start line as fast as you can, but you have to stop the car inside of the stop/box at the end.

The instructors mentioned that they aim for a track time in (or under) the 15s. I hit just half-a-second over. And you can’t make up much time on the hitting line and apexes.

You won’t be taking parade laps, nor will you be experiencing the absolute top speeds. But you will be able to safely experience the M4 at speeds over 100 mph with ease.

The best time gets recorded, and the best drivers get a chance to go against fellow participants across the country in BMW’s Ultimate Driver Competition at Thermal Club.

Below is what my best recorded autocross lap looked like. I did hit 15.8 on my first lap, but I fully sent it and stopped out of the box.

Drag Racing

Next up on the event schedule was the start/stop drag racing, which is the activity that provides the greatest range of ///M car fleet. On hand to play with was a M4 convertible, M850i, X3 M Competition, and the X4 M Competition. Like the timed autocross, every drag race run ends in a stopbox. You might get the jump on the guy next to you, but if you stopped in the box before them, you win.

Lead/Follow

BMW knows that the whole reason that enthusiasts sign up for this event is to hit triple-digit speeds in the best of the ///M car fleet and take them for a whirl on the road course. Lead/follow laps are split between two vehicles in two separate activities. The first beast my run group and I took on was the BMW M4.

You won’t be taking parade laps, nor will you be experiencing the absolute top speed of the vehicles. But you will be going about 7/10ths of the vehicles’ abilities, and you will be able to safely experience the M4 at speeds over 100 mph with ease.

After the M4 lead/follow laps, we switched to the new powerhouse of the ///M fleet: the AWD BMW M5. That is where the real speed was to be had. As you can see on the heads up display in the video below, we hit 130 mph only going 7/10ths.

Instructor Hot Laps

My time in the driver’s seat of the M5 had ended, but the fun didn’t end. I got to ride shotgun while one of the BMW M Track Days instructors basically drifted the Monticello track. After flipping the M5 into 2WD mode, my instructor said, “Let’s see if the old girl will dance.” And dance, she did! Check out the footage below.

Having done the program for most of the current generation of the ///M fleet, I will definitely be attending in 2020 when the BMW M3 returns with a new model. In the meantime, you have one more chance to take on BMW’s M Track Days in 2019 when they visit California’s Thermal Club, Oct 10-16.

Photos for for 5Series.net by Danny Korecki

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Tags: bmw m track days, m track days, m2, M4, M5, monticello, track day, X3, X4

Danny Korecki

Danny Korecki is a financial analyst by day and a freelance automotive writer by night. He has contributed to many of Internet Brands' Auto sites, including Corvette Forum, Ford Truck Enthusiasts, Rennlist, and Team Speed.
If you are a fan of drifting, check out some of his extensive Formula Drift coverage as well as his on-the-scene reporting from other popular automotive events, like Corvettes at Carlisle.
For more of his automotive exploits, you can follow Danny on Instagram (@dkorecki) and Twitter, and check out his YouTube channel.