Like most aspiring amateur race car drivers, our careers begin on the sofa – watching the heated competition of F1, Le Mans, DTM, Grand Am or World Challenge. As the hours flew by and the laps racked up, dozens of circuits around the world become permanently etched into memory. After some time though, back seat sofa driving got boring. NASA and SCCA provide the means for any aspiring Michael Schumacher to get off the couch and get in their own cars to try the real thing.

Gentlemen, don’t start your engines just yet; like anything worth doing it takes a little time, and due to the inherent danger of performance driving a newbie can’t just jump in a racecar and decide to race. Anything motorsports related uses a ladder system with steps to bring the driver to their goal.

Both a good understanding of the theory and excessive practice are crucial to becoming a safe and successful driver. Life comes at you fast when braking hard into turn 1 off the long straight. Your career won’t be illustrious or long lived if you panic at speed; this isn’t a venue where you want to go out with a bang. Driving school is an important first step and it serves as the springboard to a potentially addictive lifelong hobby.

Most seem to underestimate the importance of a good driving school; instructor reputation greatly supersedes price. While it may be tempting to save on a cheaper school, there’s a good reason that the better schools are more expensive. You wouldn’t skimp on a skydiving instructor would you? The same goes here. Imagine yourself behind the wheel of a powerful car hurtling down a decent straight and we think you’ll agree that even the added confidence wouldn’t hurt.

My performance-driving story is not unique or surprising. Like most I attended weekend driving programs with my own car. Instructors endured lap after lap in my passenger seat offering tips and their lifetime of knowledge. Every weekend I had some of the best road race hardened instructors right in my car; both of us focused on how to improve my driving. As steadily as each lap blended together and weekends flew by, I noticed a bigger issue developing. Each weekend promised a different instructor in my passenger seat. While varying perspectives are often of great value, it quickly became apparent that the consistent feedback I dreamed would bring my driving ability to a new level was not to be found at these events. Something had to change.

Initially it was an issue of quality vs. quantity. My routine of track fees and car prep/maintenance and instruction topped several hundred dollars per weekend (without anything breaking on car). A weekend spent at a proper high performance driving school is about three to four grand (equivalent to six track weekends). That’s a lot to shell out for a weekend all at once, but it was going to happen sooner or later, so I pulled the trigger and went with the tried and true Skip Barber Racing School. Drivers like Juan Pablo Montoya, Michael Andretti, Townsend Bell, and many others have all taken the program offered by Skip Barber. With a list like that, it becomes increasingly harder to pass up the opportunity.

The next hurdle was deciding on which program to take, the Formula School or the Mazdaspeed Racing School. My natural response was to create a pole in the motorsports section (http://forums.evolutionm.net/showthread.php?t=32810), and most of you suggested that I go with the Formula School. Majority opinion aside I decided to ignore all of you and take a chance on the new Mazdaspeed Racing School at Laguna Seca Raceway. The program was so new and curiosity was my motivation. Having spoken to others who have taken the course I understood that the program was based on the Formula program and was a great choice for anyone looking to further their career in closed wheel racing.

As the event drew nearer, I started losing sleep. I wondered who the instructors would be. I wondered what my classmates would know. Finally, with all arrangements made, it was time to set out to experience what Skip Barber had to offer.

Day 1
Like any first day of school, day 1 was overwhelming. It was exciting to meet the other students (some of which were members here) and our instructors (Randy Buck, Conrad Grunewald, Andrew Shoen, and Jeff Rodrigues). I couldn’t recall that I’d ever been that excited to be in class. We had a lot to cover and everyone was on the edge of their seat. Topics included: General Overview, Explanation of Vehicle Dynamics/Car Control, Race Car Intro, Racing Line, and Downshifting (heel and toe). Recess promised a lot more than it did in grade school, although that same anxiety and restlessness hung in the air. Even with the amount of instruction needed to get the basics taught, there was a ton of in car time. All day we oscillated between the classroom and the cars. At each point we applied the lesson through a series of in car drills.

Our first in car practice session was on the mock track setup on the skid pad. An instructor rode shotgun while other instructors stood at certain points along the “track.” Having a group of similarly trained instructors watching every move was something I desperately needed. This type of instruction seemed to wipe away bad habits. With enough practice, the carefully designed drills corrected the various spectrums of possible flaws. By the afternoon everyone could see varying hints of good technique that was becoming sub-conscious behavior.

