This past weekend I made the 5 hour trip up to Atlanta for the April 7 driving school, which was held in the parking lot of Turner Field. This was a first, as I'm a little spoiled by racing on an abandoned airfield down here where 60-70 second laps are the norm, as opposed to half that in this parking lot. On the plus side, the asphalt was pristine so I think I did less damage to my tires in roughly 25 laps on this stuff than I do in 6 laps on the chewed up runway.

Anyway, it started with 3 laps on my own, followed by a few with an instructor riding shotgun giving tips. Then the instructor drove for 2 or 3 laps (I had to let someone else drive my baby! ), followed by another 3 with him riding shotgun, then 3 solo. And this was all before lunch! The main topic discussed for the first half of the day was throttle/braking control and balance.

After lunch the other instructor got in (there were 2), and the sequence was pretty much repeated. This time the topic of training was "looking ahead." I wouldn't have thought it would make any difference, but I found that it did. I stopped trying to think about which line I was going to take for every turn, and just said, "I want to go over there," and the brain filled in the rest. It was really quite an odd experience. Now I have to see if the technique proves useful when I don't have an instructor telling me where I should be looking ahead to. The beauty was that at the end of the day, my best time was actually faster than the instructors' were. Granted, they had 2 laps each in my car compared to like 20 that I had, but still .

Overall, I found it a very positive experience. There were 8 people in the class (limit is 10), and 2 instructors, so there's lots of personal attention and seat time with (in this case) a national champion Solo driver. I learned a few things, and it wasn't too expensive ($175). The only disappointment I had was the size of the track...my best time was when I drove the whole thing in first gear. I was hoping for some higher speeds. At any rate, my final vote: I recommend it. Cool moment of the day: When Rob (the national champ instructor) drove my car through a sweeping right-hander, he had it in a tail-out powerslide for the whole thing...then spent the rest of the lap giggling like a little kid. He of course pointed out that that was NOT the fastest way through the turn, but it's pretty obvious he enjoyed driving my StooK .

 

Ted...I assume you are speaking of Rob Faulkner. Known for tail out adventures in my many cars! He is a very good driver, whom I met at my first autocross in Danville, VA.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the school...now, when are selling the Grand Am to buy race tires, sway bar and travel to some national events!