[Frost]

Ontario Time Attack Driver School #1 (DDT)
Website: http://www.casc.on.ca/timeattack
Cost: $295 (open house price) to $320 (regular price) for one full day
Discounts: $295 if you show up to the Open House event at JRP before the beginning of the season
Chief Instructor: Scott Murfin
Date Attended: May 13, 2017

Classroom training - 8/10
Track training - 9.5/10
Skidpad training - 9.5/10
Track time - 8.5/10

Review:
At long last, I've finally be allowed to participate in the Ontario Time Attack school held at what I consider to be one of the most fun tracks in Ontario for cars biased towards agility and handling. Overseen and run by Scott Murfin with Gary Wood doing the in class session, the day pretty much flows between either being in the classroom, on the track or on the autoslalom / skid pad section.

Regarding the in class sessions, they're nicely sectioned out into three 1 hour sessions through out the 7 hour day. The information provided is quite good and Gary makes it light hearted and fun. He's very friendly and will answer questions and even slightly deviate from the material if the question is good. The best part about the classroom session is that Gary still competes on a human level (ie: he's not some bling bling semi-professional racer but rather still grassroots and enjoying it) and can provide immediate relevant experience and advice. Got a question about Hoosiers versus RE71Rs? Gary either has experience or knows of someone with experience for both and can give you a solid breakdown for both. The hour is really more like 45 minutes (15 minutes to run back to the car and setup) and it really flies by so it's not long and boring whatsoever.

The information presented is also very relevant without getting too overwhelming. Some folks may not be nerds for information and the technical details presented in some other schools might put some folks to sleep. OTA's material just touches upon these points briefly and moves on which is a huge plus.

The only downside to the classroom session is that some slides feel slightly rushed and the material provided can seem slightly dated. Gary tries to ensure that he makes it on time (the whole day is BANG on time) and can sometimes jump around slides slightly but I am nitpicking.

If comparisons are your thing, Gary's in class session is definitely better than Hanson (more structured, less seemingly-pointless talk, good material) but not quite as detailed or on point to Ian Law. The caveat to that statement is that Ian Law's in class technical jargon can potentially go right over a lot of people's heads and potentially put others to sleep.

When you're not in class, you're split up into two groups (one track, one autoslalom / skidpad) to ensure you're doing something with the car. The day started for me with the skid pad which is a standard 25-30 foot circle of pylons where you enter at your comfortable speed and try to, with the help of an in car instructor, feel out under/oversteer with your right foot. I always have a blast with skidpads and this was no different. I just wish there was more room and time! We all get at least 2 runs with 5 circle romps per run. They then route you through a slalom course composed of pylons lined up in a row and spaced roughly 15 feet in between. You weave in and out of this line to apply what you just learnt about your car's limits to weave as tightly as possible through the cones. Once you complete this, you swing around back into the 3rd exercise: threshold braking. Essentially, you line up at a fixed reference point (a gate), accelerate as hard as you can and once you pass another reference point (another gate), you hit the brakes as hard as you can to experience what ABS (if you have it) feels like. Given that you get at least 2-3 more attempts, the goal is to brake hard WITHOUT engaging ABS. I've always found this fun and to this day am still surprised this isn't taught as part of standard driver training.

As the day winds on, you are also paired up with a track-ride-along instructor. In my case, the venerable John P. who also competes in OTA in also a 2004 S2000 (same as mine!). I'm sure somewhere along the line, the organizers saw that two S2000s were showing up for the school and we both wound up getting John as our instructor. John has plenty of years of racing experience and I was really happy to have him. The first on track session involves your instructor taking your car out on the track for 3-5 laps, stopping at various points to show your reference points to use for braking, end of a crest, acceleration, etc. (S)he will also show you the proper racing line. John's experience on the track came through on a few unsettling apexes where he would show me just how to attack without unsettling the car. This was brilliant and a huge revelation for me. His experience is truly invaluable. I also noticed that other instructors were paired up with students with similar cars (eg: Joe L. who has an NA Miata with a NB supercharged Miata student) so this is immensely helpful. Again, this speaks to the wealth of instructors OTA has on tap and most, if not all of them, still compete in some sort of event to this day.

My only gripe with the track time, as per my complaint with Ian Law's timing, is that 30 minutes can potentially be a LOT on DDT. I was having a huge blast since I would say I'm at least intermediate if not advanced by most schools standards on this track. I also noticed that given that they know my experience (all students fill out a student information form detailing your experience), there was no real advanced group. As a result, I wound up catching up to pretty much everyone in my session... in some cases multiple times. For me, I was ok with this but for newbies, it might be intimidating.

