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NEW CAR PRICES AND RESEARCH
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A Day at the Races
For some, learning to race can improve road skills and boost confidence
by Melanie Webber
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It all began when my boyfriend kindly observed that my road skills could benefit from some serious driving school training. I drive 100 miles round trip every day on the infamous 405 freeway, between Los Angeles and Orange County, to my job at Autobytel Inc. in Irvine CA. This should be training enough; but he did have a point. In spite of nine years of LA driving, I remained one of those annoyingly sluggish and hesitant drivers - a menace to LA hot-rodders and road-ragers. I had the basic skills down, and a flawless driving record to boot; but what I lacked, after more than two decades of driving, was, quite simply, confidence. Given that I work in communications for an automotive company whose business focuses around cars- it seemed to me that it was about time I learned to love not only my car (a faithful and tolerant Jetta), but driving it. I also realized that I probably wasn't alone in wanting to improve my driving skills and confidence behind the wheel. So, as a special promotion for the 2000 California Governor's Conference on Women, we ran a sweepstakes offering a free day of race-car driving to a lucky registrant in Autobytel's MyGarage. Much to the envy of my SpeedVision-addicted boyfriend, I was allowed to go along for the ride. The Fastest Road in the West I set out at 6:30 am one Saturday morning, driving through L.A.'s dramatic canyon country as the sun rose into the desert, headed for Willow Springs International Raceway and Danny McKeever's Fast Lane Racing School. Located 50 miles from downtown LA, in the middle of the bleak, dusty, desolate grandeur of the Mojave desert, Willow Springs is practically the only thing moving in Rosamond, California, just beyond Palmdale. Built in 1953, and a designated historic landmark, Willow Springs (yes there is actually a running spring at turn four) is the oldest, continuously operating race track in the U.S. Known as the "The Fastest Road in the West" (it's the fastest road course west of the Mississippi), it shares an exit with Edwards AFB just down the road from where the shuttle takes off and lands. There is no business but the race business at Willow Springs. When I pulled past the gate at 8:00 am, one of the first to arrive, I could already hear the screeching whir that is half the thrill of a race track. From the parking lot of the small two-story building that houses Fast Lane, vintage motorcycles raced around and around the main Willow Springs Raceway. Further off in the dusty distance were the "Streets of Willow Springs," the course on which we were to do our training.. The "Streets" started in the desert and wound into the foothills and, to my eyes, there was nothing tame or "street-like" about them. Speed Racer and the CHP Gradually, my fellow pupils arrived. The class was evenly split between men and women and all ages were represented. Two classmates had brought their own cars for the school: one was a sparkling, racing green, Porsche Boxster (owner appropriately equipped with English leather racing gloves); the other was a growling black, souped-up Acura whose owner (appropriately equipped with black helmet) swaggered in and looked like trouble.  Among those in the class were an aspiring stunt driver; the girlfriend of a professional race driver; an Edmonton, Canada dentist who had brought his daughter to Fast Lane for her 18th birthday; an actor-slash-Akido instructor; a truck dealer from New Jersey; a mom with her 18-year-old son for a traditional family rite of passage, and, the last to arrive, Autobytel's sweepstakes winner, Carmen Palma, a marketer for Nissan. We were all quite amused that Carmen had not waited to get on the track to start her racing: she was late because she was stopped by the Highway Patrol for speeding on her way to Willow Springs that morning! School began inside the Fast Lane building with a 45-minute lesson from Danny McKeever, the school's namesake and founder. Danny is a championship race driver, veteran instructor and renowned stunt driver. Danny covered the "basics" of racing, including the best way to hold your steering wheel. According to Danny, if you hold your arms out straight, you should be able to rest your wrists on the wheel and drape your hands over the other side of the steering wheel. This particular piece of information provided me with some vindication: I have often been told that I sit too close to the wheel, yet when I got in my car and tested Danny's formula, I had been driving at the perfect distance all along.. In addition, you should grip the steering wheel firmly but not tightly so you can remain sensitive to the information the wheel is giving you about what your tires are doing. Be in as much physical contact with your seat (your back, your legs) as possible, because, as Danny says, "the more contact you have, the more information you will receive…. You react to what you see and feel through the car." We also received a good lesson on how steering actually works and impacts the tires. From Danny's point of view, driving is all about the tires and as drivers, we are simply "tire managers…all we are responsible for is where the car connects with the ground." As he so aptly put it: "Cars don't crash, people do, and a car only does what you tell it to do."  ... "Cars don't crash, people do, and a car only does what you tell it to do."
