PSmalls::DoggieStyle

First of all, Limerock is a beautiful track with very nice facilities including a smaller "autocross track", skid pad, and, best of all, a big paddock with good food.

There were 18 people in attendance for the driving school, all with varying degrees of skill. A couple people couldn't even drive a stick that well, while others had done several different types of racing. There were 6-8 instructors, most of which were quite helpful. One of them was very cocky and condescending, though. Oh well, I still had a good time.

None of the excercises during this driving school took place on the main track because there was a New York Porsche Club of America event taking place (pictures later), but we made great use of the "autocross track", skid pad, and parking lot.

The morning of the 1st day, we did a straight line braking excercise in Neons, a CPR (Correct, Pause, Recover) oversteer excercise in Dakota Quad Cabs on the skid pad with sprinklers keeping it nice and wet, and a classroom session on some basics.

For lunch, we went down to the paddock and ate while watching the Porsche Club event (sorry, didn't have camera the 1st day so could not get any shots of the red Carrera GT flying around the track).

In the afternoon of the 1st day, we went back out and repeated the skid pad excercise, did another braking excercise but added a turn at the end, and then practiced heel-toe downshifting while driving the Neons on the small track.

During the morning of the 2nd day, we did a lane toss excercise with Neons in the parking lot, did another skid pad excercise with the Dakota Quad Cabs, and did a "following the proper line" excercise with Neons on the smaller track.

Again, we went to the paddock and watched the Porsche Club event for lunch. Here are some pictures of the cars parked in the paddock (Notice the black GT3 that crashed the day before while entering the front straight - I didn't see it happen, but heard he drifted on the grass, over-corrected, hit the wall nose first, then got out and tossed his helmet all the way down the track in disgust):

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/Limerock.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/Limerock1.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/Limerock2.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/ParkedPorsches1.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/ParkerPorsches2.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/3PorscheGT3s.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/SmashedGT3.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/PorscheGT2.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/SuperClean944.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/BuiltMotorin944.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/GoldPorsche.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/ModdedRedPorsche.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/Racegirl944.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/MorePorsches.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

And here are a couple shots of guys driving on the "big" (actually even smaller than Waterford Hills, just less extreme turns so faster average speed) track:

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/AfterFrontStraight.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/TwistiesatLimerock.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

Also, all day Saturday (2nd day of school) was a drifting competition on one section of the smaller track. It was absolutely amazing to watch. Most of the patricipants were driving totally riced out cars, but they had some serious skill. By far one of the funniest parts of the entire school was one of the instructors drifting a Dakota Quad Cab around the skid pad for a soild 2 laps straight to show the drifters how it's really done.

Here are a couple bad shots I took during lunch. It's hard to capture the drift in a picture:

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/DriftCompetition2.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/DriftCompetition1.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

The most fun part of the school was definitely the afternoon of the 2nd day. We started by going on the smaller track in the Vipers:

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/SkipBarberDodgeViper.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/DocSlow/JDinViper.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

After we drove the Vipers, each of us got a chance to go out in the Viper while an instructor drove the car. The main difference that jumped out at me was how much more confidence they had in braking.

We then had a autocross competition in the parking lot with a really nice cone course setup. Unlike regular autocross competitoins, we had a dish with a tennis ball in it attached to the hood of the car and you had to keep the tennis ball in the dish the entire time by making smooth transitions. If the tennis ball fell out of the dish, you were penalized by having to get out of the car, putting it back in the dish, getting back in the car, and then continuing. My father won the competition with a 42.xxx second run. For comparison's sake, the instructor did a best of 39.xxx and most other people got in the 45-47 second range. My brother and I both were on pace to beat my father, but lost the tennis ball and still finished in 50-52 second range.

The final excercise of the class was a relay race. The 18 participants were split into 2 groups of 9. Each person had to do 3 laps in the neon and then go run to tag the next person in the group. Naturally, our group won...by 14 seconds, lol. My brother tied for the best lap time (23.08 seconds) while I got the 2nd best lap time (23.11 seconds).

Overall, I had a blast. I learned quite a bit and will probably go back next summer for another class. Do I think it was worth $1300/person + hotel/food/etc? Not really. I would have loved to get more seat time for each of the excercises, especially the skid pad ones. I think we're going to build a skid pad somewhere. ;p

reefer_bob

Nice! How many hours of actual class/seat time did you have total?

PSmalls::DoggieStyle

We were in cars probably 10-12 hours between 2 days. 3/4 of that time was probably sitting in line or in the backseat for others to do the excercise, though. For example, 3 people went with 1 instructor in each Dakota Quad Cab for the skid pad excercises and we'd change drivers so everyone had 2 times in ~1 hour...so like 20 min each person. I must admit that I learned from watching others, but still more seat time for that much money would be nice.

BASELINE

I've wanted to do this for a while....limerock is only 1.5hrs away...awesome track.

WindyCityS4

....and yes, I have done a 2 day Skippy school.

BASELINE

was is worth the price of admission? And do you trully feel it made you much better driver?

PSmalls::DoggieStyle

However, I did learn things I would NOT have learned at driver's education events.

PSmalls::DoggieStyle

I can't say I'm a better driver yet, but I firmly believe that class will help me slowly evolve into a better driver because I now know what to do in certain situations. My brain is still absorbing a lot of it though IMO.

BASELINE

I hear ya....the best is really getting steady track time...thats the only way to trully improve.

WindyCityS4

The wet skip pad was very good.