Like any other school, had an instance or two of some students refusing to believe I was quicker and I had to hold off quite a few times. Keep in mind this might be due to other distractions (namely the track has a lot of turns) and your experience may vary.

Towards the end of the day, the skidpad transformed into a full autoslalom course so you could continue to play with your cars limits without worrying about crashing on a track.

Overall, the course in terms of material, track time, instructor quality, timeliness puts it right between Ian Law's course and Hanson. A definite upgrade in comparison to Hanson without the frills and price of Ian Law.

Some of you might noticed I ranked OTA track time a tick higher than Ian Law - this is because there is NO alligator lapping on OTA but there is in ILR. You get more track time period.

At the end of the day, your instructor sits down with you and gives you an evaluation form of what you did well, areas to improve upon and an overall assessment. Surprisingly, only one other school I'm aware of does this. This is extremely valuable and gives you something to think about.

RATING: 9.5/10

Given the price tag and the fact that it is comparable to ILR, the OTA school is chock full of value especially with price (only slightly more than Hanson!) and the crew that runs it. It is VERY relevant for us folks who aren't professional racers but at the same time want to get into some form of organised motorsports or at least be able to tap into the wealth of experience offered by folks who do (even if you don't want to do it yourself).

Highly recommended.

Current ranking stands at: OTA school > ILR > Hanson.

Will be updating this thread later with the OTA Mosport GRAND PRIX school which I'll be attending in late June as well as the BMW Trillium Grand Prix school which I've heard good things about.

UPDATE: Now with OTA's GP Course review!
[ame]http://youtu.be/hzkV9D7qjd0[/ame]

Ontario Time Attack Driver School #2 (MIR)
Website: http://www.casc.on.ca/timeattack
Cost: $350 (open house price) to $380 (regular price) for one full day
Discounts: $350 if you show up to the Open House event at JRP before the beginning of the season
Chief Instructor: Scott Murfin
Date Attended: June 24, 2017

Classroom training - 9/10
Track training - 9.5/10
Skidpad training - N/A
Track time - 9/10

OTA's flagship event is their annual use of the Mosport International Raceway (MIR) or a.k.a. "Grand Prix" track in the time attack season. In order for you to actually run a competitive event in their series, you must attend their school or be written off by Scott Murfin (head instructor).

Since this is my first time with OTA on the GP course, I naturally went through their school.

Much like the DDT school, it's pretty much the same schedule except there is no skid pad. You simply alternate between class sessions (taught by Gary Wood again), break sessions and track sessions. Each session is roughly 20 minutes long which, if you've read any of my previous reviews, is usually the amount of time I like for students. You don't get too much time to get stupid due to fatigue and are still fresh enough to remember what you've been given. I gave them higher scores here than at DDT for that sole reason.

The classroom session is tailored specifically for this track but also covers standard basics like seating position, vision, over/understeer, etc. Gary does a good job gauging who's in his audience and will quickly touch upon it if everyone has track experience. In my case, our class was fairly beginner level so he spent the time through most of the material. The second half of the in the class session included a turn-by-turn analysis of the entire track and what each turn is capable of doing to your car and how you should react versus how you may react. For example, what should you be doing before entry into turn 2? What should you not do? What type of turn is it? And most importantly, what do I do if I get into trouble?

The key thing is that the course is tailored to give you information to couple with your track sessions in order for you to take and then go see and apply. Again, higher scores here because of attention to detail for a turn-by-turn analysis which is a step above the DDT course.

Regarding the in car session, I had the venerable John Paczynski with me yet again and just like before, he provided me plenty of feedback during the ride (but not too much) and would kick me in the pants verbally if I mucked up a turn I had been getting right BUT he would also praise me when I nailed the session. In the video posted above, that was my last session of the day and I progressed to the point where I felt totally comfortable with running the track at speed without overdriving my skill levels. You can also hear him commenting to me as well.

My only nitpick is that there are no helmet to helmet radio systems. For OTA, they ask that you run with the windows down and the wind noise makes it hard to hear each other especially since both of us have full face helmets. Nonetheless, I still heard him decently enough and when we pitted out, we had a good talk about what I could do differently and what I did and did not do well.

Like the DDT course, they grade you and also give you a sheet with the instructors comments, things to improve upon and how to do so. Again, high marks to OTA for doing this. There is no better way for you to remember what you did than a report card the day of!

