As an introduction I will try to explain just why I was interested in taking a "racing school" in the first place. For me, it goes all the way back to my teenage years when I would idolize drivers like Gilles Villeneuve, James Hunt, and Ronnie Peterson and read about the exploits of legends like Jim Clark, Graham Hill or Stirling Moss. Whenever I read biographies of these great drivers, one thread of commonality ran through them: they all attended a "racing school" before they started their careers in motorsport. As a matter of fact, the great Gilles Villeneuve attended the 3-day racing course given by the Jim Russell school right here in Quebec, at the infamous Mont Tremblant circuit. His instructor at the time recollected "...he was faster in the dry than most guys were it the wet....". I filed a mental note in my mind that one day, I too would take a Jim Russell racing course.

But when? Life always seemed to get in the way. I remember promising myself that I would treat myself to the course when I graduated from University. But the cost of the course at that time was a whopping $1,000 (at a time when $3,000 was my annual university budget). After I completed my Masters, I again promised myself the course, the cost of which had now climbed to $2,000. But a new wife, a young baby and a mortgage got in the way. I drove a succession of fast street cars, drove all of them too fast (and badly) and pummeled my friends in various kart outings. I religiously attended the F1 race in Montreal every year and spectated at many, many vintage races in the northeast. But the "bug" to drive a real racing car on a real racing track just would not go away. Finally in 2002, I succumbed to peer pressure and took my street Jaguar to Lime Rock for the Empire Jaguar Club's annual driver's school. I went out beforehand and bought myself a new helmet and pair of driving shoes. At the track, an experienced driver locked us up in a classroom and showed us the basics: racing line, braking points, cement walls etc. Then they put us in the cars and let us go. My, oh, my..... what a blast that was! My poor little Jaguar street car squealed and slid all over Lime Rock's corners as I mutilated the "racing line". I bounced the poor engine off the rev limiter and had it momentarily shut down on me on the front straight, but I could NOT wipe the silly grin off my face after each session! I had to do this again. A recap of this experience can be found here

In early 2003 the Jaguar Clubs of North America annual general meeting was scheduled to be held in Charlotte, North Carolina. The organizers put the word out that they were thinking of renting the Lowe's Motor Speedway for an evening. Were any of us interested in driving a Winston Cup stock car around the oval? Yes! I got on the phone and the email and made sure we filled that course up with enthusiastic (if slightly demented) Jaguar lovers. The story of that experience can be found here.

Now the "bug" had really bitten. In Charlotte I met the guy who organized our evening in stock cars, Robert of http://www.racingschools.com He and I started to talk about my desire to take a "classic" 3-day formula car racing school and I told him I wanted to take it at Jim Russell or maybe Skip Barber. Robert told me there was a lot more to the choice than meets the eye and he asked me to check out his website and give him a call when I was back in Montreal. I read the information on his website and discovered some interesting facts:

"You've probably heard of the Skip Barber Racing School programs. They've been around since the early 70s but ran into some financial problems in 2001 and filed for bankruptcy in early 2002 leaving many customers, employees and vendors with unpaid claims. The name, operations and assets were purchased out of foreclosure in December 2001 by a group of former customers who hope to bring the school back to its former status as a leading provider of road racing programs. For now, the status quo remains.
What you need to know before choosing Barber as your choice:
- They enroll as many as 28 students in a single three day school program. That's more than twice as many students as some other schools.
- You'll always have to share a race car with one or more student.
- More students may equal less track time.
- No passing is allowed during the entire length of the curriculum.
- No full, uninterrupted laps on the track until the afternoon of the final day.
- No data acquisition is used at anytime.
- Their three day school price can be as much as 50% higher than other schools. Peak time programs at Mont Tremblant or Lime Rock Park costs $3,595 U.S.!

Another well known operator is the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School. Their basic three day program is priced competitively ($2,495 U.S.) until you realize that you'll need two of those three day programs at a total cost of almost $5,500 U.S. to get you to the same level as some of their competitors. Basic and advanced three day programs are offered simultaneously, on the same dates resulting in up to 30 students sharing track time. Not the best scenario either.

