HELP GIVE OUR VETERANS A FANTASY DAY AT THE TRACK. ABSOLUTELY NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED FOR THIS EVENT, ONLY A SMILE AND AN OPEN MIND.
Many of them have come out and ridden with instructors at various driving club events but have never actually driven! They had a great experience and had expressed an interest in learning more about driving. This event is an opportunity for them to have the fun of driving on a race track too.
In the morning, after some classroom on vehicle dynamics, or- why cars do what they do, these warriors will be put through their paces on the skid pad, braking and slalom exercises, and after lunch, everything learned will be put together on this most excellent 1.1 mile track. There wil be a plethora of patient instructors to help and guide these heroes thoughout the day. The instructors will be in-car at all times. We will be also limiting the speeds.
This event will be a great personal victory and a day of "therapy", relaxation and inspiration for all.
Any veteran, wounded, handicapped or none of the above would be more than welcome to come out and drive in their own cars, specially equipped or not, (or just hang out) with a highly experienced instructor in car at all times. We can accommodate 36 drivers.
This event is free to all military and veterans.
Driving is the most dangerous thing we will ever do, yet drivers know more about the latest football scores, the latest movies and the latest rock group than they do about driving a car!
THE HELMETS OFF TO HEROES CAR CONTROL CLINIC is designed to introduce drivers to car control and the dynamics of WHY CARS DO WHAT THEY DO
Oveview of the Day:
Drivers check in and get their car number, driving group, schedule and other instructions, and get their car “teched”.
After tech, there is a mandatory classroom for all drivers. Some of the topics covered:
- Using eyes properly
- How to be smooth to keep the car stable
- Proper position in the car for optimum control of the car
- Weight transfer, contact patches, and traction
- Understeer and oversteer and why these attitudes of the car occur
- Threshold braking and ABS
- Braking in turns and swerving using the principles of the Traction Circle
- Line Theory: Apexing and how this applies to keeping the car stable in a turn
There are three sections of exercises demonstrating the classroom lectures.
- Four different slaloms:
- A straight slalom
- A slalom in a turn
- A decision slalom
- A “snake” slalom
- Three different braking exercises:
- Threshold braking with and without ABS
- Braking in a turn
- Threshold braking with a swerve
- Skid pad (various types of skids)
- Understeer
- Oversteer
- Spins
- Proper Shifting in a standard shift
- High Speed Techniques on track
Students are divided up into three groups of approximately 13 in each group. An instructor is in the right seat at all times.
After the morning exercise and lunch, there is a mandatory drivers’ meeting explaining the meaning of the flags, passing zones, hand signals and other safety procedures. Drivers then put everything together with track sessions at speed, again, with an assigned instructor in the right seat.
At the end of the day, there is a debrief, and an award. It is guaranteed that every driver will not only have fun, but will learn a Hell of a Lot about what good driving is! If ALL drivers learned what we are teaching, there would be 90% fewer accidents!
