Lifestyle
Tesla Racing Tips: Your First Track Day
Track days are one of the most exhilarating activities one can experience. It’s a chance to take your favorite car to a real race track to see what it’s capable of. See how you fair as a driver, learn firsthand about the culture of motorsports, and experience what performance driving is really like. We’ll be providing an overview of what to expect along with some Tesla specific tips for your first track day.
How Does it Work ?
Track days are set up by independent motorsport event organizers that make arrangements with various race tracks. There are usually several of them covering each state. Examples:
- Speed Ventures in Southern California
- NCRC in Northern California
- NASA throughout US
Each company will have 3 or more groups separated by driver experience. For example,
Blue – beginner
Purple – intermediate low
Black – intermediate high
Red – advanced
You start in the beginner group, and as you build your experience you move up to the next level.
How Much does it Cost ?
Depending on the track, the cost can be as low as $100 and as high as $400 per day. The average is usually around $200, but be sure to also include the following:
- travel/lodging costs
- track gate fee, around $15
- helmet rental if you don’t have your own, around $30
- about $60 per session if you want an instructor
- RV spot rental for charging, around $20 per day
- professional photos from the track (highly recommended), around $40
- participation in competition or ‘challenges’.
If you continue your racing adventures, over time you will want to get your own equipment such as a helmet, racing suit, racing tires and a professional camera.
Is it Real Racing ?
Technically speaking, racing refers to competition racing, also known as wheel to wheel racing. Open track racing competes for best lap times where as competition racing usually competes for best positioning (ie. the first one at the finish line wins). Motorsports groups such as Speed Ventures make it a fun experience by structuring the open track events to resemble competition with qualifying sessions and pre-grid positions.
Will My Car Get Damaged?
With competition racing, your objective is to win by any means necessary, which can include risking damage to your car as well as the competitor’s. In open track racing, the objective is to have fun, learn performance driving, be competitive, but walk away with your car intact. Safety should always be kept in mind and any risk-taking should be weighed against its consequences. The beginner group will consist of those who have never been on a race track before so exercise as much caution as possible when racing in this group.
Will my Insurance Cover Track Days?
In most cases, the answer is no. Your regular car insurance does not cover anything that happens on the track. Also keep in mind that car manufacturers, including Tesla, will not cover any warranty items that may have incurred while racing. A dedicated track insurance policy can be purchased for the Model S for approximately $400 a day, but that figure can vary greatly depending on how much coverage you’re looking for.
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What is the Racing Format Like ?
The day starts with a driver’s meeting where you learn the rules for the event, but also given the opportunity to ask any questions you may have. Typically there are 4 or 5 20-minute racing sessions per day. So a group races for 20 minutes, then waits for about one hour while other groups race, and then the cycle repeats. It’s important to charge your Tesla during down time. Track driving consumes a lot of power so recharging in between sessions will ensure your Tesla Model S to have enough juice for three full sessions or four or five partial sessions.
ALSO SEE: The Tesla Racing Series
In the beginner group, the first one or two sessions are set up as a lead-follow exercise, where you follow an instructor. It’s an excellent opportunity to learn the proper racing lines.
What if I Have No Prior Racing Experience ?
It’s a good idea to get an instructor even if it’s only for one session. They can help you understand how to configure your steering and seating position as well as teach you driving techniques as you navigate the course. Lead-follow sessions are definitely a must for everyone. Another technique that is helpful is to follow a more advanced driver around the track and try to mimic what they are doing (if you can keep up).
Do I Need to Worry About Charging ?
Yes, you do. You will use approximately 4 miles of charge per 1 rated mile. Meaning if you have 200 rated miles, it will be enough for 50 actual racing miles. A typical track is about 2.5 miles, so 200 rated miles will get you 20 laps. Each session is approximately 10 laps. Without recharging you are good for about 2 full sessions. Charging at the tracks is usually done with NEMA 14-50, which gets you 4 hours * 30 miles per hour of charge = 120 extra miles, which is good for about another full session. Due to Tesla’s power limiting feature, we found it to be better to just run half sessions
Will the Tesla Model S go the Distance ?
