As the Editor of KIT CAR magazine, I get to drive countless kit cars and race cars on the track and around the street. Tough job, I know.
At test facilities, I drive faster than most and have been told that I am a pretty decent driver, a fact that is debatable as you will discover later in this article. However, questing for instruction and knowledge, I took Racing Adventures up on its invitation for high-performance, precision racing instruction at its facility near Las Vegas.
I had been to other driving schools and found Racing Adventures (RA) to be superior, thorough, and thrilling. It is a real "must" for anyone who is serious about really driving a kit car.
I was first impressed by David Zubick's professional approach. Zubick, one of the "Three Daves" I met at the school, is the head man at RA. Zubick teaches precision driving and is skillful, knowledgeable, and friendly. The second thing that impressed me was RA's fleet of training cars, eight Factory Five Racing Spec Racers. I have driven many FFR 65 Coupes but never had the privilege of belting up in a Spec Racer. Wow, they are fast. They are all outfitted with Ford 302 engines, are responsive, handle like a dream, and are track sticky, to help out even those of us who seldom get to drive the esses on road courses, such as the one we were instructed on at the school.
Class began with 1 1/2 hours of schoolroom instruction, during which time I learned about oversteer and understeer causes and corrections, high-performance precision-driving techniques, driving position, eyesight, and braking techniques and that racing is a learned behavior and all about finesse. The eyesight is the key to much of this, and I put RA's vision techniques to use when I hit the driving area
I had been to schools in which you are told to make sudden turns and stop when you see red lights flash. Well, they do it differently at Racing Adventures. After sizing up a driver's ability, reaction, and body language, one of the "Three Daves," Dave Clark, stood behind some cones (not much protection) and had me bear down on him at about 30 mph. I kept getting closer, and using only peripheral vision, I waited for him to signal me with his hands: turn right, turn left, or stop. I have to tell you that it was sweat time. I got really close to him on several occasions and mentally screamed at him to signal my turns or stops. I was driving "Smokey" (all the FFR cars have nicknames), and after the sweat dried, I had really learned something about driving reaction and control, and something about trusting professionals. He "knew" me and knew I could react in time...lucky for HIM
Then it was on to the road course, where, after a few practice laps, we did lead-follow. We learned the course and studied the quickest, smoothest lines through the turns, then tried it on our own. When I was in front, I pushed my envelope and thought I was doing well. Then when it was my turn to drop back and follow, I found out what the real racing world is about. Racing behind professional driver Greg Jones (Seattle, WA) and other students-Ron Nielson (Gainesville, GA) and Bryan Rogers (Brea, CA)-I found they were eating up track much faster than I. I started taking the curves faster, to the best of my ability, but these guys were too good to keep up with. I hit a top speed of about 95 and was told by the "Three Daves" (Zubick, Clark, and Picket) that I did a very good job for a Level Oner (RA offers three levels of training and suggest refreshers and increases in instruction for the full benefit of the program).
Still, I was humbled by driving with REAL racers and was impressed by the level of instruction I received and the improvements I made in only ONE full day of classes. I was drained eight hours later but excited about what I had learned, and I recommend Racing Adventures to those of you who want excitement while increasing your driving tools and skills