Racing Schools

Hi all -

Looking for some perspective on 2022 racing schools. I know I'm attending one... don't really have the particular school picked out yet.

A few helpful folks at Challenge Cup (Thompson/Maloney crew, so friggin nice) mentioned Summit Point's school in March has historically been a good one. Definitely interested in that per the recommendation. There's also a few closer to me: Detroit/Pittsburgh. Plan on bringing my own vee (Bought the Caracal D sold by Brasco on here last summer, after it went to a dude in MD first).

I have two specific questions:

1.) For the life of me, I cannot track down a cost for these schools. I see a registration fee listed for Summit Point of $199. That can't be it through right? I was thinking I had to drop a couple grand based on some other types of driver schools I've seen.

2.) Registrations don't seem to open for a while. I guess I'm looking really early? (Doesn't seem early, guess I'm a planner). As long as I don't mess around long after reg opens, it's probably not going to fill up overnight right?

Also Merry Christmas.

"That can't be it through right?"

DC Region has kept the drivers school at Summit point very reasonable in price, so I would not be surprised. I went to the one in 2014, famous for the rain, sleet, or snow in every session :)

You need help. You will be too busy to put air in the tires or gas in the car, much less perform any needed maintenance or adjustment. They keep you hopping, in the car on the track or in the class between sessions.

Summit is a challenging course and a great place to start your FV career.

Registration will probably open fairly soon.

Yes, I believe that is the correct price. I plan on being at the school and if you need help I can.
Hope to see you there.
Hughie

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Originally Posted by FasterRam

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A few helpful folks at Challenge Cup (Thompson/Maloney crew, so friggin nice) mentioned Summit Point's school in March has historically been a good one. Definitely interested in that per the recommendation. There's also a few closer to me: Detroit/Pittsburgh. Plan on bringing my own vee (Bought the Caracal D sold by Brasco on here last summer, after it went to a dude in MD first).

I have two specific questions:

1.) For the life of me, I cannot track down a cost for these schools. I see a registration fee listed for Summit Point of $199. That can't be it through right? I was thinking I had to drop a couple grand based on some other types of driver schools I've seen.

2.) Registrations don't seem to open for a while. I guess I'm looking really early? (Doesn't seem early, guess I'm a planner). As long as I don't mess around long after reg opens, it's probably not going to fill up overnight right?

Also Merry Christmas.

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Among SCCA schools, the WDCR one is very highly regarded. There used to be many, many more schools (DC used to have a fall school, also), but the DC one is one of the last in the N. Atlantic area. You cannot go wrong with this school.

The fee amount is correct. Registration should open early in the new year. I think that you also get discounted entry fees for the first couple of Summit Point MARRS races, as well, but confirm that. DC Region does this, in part as a recruiting exercise, and in part as a pay-forward to the racing community.

(Full disclosure: I am a DC Region member, and a former board member.)

As others point out, you will need crew to service the car. The tempo is so fast that you cannot properly take in the school and work on your own car. And the $199 is just the entry fee - you need to budget for car, consumables, accommodation and food.

I shall leave you with some words of wisdom from Denny Austin, chief instructor at the DC Region school I attended years ago. He told the class, "I can promise you one thing in racing, and that is adversity." Truer words were never spoken. Very character-building. :)

SouthEast Division also holds a Racing School in February at Roebling Road near Savannah. February 26-27.

SEDIV also has a full season of racing. Schedule can be found at www.sedivracing.com

The SEDIV school is also a good one and convenient to your location as well.

I will second what others have said about having a couple of helpers to take care of the car for you.

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Originally Posted by Farrout48

SouthEast Division also holds a Racing School in February at Roebling Road near Savannah. February 26-27.

SEDIV also has a full season of racing. Schedule can be found at www.sedivracing.com

The SEDIV school is also a good one and convenient to your location as well.

I will second what others have said about having a couple of helpers to take care of the car for you.

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Formula Car Drivers,
Savannah is also the only school in the Southeast that I know of that allows Formula cars to attend. We need to support them as it is not a profitable weekend for the Buccaneer Region.
Budget for decent tires, food, lodging and misc for at least one knowledgeable person to care of the car for you.

because there could be some novices checking in.

