Toyota GR86, 86, FR-S and Subaru BRZ Forum & Owners Community - FT86CLUB - View Single Post

KarstonC · 03-29-2018, 05:28 PM

Being a newcomer to HPDE and driving schools/ events means dealing with tremendous excitement compounded with anxiety and nerve. With only 1 season of autocross and 2 lapping days under my belt in my first year, I was finally ready to take my stock Scion FRS to a more complex and exhilarating track, CTMP's Driver Development Track via SPDA's governance.

The following is a quick review of my experience at this event last summer, and more specifically with an instructor that stood out from the rest, Kevin Wong (Frost).

Structure

Drivers are split into 3 buckets, Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. Being new to track driving and specifically this windy track, I opted for the Beginner placement which offered some tremendous instruction from the track day regulars. After initial classroom instruction, you're then placed into the passenger seat of your car, while your instructor directs you around the track for the first time. After that, the 3 driver groups cycle through the schedule of ~15 min stints, totalling to approximately 4 total stints for the day. Sounds slim, but is actually very satisfying and tiring.

Instruction

Queue in Kevin Wong. Kevin was my first instructor of the day, and he made sure to drill in the importance of a good racing line on this very technical course. Even from the get go, where we alligator lap the course for the first time at moderate speeds; the focus was: "Don't be lazy, hit all your braking points, turn-in points, apex, and exit points as you would if going at full speed." We continued this tradition for ~15 mins around the course to become comfortable and familiarized with our surroundings, which proved very useful towards the end of the day.

The key aspects of Kevin's instruction that stood out to me was his unwavering patience and calm demeanor. People often misunderstand a good instructor as someone with the most experience, or the fastest lap times. When in fact the instructor that can best convey their message and knowledge in a form that can be easily understood to the student is in my opinion, paramount. Kevin's instruction is always well thought-through, meticulous, and easy to follow. His first emphasis was always the racing line and vision, and then slowly into dissecting the driver's inputs (ensuring inputs such as throttle, steering, braking as smooth as possible). Nail down these core principles before even thinking about setting in any lap times.

Lapping

My small gripe with the SPDA format is that the Beginners class were not permitted any passing on the track for our first 3 stints. Only by the 4th stint, and after an instructor sign-off were you allowed to do so. While this makes perfect sense, as safety is #1; I still found it extremely frustrating that 1 or 2 extremely novice drivers could end up bogging down the entire driving group. Now this is to no-one's fault necessarily, but under such circumstance, I would've liked to see some consideration from the organizers to allow passing by the 3rd stint, or an upgrade to the Intermediate class.

What resulted was only 3 clean laps for me the entire day, which seemed like a let-down. But in truth, the SPDA camp ran this event very smoothly and efficiently.

The Lap

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xzvp2qaV3o"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xzvp2qaV3o[/ame]

All in all, it was an exceptionally experience to try out this fun track, under professional instruction. Will definitely be back for more!

03-29-2018, 05:28 PM	#42
KarstonC Member Join Date: Jul 2015 Drives: Scion FRS (Steel) Location: North York Posts: 21 Thanks: 0 Thanked 17 Times in 7 Posts Mentioned: 2 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	SPDA Canadian Tire Motorsports Park DDT Review Being a newcomer to HPDE and driving schools/ events means dealing with tremendous excitement compounded with anxiety and nerve. With only 1 season of autocross and 2 lapping days under my belt in my first year, I was finally ready to take my stock Scion FRS to a more complex and exhilarating track, CTMP's Driver Development Track via SPDA's governance. The following is a quick review of my experience at this event last summer, and more specifically with an instructor that stood out from the rest, Kevin Wong (Frost). Structure Drivers are split into 3 buckets, Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. Being new to track driving and specifically this windy track, I opted for the Beginner placement which offered some tremendous instruction from the track day regulars. After initial classroom instruction, you're then placed into the passenger seat of your car, while your instructor directs you around the track for the first time. After that, the 3 driver groups cycle through the schedule of ~15 min stints, totalling to approximately 4 total stints for the day. Sounds slim, but is actually very satisfying and tiring. Instruction Queue in Kevin Wong. Kevin was my first instructor of the day, and he made sure to drill in the importance of a good racing line on this very technical course. Even from the get go, where we alligator lap the course for the first time at moderate speeds; the focus was: "Don't be lazy, hit all your braking points, turn-in points, apex, and exit points as you would if going at full speed." We continued this tradition for ~15 mins around the course to become comfortable and familiarized with our surroundings, which proved very useful towards the end of the day. The key aspects of Kevin's instruction that stood out to me was his unwavering patience and calm demeanor. People often misunderstand a good instructor as someone with the most experience, or the fastest lap times. When in fact the instructor that can best convey their message and knowledge in a form that can be easily understood to the student is in my opinion, paramount. Kevin's instruction is always well thought-through, meticulous, and easy to follow. His first emphasis was always the racing line and vision, and then slowly into dissecting the driver's inputs (ensuring inputs such as throttle, steering, braking as smooth as possible). Nail down these core principles before even thinking about setting in any lap times. Lapping My small gripe with the SPDA format is that the Beginners class were not permitted any passing on the track for our first 3 stints. Only by the 4th stint, and after an instructor sign-off were you allowed to do so. While this makes perfect sense, as safety is #1; I still found it extremely frustrating that 1 or 2 extremely novice drivers could end up bogging down the entire driving group. Now this is to no-one's fault necessarily, but under such circumstance, I would've liked to see some consideration from the organizers to allow passing by the 3rd stint, or an upgrade to the Intermediate class. What resulted was only 3 clean laps for me the entire day, which seemed like a let-down. But in truth, the SPDA camp ran this event very smoothly and efficiently. The Lap [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xzvp2qaV3o"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xzvp2qaV3o[/ame] All in all, it was an exceptionally experience to try out this fun track, under professional instruction. Will definitely be back for more!