Development of mentor program?

[raffaelli]

This site is full of mentors. Everyone on this site has given me help, advice and/or encouragement.

[Andy Bettencourt]

Dave,

As you may know, at least ion NER, autox has a novice program. You get walk arounds, you get classed with other beginners and race based on an index etc. It works well.

Whomever has volunteered to be the drivers reps should attend the last few classroom sessions at each school. Introductions, etc. They would be the go-to people for any questions and issues. I think it may already be built into the system, we just have to expand it a little.

[gran racing]

My orginal thought and personal experiences were that much of the challenge isn't necessarily finding help once a person actually gets to the track be it autocross, HPDEs or Club Racing. Having someone they can physically speak with before to add that one more piece of comfort level is where I was thinking it would be useful.

Do you think something like this wouldn't be of much value then? Quite truthfully, in many respects I'd rather not attempt to coordinate putting something like this together (realization of how big a project it would be). I'd be curious to hear more of your thoughts.

[JLawton]

Dave,


Whomever has volunteered to be the drivers reps should attend the last few classroom sessions at each school. Introductions, etc. They would be the go-to people for any questions and issues. I think it may already be built into the system, we just have to expand it a little.

My opinion is that is the responsibilty of the instructor. I don't feel that our responsibility ends after the school. I've always made sure that they have my contact information and encourage them to contact me with ANY questions. I take a great deal of pride in the fact I keep in contact with most of my students and have become friends with many of them.

I think Dave hit the nail on the head. It's getting those people who want to get on the track but don't know how or don't realize how easy (relatively speaking) it is.

Since last summer I've been listed as the "New Driver Ambassador" for NER and even wrote an article for Pit Talk but have had only around 10 people contact me. And I think all of them had already been on track in one form or another.

Maybe you/we could get the different organizations to post a link on their websites saying something like: "So, you think you want to get on the track, click here" and have it feed into the site you're thinking about. Would they all do it?? I don't know. PDA, NASA, SCCA, SCCA regions, EMRA, COM, etc. Too bad the magazines wouldn't allow us to put an ad in for free...........

[Flyinglizard]

A form E mail to other sites as a public service A, might be well recieved.
Keep in mind that POC, BMW, clubs really dont think a lot of the SCCA racers, for some reason.. Maybe the spec Miata videos??
Just a email for region questions( iwould use the word" iquiries" if I could spell it) , make up a list of contacts to send out, etc. IMHO. MM

[gran racing]

After Andy's post, I began to wonder more about the worth of doing this. I posted on another site where I know several novices go to and got my answer. I was actually a little surprised with how many PMs I received from people asking for this to happen. In addition to those, a couple of people involved in NASA also volunteered to help out with things. Maybe in reality people won't enroll in it but at least it will be made available to them.

Jeff, there might be ways to get some magazines to print a press release about this.

[gran racing]

Do you think putting a free "ad" (basically small logo) on the mentor page and in the student welcome package for clubs who promote this program would entice them? Have mixed thoughts on this.

[alberto_mg]

Do you think putting a free "ad" (basically small logo) on the mentor page and in the student welcome package for clubs who promote this program would entice them? Have mixed thoughts on this.

It might help. Anyone that has already become a member of a club like SCCA or NASA is pretty far down the path and somewhat informed already.

[alberto_mg]

After Andy's post, I began to wonder more about the worth of doing this. I posted on another site where I know several novices go to and got my answer. I was actually a little surprised with how many PMs I received from people asking for this to happen. In addition to those, a couple of people involved in NASA also volunteered to help out with things. Maybe in reality people won't enroll in it but at least it will be made available to them.

Jeff, there might be ways to get some magazines to print a press release about this.

I agree with you. I'm active on other forums and the "how to get into racing" question comes up very regularly. I refer them to your book of course but having a means to locate a local mentor and go to the track would be helpful to a newbie.