With 2 drivers in beginner's group you should figure out a set of pads every two events. There are no quiet race pads. There are no street pads that last long on the track unless you drive at street speed.

Hawk HPS at street pads. HPS Plus are advertised as track day pads that can be used to drive to and from track.

Some here will say that they use the Pagid race pads on the street, but I have never been able to leave Pagid race pads on the car and not get the shudder due to pad deposit on the rotor when driven on the street. It is hard enough to bed them for track use.

Select a brand and stick with to develop your braking habits. I see guys change brands every 1-2 years based on what someone else says. Brake pads are like pillow, your results may vary.

If even track pads won't last long, sounds like our best bet might be to keep the current pads (HT-10 front, stock in back) until they're done, then try something else next time and see how it goes.

Does anyone see a problem with brake balance resulting from the different pads front vs back?

A lot of racers use different componds front and rear, but having race pads front and strrt pads rears is too differnt for my taste. You are spending way too much time on here. :D

YES. This can cause all kinds of problems. One set can come on as the other set overheats and starts to boil off and ablate. You can end up with bias that changes while on track. Please see my avatar for results of improper brake bias.
People also tune braking systems by using different compounds front and rear. To do so with good results people tend to keep both sets in the same working heat range and tune via the torque ratings of the pad compound.

As said in the long run you will find that you will need to have street pads (work great when cold) for the street and track pads (work great when hot) for the track. Anything in the middle will leave you wanting when at ether end. Considering that all the driving is at ether end and you are back to 2 sets of pads. The good news is it is easy to swap pads back and forth once you have the basic tools and simple methods in hand.

Much to learn, and need to do it quickly, given this frequency of tracking (will be at Summit again tomorrow)! We were lucky that someone had spare pads at WG and people helped us install them, otherwise the car would have been undrivable Sunday. And the problem came up suddenly - car passed pre-track tech and track tech on Friday with no problems, then all of a sudden the pad concern came up Saturday morning. :shock: Don't want to get caught unprepared like that again, especially 4+ hours from home.

Thanks for this cautionary input. We did get HT-10s for the rear at WG and will install them, so that we have HT-10s all around. When the fronts wear down, we'll figure out what to install next.

As far as switching pads for street and track, since we need to get tech inspections done anyway, maybe we can have the shop install the track pads and then I can reinstall the street pads once I learn how. When I was younger, I enjoyed working on cars and motorcycles, and it looks like I need to get back into it.

Careful there - this is not your ordinary, easy to clean brake pad dust. If it gets wet, it is next to impossible to get off.

Duly noted, thanks.

Plenty of folks around "here" that can show you how.

^ What he said.

Changing pads on most Porsches is very easy. Part of the "racing inspired" image, I guess, which includes pit stops. ;)

Last weekend, on Saturday morning, on my 944S2, I changed the front rotors, pads, and bled the calipers in about 1 hour. Pads alone would have been half of that.