9.5 Degrees

I've casually followed the multiple saga of BostonDMD and his many offs. I've also seen his other threads that seem to gather a lot of pages.

I don't know why Paolo is a magnet for comments, but in looking at his offs with 4 in one day, I can't help but wonder if he should be racing. Sorry if that offenses you Paolo, but that is my honest opinion. I've seen people in better control of their vehicles at autocrosses, DE and time trials. I don't think club racing is where you go to learn how to drive. I would personally be worried if Paolo was in front, behind or to either side of my car considering what I saw on that video.

I'm curious what the club racers on this forum spent time wise in years before they felt they were comfortable enough to go club racing?

mrbill_fl

0 DE's (didn't exist in 1994), 1 autox.

but it would have helped... I figure it was half way through my 2nd season (12-15 events/yr) before knew what I was doing.

I did do the skippy 3 day, and one lapping day, and 2 scca schools. -scca was only about safety, very little skill building.

CWhaley

started racing when I was 12 y/o.... Father was a drag racer in the late/early 60's/70's... Uncle was into motocross in the 70's... Thus, my brother & I started racing motocross in the 70's... You did not have the access to go-karts and other racing like you do today for young people. Started with SCCA in the 83, did Skip B 5 day to get my SCCA License... ran SVRA (open wheel for several years)... EVEN still, when it came time to start PCA... I took 2 years (over 30 events) of attending DE's (wanted to learn my car) before I went racing. My father always taught us... "Learn to drive what you have, before you go out".

I think my path to PCA is more the exception.

38D

I did nearly 10 years of DE & AX before I started racing (about 150 DE days and who knows how may autocrosses). If I had to do it over again, I would have started racing after ~3-4 years of DE. Once you get into the advanced/instructor run groups in DE, the learning curve slows down dramatically.

PedroNole

4 AX events until I went to a DE for the first time. Then, about 3 years of DE's before racing. What's next?

Sean F

1.5 years of DE


Time is not the measure of preparedness

SundayDriver

I did a couple years of AX because that was all I could afford. Then jumped into some racing in 1981. Could not afford much so only got a little bit of racing experience. Really jumped into racing in '99 and only did DE to get more track time after I re-started racing.

PedroNole - What's next? Try open cockpit, purpose built race cars. Not for everyone but it is new level, especially cars with reasonable aero - Instead of cornering at 1.5 g's you can try 2.5-3 g's. Imagine hitting your braking reference in a corner and instead of going for the brakes, you upshift.

Veloce Raptor

8 years of tactical driving armored sedans & Suburbans.

No AX.

18 months of DE before my first race.








Professional Racing and Driving Coach

Lemming

1 AX (great for car control, but I can't stand hanging out for 10 hours to get 5 minutes of track time!)

2 years of DE (28 track days)

2 years of instructing and running TT (48 track days)

First race was March '08. I still instruct at just about every DE at Barber that does not have a race affiliated with it.

VERBOTN

1-event: AX not for me
3 Years of DE with increasing frequency and assistance with organizing events
......racing: club only. Absolutely no aspirations for pro (serious lack of talent, time, and $$$$$)

what made me comfortable was participating in events (DE's) that had open passing which IMO is key. The traditional PCA DE (my area) did not allow passing in the bends/corners which did not provide a transition to Club Race. I Had the good fortune to be part of the early PBOC SS program which allowed open passing with rules. I think all drivers should have that experience before jumping into a race.

M758

I did the fast track.

1998 First autocross
1998 and 1999 full season of PCA autocross in a stock 944 Turbo S.
Jan 1999 first track day in my Turbo S. - Went solo after 2 sesssions. Not sure if that was cause I was great or my instructor was lazy. Even so it worked out fine. I did 4-5 DE days and 7-8 autocrosses before october 2000 when changed over to my 944 NA track car.
2001 to 2002. - Ran 8 more track days and 8 more autocrosses.
PCA comp school and rookie club license in April 2002. - Finish 2nd in class GT4S in 944 spec car and won my class in the enduro. - Given the Rookie racer award.

From 2002 to 2004 I gained about 3.5 seconds of lap time at my home track and won something like 20 races in 944 spec and held the track recored at most of the track I went to (most have since be eclipsed). However it was common to go off track at least once per day. However never hit anything since there was room to go off unlike many east coast tracks.

So I think I had something like 12 track days undermy belt before I went racing. Now after driving the same track car for 10 years and having over 100 races the only new replaced body panel is the passengers door.

Now one reason for my going racing was that I wanted to push 100% all the time. I had very lucky spin in DE. Lucky in that I did not plow into anyone and nobody hit me. It was that moment I said I need to get out of DE since I was being to aggressive in DE. If I want to drive that hard I needed to go to the race group where I could pass in corners and little sliding would not get me a dirty look and a black flag.

I felt it was a good decision as I knew how to drive pretty well, but needed to keep pushing the outer limits. In racing group it was accepted that you could go off because you are pushing 100%. In DE the expectaion was to keep it on black stuff all the time and don't risk going off. To me that hindered my abiliy to push myself and get better. After al one reason to drive old junker 944 was to not worry about a little bump or scratch. However in DE most guys really would be upset if I did something dumb. Not that they would like it in race group either, but DE is not the place to push 100% every lap of every session.

Again I don't advocate going off track, but given the tracks I drive there are places you can go off and the worst that happens is a little dust gets kicked up or you leave some marks in the grass.

race911

2nd track day was an SCCA licensing school in '83 @ 21. Which was two weeks after my first time on track--opening day of Firebird in AZ. But I'd spent 3 years heavily around SCCA amateur (Regional and National) and Pro either crewing or as staff, and I think that helped me just as much as getting schooled about what's expected.

I really think it would be helpful if every driver had experience working events--flagging, T&S, tech, grid, etc. Would be a little more appreciation for the hard work many put in so we can strap in and drive.

2BWise

I agree with Sean. Time or number of events isn't necessarily a good measure. Everyone learns at a different pace. It wasn't until I began getting bored at DEs that I considered moving to racing. In a DE there really is no reason to push the car as there is no competition. It wasn't until I realized that to really push the car DE wasn't the environment. Most groups will give you the boot if you go off a couple times, so you're more or less restrained to a certain level. When you're really on it you will begin to drop wheels and use up all the curbing. Not really something that has been overly accepted with the groups I had run with.

FrankyV

Six years of DE, with the last three as an instructor, before I started Club Racing this year.

Bill Lehman

Two years of Autosprints (tight tracks, no cones) and Hillclimbs with the Pennsylvania Hillclimb Association then went to SCCA drivers school at Marlboro and Watkins Glen in 1968. First race was the Reading Road Races. Yes I am a fossil. I left racing in the late 70s, bought a Cayman in 2007 and did not know DEs existed. That was about 30 track days ago.