ITRCA

has it been decided what the procedure will be (if there is going to be) for the classroom session? how long will it be? who will lead it? will we have handouts? are all instructors (at least the FWD ones) in agreement on what 'the line,' is? are we going to have a parade session immediately after?

the classroom session should be extremely well organized in my opinion. this will be the students' first impression of us, and if we look confused and unorganized, it will be more difficult for them to trust us.

i sent wes some slides covering the fundamentals i had prepared for a different event and offered to be involved in the classroom instruction but i haven´t really heard anything. I´ve been very out of the loop on things as i am still in europe until Friday.

with this many 0-experience drivers not having solid classroom time would be scary. the BMW CCA typically sends a booklet/pdf file to anyone signed up for a school ahead of time and expects them to have read it by the time they get to the track.

Matt
(only recent FWD experience was march 20th, in an Opel Astra 1.6, at the Nurburgring!!)

tnord wrote:has it been decided what the procedure will be (if there is going to be) for the classroom session? how long will it be? who will lead it? will we have handouts? are all instructors (at least the FWD ones) in agreement on what 'the line,' is? are we going to have a parade session immediately after?

the classroom session should be extremely well organized in my opinion. this will be the students' first impression of us, and if we look confused and unorganized, it will be more difficult for them to trust us.

I believe this is Lance's arena...

chris - hoping he'll check in here soon.

the plan was for me to do the classroom sessions. i did them at the previous expo and received positive reviews. this is my only experience with running the classroom session so if there is another instructor who has experience and would like to do it we can certianly talk about it.

thrash, could you send me the info you sent to wes? thanks.

i'll have to check with wes and chris on this but i think we have enough instructors where we can give one up to run the classroom sessions. worst case is that i'd take that instructor's on track duties.

on the organizer list i sent an email that outlined what i had in mind for the classroom sessions. feel free to critique.

-classroom session 1 on sat, before any student takes to the track - just giving them the concepts of driving on a road course. things like turn in, apex, track out, braking in a straight line, flag stands, how to signal a pass, passing zones, track ediqute, warm up laps and cooldown laps and any special instructions for the first session out that we agree on (like no
passing for the first session or something like that).
- classroom session 2 on sat, between 1st and 2nd track sessions - first thoughts on driving the track, expand more on the 3 parts of a corner, field any questions. try to go over things that didn't seem to go well in the
first session
- classroom session 3 on sat, sometime in the afternoon - this one is a maybe but really just some discussion about how things change on the track as speed increases. field more questions etc.
-classroom session 1 on sunday, before any student takes to the track - talk about how overconfidence going into the 2nd day catches people out. they are not at the same level as the last session on sat so they need to bring it back a few notches and build it back up.

if you've got class room experience already i'll certainly defer to you. PM me or whatever with where to send the slides i made if you're interested

i would suggest bringing up overconfidence at lunch on the first day, or right before the second round of sessions in the afternoon. it usually doesn't take too long for novice drivers to think they have things "figured out," and for bad things to happen.

i absolutely agree. this is why i have a classroom session scheduled after lunch.