hear ya syco, I havent gotten into racing yet.
But my hobby shop's track is open 5 days a week from 12-5pm. so me an a buddy go there and race eachother. Granted, there are no turnmarshels or lap counters....but we can still tell who's faster.
Sometimes we do-1st to complete 3 laps, and other times we do race to the other guy crashes (a crash which would require a turnmashel)

And more than once there has been someone else there practicing as well.

Its $10 for upto 3 hours of track time. Its cheaper than bowling...LOL