Now compare that to the average three day school price of other reputable operators at around $2,675 with some great schools offering their three day programs as low as $1850 to $2,595. That's a huge difference and a higher price won't get you more track time or better race cars or better instruction no matter what the claims.

The best programs enroll no more than 14-20 students, use data acquisition in every race car, don't make you share a car with other students and allow passing and full track laps as early as the morning of the second day.

The best Formula Three Day school programs are currently being offered by the Bertil Roos Racing School in the East ($2,495), Autosport Basi in Montreal, Canada (around $1,650 US) and the Derek Daly Academy in the West ($2,595).

Important Tip:
Always ask about race car damage liability limits. Some schools hold you responsible for as much as $5000 in crash damage while others (like Bertil Roos) have NO crash damage liability during their Three Day school program."

Well, that cinched it for me. Autosport Basi ran a school that was a 30-minute drive from my home in Montreal. They promised a class size of no more than 12 students, 2 top notch instructors, a full support crew of mechanics, your own race car for the 3 days and at LEAST 150 full laps with no pace car and no requirement to stop at the pits every time around. All at a price that was less than half what their competitors were charging. I was sold! I contacted James Bessemer, the owner of Autosport Basi Racing School ( http://www.autosportbasi.com ) and talked to him about booking a course. He told me that they had just received a group cancellation for the week immediately preceding the Montreal Grand Prix weekend. If we could find a minimum of 10 guys to participate we could book the entire course for ourselves. He was also willing to give us a discount off the already low price if we succeeded in putting a group together. So on April 1st, 2003 I started sending out massive emails and phone calls to Jaguar lovers all over the continent who I thought might be interested in attending. The response was not long in coming. Steven Elefant, a member of my home club, replied to me immediately, saying he had always wanted to take a 3-day racing course and, what's more, he had 3 or 4 friends who were also dying to attend. A few days later I heard from Steve Weinstein of New Jersey (one of my friends from Lime Rock and Charlotte). He was interested in coming and he had two more people from the Jaguar Touring Club of New Jersey who wanted to come too. Could I find them some appropriate accommodations near the track? Another friend of a friend emailed from the Ottawa Lotus Club: could he come down with his RV and camp on the site? Two weeks later we had 11 people together and we put down a deposit for our 3-day racing course. I couldn't wait!

I called back James of Autosport Basi and haggled price with him. After a bit of back and forth we agreed on a nice discount from the list price, meaning the guys coming from the US would be able to take the course for under $1,500. At the same time, I negotiated with Basi's suppliers and organized for a professional photographer to visit and capture all of us on film, and a chef to come out and cook us all a nutritious lunch each day.

Autosport Basi runs their course in the "classic" manner. James ran the Jim Russell school at Mont Tremblant for many years before venturing out on his own and forming his own school. Basi maintains a fleet of VanDiemen Formula Ford 1600's as school cars. Think of 900 pounds,115 horsepower, single seat and no fenders and you'll have the right idea. A lot of people describe them as "min-Indy" or "mini-F1" cars and the description is accurate. They are a very basic racing car and a great tool for learning. They quite simply go fast when you do the right things and go slow (or worse!) when you do the wrong things.

Before the course started I visited one of our local race equipment shops and bought myself a proper 3-layer driving suit, a pair of proper gloves, nomex socks and a nomex baklava. I may not be the fastest guy out there, but at least I would look the part and be comfortable. For those who did not want to spend all that money on racing apparel the school supplies a suit and helmet for all the drivers.

The school was scheduled to run on a Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday so the guys who were coming in from the USA drove up through the Adirondacks on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I invited several of them over to my house for dinner before they checked into their hotel and we had a great time meeting new people, renewing acquaintances and checking out the (pieces of) cars in my garage. The weather report was as follows: Monday-cloudy with periods of rain; Tuesday-sun; Wednesday-rain. For once, the weather forecasters got it right!

