2009 CASC-OR Toyo Tires Advanced Driving Clinic - A Great Experience for all

[Gwoody27]

On behalf of the CASC-OR, I wanted to thank the SPDA and all of the volunteers for providing a wonderful learning expeience for all of the Students. As we have come to expect, the SPDA team created an extremely organized 2 days with lots of seat time for the students. Everyone I spoke to had a lot of fun while they learned and all came away with a better appreciation for their car's capabilities and their own. We will see many of these students participating at autoslalom events this year which is to the credit of all involved.

Great Job Everyone,

Gary Wood
Only 1 week to Provincial Series Event #1, BE THERE

[Slowpoke]

Thanks to the instructors AND volunteers from HADA, TLMC, MSOC, BARC, BMW Trillium, WOSCA, SGR and all of the others who helped make this a successful weekend. It's the most amount of volunteers we've had at the CASC-OR school that I can recall, and the student feedback was fantastic because of it!

Thanks to everyone who donated their beautiful spring weekend to help make it a success!

[JoeT]

Hi All,

Thank you very very very very much for donating your free time this weekend. This was the smoothest running school we've had the pleasure of working on because of the efforts of all the volunteers.

The instructors were all top notch, reconfiguration teams worked like clockwork, timing test went off and proved to be a nicely manageable unit. As most of you are aware, we handed out feedback forms for all the students that participated. I'll be compiling the results along with all the feedback and posting them here.

The coments and scores are something to be proud of. Here's a sampling of the comments:

- Very Professional!
- I'd tell all my friends to take this course!
- The braking exercise was hard but I finally got it!!

Stay tuned for the results.

Thanks again

[Taylor]

Joe: Yeah good job yourself (and whomever helped you plan it out). Well thought out and executed exercises. Very little to find fault with and that's evident by how well the students improved over the two days. Good show.

[engsr]

Had a great time this weekend. Thanks to the SPDA crew for amazing organization throughout the weekend - very well run. I think I learned a few more things myself from the students, believe it or not.

[Greg F]

I've got a lot of photos and videos from Day 1. Would someone like to host these?

[JoeT]

Here's the feedback from the students. These are average scores based on the feedback form that was provided.

Statistics:
Day 1 - 35 Students 2 cancellations = 33 students
Day 2 - 38 Students 2 cancellations 1 walk in = 37 Students

Instructors:
Day 1 - 25 Registered 3 no show's = 22
Day 2 - 23 Registered 8 no shows = 15

Volunteers both days: 17 each day + 3 or 4 walk ups.

I have many more stats, if required. Please PM me and I'll be glad to share.

Please find attached the compiled list of comments along with the average scores for each section. Congrats everyone, and contrary to popular belief, "Teamwork Can Work"!!!! Thank everyone for your support and your efforts..

Note: The attached comments should be taken as constructive, they were 99.5% positive, it's the negative ones we'll all learn from and make our events better.

Thanks again.

Taylor, coming from you, that's a huge compliment... Huge handshake back to you sir.. (Nice car btw)

[elementZ]

It was a great weekend. Big up to the whole SPDA crew and all the instructors. I had a blast and learned a lot from the instructors and what I can and cant do w/ my car. The whole program was well structured and carried out. There were no problems, and everything was clear. Awesome job guys.

[Marsh]

Good day. Great batch of students this year, which inclines me to think that the class room session was well done.

One comment to the students. A few students mentioned to me that they would have liked to ride with an instructor before they drove the autoslalom on Sunday. As Steve D discussed with me that seeing the course at instructor speed can possibly make things even worse for some students and that it would be better for you to try it your self to get feel of you're own car and your abilities before seeing it at competition speed. I had to agree when he brought it up.

My only complaint as an instructor is an on going one for a few schools I've helped with. There seems to be little instruction during the skid pad on looking ahead and I think this is an easy exercise to learn it in. I preach it like the gospel when I'm in the car and I usually see vast improvement. I would say that over half the time when a student is washing out in the skid pad/figure 8, the problem isn't that they're struggling with balancing the car. The problem is that they aren't looking ahead and keep over doing the accelerator as a result. I'd like to see this emphasized in the class room more, as it gives me less to explain once the student gets their helmet on and starts tensing up.

[Shane Bawa]

As a 2 day student, let me just say that this was an amazing weekend, even from the price standpoint. I learnt a lot, both about myself and the car!! Can't wait for the next weekend now.. HADA, SPDA, PITL, TLMS... here I come ;-)

Thanks to all the instrutors.. you guys were just amazing, understanding, patient and very professional..

