I spent yesterday up at Lime Rock Park doing the Skip Barber One-Day Racing School. I thought there might be some interest in a little synopsis of the curriculum and review of the school.
This particular program was conducted solely in the formula cars; the usual racing program, as I understand it, switches between the formula car and a spec Miata. I preferred being able to focus on learning one chassis for the entire day.
The formula car is Skip Barber-specific, but is similar to a formula Ford. It puts out around 135hp through a 5-speed sequential box. It was set up fairly soft for a race chassis, and we ran on BFG street tires.
There were four instructors plus an instructor trainee. All had racing backgrounds, and with the exception of the young trainee, these were extensive and varied.
The day started with about 90 minutes of classroom time. We talked about basic vehicle dynamics, front-drive vs. rear-drive, dry and wet lines, and finally a run-through of the Lime Rock track corner by corner. Much of this was fairly basic stuff for someone with a motorsports background, but given that most of the students had none, it was obviously necessary.
The 16 or so students were divided into two groups; these groups would alternate between driving and observing. The first several sessions are conducted as lead-follow drives, wherein three instructors go out in lead cars (Mazda 3s), followed by two or three students in formula cars. The lead car runs the correct line and the students attempt to follow it. These are also familiarization runs, as the experience of driving the open formula car is quite different from any street car. When not driving in these initial runs, students ride in the instructor cars, watching the line and getting tips about how to correctly drive the course.
After the three lead-follow sessions, we moved on to lapping on our own. A "stop-box" was set up on the front straight; students would be directed to the left side and held long enough to ensure gaps between cars on-track, or to the right side if one or more of the instructors had comments to relay. The instructors moved out to various points around the track with radios, and would call in when they saw something that needed to be addressed.
These latter sessions were naturally faster, as everyone was getting more familiar with the cars at this point. We had some light rain in the morning, but the track dried out after lunch, so that saw speeds inch up as well.
After two of the lapping sessions the day was done. We had a brief graduation ceremony and then were on our way. Nobody crashed, but there were some spins, and one car inexplicably lost a left rear wheel in Big Bend.
The drive home felt very slow and very quiet.
The racing school is a good program. The learning curve, especially in a formula car, is pretty steep, but the success of most students in coming to grips with it suggests the instructors and the curriculum are doing their jobs.
A couple of mild criticisms regarding the instruction. The instructors were all excellent race drivers, but their quality of instruction varied. The lead instructor in particular was very professional; some of the others seemed a bit bored and disengaged with the process (I teach for a living, so I'm basing this on my own classroom experience). The ratio of students to instructors was also a bit high, the net result being that the instructors spent the vast bulk of their time working with the struggling students, while those who were progressing received relatively little and generally vague feedback.
There are a couple of administrative complaints as well. Communication in advance of the school regarding basic information (when to show up, what to bring, etc.) was non-existent. I had to call to get the info I needed. When I arrived, I was presented with a heretofore unmentioned choice to either buy one-day insurance that, for $250, would cap my liability at $4,000, or to accept full unlimited liability for any damage I caused. Some mention of this prior to the morning of the event would have been nice, given that it constitutes a roughly 20% premium on the cost of the school.
It's a really fun day, and certainly an eye-opener for someone who hasn't driven that sort of car before. It definitely makes you think about signing up for another school (not to miss a marketing opportunity, they offer you a 20% discount if you sign up at the end of the day). For anyone who wants a taste of the track, it's a good choice, but drivers with lots of track time would probably do better with the three day school, which focuses more on race-specific techniques.