Even though we were asked to be at the track for 8:30 a.m. on Monday, we all showed up before 8. When the staff got there they fitted us all for our driving suits and helmets and had us all sign waivers. No damage waiver though; if we smashed up one of their cars we were not responsible for one cent. We were led into our classroom where we met our two instructors for the 3 days. Philippe Letourneau and Jean Francois Dumoulin were both experienced racers with trophy cases full of silverware and better still, they had both instructed at literally hundreds of racing schools over the years. As a matter of fact, Jean Francois had just flown back from Fontana, California where he won the Grand Am race driving a Porsche 911 GT3. Talk about a comedown! From the victory podium to teaching a group of misfits how to drive.....

We had an interesting mix in our group of guys. The youngest was 27 and had just graduated that same week with a diploma in computer engineering; the oldest was 65 and happily retired from a career with Snap-On tools. The tallest was 6'3", the shortest 5'6"; the heaviest weighed in at 220 pounds and the lightest 160 pounds. None of us had any experience driving open wheel racing cars but we were all eager to learn. I myself was "average", meaning I was 41 years old and weighed 196 pounds (I took off 15 pounds in the six weeks leading up to the course). Our instructors sat us down for about an hour and taught us the basics of race car dynamics and on-track behavior: how to place our feet and hold the steering wheel, the proper use of the gearbox (Hewland 4-speed non-synchro with a traditional "H" pattern, no reverse). Then we all went out to the pits to be introduced to "our" race car and the team of mechanics who would be taking care of us for the 3 days. It took a little time to get everyone fitted into their race car. We had sent our height and weight data to the instructors in advance of the course so they had prepared the cars accordingly. Seats were moved all the way back for the tall guys and moved forward with extra foam padding for the not-so-tall guys. We were instructed to press fully down on the accelerator and still have some "bend" left in the knees for strength. Similarly, with our shoulders pressed into the seat back and arm fully outstretched we should be able to bend our wrist over the top of the steering wheel. Hands at the "9 and 3" position on the steering wheel, not "10 and 2". These cars run a "total loss" electrical system meaning they have no alternator to charge the battery. So with a freshly charged battery installed we fire up the cars by depressing the gas pedal halfway and pressing on the starter button (after you turn the ignition switch on, of course). In front of us is a tachometer arranged so the 3-6,000 rpm sweep is at the bottom, a temperature gauge on the left (we are told not to exceed 200 degrees) and an oil pressure gauge on the right (shut off engine if pressure drops to zero). Even though these are "basic" 1600 c.c. Ford 4-cylinder engines they still make a heck of a racket, being that the powerplant is just a couple of inches behind your head. The mechanics also spent some time showing us how to get into these little cigar boxes: stand in the seat, do not lean on the bodywork, hold onto the chassis members and slip both legs under the steering wheel, plunk your ass in the seat and pull up on the seat belts and the same time (or they'll get stuck underneath your butt and you'll never find them), wiggle around until you're in there nice and tight. Your feet are way up inside the front bodywork, where you can't see them. Then the mechanics come around and do up your seat belts and shoulder harnesses. As a matter of fact, they do them up so tightly that you end up speaking two octaves higher, but when you start to lap at speed, you understand why you need to firmly belted in place. These cars have very tall first gears designed for rolling starts, so you need to give it plenty of gas before you slip it into first and take your foot off the clutch, otherwise you'll stall. Even when you get it going, the car just sputters and bucks. It's only when the revs reach 3,000 or so that anything resembling acceleration starts to happen.