The Model S is not built for racing. It overheats after one lap of hard performance driving. When that happens, power limitation kicks in to protect the car. A yellow dashed line on the power consumption gauge appears on the dashboard. The longer you go, the more severe power limitation gets. It’s a great safety feature as it lets you push the car as hard as you want without having to worry about car damage.
However this same protection mechanism has a drastic impact on the overall racing experience. You can start off as being one of fastest cars on the track on your first lap, to becoming the slowest car on the track in the subsequent laps.
Do I Need Racing Tires ?
On your first track day, no. Whatever standard tires you have on your car, they’ll work fine, as you won’t be setting any records on your first day. It’s only as you start getting more competitive and push the car harder, will you need to get tires that are more suited for racing. Bring a tire pressure gauge or a compressor if you have it. Your tire pressure should not be above 40 psi cold. Meaning, check your tire pressure in the morning before you get on the track. It should not be more than 40.
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Is it a Strenuous Physical Activity ?
Yes it is. Performance driving for 20 minutes straight is a lot of work. Be prepared for that. Especially if you come from a drag racing or autocross background where racing sessions last under a minute. You will get used to it with time, but the first few times can be quite exhausting. Make sure to stay well hydrated, especially in the summer. A lot of tracks are in desert areas with hot temperatures and very low humidity. Drinking water is important to feeling well throughout the day.
Should I turn Traction Control and Regenerative Braking Off ?
Traction control will help you stay on track if you lose control, so leave it on. Regen braking improves stability during braking, especially at higher speeds, but it’s mostly a personal preference.
Is it OK to Capture my Track Experience with an Action Camera ?
Absolutely. GoPro is everyone’s favorite. It’s always nice to get GPS data readouts and overlays as well. Garmin VIRB is a leader in that area among consumer cameras in the $400 range, but they have serious accuracy issues. Professional action cameras such as AIM SmartyCam will be the best, but its high cost may not be for everyone.
Be safe and have fun on your first track day!
Elon Musk escalated his monthslong feud with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this week, pledging that his own AI video tool will produce a competing version before the year is out. Responding to a fan-made, AI-generated clip of the ancient epic, Musk wrote on X, “Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”
In June, Musk quoted an xAI-shared trailer built entirely with Grok Imagine Video 1.5, a two-minute-plus reimagining of The Odyssey styled after a 1970s classical Hollywood epic, and predicted “full movies by the end of the year,” as Teslarati reported at the time. That trailer, built from 36 consistent shots by a single creator, was Musk’s proof of concept. This week’s pledge turns that prediction into a specific commitment, tied directly to Homer’s text rather than a generic demo.
Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer https://t.co/bVHzUmY9WN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
When a fan separately proposed that Musk fund a live-action alternative, to “give Mel Gibson $100 million to film an Odyssey adaptation with painstakingly historically accurate ships, armour, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek,” Musk replied with two words: “I’m down.”
The Grok Imagine pledge lands as the tool’s underlying infrastructure has changed hands. Grok is no longer a standalone product, it folded into SpaceXAI after SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI closed in February, meaning the compute behind any Odyssey production traces back to the same Colossus supercomputers now bundled into SpaceX’s pitch to investors. Musk has separately said SpaceX’s own engineering data is being fed into the next major Grok training run, a two trillion parameter model he’s called the “2T run.”
Whether Grok Imagine can sustain a feature length narrative, rather than a series of impressive individual shots, remains the open question.
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Cybertruck
Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love
Tesla’s Summer Update removes the USB drive step from customizing your car’s digital wrap design.
Tesla’s latest 2026 Summer Update quietly closes out one of the more tedious steps in personalizing a Tesla’s digital appearance. Uploading a custom wrap design used to require a USB drive. Now it doesn’t.
