An Average Guy Learns to Race - Part I

It's not very average that the Average Guy gets to go to racing school.  It's not very average for the Average Guy to attend a professional racing school event either.  In most cases it's not even close to being affordable, at least not for this Average Guy with an Average Budget!!!  Ok..that's not 100% true, and I'll mentions a couple good deals that I found at the end of this series of articles.

In these next few pieces I am going to share with you my two experiences (well 2.5 experiences - I'll explain later) thus far with two different types of racing, as well as give some insight into the limited training sessions I attended.  By the way, I'm writing these exclusively for Racing in America. (Most of the articles you read on this site are first written for my non-commercial blog, Average Guy's Car Restoration, Mods and Racing. That's where I started writing and that's where I am normally very informal (even less formal then they let me write here))

For my birthday a few years ago, my saintly wife surprised me with a spectacular gift. (By legal contract I have to use the word "saintly" whenever I mention my better half in any of my articles - informal or not.) The gift was a lesson at the Mecca of racing schools - Bondurant Racing School of High Performance Driving.

Yeah..cool...right?  No, way more than cool.  I would have been happy to take their 3 hour course with a Z06, but nope that wasn't the gift.  The gift was a day with part of the Bondurant team at Phoenix International Raceway, Phoenix, AZ.  The treat was driving their modified Formula 1 cars on the famous PIR oval.  

NASCAR legends past and present have driven there, Formula 1 legends have driven there and I got to drive there.  Driving an open cockpit car in this historic arena...well.... it was unbelievable.

Now, I'm not going to give you all a blow-by-blow account of the entire day. Instead I want to focus on the training they gave us before we took the track and the instruction on the track.

Up until this point my only education was watching the Speed Channel, web sites, magazines and a few trips down the drag strip in my Mustang (you read about those here and most likely had a laugh... I still laugh about my first trip past the "tree").  That's the informal education most of us Average Guys get.  However, the Bondurant team is serious about what they do, not to the point where you feel like you are in basic military training (12 yrs USAF  for me and – brownie point coming up -  my saintly wife 22 yrs USAF-Retired - thanks to everyone that's served!!) though and kept it fun.

The first round of instruction was getting into the suit and helmet and then a class room setting to explain about the track, the car and the rules. Oh, yes there are rules and these guys mean it.  Two individuals were pulled off the track and one was not allowed to continue for the next round..$$$ plus flushing sounds equals.... yup you’re done!!   They went into great detail about the track and cornering and the operation of the modified formula 1 car.

This was followed by a field trip track side where they had a couple mock-ups of the car and another round of how to shift and how to get inand out of the car. For some that was a real challenge, it's low and it narrows, a lot narrower than I expected it to be.

Next was the first lesson in getting in and out of the corners.  This was accomplished in what I thought was an unusual method:  As we finished up with the mocked up F1 models, two 9 (I think) passenger vans pulled up and they ushered us in, had us buckle up and brought us out to the track. The first pass was to show us the corners and the  locations on the wall or on the track where you enter and exit the turns. These were such things as a patch of tar, or a spot on the wall that was noticeable.   

 I'm driving on a track where legends drive and I'm looking at the spots they look at when they are getting in and out of the these very corners!!!!!

We made a complete trip around the oval at about 50-60 mph and then the driver says...OK...let's give you an idea of what it's like at a speed. I know we were over 100 mph as we headed for the first turn, in a VAN(!!!) and we hit the corner...in a VAN(!!!) with 9 people aboard. It was awesome!!!!!!! 

After that it was time for a little driving of our own. 

The first round was at a slow speed.  We drove at about 50-60 mph behind one of Bondurant team’s new high performance Caddies to get the feel of the track and the modified Formula 1 car.  The Caddies are used in their Military/Executive Security courses.  They required each of us to take turns as the lead behind the pace car.  The leader would pull slide to the inside and allow the next individual to pull around them and in to the lead.

The next few laps were at faster and faster speeds behind the pace cars and the last few laps you were on your own.

The thrill of an open cockpit car is unmatched, even with the top off my old '84 Corvette and my newish '07 Corvette, it can't be duplicated.

I'll tell you right now of the three types of racing I've participated in (drags, auto cross and oval track) - oval track wins, hands down. 

This is the extent of my oval track training, but it won't be my last.

Thanks for reading and next up we'll talk about auto cross training, formal and informal and I think you'll be surprised at what I found out about myself, my cars and some trainers.

Read more from Tim Sweet at

Average Guy's Car Restoration, Mods and Racing

Photo Credit: Tim Sweet