Just remember there are the private schools (like Skip Barber, Lucas, etc) and at the opposite end of the spectrum are the SCCA schools. The first schools supply everything, the SCCA and the like, you bring your own car, suit, crew, etc. In the middle there are special programs like CRE in the NE which are held during regular race weekends.

The professional schools ($$$$) are the fastest way to get your driving up to speed, but teach nothing about your car and little about race procedure.

if your car is in good shape and you can get a knowledgeable crew member, then the SCCA school is the best value. ($)

An intermediate plan for FV would be to contact someone like Advantage Motorsport who rent FV or FF. It will be less than the pro school and you will drive a properly set up car, which will be helpful when comparing your car. They could probably prep your car and run that in the school if you don’t or cannot get someone knowledgeable to crew. Contact them for cost.

ChrisZ

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Originally Posted by FVEE56

Yes, I believe that is the correct price. I plan on being at the school and if you need help I can.
Hope to see you there.
Hughie

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Hughie that's awesome. Think I'd be a fool to turn that down. I'll get in touch with you 1:1.


John Nesbitt - that sounds like sound advice. Side note, my mother's side are Nesbits, one t. We must share some Scottish ancestry going back far enough. Nesbit, Nesbitt, Nisbet are all Western variations on Clan Nesbit. Been thinking of throwing a little tartan on my race helmet like Sir Jackie Stewart.

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Originally Posted by FasterRam

John Nesbitt - that sounds like sound advice. Side note, my mother's side are Nesbits, one t. We must share some Scottish ancestry going back far enough. Nesbit, Nesbitt, Nisbet are all Western variations on Clan Nesbit. Been thinking of throwing a little tartan on my race helmet like Sir Jackie Stewart.

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Yes, my branch of the family originates in the Borders. After being forced out (some accounts say because of the Closures; others say because of horse thievery), and a short stay in Ireland, we fetched up in the Ottawa Valley around 1800.

I like the horse thievery version better. :D

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Originally Posted by John Nesbitt

we fetched up in the Ottawa Valley around 1800.

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off topic, I too was raised in Ottawa; we traced our Scottish roots to a late 1700's arrival in the Ottawa valley.

on topic, we are probably going to use the Friday of that Roebling weekend to shake down a new car, and as I'm local, would be happy to help out any newbie's attending the school weekend as time allows.

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Originally Posted by Lotus7

off topic, I too was raised in Ottawa; we traced our Scottish roots to a late 1700's arrival in the Ottawa valley.

on topic, we are probably going to use the Friday of that Roebling weekend to shake down a new car, and as I'm local, would be happy to help out any newbie's attending the school weekend as time allows.

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Thank you so much for the offer of help.
Since that one's a bit far for me compared to some closer options, I don't think I'll be down there this year. If it were after Summit I'd think about it as a Plan B. Only thing that is going to stop me from the DC area school I think at this point is a blizzard... which is way too possible in March. *crosses fingers.

"Only thing that is going to stop me from the DC area school I think at this point is a blizzard... "

Nope, the school goes on, rain, sleet, snow, cold.

Ask about the conditions in 2014 :) We started with rain, transitioned into sleet, and then snow. All 3 days.

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Originally Posted by BLS

"Only thing that is going to stop me from the DC area school I think at this point is a blizzard... "

Nope, the school goes on, rain, sleet, snow, cold.

Ask about the conditions in 2014 :) We started with rain, transitioned into sleet, and then snow. All 3 days.

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Yikes. Sounds pretty cold and wet. I wasn’t even thinking about the track though, more about getting there. I’ve been on 76 in PA hills during a whiteout before and the thought of doing that with a trailer attached makes me shudder. Ice road truckers not a class I want to run in.

Until you've driven a FV with sleet stinging your neck in one session and having to use your now wet frozen hand to wipe the snow from your visor in the next session, you just haven't lived :)

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Originally Posted by BLS

Until you've driven a FV with sleet stinging your neck in one session and having to use your now wet frozen hand to wipe the snow from your visor in the next session, you just haven't lived :)

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I wondered where that was going before "the snow from your visor"

Heh, I felt qualified to be a postman after that school :)

My first SCCA school was summer of 1973 at Road Atlanta. Quite a contrast in every respect.

FasterRam or anyone else attending an SCCA school, just a suggestion - ask the community for help if you need it.