--Danny McKeever... He also had some good lessons on braking techniques: "Everything you do with a car is an exercise in weight transfer. Brakes stop wheels. Tires stop cars." We learned how braking actually works, that slamming on your brakes can lock them up and that "squeezing" and "easing" on the brakes is mandatory for overall car control. What may seem common knowledge to many was news to me: when evenly balanced, tires contact the road in patches the size of your hand… when you brake, the weight is transferred to the front and the patches grow smaller in the rear; when you accelerate, the tire patches in the rear grow bigger and get smaller in the front because the weight has shifted. A few key racing tips were: do all of your braking before entering a turn and accelerate out of the turn - one turn in, one turn out; look in the direction you want to go in and steer in that direction and, one final key word: Relax! Otherwise you will wear yourself out. Stars on the "Streets" We were introduced to the instructors who would be working with us and were each issued a very official looking (if not exactly flattering) racing suit and helmet. Suited up, we lined up for a group photo in front of the flashy looking pace car. Next, we were given a brief tour of the basics of the racing-modified Toyota Celica GT Liftback that we would be driving and were shown how to strap ourselves into the racing harness - fabric belts that crossed both shoulders and the waist with an "antisubmarine" belt coming up from below and all joining in a metal clip that took some practice to master. Finally, we got down to business and headed for "The Streets of Willow Springs," a 1.8 mile multi-configuration track -meaning that it can be run several ways, as opposed to the 2.5 mile main raceway which can only be run clockwise. According to Alison McKeever, Danny's daughter (a championship race driver and instructor herself), the "Streets" are tighter, more technical and allow beginners to practice techniques at slower speeds (a relative term when it comes to racing). Alison assured me that EVERYBODY, including celebrities such as Ashley Judd, Jay Leno and Cameron Diaz, started their training on the Streets, so we were in fast company. Over the years, in addition to numerous championship racers, Willow Springs has also felt the rubber of hot rod celebrities such as Paul Newman and James Dean. Racing Secret: Bright Yellow goes Faster The instructor I hitched a ride with told me to be sure to pick a yellow car because they were the fastest, so I quickly claimed a sparkling yellow Celica, and was told it was one of the fastest in the fleet - not necessarily comforting news to me. Once we were all belted up, we were given lessons on track etiquette,how to get on and off the  track and into the pit. We were instructed to come back to the pit when the checkered flag was waved and that there was to be no passing in the morning session - and that was it. We were off and running. I felt a twinge of panic at the thought of going around the track on my own… I had thought that I would be with an instructor, but instead we were told to follow the pace car around to get the feel of the track. I couldn't believe that we were going out alone! But, to my amazement, I was not only able to get the stubborn stick shift moving and the engine going, but I managed to pull out without incident and get in line with the rest of the cars. Naturally, as we drove the track, I forgot every lesson I had learned, held onto the steering wheel for dear life, stiffened up and braked as soon as I felt a turn approaching…. Nevertheless, I made it around the curvy, slightly hilly, track unscathed; and, with the pressure to keep up and not hold up the cars behind me (we drove practically fender to fender) on the second go round, I started to really accelerate. Meanwhile, the driver of the black Acura seemed to have absorbed even fewer lessons than I had; he roared around the track with feckless abandon, hovering dangerously on our tails, spinning into turns with complete disregard for anyone else on the track. To my relief, he was soon flagged in and his driving took on a distinctly subdued tone as he was forced to unlearn every hot-rodding lesson he knew and focus on technique - Fast Lane School can also be a lesson in humility for your average road hog! 'Round and Around we Go After I had been around the track several times, I was flagged in and, wondering if I too had made some serious transgression, waited as one of the instructors approached. But this was routine,instructors periodically join the drivers in the cars to give them one-on-one instruction. I learned that the goal was - as counter-intuitive as it sounds on a curving track - to keep driving in a straight line, so you ease on the gas at corner entry and turn into the apex of the turn. As you start to straighten out the steering wheel, apply more gas and at the exit of the the turn, the steering wheel should be straight again as you let the car go where it wants to which, if you are steering correctly, is in a straight line. The instructor drove me around and demonstrated several times,then gave me the wheel and talked me through it. It took a while, but gradually I began to feel less driven by the car and more a part of the process, as I relaxed into the weaves of the turns. Halfway through the morning I was taken, with some