[Land-speed] Driving skills

[Jon Wennerberg]

On Aug 25, 2007, at 6:49 PM, Freiburger, David wrote:

I'll disagree with you there. Both the street courses and the road-race
classes can be valuable. I've been to the San Bernadino County Sheriff's
school once, to Fast Time once, to Sprint Car school once, to Skip  
Barber
once, and to Bondurant three time, plus I've been lucky enough to have
instruction at press events from Rusty Wallace, Mike Skinner, and Andy
Pilgrim. Obviously those are job perks for me, but the reason I list  
all of
them is to point out that I improved my overall skills every single  
time and
that each and every time I absolutely proved without a shadow of a  
doubt that
I had gotten very rusty due to lack of seat time.
  DF



Okay, I'll chip in now, before reading all of the "driver skills"  
responses.

I've attended five motorcycle high-performance driving schools (one  
Reg Pridmore and four Keith Code) over the past ten years.  What  
David says is correct -- I've improved my ability to ride each and  
every time.  I've often told the story about when I encountered a  
deer about to run in front of me as I rode the Gold Wing.  I reacted  
with maneuvers that I had learned in the schools, missing the deer  
and not crashing the bike.  When I stopped a few hundred yards down  
the road (to change underpants, that's how close it had seemed), I  
thought through the incident -- and in my thoughts I DID IT WRONG!   
The school had given me the skills to do it right without having to  
think.

It's not infrequent that someone -- often a young buck that's just  
bought himself a faster-than-the-dickens motorcycle -- asks me to  
suggest what he should spend his monry on first so his bike will be  
faster.  I ALWAYS suggest a high-performance driving school.  The  
kid'll complain that it sounds dull -- why not a fancy new exhaust  
pipe, or slick tires, or this or that?  I explain that with what he'd  
learn in the school he'd be able to ride circles around the others in  
his group, tell him the above deer story -- and wonder if he'll take  
my advice.

Plus -- an on-track driving school is a great way to get your ya-yahs  
in a safe environment.  Hey -- a day spent riding around the Road  
America course is a day that most folks will never experience.  It's  
worth the bucks -- and will darn near certainly make you a better  
rider/driver.

                 Jon Wennerberg
Seldom Seen Slim Land Speed Racing
              Marquette, Michigan
              (that's 'way up north)