Our first exercise consists of shifting and braking practice in a straight line. Here we established a pattern that was to prevail all day: as soon as we buckled ourselves into the race cars, it started to rain. So in the wet we learned to accelerate the cars in a straight line up through the gears. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and then brake hard and use the classic "heel and toe" technique to "blip" the throttle as you downshift back through 3rd, 2nd and into 1st. We did this over and over again until all of us were frustrated beyond belief and convinced that we would never master this mystical foot technique. In actual fact, "heel and toe" has nothing to do with the heel and the toe. It is more accurately described as "half and half", and don't bother trying it out in your street car, the pedals simply aren't in the right place. The idea is simple: with your foot in front of the gas pedal accelerate hard up through the gears and then, when you are ready to brake for a corner, lift your foot off the gas pedal but keep your heel on the floor and positioned in front of the gas pedal. Pivot the toes of your right foot over to the brake pedal and apply the brakes as required to slow for the corner entry. Push the clutch in with your other foot, move the lever to neutral and then "twist" the right half of your right foot around so that you can give a quick "blip" on the gas (all this without altering the pressure you are putting on the brake pedal with the left half of your right foot). When you've given the gas a sufficient "blip" (and you'll only know this from experience), shift into the lower gear and release the clutch. If you did all this correctly, the gear lever should slide in smoothly and the revs should match perfectly so that there is neither excess acceleration on deceleration of the rear wheels when the tranny hits the next gear. Got it?! This is not so bad when you are approaching a fast sweeper like the "carousel" at the track we were on and you only have to downshift quickly from 4th to 3rd while braking. But upon entering the "hairpin" at our track the driver has to shift from 4th to 3rd to 2nd and then into 1st on his set-up for the corner turn in point. That's a lot of information for our little brains to process!

Our next exercise was designed to give us a feel for sliding the car at a relatively low limit. So cones were set up in a slalom arrangement on one of the long straights and we were waved off one by one to weave in and out as fast as possible without "losing it". Of course, all of us hit cones and slid the car around and a few of us spun completely, but we were getting used to pushing the car and feeling its limits. Next up on the agenda was practice driving the racing line and using the proper gears on one of the more challenging corners, the "carousel", a double apex third gear affair with a tricky turn in, a change of pavement, a few bumps and a camber change thrown in to make it interesting. One by one we were waved off and the instructors watched from the sidelines to gauge our progress. This is where I learned one of the basic rules of racing car driving: look ahead! Most rookies have a tendency to look right at the "clipping point" or apex of the corner and once they've passed it, they look up again for the next reference point. This is a big no-no in a racing car traveling at speed. It all goes back to those lessons you received while a teenager in driver's ed class: get the big picture. The instructor told me to look up and ahead to the next reference point. In other words, at the corner entrance your head should be looking up towards the apex (clipping point) and at the apex you should be looking at the exit point (run out point). This discipline results in smoother driving and less jerking of the wheel (and in racing, smoother is faster).

Day two of the course and we were very lucky to get our one and only day of brilliant sunshine. The instructors take us around the track a couple of times in a minivan in order to teach us the racing line, braking and turn in points, the apexes etc. Personally, I'd be happy just to be able to lap the track as fast as the instructor in the minivan. No doubt about it, these guys can drive a car.... any car. After that we are all subjected to a little exercise designed to get us acclimatized to lapping. We all climb in our cars and fire them up, then follow the minivan around the course at reasonable speeds. Every second time past the pits, the race car immediately behind the minivan pulls in to pit lane (practicing the appropriate hand signals too) and then rejoins this high speed conga line at the back. In this way every driver gets a chance to follow the minivan/pace car for a couple of laps and observe the proper racing line. Quite a useful exercise and very informative if you're paying attention. Next up is the part we've all been waiting for: the chance to do full, uninterrupted laps of the course all on our own. After a brief pep talk and a lecture about not getting too carried away, we are given an appropriate rev limit and sent off one by one. This is the classic method of teaching race car driving: set an initial rev limit for the student and then slowly relax the limit over the course of the following sessions. To begin, we are not allowed to pass. Should we find ourselves "boxed in" behind a slower car, we are instructed to pull into the pits and ask the marshal there to find us a suitable gap in the action before waving us back out.

