I don't know anyone who's going to change out their antifreeze for plain water just to go do a track day. Just make sure your hoses are good and your connections are tight.
They say don't set your park brake when you come back to the paddock after a run, leave it in gear after you shut off and leave the brake off, cause you don't want to weld your pads to your red hot rotors. Truth be told, if you drive slowly enough on your cool down lap, I doubt this would be a problem, and since most of the braking effort is on the front anyway the rears shouldn't get that hot, especially for a new track driver. But it's certainly better to be safe....
If you have a turbo motor you do not have to let it run for a while to cool down after you get to the paddock, you have an aux water pump for that - it's not necessary.
All this applies to street driven cars on the odd trackday, not to full on race cars in a race event, of course.
I agree with getting a better set of tires just for trackdays, I run my All Seasons and they are definitely greasy once they get warmed up after 3 or 4 laps. Some good summer only ultra high performance tires would be far better, and then put the all seasons on for the cool weather, when the season's over.
I run good old regular Dot 4 in my car and have never cooked the fluid, but I'm not as hard on my brakes as some drivers, and I change it before each event.
I also run stock pads and stock rotors, they're fine for the occasional event. If you're gonna run every weekend or something, then it might be wise to invest in some better stuff, but again, for the first timer or even those who only run a couple times a year, stock stuff works just fine.
One thing I would advise investing in is a Schroth harness, the extra holding power allows you to steer the car instead of holding onto the wheel for support, you'll really appreciate the extra support it gives when you start going faster.
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