of my classmates, onto the 400' x 400' skid pad for a hands-on lesson on "oversteering" and "understeering" both of which can cause spin outs and loss of control. Danny instructed us to drive the car in rapidly accelerating tight circles to demonstrate both situations which can cause loss of control, and then to learn how to correct. Correction for understeering is to ease up on acceleration and, for oversteering, it is to gently accelerate and adjust your steering in the direction you want to go; however, if the oversteer is caused by spinning rear tires, then you should ease off the gas.. Ultimately the goal is to even out the car's weight on all tire patches. This is not as easy as it sounds as the resolution for either the oversteer or understeer feels counterintuitive. Difficult concepts to grasp in the classroom, but on the skid pad Danny brought the lessons into reality with a strong dose of fun. Doing wheelies at relatively high speeds is a thrill, no matter what the practical lesson.  Relaxing around a roaring apex After another hour and a half on the track, we were flagged in for a lunch break. The temperature by now felt like it was in the high 90s and I was soaked under my helmet. I realized that I was completely exhausted which indicated to me that I had not absorbed Danny's key lesson: relax! After lunch, we regrouped for more classroom instruction about turns and apexes, ABS brakes, etc. and then we were back on the track, which had been reconfigured and expanded for the afternoon session. This time, passing was permitted on one part of the track and I was proud to (as my confidence grew) more often than not be the one passing rather than passed - I was especially smug to be consistently passing the hot rodding Acura, although I never made it past the Boxster, whose driver not only exhibited perfect etiquette but approached the track with Bond-like precision. Circles in the Tarmac The afternoon skid pad had been watered down and Danny took us out one by one for lessons in how to use ABS brakes and how to do reverse 180 and 360 degree spins - a stunt that he made famous in a Ford Mustang commercial. According to Alison, the purpose of these exercises it to teach students how to keep working the steering wheels with smooth hands and to test your ability to keep your eyes looking in the right direction. The 180 stunt consisted of accelerating to 25 mph for several hundred feet in a straight line, taking your feet off the accelerator and turning the steering wheel 90 degrees and engaging the emergency brake to lock up the rear wheels which causes the car to spin on the wet tarmac at a perfect 180 degrees and stop. My stunt was a little sharp because I accelerated too hard and too fast (I never thought I would have the experience of a race car driver actually yelling "not so fast!" at me!). In spite of my eagerness on the accelerator we made it safely around. This was a lot of fun and, with Danny in the car next to me, these stunts felt like a breeze…. But I think his admonition not to try this at home is worth listening to, and I have yet to experiment with my Jetta. Off the skid pad and back out on the track, everything clicked and I was addicted. This go round I was told by my instructor that I had "a perfect racing line"… not entirely sure what that meant, but I have been bragging about it ever since. Perhaps the most satisfying moments of the day were when all cars seemed to race in concert, on each other's tails, yes, but moving almost as one. It is amazing to me, given the speeds we were driving and our close proximity, that there was not so much as a fender bender, although several cars did spin out off the track into the sand. I was truly disappointed when the day came to an end. We were all sweaty and tired, but I for one felt exhilarated and wished that I was in the two or even the three day program. While I probably never went above 70 or 80 miles an hour, I began to understand the lure of racing, the focus and discipline it takes, and the feeling of freedom and exhilaration it provides. Most of all I relished that race-car roar reverberating in my bones making me feel at one with that hunk of metal on rubber. New-found Confidence While the classroom lessons were informative, it was on the track and the skid pad where the learning really happened. While I don't necessarily feel that my driving technique has changed that much, I feel much more confident that my machine, and those four palm-sized contact patches on my tires, are under my control.. My boyfriend paid me the ultimate accolade the other day when, after following me in his truck on the freeway, he remarked that my driving had really improved - perhaps it has, but it is the confidence gained from an exciting day on the "Streets of Willow Springs" under expert tutelage that underlies it all. -------- Danny McKeever's Fast Lane Racing School is located at Willow Springs International Raceway (www.willowspringsraceway.com) in Rosamond CA. The school offers a variety of programs including one, two and three day High Performance Driving courses, a Defensive Teenage Driving course and Highway Survival Training. The School operates year round. For further information call: 888.948.4888
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Source: ABT
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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