Season 2026 – How Did This Escalate So Quickly?

Season 2026 – How Did This Escalate So Quickly?

If you had asked us a couple of years ago what a “busy season” would look like, we probably would have said somewhere around 10 to 15 Track Days spread nicely across the year.
Lots to do, yet manageable — and leaving enough room to breathe between events.

Fast forward to 2026… and somehow, we ended up planning 23 Track Days across Europe.

To be completely honest, this wasn’t some master plan where we sat down and decided to go all-in overnight. Like most things at GP Days, it slowly escalated. One opportunity led to another, one circuit offered an additional date, participants asked us to return to certain tracks more often — and suddenly the calendar started filling up faster than expected.

And at some point, we looked at the final version of the season calendar and thought:
“Alright… this is going to be intense.”

In the end, the 2026 calendar reflects why we partnered up with Graphit Performance in 2025 — and looking at what’s to come this year, we truly believe we’re en route to accomplish this mission.

A Season That Starts Fast…

…and Never Really Slows Down

The season will be off to a great start with a back-to-back combination of Spa Francorchamps and Circuit Mettet, which already feels like a tradition at this point.

There’s something about starting the season at Spa that still feels surreal every time. Walking into the paddock early in the morning, seeing the fog hang in the Ardennes forests, and knowing the track is ours for the day never really gets old.

From there, the calendar moves quickly across Europe with stops at Zandvoort, Bilster Berg and Salzburgring — three circuits that couldn’t be more different from each other, yet somehow always deliver amazing Track Days and completely different atmospheres.

At the same time, 2026 marks an important step forward for us, as we are adding new tracks to the GP Days calendar. For the first time, we’ll be heading to the Nürburgring Nordschleife, taking on the iconic Red Bull Ring, and returning to France with Anneau du Rhin and Dijon-Prenois — all tracks that bring their own challenges, character and a healthy amount of respect.

At the same time, some things remain unchanged.
Tracks like Bilster Berg and Circuit Mettet are absolute GP Days classics by now. Familiar, demanding, and still among the tracks that consistently deliver some of the best driving and most intense Track Days of the entire season.

Zandvoort brings that unique seaside vibe where weather, wind and track layout constantly keep you on your toes.

Bilster Berg remains one of the most technical and physically demanding tracks we visit every year.

And Salzburgring… well, Salzburgring somehow always feels like Track Day meets holiday — and we’re still not entirely sure why.

 

The Reality Behind 23 Track Days

While the calendar looks exciting (and it definitely is), it also means one thing:
logistics become a completely different challenge.

There are several moments in the season where Track Days sit extremely close together. Sometimes only one day apart, sometimes hundreds of kilometres away from each other. That means long travel days, early mornings, late nights — and a lot of careful planning behind the scenes to make sure every event still feels like a proper GP Days experience.

Packing up, loading equipment, travelling across countries, setting everything up again before sunrise — and still making sure everything runs smoothly once the lights go green — quickly turns into a real team effort involving a lot of coffee and even more problem solving.

And despite all that, these are usually the moments that make the season memorable.
The slightly chaotic travel days, the unexpected challenges, the feeling when everything finally comes together once participants arrive — that’s honestly a big part of why we love doing this.

Something New for 2026

Our VW Up GTI Track Cars

One thing we are particularly excited about for 2026 is expanding something we quietly started testing towards the end of last season.

During our Track Days at Salzburgring in October, we brought our VW Up GTIs along and allowed our team to experience them on track. What initially started as a small experiment quickly turned into something much bigger than we expected.

The feedback was incredible.

These cars are probably the perfect example that Track Days are not always about having the fastest or most powerful car. They are light, playful, forgiving (sort of) — and most importantly, ridiculously fun to drive on track.

Seeing participants jump out of these cars with huge smiles on their faces confirmed pretty quickly that this is something we want to build further.

Right now, we are working on putting together proper rental packages and options that make sense for different experience levels. It’s still work in progress, but our goal is clear:
to make Track Days accessible to more people — even without their own track-prepared car.

The Return of GP Days Merch

Another thing we’re bringing back is something many participants have asked about repeatedly over the years — GP Days merchandise.

We’ve always treated merch as something fun rather than a major business focus. Over time, however, it turned into something participants actually enjoy wearing and bringing to Track Days.

For 2026, we’re relaunching selected pieces again. Nothing overcomplicated — just clean, simple items that feel authentic to the GP Days community.

Looking Ahead

If there’s one word that probably describes the 2026 season best, it would be ambitious.

Not just because of the number of Track Days, but because every additional event also raises expectations — both yours and ours. And while 23 Track Days sound impressive, what really matters to us is that each individual day still feels personal, relaxed and safe — exactly the way GP Days has always been intended.

Will it be exhausting at times?
Definitely.

Will there be unexpected challenges?
Almost guaranteed.

But if the past seasons have taught us anything, it’s that these are usually the stories we end up remembering the most.

We honestly cannot wait to get started.

See you on track in 2026.