Hi,

I thought I’d write here my experience with my driver’s school just in case some of my online friends I’ve met or some newbies are interested in how things went.

I attended the Carolina Motorsports Park double school held on the 17th weekend. I think this school is new and offers folks an alternative to the huge Roebling double school that is in one to two weeks. At any rate I felt the CMP was a first rate school and a perfect experience and introduction to the SCCA. The school was run on time, from classrooms to run sessions, which I have to say was something of a first in my short experience with SCCA events. Fantastic!

I arrived at the track on Friday before the event started on Saturday, only to find the track and paddock closed due to a NASCAR team having rented the track for testing. The track opened at 5pm and I was through tech and clear to setup and go by 6pm – very fast and efficient.

Class started at 8AM on Saturday morning and ran a little long; basically the only time I saw something off schedule during the school. Drivers sessions started after lunch and ran till dusk. The drive arounds and the instructors were top notch and I found the experience very worthwhile.

Unfortunately, I could not run my Jensen Healey at the school so I rented a spec Miata from RTP Racing and Restorations. The Miata I rented is the same one that I crewed for during the 13 hr Enduro “Charge of the Headlight Brigade” at VIR back in October and I think it finished 6th overall in that race. The car is black and silver, number 39, and is prepped very well therefore I offer a hand to Mark Whight and Jeff Young, the RTP principals who put the car together.

The driving sessions at CMP were a real blast!! I loved the track and the size of it; it seemed that for the beginner it was a perfect place to learn to race. I’d never driven a “race” car before, nothing SCCA sanctioned, and had never attended a driver’s instructional school. However, the amount of track time you get in the drivers school will certainly get you started. I think we had 6.5 hours of track time for the weekend if you made all the sessions and that is a lot – one is tried at the end of the day! It was mighty cold at CMP, but still lots of fun.

I loved every minute of it and I cannot express my greatest appreciation for Jeff Young’s support throughout the school. Before I went down to school I was saying things like “yeah, when we’re sitting around with nothing to do we should cut and rivet some aluminum over the roll bar entry points in the back of the car”. Jeff just laughed. I figured we’d have lots of down time. Wrong!!! Basically the sessions are only spread apart by 40 mins and that is just enough time to get out of the car, pee, help some poor fellow with a busted car for 10 minutes, and get back in the car to race again.

I met a lot of good people and drivers and had a lot of good competitions during the practice sessions and the school “races”. I wasn’t fast by any means, starting out 2:04-2:05 on the first few sessions, but by the time we started on the second day I was getting consistent 2:01s-2:00. By the third day I had my fastest laps at 1:59:6X with 2:00s being a consistent norm. Still far off the “race” laptimes at CMP but fast enough for me to win both of my SM class races with first place and take 3rd overall in the field. So, I’m happy and at least I showed improvement.

In summary the race school was one of the most memorable events I’ve had in my life, ranks up there will passing my check ride for my pilots license and I highly recommend it for the experience – even if you never want to race. And, if you need a car for school or race I’d highly recommend old 39 – I had a memorable time with that car and won’t soon forget it.

Sean, Neil, and Ron, shoot me an email, I’d like to hear from you guys and learn how you’re making out with getting into IT!

Best,
Ron

PS-I still like the best line I’ve heard in awhile at the local Camden watering hole. I was chatting up some “older” lady down at the Brew and Cue when she turned to me and said “Son, I’ve got underwear older than you are!” At which point I really couldn’t come up with any other lines. Had to throw in the towel on that one.



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Ron Earp
http://www.gt40s.com
Ford Lightning
RF GT40 Replica
Jensen-Healey ITS
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