Chapter 18 - Driving to the limit

Chapter 18: Driving to the limit

I left soon after the family meeting. We had arranged for Rory’s dad to drive us to the racetrack, since Mom and Dad were tied up with the grandparents.

When I got to Rory’s, I had a surprise waiting for me. Rory was leaning against his mom’s economy car and he was holding something in his hand.

“Guess what.” He yelled out as I got closer.

“Yo dude, you did it didn’t you, you passed.” I called back.

He had a grin from ear to ear holding up his driver’s license, “Yep.” I gave him a high five as I got up close.

We piled into his Mom’s car and were off, Rory’s dad drove so we could be fresh for our driving courses and he was still nervous about being on the road for the first time by himself.

The ride took a few hours, since the track was in Athens. There was a track in Albany, but they only had an oval dirt track and didn’t do advanced driving lessons.

We had to pull into a service station with his dad getting gas. I gave him enough cash to cover the cost.

“What was that about?” Rory asked.

“Your dad was nice enough to drive us to the class and sit in the stand while we were having fun. It would be rude for us not to cover the expense for our trip.” I explained.

We made the track in plenty of time. We went into the office to sign in, and the person behind the counter gave me a long look, and double checked the paperwork I held, before giving us a lanyard with a visitor badge on it, giving Roy’s dad a Grandstand pass. We were advised to go upstairs, where we would be given an initial briefing on safety, before we would be allowed in the paddock or near any cars.

We sat down in the indicated room, waiting for the person who would give us the safety brief.

A tall guy in a racing suit walked in, gave us a brief glance, gave me a second look, and then introduced himself.

“Hello, my name is Geoff Chambers, and I will be your instructor for today. I am the senior driving instructor and team leader for a couple of the teams who race in a couple of the local series.”

He then took us through a half hour video and chat briefing, highlighting the do and don’ts around the paddock and while in a car. We then did a quick test to make sure we had understood everything he had told us. Once we were done he took us to another room where there were loads of racing suits and helmets. He advised us on which suit would be best fit, as well as a helmet, which was tighter fitting than felt totally comfortable, but would feel fine once we were driving quickly.

“You are lucky today, normally there could be as many as eight people doing the course, but today it is just the two of you. I take it you do both know how to drive.” he asked, giving me a pointed look.

“Yes sir, I don’t have my license yet, but I have driven a car.” I answered, I didn’t elaborate and say it was just moving my dad’s truck up and down the drive a few times to get used to the pedals and gear stick.

Rory just nodded, getting out waving his driving license.

“Son I don’t mean to sound rude, but until you prove you are proficient at driving, I will not allow you to drive on the track, I will allow you to show me what you can do on the skid pan, if I believe you can handle the car, only then will you be given the tuition on the track, fair enough?”

“Yes Sir.” I replied.

“Please just call me Geoff.”

He then took us over to a Buick Riviera, which looked a bit battered, he told Rory to get in the passenger seat, and for me to get in the back. When we opened the door, we could tell there had been some major modifications done to the car. Instead of the standard seats, there were four racing bucket seats with double belts on each. There was also a roll cage fitted.

Once he was sure we were well strapped in, he jumped into the driver’s seat, he drove out onto the skid pad, it had a hose pouring water on a section of it, and the rest was dry. He gave us instructions on what he was doing as he started going through a series of handbrake turns, and controlled skids. He did this for a good ten minutes before stopping the car. He then got Rory to swap places with him, once were both well strapped in, we did the same routine again with Rory doing the driving, he took some time to get the hang of some of the maneuvers, so he was told to redo them until he got them right. This took a half hour, I enjoyed the experience in the back seat, feeling the g-forces slamming into me.

Then it was my turn, I swapped places with Rory. Geoff had me drive around the rest of the skid area without the water for ten minutes, I didn’t make any mistakes like stalling the car starting off, or crunching the gears, when Geoff was satisfied I could at least drive a car, he told me to start into the routine. I won’t say I got every maneuver right the first time, but I think Geoff was surprised when I only needed one more attempt, before getting it right. I was done in just over a quarter of an hour.

We got out of the Buick, he then led us into the paddock, there we got into a Chevrolet Cruze. This one had also been decked out with seats and safety gear like the Buick. Geoff told us this car was front wheel drive which was the opposite of the Buick, so would handle differently in corners.

He took us round the track five times, starting slowly, he told us that was basically the speed we would be driving on normal roads, because we were on a track which was a lot wider than anything other than a freeway, plus there were no other cars on it, we didn’t have the same sensation of speed.

He told us the best lines to go into each corner, the marker points to help get the car’s braking point right, depending on how fast we were travelling. Each lap he got progressively faster till the last lap he stopped talking and just drove really fast, probably flat out. Now that was a buzz, the tires on the car squealing in protest at the punishment they were being asked to take in the corners. At full speed corner eleven was exciting, the approach was bumpy in the braking area, the car was moving around a lot as we went to the apex of the turn, Geoff sawing on the steering wheel to keep us straight as he added power up the incline that followed.

Rory was first up to have his turn. Geoff had him follow the same pattern, starting slow; making sure he got the lines through each corner right before he allowed him to increase the level of rpm (Revolution per Minute) he could use before changing gear. By lap five we were still not going anywhere near flat out, it was only on lap ten that Geoff said he could use all the rpms. That lap was a bit hairy, Rory got a braking point wrong on one corner, since we were approaching it much quicker, he managed to stay on the course, but it took him time to get back up to speed. He also got a line wrong on one of the later corners, going too high on the curbing on the apex of the corner, bouncing the car nearly onto two wheels, we had a wobble as Rory had to control the car as it came back down onto the course proper. During the warm down lap, Geoff gave him feedback on what had gone right and wrong.

Then it was my turn, I was told the rpm limited to start with, which I kept within, I followed the lines Geoff had told us. By lap six he had allowed me to up the rpm’s a lot faster than he had Rory, I took this to mean I was getting the lines right, better than Rory had.

On lap eight, he told me to go for it, I used the rpm’s and gears to get the car moving quicker, adapting my braking point for the corners as we came at them faster, corner eleven was much harder at top speed, I had to work the steering wheel like Geoff had to keep the car moving fast. Lap nine I slowed back down slightly, Geoff gave me a look not understanding why I wasn’t going flat out still, when I got to corner eleven I tried it a little different, I approached from inside of the normal line, it was less bumpy on this bit of the track, I was able to set the car up for the apex easier, even though the line wasn’t the optimal one for normal maximum cornering speed, but I didn’t have to fight the car and exited the corner much cleaner. On lap ten I was back up to top speed, doing all the lines as I should except for corner eleven, which I did again like lap nine, by using the different line, I exited the corner much faster than I had on lap eight, going up the incline was much better as I had more speed coming out of the corner than before. I crossed the line still going flat out before backing off.

I was waiting for my feedback from Geoff on our warm down lap, but he just stayed silent. When I parked the car back in the paddock, Geoff was out of the car in a flash, heading up to the control box before me and Rory had even left the car.

We just grinned at each other, having had a blast burning around the track.

I had paid for Rory to do the two courses we had completed; I had paid for a further course, because I wanted the knowledge in case I ever needed it in the future.

It was called emergency driving training; they would teach you how to maneuver the car if you were ever in a dire circumstance, basically doing some of the skid pad maneuvers without the water in a safe way, for both the driver and any passengers.