Hey all. A buddy is encouraging me to get out and do a track day. SCCA track night deal at a local track. Two things I'm worried about, maybe for not?

1. I'm running what amounts to a all-seasons (Hankook Ventus V2 concept) on my Z28. The car is a 93Z with under 20k miles still, so any drive time it gets is for pleasure and 99% of the time it sits in the garage. The tires are <5 years old and still in good shape. Car is stock. Not really sure about replacing the tires with something summer performance *just* for a track night (maybe a couple of track nights?) unless there is a very compelling case. Is there a compelling case?

2. The car has a stock 4L60. Yep. Is there any advice against manually shifting it up or down and/or flogging it pretty hard? I'd assume use individual gears versus leaving it in D. The videos my buddy posted, he's not driving very hard, I'm not sure if that's because he's truly a novice, or if that's just the "speed" of an SCCA track night. No spectators right now, so I can't go watch one before participating.

Any pointers would be appreciated!