The only real knock against the OTA school is that it will inevitably be compared to BMW Trillium Club's GP school which, on a dollar-for-day basis offers more perceived value ($592.12 for TWO days). To this arguement, I will be posting my own review of the BMW school later on this week. For now, the score of OTA is below.

RATING: 9.5/10

Highly recommended. Would definitely go again or at least show up for lapping with an instructor when he isn't busy.

July 11th UPDATE: BMW Trillium GP Course REVIEW!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyUMaZJX7vo&t=2s[/ame]

BMW Trillium Club - Mosport Grand Prix Track School
Website: http://www.casc.on.ca/timeattack
Cost: $529.97 (First Timer Price) to $592.12 (regular price) for two full days at the track
Discounts: $55 if you are attending for the first time ever
Chief Instructor: <Not sure>
Date Attended: June 10-11, 2017

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
This was by far the hardest review I've had to write and as some of you who know me in person know, I've struggled as to how to write this review without coming across as biased or attempting to bash anyone. In the end, I've opted to write the same review I wrote the Monday I got back to my desk. It contains all my frustrations, highs and lows from that weekend.

Please keep in mind that this is MY experience and that your mileage may vary. From what I've heard, most people thoroughly enjoy their experience and I could have very well been an outlier.

End Disclaimer.

Classroom training - 6.5/10
Track training - 4/10
Skidpad training - 6/10 if you are a rookie, 9.5/10 if you just want a skidpad
Track time - 8.5/10

Scheduling: 6/10*
Each day had a very tight schedule and while the segments (eg: class, skidpad, break / lunch / track) were strictly adhered to, the hot changeover of instructors for ME wasn't that great hence the asterisk. My instructor told me to pick him up by his car but he was out on the track with his previous student. This means that I lose time time waiting for his student to bring him back from the track to the paddock. I raised the point to my instructor to meet him in the paddock and after 2 more sessions, he conceded to that one. Not sure why they don't tell EVERYONE to do that right off the bat. During the first day meeting, they told us to hook up with our instructors to discuss the plan on how to find them. Not sure why this isn't unified.

They also ran out of water for the students. They did fix it the second day.

The opening driver's meeting is also a bit of mish mash of rules between various groups. The ranks of students are as follows from novice to top dogs: C, B, A, Solo, Instructors. Yet the passing rules are VERY different for all groups yet mixed throughout the drivers meeting. Should have done that only in specific groups.

In class session
Material: 8/10
Delivery: 9/10
Structure: 1/10

The material is almost word for word what any other school would teach but the slides feel really old. Weight transfer, vision, seating, the racing line, etc. etc. The in-class instructor (Leslie) was great, animated, fun, kept things light, answered questions as they came along and seems like a fun guy who really wants to teach.

The biggest issue was the structure. It almost did NOT seem to mesh with what was happening at the track! You figure that before you send a bunch of n00bs out to what was "the fastest F1 track in North America at one point" (his words not mine), you would cover seating position, hand position and vision first and then flags and then the track corners right? NOPE. We started with flags for the drivers meeting which was fine but then veered off into a whole bunch of things that while fun for me, didn't cover any of what I would consider critical essentials. We got to seating position after our THIRD track session which completely blew my mind. Vision, whilst mentioned, wasn't really shown with examples. For a track that is THIS fast, I was blatantly shocked by this. I took what I learnt from other schools and applied it on my own.

Like I said in my review back to them, the in-class material and the track sessions both covered the same material but totally out of synch with each other. A quick fix of the timing of the delivery of the content and this in class session could've been scored MUCH better.

Skidpad Training: 6/10
BMW uses the lower paddock for skid pad training and throughout both days, the skid pad would change from a standard circle, to a figure 8 to several autocross style slaloms.

Being an autocross veteran and a hoon, I LOVED the massive area we had to play with.

However, as a student, I wasn't too keen at how understaffed it was. There were only 3 volunteers there (1 at start/stop, 1 midtrack and 1 ride along) and this made for a rather lack luster experience for brand new rookies trying to learn over/understeer. I don't fault any of the volunteers for this but rather scheduling. This segment requires at LEAST 5 volunteers (2 ridealongs, 1 start, 2 midtrack). This was disappointing for rookies given this course is one of the more expensive ones. I had fun but couldn't help but feel bad for each rookie that went out there to try to commit to oversteer or understeer.