I'm feeling good in these early sessions. My heel and toeing is getting better, the car is feeling comfortable and the racing line is right where it's supposed to be! I go round and round, trying out different braking points until I can feel the front wheels starting to lock, trying different speeds through the various corners until either the front or rear tires (or both) start to slide. Yes, I did have to pull into the pits several times to open a gap, but all the other drivers behaved impeccably (only a couple of off road excursions!). A quick debrief by the instructors afterwards (I'm told to turn in a bit later and use all of the road on corner exit) and we're ready for our next session. This time we are given permission to pass on the front straight leading out of a slow hairpin and the back straight leading into a 1st gear corner. These two passing zones would hold for the rest of the course and lead to more than one hair-raising confrontation! I also learned something on day two: my times in the second lapping session were almost exactly one second slower than in the first lapping session, yet in my head I felt I was pushing harder. I asked our instructor why that could be. He told me a classic mistake rookies make when they want to go faster is to "cowboy" the car around the track. Basically the driver thinks that by braking later and entering corners faster he'll be faster, but actually it is the opposite. The car will be over the theoretical cornering limit in the corners and will simply scrub off speed, resulting in a slower exit speed and ultimately a slower average speed on the following straight. Lesson learned, be smooth, be consistent. We all left day two feeling really pumped up. We had enjoyed perfect weather, nobody had made any major errors, we had learned a lot from our instructors and, most important, we got a LOT of seat time and got much more comfortable driving the cars somewhere near the limit. Day three would prove to be much more of a challenge.....

When I got home on Tuesday evening, I wasn't feeling very well. I felt tired and hot. Not surprising after eight hours in a racing car but still..... I decided to take my temperature and it came out at 102F. Not good, must have picked up the flu that was going around but no way I was going to miss day 3 of the racing school. Two extra strength Tylenols later I went to bed at 9 p.m. I woke up at 5 a.m. on Wednesday morning feeling a bit better and no fever, so off we go to the track. This ended up being the hardest day of the three. It was cold and it was raining; mostly a constant light rain but every couple of hours it would just POUR down buckets. What do they do in racing school when in rains? Well, they very nicely towel off your seat for you before you sit in the car, but other than that, you just get out there and DO IT! The instructors gave us an exam on proper flag procedures in the morning (forget about getting your license unless you know your flags inside out), then they explained to us the procedure to follow when driving in the rain: when you spin (notice they didn't say IF you spin but WHEN you spin), put both feet "in" (brake and clutch pedal), when you've stopped spinning take a good look around, move the car slowly back onto the track and bring it immediately into the pits where the mechanics will check it for damage and clean out any muck that may be clogging the rad intakes (I swear one guy had dug up half the infield with his car, his intakes had grass, mud and rocks completely filling them). You'll be given the all clear and waved back out. We're given a rev limit that is increased by 200 rpm from the day before and waved out for our first session. IT IS WET! As beginners, we make the earth-shattering discovery that driving a race car in the wet is much, much harder than driving one in the dry. It genuinely feels like ice out there. I'll always remember coming out of the pits on my first lap. I accelerate gently but get wheelspin in every gear and as I approach the "esses" for the first time I turn the wheel for the corner and..... nothing. Massive understeer, then massive oversteer. The tires are cold and I have practically no traction at all. I make it to the "carousel" without going off track and take the normal racing line....... big mistake. There is a puddle.... no, make that a small lake..... right on the apex of the carousel. It hit it right in the middle and instantly I'm engulfed in a tidal wave of cold water that washes right over my head, obliterates my vision and fills my seat with cold water. Mental note: stay off the apex next time around on this corner! There is yet another huge puddle, this one in the corner out section of the esses, which you hit when more or less going straight. This one fills the cockpit up with water from below, giving the driver another "diaper full" feeling. Yuk! They say you can used to anything and eventually I did, shaving 12 seconds off my times as I "learned" where to go fast and where to go slow on the drenched track. Still, my times on this morning would be 25 seconds a lap slower than my best time from the previous day. One thing about the rain though, it really is a good teacher. As a student trying to learn, every little mistake is magnified 10x in the wet. You learn the limit so much better and get a genuine feel for the car in the wet, lessons that would be put to the test when the track dried out in the afternoon. Passing was quite an adventure in the rain. Basically, you can't see a bloody thing when you are following another car, the spray is blinding. But you have to have the courage to accelerate early and hard, then pull out at just the right time AND leave yourself enough room to brake for the next corner. On several occasions, I watched in mild amusement as the driver I was overtaking slid straight on at the corner entry (and yes, I did it myself on at least one occasion). Mental note when overtaking, keep your eyes on the proper braking points and use your peripheral vision to keep an eye on the other car. If you judge your braking by the position and speed of the other car, you may find yourself sliding off the road right behind him. I "only" spun a total of 3 times in the wet sessions; each time it was as a result of getting the power on too hard, too soon when exiting a corner (mental note: be smooth and be patient!). There were, quite literally, cars spinning in all directions during these wet sessions. In particular the fast esses were claiming a record number of victims. There was one small piece of grass on the inside of the esses where the various cars who went off had actually dug a nice hole in the ground while spinning their wheels and trying to get back on track. But we were all learning!

