British Motorists Escape Gridlock Stress via the Track
With traffic going as fast as 10 mph at peak hours, those with the need for speed are booking times at the track in record numbers.
What is the worst thing anyone can experience in their car on a daily basis? Being stuck in traffic, of course. One moment, you’re getting the most out of your luxury performance ride, the next, you’re trapped amid big rigs, bland hybrids, and the chorus of a thousand horns signifying frustration of their plight.
You’re not alone in this misery. British motorists are crawling around their highways these days at a pace where snails outrun them. More than a few have had enough, opting to destress not at the pub, but at the track.
“Whether it’s battling congestion in a city, or going at a snail’s pace on a motorway, who can blame beleaguered motorists for wanting to swap a traffic jam for an adrenalin fuelled blast around a race circuit,” said Dan Jones, operations manager at Trackdays, an independent track-day booking agency based in Colchester, England.
The agency has seen a surge in bookings as of late, at a year-to-date increase of 149 percent. From Silverstone to Brands Hatch, everyone is taking out their rush-hour-induced stress on the track in Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Porsches, among other high-performance rides.
“Perhaps it is no surprise given that the UK is one of the most congested countries in the world,” said Jones, “where it’s hard to go faster than 10 mph in many gridlocked cities, and not much faster on [main roads and highways]! The UK has always been a world-beater and we’re raising the bar once more as London leads the charge as being one of the most gridlocked cities on the planet!”
Though this is one bar we’d like to see lowered for one and all, at least there’s an outlet in Britain for when being stuck behind soccer moms, truck drivers on a clock, and hapless office workers becomes all too much. We think we could use such a thing for us here in the U.S., too.
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