The feature is listed in Tesla’s release notes as “Send Custom Wraps from Mobile App.” The company described it plainly: “Skip the USB drive and upload a custom wrap of your car from the mobile app. Instructions for creating a custom wrap here: github.com/teslamotors/custom-wraps.”
The digital wrap tool has been around since Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, when it launched for Cybertruck owners first, as Teslarati reported at the time. Getting a design onto the car meant formatting a USB drive, creating a folder named exactly “Wraps,” dropping in PNG files sized between 512×512 and 1024×1024 pixels and under 1 MB each, then plugging the drive in and applying the wrap through Toybox. Tesla expanded the tool to other models and renamed it from “Colorizer” to “Paint Shop” with the 2025 Holiday Update, while also adding license plate and window tint customization alongside the wraps.
Custom wraps via mobile app https://t.co/5OydZ26g9p pic.twitter.com/uexU0ZePxu
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
The latest Summer Update removes the USB step from that process. Owners will be able to pull a design from wherever they saved it, whether that’s a download from social media or something built from Tesla’s own GitHub templates, and push it to the car directly through the app.
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
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It’s a small fix relative to the rest of this latest release, which also included expanded Grok voice commands, automatic navigation that learns regular routes, and self-driving stats inside the mobile app, all detailed in our rundown of the full Summer Update. The USB requirement was one of the more common complaints about Paint Shop since it launched. Tesla did not say when the wrap upload change would reach individual vehicles, only that the broader update is rolling out now in waves.
Elon Musk
Tesla Diner is throwing a birthday party with a Franz-signed special treat
Tesla Diner turns one on July 21 with Optimus, roller skates, and a Franz-signed hat.
Tesla is throwing its Hollywood Diner a first birthday party on July 21 and the celebration comes with a guest list of unique items, including a limited run of Tesla Diner birthday hats personally signed by Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen for the first 50 customers who place an in-car order at midnight.
One year after lines wrapped around the block on Santa Monica Boulevard for a diner that most of the restaurant industry did not take seriously, Tesla is making the case that the concept was worth the years it took to build. The concept had been in Musk’s head since at least 2018, when he floated the idea of “an old school drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant” on X, describing it years later as “‘Grease’ meets ‘The Jetsons’ with Supercharging.”
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
What made the diner genuinely different from any restaurant that came before it was not the menu or the nostalgia. It was the ordering model. Tesla owners could place food orders directly from their vehicle’s touchscreen before arriving, a small feature that hints at something much larger on the horizon. As the Cybercab and unsupervised FSD expand across major cities, the diner model becomes a template for an entirely new kind of commerce. A robotaxi pulling in to charge does not need a human to walk up to a counter. The vehicle places the order, the food is ready on arrival, and the passenger never interrupts the experience of being driven somewhere else. It is the first glimpse of what drive-through commerce looks like when the car is doing the driving.
As Teslarati has reported, Musk signaled immediately after opening that the Hollywood location was only the beginning, posting that Tesla would expand the concept to major cities worldwide and along Supercharger corridors on long-distance routes if the first location proved successful. One year in, the birthday celebration on July 21 makes a strong case that it has. Tesla announced a full day of events including a Cybercab on display, a birthday menu, Optimus in attendance, face painting, a photo booth, roller skating servers, a light show, a Skypad DJ, and complimentary collectibles.
If Musk’s ambition holds, the Hollywood diner is year one of something much bigger. The birthday party is the proof of concept. The robotaxi fleet is the business model waiting behind it.
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Tesla Diner is turning 1 on July 21st, so we’re throwing a party
Come swing by for a day full of fun:
– Cybercab on display
– Birthday menu
– @Tesla_Optimus
– Face painting for kids & adults
– Photo booth
– Servers on roller skates delivering your order
– Light show
– Skypad DJ… pic.twitter.com/TD8pOjihYs— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) July 18, 2026
Tesla Summer Update begins rolling out: a look at the new features
Tesla briefly offered this Robotaxi part for your personal car
