Talk to me about "rotation" of the car early in th

[MikeD]

Mike: I m4eant the venue of our choice as opposed to where their school is located.

OK, I wasn't 100% sure based on what you said.

... but they would need to curtail the school to what we wanted.

I think that would have to be the case for any of the programs, wouldn't it? I think there base program is to assume the drivers are a beginner. In our case we would outline certain criteria that the driver would meet (maybe Club Race qualified [12 track days after TT permit] or licensed).

P.S. I was mentioning PDE mostly because I've been wanting to do that for a while just for grins and to meet the instructors (R. Pobst used to be there, but is not on the current list , but H. Haywood is still on the list ).

[kary]

Kary: you and I have spoken about this before - I am in! Also, Tim W. (M.O.M) has wanted to sponsor this thing for years and has promissed to bring Randy Pobst in as our guest instructor. Thinking outside the box, I think it would be possible to contract with Dick Barber, Derick Daly, etc. to bring their instructors to our venue and we drive our cars it would be waaaaaaaaay cheaper than going to one of their schools. The added benifit would be not learning on a Formula Ford that we will never drive. If you are serious about this, I will be happy to put some time into it.

David, I am absolutely serious about trying to help put someting together. I like your ideas about Randy or any other professional driving instructors. While we can all learn different things from one another, learning from a pro is a whole other thing. Jack and I had instruction from a pro and learned so much more than I could have imagined. If we can some how provide some level of economy it would help.

So far we have David, Mike, and myself. Any others want to contribute around this idea as Mike and david suggested?

[martinreinhardt]

This is all great and I may be off subject (not a first) but, most top drivers never even took a driving school, they learn by driving GoKart on saturdays or after school (no rules at least that is how my brother and I did it) and racing their friends to the next pub or cafe. As an instructor this may not be the right thing to say (it may get me fired ), but it is the truth. When you decide to race per example in Formula Ford series a) buy the car b) get a race license (3 day event were you learn the basics and this is as much school as you'll get) c) you are on your own and go race.

GoKarting is the best and cheapest racing school in my eyes.

Just my 2 cents.

[kary]

Martin, so I take it from your reply you are not interested in this sort of instruction

[martinreinhardt]

Kary,

Yes, but I don't want to trash the idea. I simply think that we are already too advanced for those schools and may kick the instructor's asses.

I know I am not really good at heal and toe (I don't think it is required to be fast) at a autox (run out of time) I hope Tim or Burl will teach me this in detail one day.

[Tim Comeau]

Wow, I believe using heel and toe is absolutely neccessary to turn the fastest lap times because you need to be ready to accellerate the instant it's needed. If you don't match revs well on the downshifting, while trail braking into a turn, you'll oversteer and possibly spin. I suppose matching revs poorly while braking in a straight line would be more forgiving, but I wouldn't want to lose the time gained by trail braking.

As far as the "Higher Performance" driving school goes, I wasn't envisioning any long trips or expensive instructor fees, nor driving cars other than our own.
I wanted to pow-wow among our own instructors at the stadium, where spin outs are safe. It would be cool to have some pro drivers there, no doubt. I'd love to get some 1 on 1 time with Randy Pobst or Craig Stanton. I'll bet several of us could pull some strings to get some great pro drivers there. I might even be able to get a certain Formula 1 driver to share.
A written description of the techniques would be great. These could be posted on the website as a resource. (Legal disclaimer about not trying this in your own home, blah, blah, only on a closed race course, blah,blah.........)
Who could come? Whoever wants to be introduced to the advanced techniques. I was also envisioning a preliminary meeting to discuss interest/format, etc. I agree, alot of the meat and potatoes of the techniques is just describing how to do them and why we do them. Time, time, time.
Video of footwork would be the most helpful, don't you think? If a picture is worth a 1000 words, video must be worth a gigabite.

[Kim Crosser]

I would really like to participate, and if it were done at the stadium, perhaps it could include AX drivers as well as TT and "big track" guys.

Another thought would be to take the "instructor day" and instead of a normal AX layout, set up a few specific "technique tracks". Perhaps an elongated oval with sharp turns for heel-and-toe practice, a wide oval for trail braking and left foot practice, etc. Then, get the drivers who really know these techniques to spend time teaching the rest of us how to use (and teach) them.

[Tim Comeau]

Kim, THAT'S more like what I was thinking. We would need a long entrance turn into a decreasing radius to show the power of trailbraking. We would need a series of turns that you have to slow down for, but not downshift, to show the efficiency of left foot braking, etc.

[MikeD]

While left-foot braking, trail-braking, heel-toe, etc are cool and I need to learn/practice them. I would also like to learn more about race-craft, tire management, drafting, setting up for the pass, etc. These are NOT just for Club Racing, they are also very valuable for the TT/DE participant.

[Tim Comeau]

Race craft (car set up?)
Race strategy
Driving techniques

3 different subjects. I would want this school to cover only the 3rd one.
A race strategy school would be fun as well, but when you move from driving by yourself, to racing, different things become important. Lap times begin to decrease in importance. Using traffic, setting up the driver in front of you, going off line to pass all kill your lap times, but racing is more about attacking and defending. Taking positions and holding onto them. It doesn't matter how fast your lap times are as long as you're in the lead at the end.
Videos would be really important for a racing school. And hey, they're really fun to watch.
I'd be up for just having some beer and talking things over.......