The sun was high when we got out onto the big track. Much like the morning, an instructor was positioned along each turn; critiquing every move. After the drills were over, each instructor provided a list of possible improvements as well as praise for aspects executed correctly. By the end of the day exhaustion had set in and all were ready to head back to the hotel to pass out.

Day 2
Topics covered in Day 2: The Race Track, Flags, Braking & Trailbraking, Technical Line Talk, and Passing. Braking & Trailbraking were the most physically demanding due to the practice required to get the techniques down. The braking portion required us to get up to speed, and then slam on the brakes hard enough to get close to the lock-up point. Doing that a few dozen times gives you far more than you bargained for in terms of a neck workout.

The second portion to the lesson was the fun and equally scary technique of trailbraking. The goal of the exercise was to get the car to rotate using weight transfer. Coming off a high speed straight into the “Andretti Hairpin” (turn 2), a driver must brake really late to properly carry speed through the corner. This is far more of a mental exercise than a technical challenge. Once I had overcome the mind-game of applying the brakes way beyond the point that seemed logical or even sane, it wasn’t difficult to get it right. Later in the afternoon we were on to open lapping sessions dedicated to passing and learning the line, which was a great way to end the afternoon. The next day would be our last and it was time to get some rest.

Day 3

Ah day 3. This was the day I was most looking forward to because we were to practice race starts and have a lot of open lapping time. Topics covered on day 3: Rain Racing, Race Starts, and Recap of the previous two days. My biggest worry was the mock race start, but in retrospect it wasn’t worth getting worked up over. We did three separate drills per race start, with a position change for each drill. There were two separate race starts we completed (both rolling starts), single file and side by side. Open lapping was the last item on the list, which was the perfect opportunity to apply what we had learned. We had been sheltered in our drills before; now the tires and brakes started to heat up and we had to readjust our entry speeds in order to maintain speed coming out of the turn. Keeping the car consistent was difficult under these conditions but we used what we learned from our drills and classroom time over the previous 2 days to get the job done. After our final track session was over we reluctantly said goodbye to the cars, had a brief graduation ceremony and packed our bags. On the plane home and over the next several days I realized that I had gained a lot more than a few friends and a certificate of completion.

Conclusion
Usually I end a review with, “you should really get this part,” or “you should really do x, y and z,” so you’ll have to trust me when I say that the moment you register for this school, the rest of your life will be owned by racing. It’s been a few weeks since I attended and a day hasn’t gone by without thinking about building a spec Miata to race as soon and as much as possible.

So please, do yourself a favor and don’t go to this school, unless all you really want to be is the best possible driver you can be. Don’t go to this school if you’re afraid of your friends being jealous. Don’t go to this school if your wife already tells you that you’re spending too much time and money on your silly hobbies. Sounds awful doesn’t it?

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Special Thanks

Skip Barber Racing School P.O. Box 1629 Lakeville, CT 06039 Phone: (800) 221-1131 Website: www.skipbarber.com

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In 1999, Honda’s were the most popular cars in the aftermarket scene. They were cheap, sporty, had great gas mileage, and offered great quality for the money. At the time I was a poor college student not being able to afford much, driving around a Jeep Wrangler (of all things). I wanted a new car that got better gas mileage than the jeep and could serve as a weekend track warrior. HPDE’s (driving school) were a new thing to me at the time and I wanted to get involved as soon as possible.

Acura had released its last version of the Integra Type-R and I really wanted one bad. Unfortunately it was too expensive for me to afford so I had to find something close enough, the Civic Si. The SI out of the box was a great package. 160hp motor, with a 8k redline, shorter gear ratios then the Integra GSR, no abs, and a great chassis. It was also easy on the wallet thanks to dealer incentives/rebates. In no time at all, I purchased it and started to put some money away for future mods and track events.

After a few months of scraping all my pennies together I decided to attend my very first track event with NASA. I signed up two weeks prior and it was the longest two weeks of my life. This was a two day event and I was looking forward to every minute of it.

Day 1
There’s nothing like your first time on track. Many experienced track whores probably don’t remember the overwhelming feeling of the classroom speeches and making sure you do everything not to crash your car. My first day was just that, overwhelming. None the less, I had my car gassed up and the lug nuts torqued ready to go on track. My first instructor was an active spec miata racer and really knew a ton about the track. I learned about the different lines, braking points, shift points, and turn in points. Towards my last session, I was bringing my lap times down by being consistent and trying to reduce the amount of mistakes I was making. At the end of the day I was totally exhausted and could barely stay awake!