It got so bad that at one point, I was giving tips to students whom I noticed doing the same thing over and over again (they were trying to get a controlled oversteer) and failed miserably.

On track instructing: 4/10
This was my biggest sore point. To be clear, I never mention that I am an instructor. Just someone who wants to learn to drive better when asked why I was there. Told him I had track pads, tires and a roll bar. I told him that my objective was to learn the line and be smooth.

I found it very difficult to feel at ease with my instructor even though he wasn't aggressive nor verbally abusive in any way. His feedback was very minimal and I think what started things off the wrong way was that he never got to know me or lay down the plan for me so I felt blind going in... into Mosport! Off we went and he would always tell me to 'brake hard' (his words) into turns 2 and 4 and always stay mid track or even slightly left of center for both of those turns. This felt weird as I felt pinched on turn 2's first apex even though my wheel is at a fixed turning radius. Whilst he did give me positive feedback, his negative feedback or commentary was lacking and again, noted in my report back to them. He made no mention of my heel-toe at turn 5a yet scored me 1 out of 5. I purposely avoided heel toe at turn 8 because he made no mention of whether I was good enough yet and quite frankly, it's a high speed right hander anyways.

Turn 9 into 10, he made me stay tight on 8 right side straight and then brake and then turn into 9. Not sure why I wouldn't link up the apexes like you would for the kinks at TMP. Less turning and less odds of braking into a turn. This segment felt off the entire weekend and I could see people in my rear view doing what I would've done as well (bet I freaked them out cutting across them though).

Overall, I never felt good on Saturday and on Sunday, he seemed to relax more which also reflected on me and I enjoyed Sunday far better. By Sunday, he started introducing items like not braking throughout the entire track and to learn to use gas only (shown in the video on lap 2 and lap 4). By then I felt it was too late and the experience left me feeling like I really only got like 1/2 a day of good track time. I never felt this way in any other school I've been to (Hanson, ILR, OTA, etc.).

After talking to several other instructors who have taught on GP, they simply boiled down my experience to the fact that my BMW instructor was scared of the car and with me driving it and went into the weekend with that pretense which I therefore reflected as well. This point is a whole different discussion about the dangers of instructing that I don't want to get into on this post. It was simply unfortunate but no one got hurt.

FEEDBACK MECHANISMS: 10/10 (IN THEORY), 5/10 in application.

They use a website called Drivingevals.com which annouces your instructor ahead of time (1 week before event) and then 1-2 days after the event, allows you to rank your instructor, provide feedback and get your rating from your instructor. I love it in THEORY. The application of which I didn't.

My biggest problem with the mechanisms is that there are at least 25 to 30 categories for them to score you on and quite frankly, as someone who also teaches, that's way too complicated and you're honestly not going to have an accurate rating for each individual category. Each category is also apparently scored from 1-5 (1 bad, 5 good). I could easily cut that list down to 5-8 scores since a lot of them overlap.

RATING: 6/10*

The event had a feel like "oh yeah we've done this a million times and here's the schedule everyone but we'll just figure it out as we go". Yes, there was a schedule and yes, it was 'adhered' to but instructors sometimes went AWOL (as evidenced by the PA callouts) and required the solid experience of others to essentially keep it on track. I feel like the score I gave is heavily tainted by my instructor experience but essentially thats how I feel in a nutshell.

I'd still like to go back and give it another shot but am not so gung ho about it especially the absolute cost (almost $600 plus HST). I say absolute because yes, it's good value for 2 days at GP but high entry cost still. I seem to be the outlier so far from everyone I know who's taken it though so I figure a second shot is worth it. I am heavily mulling whether I want to go back in September as opposed to simply going to a JRP day at GP.

Current Track School Standings:
1- OTA (DDT or GP)
2- ILR (DDT)
3- Hanson (DDT)
4- BMW

I did not include SPDA since it isn't truly a track school but I'd still slot them into #2 on sheer value.

FULL DISCLAIMER:
- I am a normal member of the SPDA (kinda need to be in order to attend their events)
- As of October 2016, I've been an instructor with Pinnacle Advanced Driving Academy. Some of you may see that as a conflict of interest to review other driving schools (fair point) but I am a enthusiast first and foremost regardless of my affiliation with clubs or school(s). I will strive to provide unbiased reviews and my previous reviews and scores shall remain untampered from the day I wrote them. I will also NOT review the school I teach at (seeing as to how that is a HUGE conflict of interest) and hope some of you will chip into this review thread of that.