Proformance Race School
On Monday and Tuesday I attended the
Proformance Race Licensing Program at
Pacific Raceways. While I could have just gone to two SCCA Novice Schools, the only one close to me is the April 1 school at
Portland International Raceway (which I plan on attending anyway.) To get in the second required school I'd be either trailering to somewhere or flying and renting a race car for the second school. So I popped for the $2000 and went to Proformance and probably saved some money.
The
folks at Proformance, from the owner Don Kitch right down to his 4-year old daughter Siena (who helped with flagging the finale race) are all first class. The cars are new Chevy Cavaliers with roll bars, harnesses, race seats and rear anti-sway bars installed (my assigned car had ~3000 miles on the clock.) Every class starts with new tires and brakes - they aren't so new at the end of two days...
Day 1 started right on time at 0800 with introductions and a basic "Here's what we are going to do and what we want to accomplish in this school," talk followed by about an hour and a half lecture on driving in competition from Don. It was a beautiful day for the first day of Spring; sunny and warm with a light breeze. Then we went out and got fitted into our cars - a couple of notes on the car choice for the school; when I was researching schools to attend, I got some negative feedback on their choice of Cavaliers from a couple of people (who, by the way, had never driven one - I asked.) No, they aren't snortin' Steeda Mustangs or 'Vettes, but those wouldn't be good training vehicles, the Cavs
require smoothness and technique to get the most out of them, you can't make up for bad technique with a shot of power- miss a shift in 5A and you'll get passed in 8 (don't ask how I know). The yellow number 11 Cavalier was a great teacher for me, my smoothness improved from one driving session to the next (at least *I* think so.) Then we did some slalom and threshold braking exercises followed by some "Ducks in a Row" lapping. Then time for lunch - not a lunch break, we had lectures on flags and safety equipment while we ate. I had to step out for a moment to meet the AAA guy because I had locked my keys in the trunk of my car; he arrived just before lunch ended.
The afternoon started with 20-minute lapping sessions with instructors - half of us out lapping and the other half watching a certain section of track with Don. After that we went out alone while the instructors collected data on lap time, segment time and speed into Turn 9 followed by a couple of mock pace car starts. Then a question and answer session and review and critique of the data gathered. By the time we got out of there, it was almost 1800 and I was zonked. I found the
Comfort Inn, Auburn, who offers cut rates for Proformance attendees, ate my dinner and collapsed into bed. By 2100 I was out until
Lisa called me to say Good Night at about 2215. I turned the lights out and slept like a log until the alarm went off at 0645.
Day 2 started out much like day 1 with some lecture time from Don; but the gorgeous weather of the day before was gone, it was raining lightly. About halfway through the scheduled lecture time, it had started to rain harder and the track was wet to where Don got us out to play with understeer and oversteer on the wet track. Then we all loaded into the back of the truck to do a track tour and see where we would go to do important things like registration and tech on a race weekend. This was followed by more 20-minute lapping sessions with and without instructors; then another working lunch.
After lunch we did passing exercises with two cars running nose to tail at moderate speed and at turns 2, 3A and 8 the rear car would do a proper pass if the passing flag was shown or not pass if the yellow was shown. We then went out and did single-car qualifying with the instructors once again gathering the same data on us. During the Drivers' Meeting after this we again got some data analysis and critique from the instructors before we went to pregrid as well as a question and answer period for anything about racing. When I came out after this, I had a new right rear tire - lots of high-speed left sweeper turn time on this track. I qualified 5 out of 8, but the grid was reversed with the idea of keeping us traffic so I was outside of row 2. We went out on track with one of the Lotuses as pace car (Proformance will be offering the Lotus Driving Experience soon) and got my first green flag! By Turn 1 I was in the lead and by Turn 3 I was back in third after not taking a defensive line through 2. From then on it was passing and getting passed, they threw pretty much every flag at us, black flagged the entire field to bunch us up again, did a single-file restart and went to the checkered. It was during this session the I learned if you shift to 5th instead of 3rd at the entry to 5A and don't figure it out until the exit of 6 you'll get passed in 8. The race was followed by comaraderie and some debrief time then graduation certificates were handed out. I stayed and talked with Michael Law, who is not only an instructor with Proformance, but also the
Northwest Region Club Racing Competition Director, and got some additional pointers on what I need to do to be successful and got my Novice Log signed off. So now I have proof I'm a Novice Driver. :)
What did I learn for my money and time? I learned a lot about car control at the limits, how to find those limits and (usually) reel it back in without much drama. I learned that my years of autocross driving helped me in some ways and hurt me in others for road racing. I learned that lapping a road course with a bunch of other cars driven by drivers you (mostly) trust around you can be a real rush and I think I'm going to really enjoy Club Racing.
If you have any thought that you might want to drive on a track, I can't recommend Proformance Race School enough. They have lots of programs other than the SCCA Licensing School, check them out and have some fun!
