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 So
It's Your First Drivers' Ed?
I remember my first Drivers' Education (DE) event as though it were
yesterday. I'd purchased a sports car a few years before and had slowly
weaned myself on fast rides through the local twisties, getting faster
and faster each go until I determined I was just too fast for public
roads and with my luck, avoiding detection was stretched as far as I
dared! One day I heard about something called Autocross…an event
held on a short but twisty course that would teach me all I needed to
know about my car's handling, tire pressures, alignment, tires, and
scuff marks on my bumpers. It also taught me that I had absolutely no
patience for standing around waiting or playing corner worker for 8
hours just to get several minute long runs in…I was growing old
and not driving, something was awfully wrong with that picture. And then someone mentioned they were off to Roebling Track (Savannah,
Ga. Area) with PCA and I begged to go along. I'd grown up in rural Connecticut
but just a stone throw from Lime Rock Park and my Dad had been a mechanic
for a now defunct racing team back in the early sixties. They used to
go to Bridgehampton, the Glen, and many others. Hey, I had the same
genes so I'm qualified right? Crown Region of PCA was nice enough to
accept my application and before I knew it, I was on my way. But this is about what I did to get ready before heading for the track.
First of all, I found a good book "Going Faster: Mastering the
Art of Race Driving: The Skip Barber Racing School," by Carl Lopez
and Danny Sullivan, and read it cover to cover several times…at
least I was going to know the terms. Turns out it was a pretty good
primer for what to look for on my car too. I also used the checklist
that accompanied my Crown Region application for this task and if you
read no further, do only those things, you'll be well prepared. But
you'd miss all the fun! Someplace in your preparation you'll suddenly realize that you and
your car are going to get on a real track…not the left hand turns
only or a modified road course but a real go fast piece of real estate
with twisties and maybe even some ups and downs! You're going to visualize
cars with wild paint schemes and ads for soap and various kinds of oils
and such all over them…flaming exhausts, and helmeted gladiators
with determined faces and no hearing due to years of too many decibel
exhaust note. Your head will echo with names such as Watkins Glenn,
Lime Rock, Sebring, Le Mans, Spa, Road Atlanta, Sears Point, and others…and
then you're going to see you, in your favorite street car in your most
determined mirror pose and if you're at all normal, you'll wonder what
in hell you got urself into! But let's suppose you're more the academic and have tuned into several
books, picked the mind of one or two "experienced" friends
and have been devouring the Rennlist net or other I-net discussion sites
and now you're wondering if those stock seat belts should be wider and
have a 5 or 6 point hookup. You're concerned that your Discount Tire
D60A2s might grip better if they were more worn and you wonder if the
hard top would be better reinforced by a roll bar of some make. And
then you wonder if the you in the mirror and in the anticipated podium
shot is really better suited for a driving suit, shoes, gloves, and
a more expensive helmet than you originally planned and you'll be begging
the local drugstore to be your sponsor! Well partner, here's where it pays to take a deep breath of reality
and re-establish contact with terra firma. First of all, revisit what
a DE is all about. It's not a race school. It's not a fashion show.
It's not an excuse to get all those car mods you don't understand why
you need and can't afford anyway. What it is, is a chance for you to
drive your car on a controlled entry circuit in a circumstance designed
to assist you to better learn how to drive and how to anticipate what
others out there might do under similar circumstances…what you
learn should be 100% transferable to your everyday driving. And the
good news is that you will get an instructor to help you along the path.
My first instructor was unreal. He rode at least "four" 20
minute sessions with me, patiently showing me how to anticipate, determine
a good driving line, recognize corner stations, learning to point faster
cars by, applauding the successes and patiently explaining a better
approach to my novice mistakes. About half way through the "fifth"
session, I began to realize there was someone else in the car with me
as I intermittently heard another voice other than my own inner self
screaming with delight! The point here is that instructors realize where
you are and trust me (I am one); they know a lot of their initial instruction
could be in an unknown dialect and the newbie driver would still be
nodding in agreement! They know that their job is to keep you and others
in your run group safe from yourself and each other, and that's their
real initial focus…they know that eventually you'll come around
and start responding to external as well as internal stimuli (smile).
It's at this point that you will really take a deep breath, understand
why you are at your first DE and will look your instructor in the eye
and he/she will respond with a knowing smile and you'll move on. Now, just a bit on equipment. Barnie, all you need for your first DE
is a good car with standard safety equipment, comparable seat restraints
for both you and the instructor, good tires, a helmet that you're satisfied
is sufficient to protect the value of your head, and a long sleeved
cotton shirt and pants. Tennis shoes work just fine as long as they
are not all knobby on the bottom or too wide (may get caught in the
pedals) and cotton socks are required. You also need all the excitement
and enthusiasm you can muster…it's going to be one of the best
times you're ever had! You'll swagger away and meet with friends in
a social situation and lie about how late you braked into turn one and
outline the mods you'll have made to your car by the next DE. But someplace
in a quiet corner, but always within ear shot, will be your instructor,
and they'll be smiling…not because you're ahead of yourself…but
because they did their job well and you're hooked and you're safe! So get out there and have some fun! It's safe, it's educational, and
you'll meet some of the nicest and most helpful people in the world! Bob Hotaling
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