This isn’t a Texas story, but it is driving related. In 2000, I spent a week at the Skip Barber Racing School at Laguna Seca. Since I frequently get questions about what that was like, here’s the review I wrote at the time.
This past week I had the pleasure of participating in the Skip Barber 3-day Racing School and a Lapping Day at Laguna Seca Raceway. The short story is that I had a fantastic time and would recommend it to anyone. The instructors are very knowledgable, give lots of feedback and are supportive. They really can turn a beginner into a race car driver after 3 days.
I would just say to myself, “Keep the car straight, no sudden movements, keep the throttle planted in the floor”.
The long story begins on Tuesday morning at 7:45am. After signing in, filling out a lunch menu, and getting fitted for a suit and helmet, we started with a classroom lecture. We went over vehicle dynamics and correcting oversteer. We then went out to get introduced to the Formula Dodge race car. It only has a 4-cylinder engine but given that it weighs about 1500 pounds, the car is deceptively fast. We learned how to strap in and start the motor then did a couple laps of an autocross course set up in the paddock. After that exercise, we did an oversteer exercise in the paddock. We accelerated our cars down the straightaway, then turned-in and released the throttle simultaneously. The sudden weight-change spun the tail of the car around, and we had to learn how to correct it. This was a fun exercise.
After lunch, we went back to the classroom to discuss double-clutching and heel-toe shifting. The Formula Dodge race cars have unsynchronized transmissions, so you have to rev-match your shifts to get the car into gear. What is rev-matching? If you know how to drive a manual transmission, you’ve probably noticed that the RPMs fall when you press in the clutch. This is counterproductive when downshifting because you’re trying to shift from low RPMs to high RPMs. If you want to do a fast downshift then, you need to raise the RPMs in order quickly put the transmission into the right gear. Rev-matching is blipping the throttle while downshifting so that you can execute a fast and smooth gear change. It’s a complicated maneuver because downshifting usually occurs under braking. So you have to work all three pedals–gas, brake, and clutch–simultaneously with only two feet.
After the lecture, we went back out to the cars to practice these shifting techniques. We drove down to the end of pit row, braked, and downshifted, then turned around onto the straightaway, accelerated, then braked, downshifted, and turned around again into pit row. After this exercise, we drove out onto the track for the first time with the rev-limit set at 3000rpm. Unlike other racing schools, Skip Barber doesn’t set the rev-limiter on the car, so if you accidently exceed the limit, you won’t spin-out because of the sudden lack of power.
I should point out that we didn’t spend all day in the car. There were actually four groups taking the course at the same time. While one group was on the track, the group that just came in was changing cars with the group going out, while another group was reconnoitering the track in the vans or observing from one of the corners. The reconnoitering and observation trips were extremely helpful. The instructors drove us around the course so many times that each shift, and brake has been permanently etched in my memory. It was also helpful to sit on a corner with an instructor and watch the mistakes and successes of the others in the class.
Except for brief lectures on flags and threshhold braking, most of the next day was spent on the track. In the morning, our rev-limits gradually climbed to 3600rpm. After each lap, we would stop in the middle of the straightaway to get feedback from the instructors at each of the turns. Then we’d try to correct our mistakes. We also got to drive a couple of laps in a Dodge Neon with an instructor. This was helpful because it was the only time you actually had an instructor in the car to guide you. I received a lot of useful feedback on correcting my line from this exercise.
After lunch, we did threshhold and trailbraking exercises while going around the track. This exercise produced several spectacular spinouts in the hairpin. By the end of the day, we were rev-limited at 4000rpm.
The last day started with lectures on passing and rolling starts. We then went out to the track to practice both. The passing exercise consisted of four cones marking off the position of an imaginary car at the 3 marker before turn 5. Our job was to approach to rear of the car, move to the inside at the 4 marker, then threshhold brake until we resume the line and turn in. This exercise is a lot harder than it sounds. The distance between the 4 marker and the 3 marker isn’t very great, so it takes some cojones to make that sharp turn at speed.
After taking several laps practicing passing, we did some practice starts. We followed the pace car around the track, lined up 2-by-2 after turn 9, then processed through turns 10 and 11. Once we were all around turn 11, the instructors gave us the green flag and we all floored it until turn 2. Passing wasn’t allowed the first two times, but it was for the last two times. One of my classmates passed the entire group by cutting down the inside into turn two. We were all so used to following our line, that we were lined up on the right side of the track for the #2 turnin. That was a sweet move.
After lunch, the instructors finally removed the required stop from the middle of the straightaway and we were able to connect laps and get some real speed coming into turn two. Driving at over 100mph into that hairpin is crazy. The car feels light and ultra-sensitive. I would just say to myself, “Keep the car straight, no sudden movements, keep the throttle planted in the floor”. The instructors also allowed passing in any of the three straightaways, but only under acceleration or drafting. They also removed the rev-limit so that we were using the full potential of the car.
We stopped about an hour earlier than usual so that we had time to turn in our suits and have a small graduation ceremony. We got a “Skip Barber Graduate” t-shirt, stickers, a certificate and a racing license, as well as a bunch of coupons and brochures.
I’ve still got a lot to learn, I realized that during my lapping day on Friday, but I’m very excited to see where I can go with this. I’m very satisfied with the money I spent and will definitely be taking more courses from Skip Barber in the future.
This review doesn’t include the fifth day of my classes which had been postponed a couple of weeks. The fifth day was dedicated to car control, and I intend to talk about car control in a future post.
Obviously, it’s been a while since I was in the Barber school. I can’t say anything about the current program. I do know that they have upgraded the cars since I was there. I’m really hoping to get a chance to drive one of those someday.
