The best way to become a great driver is to practice, and practice a ton. However, the available amount of seat time in our car is limited to a handful of testing sessions. It would be dangerous to put new drivers in our car since it is so much different from the handling characteristics of traditional cars. Thankfully, we do have a few options to prepare new drivers and teach safe and smart racing techniques. The first steps are to train without ever stepping into a car. This method is seen by most as the boring step to racing, but it is the best way to keep an eye on new drivers to ensure that they are learning the correct way to race. Once the officers deem that you have displayed proper racing mechanics, we will begin to discuss about letting you have seat time in the car at the next track day. Note that this does not mean that you will be driving the car. The option of putting anyone new in the car is entirely up to the discretion of the commanding officers and can be changed at any time. That being said, we would love for you to become our next team driver. If you show a passion for learning how to become the best driver you can be while also helping out with other projects on the team, then you have a great shot at being our next driver.
Our team owns the physical and digital copy of a book by Carroll Smith called Drive to Win. This book contains almost all the basics that is needed to begin racing effectively. To keep waiting times down, we will ask of everyone interested to keep the physical Drive to Win book in the shop at all times so we do not lose our copy, or to read our electronic copy available on our research drive which you can access on the computers in the Lab. Another great resource is the 1.5 hour movie Twist of the Wrist 2. While the movie is concentrated on motorcycle techniques and can be cheesy at points, the movie does offer some solid racing knowledge that transfers over to race cars.