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welcome!
with reasonable care, you can track your car to your hearts content.
as always, it's "pay to play", and if your car is damaged on track you could have a problem. most don't.
the most common problem is with engine oiling. running sustained 278 degrees is not good for your motor. running sustained 300+ (which it can easily do) is definitely ng. not that you'll have an immediate failure, but cumulatively it's very hard wear. an engine oil cooler is easily installed and cures this problem. alternately, if you only infrequently track your car, you can "take it easy" and monitor the oil temp and run in higer gears to manage the oil temp.
the other part is the oil level, with the flat oil pan, and the problem in high gee turns with all the oil sloshing to one side (and uncovering the oil pickup). this is by far the most serious problem, and this can munge your motor in one day. novices are not very susceptible to this, as they're typically not very fast in the turns. GM recommends adding a quart of oil before going on the road course, to address this issue. adding the quart is mandatory. also, these cars consume (a lot) of oil on track (sustained high revs) so you need to check your oil level after every session and maintain it at a quart over. this is a stop gap measure though, and if you are fast in the turns, even with a quart over you risk low oil pressure situations. especially if you run on sticky tires. the oem tires are quite sticky, one can get the low (or no) oil pressure warning on them.
the cure for this problem is to install an accusump, which will maintain a minimum oil pressure in the motor during hard cornering. this is getting into the more serious mods stage. most owners decline to install an accusump (but then again, most owners, statistically almost all, never see a road course) and figure they'll never be fast enough, and will always run "street tires". imho this is a poor strategy for those who plan on regular track use. with seat time comes skills and faster cornering speeds and low oil pressure problems. it's cheap compared to a new motor.
then there's the high trans temp warning. this is similar to the oil temp issue, but much less dangerous to the health of your car. and this is much more easily managed by running easier laps. however, if you're going to do 10 - 20 events per year, and run 'hard', and you care about your car, then you can install trans/diff coolers. all the suave track dudes have em.
there are numerous other considerations for regular track use, these are the 'starter' ones. as a general rule of thumb, one accepts the trade off, of each track mile equalling something like 30 or 40 "regular" miles in terms of absolute wear n tear on your total car. not counting consumables like brakes/fluids/etc. it's worth it, track driving is so much fun, one of the best hobbies.
but go into it eyes open.
re the comment on Porsches, they have the same (generally speaking) considerations as any other street car going to the race track, and they have to 'track prep' their cars the same as we do, and manage issues, etc etc, and there are blown motors in 911 TT's too, though much less frequenly than C5 motors.. then again, they pay for it in other ways.. ya definitely gets what ya pays for..
the key is to be an informed driver, to pay very close attention to your car, and to be proactive..
shiny side up
David
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Of course mine is a LS1 (for now) and those are a little more suseptible to the oil starvation problem. But, I have learned. I keep a close eye on the oil temp. If it gets near 280, I start short shifting (shifting well below redline). I have now gone 1.5 years without messing up the engine at all.
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