Just Track It Track Day Review 2025
We all know Atlanta is a serious car town. And those who are into tracks and racing know it’s a pretty serious motorsports town. The simple fact that we have one of the best Karting tracks, at a premiere motorsports country club in Atlanta Motorsports Park is cool enough on it’s own. Then add that the iconic Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, home to Petit Le Mans, is also here. Oh, and the Porsche Experience Center. And Atlanta Motor Speedway with 2 NASCAR races a year. Could we keep going? Actually, yeah we could…
One other thing most people don’t realize is just how many track day operators are based and have connections here in Atlanta. With so many great local operators that have multiple of options at the nearby tracks, it’s pretty easy to plug in to do a track day.
So, needless to say, when we had to chance to go and drive with local Atlanta based Just Track It, we jumped at the opportunity. Better yet, we had a chance to drive at Roebling Road Raceway, which isn’t far but not as popular of a choice with many of the track day operators. This really is a shame, because this track is absolutely underrated. Many track day companies hit AMP and Road Atlanta, but one immediate thing we loved with JTI (Just Track It) was seeing tracks like Roebling and CMP on the schedule. Not only are these great change of pace tracks, they are close enough to drive in/drive out, but far enough to give us an excuse to make a weekend of it.
In this article we’re going to share our experience driving with Just Track It. We’ll share some of the first timer mistakes we made, even as relatively experienced track day drivers. We’ll also share our opinions on getting to drive Roebling Road Raceway, which as mentioned above, was a huge part of the draw.
Driver Grouping
If you haven’t driven a track day before, most events are broken up into what are called “groups” or “run groups”. While most track day organizations follow this format, there are always minor differences between the groups. This is also where we made our first rookie mistake. But more on that in a second. First, let’s talk about JTI run groups.
Driver Run Groups
Novice – drivers who need or want direct or additional instruction. These are usually first time drivers on track or those who haven’t been in a while that want direct feedback. Note with JTI there is a coaching fee required for this.
Intermediate 1 – drivers who can drive the track solo, but may still optionally seek additional instruction. This is similar to Novice Solo in some organizations. Though one thing we like about the JTI group is advancement tends to be slower so we felt the experience level here was on the higher end compared to what we’ve seen with other orgs. This group is for true budding intermediate drivers, not necessarily those who have only had a track day or two under the belt that are looking for a little more freedom. Passing was controlled to straights only.
Intermediate 2 – drivers with significant track experience, particularly if the have driven this particular track before. Intermediate are drivers who are generally still working on their situation awareness, but generally have enough on track experience to handle themselves and be consistent. Passing was anywhere on track, though like all groups, only with a point by.
Advanced – for those with extensive experience, this group is really about turning laps and having the awareness to handle the speed differentials. While there were cars of all speeds, make no mistake there were a lot of seriously quick cars and drivers out there. This included radicals and other dedicated track machines.
So what was this rookie mistake? When registering we read “intermediate” and thought it was the same as intermediate at a lot of other orgs. The two of us attending, while no experts, routinely drive and even coach with a number of different orgs. We also wheel to wheel in Lucky Dog Racing League and the occasional Champ race. Still, since one of us hadn’t been to Roebling in 25 years and the other never had been. With it being our first experience we figured we’d skip Advanced to give us more opportunity to get settled in.
So we registered in Intermediate 1. I just assumed there were 2 intermediate run groups, and they were the same. As you can tell from the description they absolutely are not the same. Whoops! Still, while we were just there to have a good time, check out the track and experience JTI, they did offer to move us up if we wanted. We took advantage of that for Day 2 of the weekend.
Getting On Track And The On Track Experience
Drivers Meeting and Classroom
At every track day, and really any track or racing event period, there is a drivers meeting. This may be the drivers simply gathering around to hear a brief driver instruction and safety meeting.
For novices there is a formal classroom session. We didn’t get to experience that at Roebling, but another ShiftAtlanta member did have an opportunity to attend one of JTI’s Women’s Run groups at Road Atlanta and attended the classroom. While the details are beyond the scope of this article, she indicated it was one of the most informative and useful classrooms of any track day she’s attended.
Seat Time
Most track organizations talk about how much driving time you get, but there was no shortage of on track time with JTI. Plus, one thing we like about JTI is that a lot of their events are full weekends. So you are encouraged not only to get enough time to get comfortable with the track and your run groups, but have another day to work on your driving without a long calendar break in-between your visits to the track.
There was enough track time we actually got a little tired by the last session of the first day. It’s unlikely you’ll want for additional on track time, particularly if you run the full weekend. If you haven’t driven 2+ hours on track before, it’s a lot, so drivers tend to wind down later in the day.
On Track Experience
The on track experience with Just Track It doesn’t stray fair from what you’d expect.
Passing is by point by throughout the entire day. For novice and intermediate 1 drivers this includes specific passing zones (straights) with a point by and are generally on the same side of the car for simplicity. Intermediate 2 also has specific passing zones. Advanced drivers run point by for the full track, but can pass anywhere when pointed by.
Each group will go out at the start of the run window, usually self organized by faster cars/drivers. The group runs as open track during this period, so you can come on and off if needed. At the end of the time window, you’ll get a final lap white flag and then a checkered flag advising you to come in. During this time if you are in the next run group up, you’re getting organized and ready to go out on track.
Conclusion
Bottom line is we had an absolute blast. First, Roebling was as much fun as we thought. As Nabil (JTI owner) said in the drivers meeting. Easy to learn, hard to master. With nearly a weekend of driving we both felt like we still didn’t quite get it just right. If you haven’t driven Roebling before, it’s very different from AMP and Road Atlanta. It’s like a larger version of Talladega Gran Prix for the old school track enthusiasts who have driven that track.
The JTI community is great as well. We ran into drivers we knew from wheel 2 wheel racing Lemons and Lucky Dog Racing. We also found nearly everyone was happy to chat with us as we walked around the paddock in between run groups. This is an inviting group that was surprisingly devoid of the cliquey-ness we find at some track day events.
Just Track It Schedule 2025
Want to give Just Track It a try? Check our their calendar of events for 2025 including track days at Barber Motorsports Park, Roebling Road, Atlanta Motorsports Park, Road Atlanta and more.
Just Track It’s sister company, Higher Performance Driving, also features what is known as open track days, which means no runs groups. These events are targeted at experienced drivers only.
Acknowledgements
Big thanks to Steve Bachtel for pictures and contributing to this article, along with Holly Pezzano and Paul Pezzano. Also, thank you to Traction Insurance and Just Track It for providing sponsorship to the ShiftAtlanta members driving.