Day 2
This was a unique day for weather. The track was wet and there was a consistent amount of rain that was falling to make sure nothing was going to dry up. I was completely nervous. My instructor gave me a quick pep talk and encouraged me to take it slow the first few laps and try practicing new lines in the rain. During the first session, I had to play more with the throttle to get the car where I wanted it. Since the Si was a FWD car, I had more of a safety margin in case I decided to get too carried away. Throughout the day there were many accidents and because of it, lost track time. At the last session of the day, I took it easy and decided to keep practicing everything I learned over the weekend.

Conclusion
Throughout the weekend, I kept hearing the common phrase that most people have heard before, “once you get bitten by the track bug, it’s over”. Unfortunately I was bitten and ever since then my life hasn’t been the same, nor has my wallet…

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(Check out my video clips for this article here: CLICK TO WATCH VIDEOS)
I know, not your typical part review, but I wanted to try something new. It’s always nice to see something different and out of the normal routine. This is the first part of what will be many more articles to come about my personal path to obtain my license in order to enter into NASA Time Attack series. The car of choice is the project evo, obviously. With all the part reviews we do with this car, it has everything needed to be a good track car and a serious competitor. By running this car through each HPDE weekend also opens the door to follow up articles on how some of the modifications on the car hold up after a solid HPDE season.

So now let’s start from the beginning. Why am I doing this? This was a dream of mine since I was 8 years old. With the near death experience I went through that ultimately took Mark’s life, I decided that now would be the best time to pursue some dreams of mine. I have the car, so now all I need is the experience behind the wheel. With any project, I always like to plan out what my path will be and try to stick to it the best I can. This project isn’t going to be easy and will be challenging at times, but in the end I think it will be worth it.

What’s the first step? Well there are many choices to make before you get into this. The first and most critical decision is to decide which driving school program to go with. I wanted to go with a driving school that carried a big reputation for having one of the best instructor staff and was able to hold a fair amount of track events in a season. The other nice thing is to have these events at tracks that are close by and easy to get to. I’m sure you’re thinking “why not stick with NASA?”. NASA has a good driving program, however, they are a regional sanction and have events at tracks that may be too far to attend. I wanted to stick with one school as much as I could in order to get consistent instruction (or close to it). Once I get to a more advanced level, I will then go through the NASA ranks to obtain my license. So in the end, the program I decided to go was the one at Car Guys. They’ve been around since the late 80’s and carry the experience that will help improve my ability as a driver. The company owner, Aryan, is a phenomenal driver (One ride along with him in his Z3 and you’ll understand why I use the word “phenomenal”) and with his knowledge/experience, he has developed a very successful HPDE program. I’m not new to HPDE events. I’ve attended a few HPDE sessions before with Nasa and other racing organizations. The only difference now is, I have a goal and this was the program to go with.

The next decision is to really figure out the costs associated with all of this and to see if it’s worth pursuing. Many of you attend HPDE events and know that the costs vary. Between the amount of money for gas, alignments, tires, brakes, fluid changes, HPDE entry fee, etc, it starts to add up. If you are not taking the same path as I am then the costs will probably be much less. You really wouldn’t need R compound tires, race brakes, high temp fluids, etc. You can still go out and enjoy the weekend and do things with your car that you wouldn’t be able to do on the street, without the big bill at the end. Anyways to bring us back to the original point. The total average I was looking at was about $1,200 per weekend. That includes the HPDE entry fee, fluid changes, incidentals, replacement (brakes, tires, etc.), hotel stay at some tracks, and food. Pretty big bill for a weekend! It may look like an overestimate but it’s better to do that then to underestimate. The decision wasn’t easy, but in the end I decided to go for it.

With a plan set in place, I decided to sign up for the 2 day event and get ready for VIR.

First Day
I got in at around 9pm the night before after a grueling 6 hour drive to the track (traffic was horrible). That night I decided to hit the bar and calm down the nerves before the event the following day. Being this was my first time to VIR, I made the mistake of talking with other experienced VIR attendees about what to expect on the track. Usually at this time at night with a couple drinks down, some people can get overly dramatic with their stories to say the least. I was told, “watch out for turn 10. if you lift you’re done for!” or “make sure you’re careful through turn 8 and 9 because someone had a bad accident there last time”, pretty overwhelming stuff the first night.

