coss1600

completely agree. I got so much crap taking 4 days off. Forget the money part, I think the dogs alone drove her nuts.

jscott82

By day 5, would be pics of her new boyfriend fiddling with my welder and petting my dog.

winders

My wife is for just about anything that makes me a better and faster driver. If I were to go to the school, she would want a recap of what we did during the day and a description of what I learned. When I got home she would make sure I got nice reward too! No boyfriends for her! Of course, she is the team owner and crew chief and is in my ear for all my races. We are a team!

good hands

Am I missing something? NASA gave me a competition license because I had my PCA license. Application, Physical(they accepted the PCA form), $100, done. Has that changed?

ProCoach

No,

good hands

Then get the NASA license and skip the 3 day school. (or am I being captain obvious here?)

Carrera51

Jeff:
Race craft and confidence development take seat time and race experience to develop. Your worst enemy right now is overthinking. I am lucky if I get to do 1 race a year at this point. When I started racing in 2000 I was a competent driver in DE, but my first race weekend was eye opening. I realized in the first practice that I had no idea how to race. Going off of memory I think it was around my 5th race weekend where I finally grasped the mental side of racing. You need seat time in race conditions. I think you have the basic tools already in your toolbox but you don't have them arranged properly. Put a passenger seat in your car for a DE. Hire Cody or Evan Close and ride in the car with them and you will be able to see what your car feels like at faster lap times.

ProCoach

He's not talking about licensing. He's talking about the pre-requisite to get access to the ADVANCED two-day (smaller groups, all one-on-one intensive feedback, data coaching, all day/both days) program at Skip Barber.

And no, the NASA license (or any other license) won't get them to waive that requirement.

Part of any serious educational curricula is the building blocks, the glossary and the approach they want you to be familiar with before moving on to the advanced program. Yes, in the three-day, they do have to drag the slow folks along, which may not help the experienced folks (like old cossie), but you have to hear it so that ALL of the time in the Advanced program is dedicated to the one-on-one feedback and track time and to have it make sense.

It's disappointing to me that so many people are "beyond" the basics. It's tedious, I get it. But it IS important.

Mastery of the basics and a distilled, targeted methodology to deconstruct what you're doing and go back to the best execution of fundamental skills is the ONLY way to break through plateaus and function at the highest level.

It's like when I send a private coaching questionnaire out to someone and one of the questions is "are you a graduate of a recognized professional school program?" Most say no.

Then, I ask how they would rank themselves in skills execution, Novice, Intermediate or Advanced. WITHOUT fail, many select "advanced," some with a few dozen racing days, others with as little as twenty, forty or sixty days of DE.

When working with drivers, too many times we need to go back to basics when we review and assess data and video after the first run or two. Braking exercises, when to shift, how to read a track, fundamentals of weight distribution and effective use of the tire contact patch, the basics of the friction circle, exercises to begin REALLY trail-braking instead of only THINKING that you're executing that. That's fine, that's what I'm there for...

The number of folks that truly "rotate" their cars, as opposed to just waiting on the understeer to stop or waiting to get to the point where they can "mash the gas" to get off the corner are really a very small percentage of active drivers out there.

When I look at the best pros, and the best club racers, they are MUCH closer to the ideal. The quality of each of their executions is very high. Their understanding of the relationship between all the basics, control input timing and amplitude, are very practiced and very good.

There is an ideal to strive for. THAT is what a proven, time honored curriculum provides, especially in the advanced phases.

I do think the OP will get some of what he needs from the private coaching next week. I think he'd get even more coupling that with additional skidpad training in low-traction environments with a professional at the BMW Training Center, Team O'Neil and Dirtfish.

It's all about building confidence. Without a firm understanding and comprehension of the basics, confidence is not repeatable, because it's just throwing it against the wall and hoping it sticks...

Just my experience...

NaroEscape

Jeff knows my opinion on this....

Road Atlanta is not an easy track to get good at in one day, and he's never been there before.
He'll be driving a car he's never driven before that is nothing like his Cayman (Mustang GT). I keep being told it will take many weekends and lots of seat time to get comfortable with the Cayman even after driving another mid engine car for 30 years...
And as stated, its not the "how do I drive" that's an issue, it's "how do I race/pass/coexist with 30 other cars inches away from me and TRUST the car". I can't see how any of this can be learned in a one-on-one day at a track you don't know in a car you don't know.

Obviously I do believe in coaching and see huge value in it. But I firmly believe that seat time in your own car with the proper coaching of what the problem is (mental, psychological, confidence boosting, etc) would do so much more than the Skip Barber school in this instance.

997_rich

Maybe a left field opinion here.. Have you considered karting? You sound like you're wishing for more car control exercises. If you want to find the limit and go over it, know what it's like to over-drive a 4 wheeled vehicle, karting is a great place to start. Over-driving the car and sliding it around isn't the quickest way around the track but it sounds like you're trying to find the confidence to push the car a little. I especially recommend indoor karts on polished concrete surfaces. You can lose it and spin the kart out in a corner over and over again. The kart rental place wont care if you put it in the tires. Gain a controlled drift around a corner (again, not the fastest way around a corner). Intentionally lose the kart a little, then try to get it back. Then, finally, dial it back until you find the level when you're "bending" the kart around the corner and turning the fastest laps. Something to consider perhaps over winter. You can show up to an indoor kart track in winter on a weeknight and sometimes you'll be one of 3 people on the track.

Other than that, rally/dirt is great, ice driving is great, if you find yourself up north in the winter do 2 hours of sliding around in a frozen empty parking lot.

Finally, get the cheapest, ugliest rear wheel drive car with the smallest tires and hustle it around. I vintage VW bug will slide around a little though a corner at 35MPH.

Have fun- it hope this is going to be a really fun learning process for you! I think the self deprecation etc. isn't going to help at all. You're already in a great place and this is supposed to fun. If it's not fun, you should be getting paid for it and we'd call it "a job". It doesn't mean it doesn't take effort it just doesn't have to be like taking medicine.

jscott82

I may try Karting, I have a group of friends that go regularly. I avoid karts as I'm a big guy both height and weight, so I don't fit, and when I do shoehorn myself I'm slow just from power/wt. Have not considered just making it a slide fest.

I also have access to a wet /dry skidpad so may just go slide around there a bit too.

jscott82

was great meeting you at summit, great putting. A face to a name.

jscott82

I can only wish... My wife used to come to every event, but she really wasn't interested ... I tried to get her engaged but she just wasn't interested... Finally this year I pissed her off and now she doesn't want to come anymore.

jscott82

Thanks Mark!

I thought I could hang on your coat tails as you passed, but as you effortlessly carved through slower traffic, i got balked and stuck behind.... Thus my problem here :-)

winders

Yes, I am very fortunate in this regard. I don't see many wives at the track involved in their husband's racing. Some show up but it is the rare wife that is actually an active and valuable participant in what is going on. I would not be as successful as I am without her being there. I certainly would have less fun too!