If you need crew/support for the race weekend or maybe need a set of tires/parts etc to make the school go ahead and ask here and on the usual Facebook groups. We have several Driverz Cup guys ready and willing to come to the Roebling school in February and lend a hand to new Vee drivers.

Its really hard to do a school on your own and if anything goes even a little wrong you risk not getting enough tracktime to get your novice permit. We'd love to come and lend a hand to get you on track so you can join us at the Challenge Cup & Driverz Cup FRP race in April!

Good luck!

Check out the Waterford Hills drivers school usually held at the end of april.
Track is in the Detroit area .

I did the Lucas school at PBIR in the fall. It had it's plusses and minuses, like everything else. Expensive, but on the less expensive end of the professional schools. Fun, well prepped cars, (the SADEV gearbox takes some getting used to but the autoblip almost feel like cheating) with professional drivers as instructors. Lots of instructor interface, but the classroom sessions were very basic, think DE2 level type stuff. The arrive and drive part was VERY nice, between all the mechanics at your beckon call from adjusting your pedals, to immediately putting a car cover on between sessions. Oh, and always food to eat. Makes it hard to go back to slumming it in your trailer solo.

I will say that the one thing that has made me nervous about doing an SCCA (even though I'm focussed on Vintage and will never quality for an SCCA comp license) or a school like VRG at the Jefferson 500 is needing a crew. I could certainly use another school. Anyone know what the going rate is to pay for support for a school (fueling, checking tires, etc). Thinking about maybe doing the VRG school if I can find a shop that's already going to be there, so the cost of flying someone in lodging, per diem, doesn't make the cost go crazy.

Should have said, I'd be in my RF81 FF.

Suggest you post here and just ASK if there's anyone near your next venue that would be interested in providing a bit of help to a newbie.

Never hurts to ask and sometimes you find someone that's just DYING to get to a track and see what it's like.

Flying someone in sounds like overkill to me :-).
Steve

Or....

You could fly out to sunny SoCal for the University of VARA in two weeks, rent an arrive-and-drive Scion from Fastlane, and have one school in your pocket before February.

The Vintage Racer Group has an amazing school at Summit Point WV in the middle of May each year.

We generally have an open wheel group that includes FF & FVs, and some sports racers. This is not the run group for the remainder of the race weekend which is strongly encouraged following the school.

Here is info on it:

https://www.motorsportreg.com/events...r-group-499904

Keith Lawrence

Just a heads up. The waterford school is scca accredited. Last I looked vrg was not. Perhaps this has changed recently and someone can chime in to clarify.

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Originally Posted by Rich_G_SC

FasterRam or anyone else attending an SCCA school, just a suggestion - ask the community for help if you need it.

If you need crew/support for the race weekend or maybe need a set of tires/parts etc to make the school go ahead and ask here and on the usual Facebook groups. We have several Driverz Cup guys ready and willing to come to the Roebling school in February and lend a hand to new Vee drivers.

Its really hard to do a school on your own and if anything goes even a little wrong you risk not getting enough tracktime to get your novice permit. We'd love to come and lend a hand to get you on track so you can join us at the Challenge Cup & Driverz Cup FRP race in April!

Good luck!

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That would be me. I’m currently wrapping up the prep on 2 “new to me” citations for the driver’s school at Roebling. One for my 17yr daughter who is making the switch from track days and karting enduros, and 1 for me (Champcar racing since 2015). But I am a complete newbie to FV and I have 0 experience setting up these cars, let alone keeping them running for what is essentially an “Endurance” weekend. If you are interested to help out, PM me and let’s talk! Thanks, Joe

I saw the two of you registered for the Roebling school coming up in February. I am the Chief Driving Instructor and I am bringing three Vees to the school so it looks like an all Vee run group so far. There will be lots of Vee drivers to help you get acclimated to driving these cars. Roebling is an awesome track for a school and for the cars. Maybe some more Vee drivers will come and get their SCCA license.
See you in a few weeks.
Andy

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Originally Posted by 944racer

I saw the two of you registered for the Roebling school coming up in February. I am the Chief Driving Instructor and I am bringing three Vees to the school so it looks like an all Vee run group so far. There will be lots of Vee drivers to help you get acclimated to driving these cars. Roebling is an awesome track for a school and for the cars. Maybe some more Vee drivers will come and get their SCCA license.
See you in a few weeks.
Andy

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Awesome! We look forward to meeting you and having a safe, fun weekend!