The weather early in the morning wasn’t pleasant. With a layer of frost on the car, I was hoping that my run group wasn’t going to be the first ones out. Luckily I wasn’t going out till mid morning, which gave enough time for the track to heat up. The advanced run group went out first to help the heat build up as well, which was nice.

With any HPDE event the first thing to do is to get the car tech’d inspected. Basically a check to make sure your car is mechanically able to run on the track. (I should mention that I did receive a tech form in the mail a few days after I registered for the event, in order to get the car checked out by a mechanic before hand. ) The next thing you do is to get ready for the morning class/meeting. The classroom sessions help first timers and even seasoned attendees on how everything is suppose to go. Flag definitions, passing zones, lines, etc are all discussed in the classroom. After my classroom session, I got to sit back a little and just wait for my run group to be called. CarGuys were very well organized when it came to the schedule. Nothing really overlapped and I got a ton of track time that day.The instructor assigned to me was extremely helpful the first day. A pro driver with a very detailed oriented mindset, he gave me a 4 page packet with a survey and rules to follow. At first I was pretty annoyed that I had to read a 4 page packet and fill out a bunch of questions so early in the morning, but after the first session I realized why it was important. It really helped set the tone for the instruction and we were basically on the same page the entire time. What also really helped was that he took me for a ride along earlier to learn the line of the track. Sort of like an orientation before we started our sessions.

The first session out was sort of an “installation session”, basically getting comfortable with track, looking for the flag stations, etc. The next few sessions got better and better. I was faster each session out and was improving pretty quickly. After I was able to pass a couple of C6’s (Z06’s by the way), I knew I was doing something right. Before I knew it the day was already over and I was exhausted. The horror stories from the night before exited my head and all I kept thinking about was the next day. I got a taste and I wanted more!

Second Day
Now one thing that’s really important not to do on the last day, is to get overly cocky about your driving ability. Remember this is the last day and if you drove the car to the track you should really want to be able drive it back home. The classroom session on the second day specifically includes this topic in their discussions. Aryan has done this for years and knows the feeling you get after a good day. That’s why he specifically brings the entire group back to reality by showing a video of an instructor driving a Ford GT, who made a mistake by driving it a little too hard, and ended up in the wall (even instructors can make mistakes). Sending himself and passenger to the hospital and causing $50,000 + worth of damages to the car, something that no one wants to do. It seemed a bit morbid, but it got the point across.

On this day I decided to start off slow in the morning and progressively turn the dial up in the later sessions. With the lessons I learned the day before; I made sure to apply them today and tried my best to make sure I was consistent. After the first session in the morning I was feeling pretty good and my instructor was basically speechless during the sessions. He was surprised at my improvement and basically pointed only a few minor items to fix. At my last session, I was basically passing most of the cars in the group. My instructor recommended me to move up to the next run group for the next event (Nov. 11th & 12th @ Shenandoah).

Project Evo
Let’s face it; doing something like this isn’t really good for the life of the car. But what’s the point of having this much potential and having most of its life wasted on the street. With each session that went by the car would perform without any issues. I would constantly check tire pressures and fluid levels at the end of every session. The car never showed any signs of weakness. The Nitto NT-01’s still have enough rubber for another weekend, which is pretty good considering it already went through a full weekend before. Plus I drove the car 500 miles round trip to the track and back. The brakes (GiroDisk Rotors with Ferodo DS2500 Pads) held strong each day with no signs of fade. This car was born on the track.

Conclusion
This was honestly one of the best HPDE experiences I’ve had in a long time. The Car Guys group really did a good job of keeping things organized. Their instructors were top notch and provided a ton of input to help improve your driving. I felt very satisfied with my level of improvement and really can’t wait for the next event. This was the first step towards my goal and it couldn’t have gone any better. A special thanks to Mhyar (aka Az3ar) for being a great friend and helping out when I needed it. Also it was great to meet other evo owner’s and I hope to see more f you in the next coming events.

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Today is the day I officially launched my personal blog and it is also the first day I’ve decided to actually post in it.

I’ve always wanted an outlet to share my life experiences with others. Why? Well I think my life has a lot of interesting stuff going on and some will find it interesting or some may think that I’m full of myself. Either way it should be somewhat entertaining.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoy my blog!

- Ali

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