When we got out of the cars for lunch break we were a sorry looking bunch. It was still raining with no end in sight. The big decision was whether or not to take our driving suits off for the lunch break (and face the uncomfortable necessity of putting a cold, wet suit back on afterwards). I opted to take mine off and eat lunch in my jeans (with soaking underwear) and sweatshirt. I can now confirm that a 3-layer fireproof driving suit weighs about 50 pounds when it is waterlogged. For me, one of the highlights of the 3 days was listening to the squeals of despair when 4 or 5 of the guys had to put cold, wet underwear and driving suits back on for the afternoon sessions. Talk about "shrinkage"!

Our first afternoon session was held on a still wet track with a slightly higher rev limit permitted (as if we needed it). I still had tremendous problems getting any traction out of the two low speed hairpin corners. I understeered through the first half of the corner and power-on oversteered through the second half. No matter what I did, I kept screwing it up. Finally I asked one of the instructors for help and he gave me some good advice: slow down! Seems I was simply being too much of a cowboy with the car and coming into the corner way too fast; as a result I was carrying too much speed in the corner, sliding my way through, getting all crossed up and taking forever to get the car pointed in the right direction. The solution: take off more speed in braking, go in slower and get the right line, then apply power as soon as the car is pointing in the right direction. Presto, shave a couple of seconds off the lap time.

We got lucky for the final lapping session of the course. The wind had turned, the rain had stopped and there was actually a semi-dry line appearing on the track. Now things got tricky for us "beginners". Where the track was dry, we could use maximum acceleration, braking and cornering. But where the occasional puddle or "river" still existed we had to be really careful. One such place was a fast left hand sweeper near the end of the lap that demanded a 4-3 downshift and steely resolve. It was possible to take this corner "flat out", but you had to clench your sphincter muscles a bit and be prepared to catch the car after it took a big "twitch" through the wet spot. Of course, our lap times came tumbling down. In my case, my fastest lap in the final session was 16.5 seconds faster than my fastest lap in the previous session. Another encouraging note was that I posted my fastest lap of the whole 3 days in that final session, by over 3 seconds. And it didn't "feel" as though I was going as fast on Wednesday as I had been on Tuesday. Remember: smooth is fast.

The three days seemed to go by so quickly and before we knew it our time was up. We had all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, despite the weather. I have fond memories of eleven guys stepping out of their racing cars after a session, with a huge grin on their faces, and stating unequivocally that this was the most fun they've ever had with their clothes on! All the participants agreed to sign up for the advanced lapping course in 2004 and several stated that they wished to come back and either run the 3-day course again or re-take the third day as a refresher. No doubt about it, we are all better drivers because of our experience. Better street drivers who have a new found respect for the "limit" and better track drivers who have a new found respect for just how hard it is to turn competitive times on a race track. On a humbling final note: our instructor informed us that a professional "hot shoe" driver, using the identical cars we used in the course, could probably turn a lap time 8 or 9 seconds a lap faster than the fastest lap we were able to put together. Where they find those 8 or 9 seconds is beyond me!

The gang celebrated graduation from the course with a dinner in downtown Montreal, followed by a tour of the city's finest nightlife. We all plan on doing it again in 2004, probably in the second week of June (just before the F1 race weekend). We hope to attract many more Jaguar lovers and driving enthusiasts from all over the country to this unique event.

For more information: Daniel Thompson 514-848-0716 or dthompson@gbc.ca