Great Joe, I saw the two of you had registered for Roebling. I'm planning to come down to help out and so is Zach from Driverz Cup. Greg who started DZC will be instructing and running with your group and Andy who joined us this year will be running the show.

Excited to meet you both! Please let us know if you need anything specific for the school so we can bring it along. I run a citation too btw.

Hope you all will join us for the FRP race with Challenge Cup in April at CMP. We had 26 vees in our own run group last year!

Regards,
Rich

Looking forward to seeing you all at Roebling. My crew chief and myself will be there. We will be there for any vee driver that needs help. I'm glad to be able to give back to Vee community that has given me so much help the past year. Please feel free to reach out and we can coordinate camping so that all vee drivers are close to each other as to maximize our ability to assist you. It will be a very hectic couple days!!!

I appears you're in OHIO, but you should still take a look at Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing's 2022 Driver's School. Much celebrated and great value:

INFO HERE

Looking forward to the RRR drivers school in Feb. as well, I'm slated to be the Safety Steward and I may drop in to say hello (not in a official capacity).
.

Hi Everybody,
Just got home to Chattanooga from an AMAZING weekend at the Roebling Driver’s School. I could never have imagined a better weekend. Big thanks to my friend Willy Fink from East Coast imports for being my dedicated mechanic the entire weekend. If you are thinking about coming to a school by yourself, don’t do it. Bring a mechanic!! Surprisingly, my cars ran near flawless the entire weekend and this guy still had to bust his rear to get these cars ready between sessions while I was in class or being coached. He made our weekend a success, hands down. Also a really big thanks to the Vee community, Greg, Rich, Zach you guys were awesome!! In addition to being my coach, Greg took the time to give some pointers on set-up, seal my carb, and even fixed my loose clutch slave cylinder while I took my team to a much deserved dinner. Rich and Zach were there a bunch and in addition to diagnosing a loose steering gear and fetching some exhaust nuts, they probably did a bunch of stuff that I’m not even aware of. The Vee community is the stuff of legend, and we got to experience that for the first time this weekend. Awesome. One more shout-out to Andy Fox, he ran a great school, and he wisely paired my daughter with Lauren as her coach. Lauren did an amazing job, as evidenced by Caroline’s day 2 lap times. Incredible. And thanks to all here on the forum who offered so much expert advice and support. Without that we would not have even made a lap!
As for our cars, I can’t believe we got through the weekend with only the small issues that we had. My car, the 77 former Greg Schings Citation which had not raced in 11 years, drove like the champion it was. As-is, no set-up changes, and the penske shocks held pressure after all this time!! I took to the car immediately. Once I learned to stop driving it like an American Sedan, it rewarded me in kind. I had a small spin near the end of the mock sprint, but 2 feet in got the job done and I continued without issue, only to get passed for the win by a FC coming out of 9 to the Checker. Still not bad!
My daughter’s car, the 88 Citation built by Jim Ryder, only needed a steering adjustment and ran perfectly the rest of the weekend. Not bad for a car that was parked for the past 2 years..and boy did it perform. She had such a great experience!! These cars are incredible. Best I’ve ever driven.
Only bad part of the weekend was on the drive home, my hauler burnt an intake valve (or broke the spring) south of Atlanta. So that’s gonna need some attention…but all things considered, it’s the best, most rewarding track weekend I’ve ever had. And it’s only the beginning!! We’ll do two more SCCA races this year, and we’ll be preparing for Driverz Cup and the Challenge series next season. If your still reading this, thanks for your support and we hope to see you soon!!

Really glad school went well for Caroline and yourself - yall did a great job preparing and driving!

Joe,
Always good to hear good results when someone first puts his car on the track. You got DOUBLE THE FUN this past weekend :D.

Looking forward to seeing your report on the axle situation and really glad you managed to get it going in time to make the school.

Steve, FV80

I had a great time watching the students progress considerably in open wheel (old FV driver speaking). I went over to turn 4 to watch the race housejoe mentions and it was really fun to watch. The Sunday races were fine but not nearly as close. There was one unfortunate incident with a Vee that will need frame work and a unsanded engine rebuild.