I really enjoyed the ride alongs too.. That helped me a LOT.. Sometimes I found that after a run, I was SOO pumped, that I almost had a tendency of forgetting what the instructor said... lol..:p

GREAT JOB GUY... I would surely recommend this to everybody!!

Shane: AKA: Yellow MR2

[Taylor]

I'm sending Joe (and I guess I'll copy Gary in) some thoughts. But as I say, I was largely impressed with the school overall.

As always there are areas that can benefit from improvement but I would certainly donate my time to be a part of this again.

[nrg3k_civic]

I have a tonne of video from day 2 in the stop-box area and will be putting it together this week. If anyone is looking for their car specifically, send me PM with make/model/colour/unique features and i'll do my best to get a clip.

and yes, i have a clip of what NOT to do when sliding thru the stop box (hand so on the wheel!!). lol

DJM:>

[max attack]

Just saying I had a great time,1st time doing it and I thought all the students were great-they listened and for the most part applied the comments the next time around.

Hey,I wasn't a no show,you knew I could only do 1 day.;)

[mikewolf]

Despite not getting to do anything really autox related, I had a great time. It was good to see and catch up with everybody after a long winter.

My wife (Martha) had a great time too. She said the instructors were great and it really helped her build her confidence in her driving. She also wants a new car that she can autox...

[mopar1]

I have been saying to myself for a couple of years now that I want to get into it and finally I did it.The school was amazing and I had the time of my life and learned tonnes.
The instructors were amazing and very friendly and can't wait for my first event.Great job guys,I will tell anyone to try it out.
P.S. I can finally say I was driving on three wheels,cool.

[Caveman]

Exceptionally well done!!!:D I learned a lot about my car as i had hoped.
I also learned quite a bit about Proper lines and how to anticipate the next 3 to 4 turns in advance:). Ware as before i really only cared about being pointing the right direction and then squirt;)

Thank You Very Very Much

Rob


P.S.
However i still don't get trail braking :confused:

Not sure but i think with a RWD and Engine braking it just naturally dose it for you

[max attack]

Exceptionally well done!!!:D I learned a lot about my car as i had hoped.
I also learned quite a bit about Proper lines and how to anticipate the next 3 to 4 turns in advance:). Ware as before i really only cared about being pointing the right direction and then squirt;)

Thank You Very Very Much

Rob


P.S.
However i still don't get trail braking :confused:

Not sure but i think with a RWD and Engine braking it just naturally dose it for you

Glad you had fun Rob,with regards to the trail braking deal-picture a string tied from the wheel to a very sensitive portion of yourself than to the brake pedal.When your braking and start to turn the wheel the string tightens,letting off some brake pressure gives the string some slack so as you turn the wheel reduce the brakes in porportion.
The boys and your tires will be very happy you figured it out.;)

See you in a couple weeks-if my car comes together in time that is.

[Sky_high]

Thanks to ALL for making the Auto-x school a successful learning experience. I really am rusty. I need to partcipate/practice more to become consistent.

[StewPiddass]

Despite not getting to do anything really autox related, I had a great time. It was good to see and catch up with everybody after a long winter.

My wife (Martha) had a great time too. She said the instructors were great and it really helped her build her confidence in her driving. She also wants a new car that she can autox...

Martha was doing a great job! You guys should definitely both come out and co-drive this year Her smile really said it all!

[sjd]

She also wants a new car that she can autox...

Did you tell her she already has the best autox car? :D

I echo everyone's comments here, it was a well organized, enjoyable event.

[forced4]

Big Thanks to everybody involved in organizing, and executing this very well planned, and organized event. I had a blast, and learned a lot. I'll definately be getting out to some of the events this summer now.

It was fun meeting everyone, and watching all the runs.

I have a few people now ready to sign up for next year :)

[mikewolf]

Did you tell her she already has the best autox car? :D

I echo everyone's comments here, it was a well organized, enjoyable event.

She wants her own car.

[max attack]

She wants her own car.


Better get her something big and heavy so she doesn't beat you.:D

[RRRex]

Great job SPDA! Had an absolute blast.

I was telling Joe on the second day - the students were amazing. Everyone I sat in with took direction really well, asked smart questions and really wanted to learn. Was very satisfying watching them improve constantly and consistently throughout the day. Hell, just seeing them whipping through a wet track in the AM was a joy.

Great organization and smoothly run event - so props to all the peeps and other volunteers who held it together behind the scenes.

[Caveman]

She wants her own car.
I have a 1988 Red Mazda RX7 Convertabul 13b racing beat header and a bunch of other goodies mint mint mi almost but not quite you were in it at the speedway

[nrg3k_civic]

I finally finished putting a movie together. Comments are welcome :D

http://www.vimeo.com/4590031


DJM:>

[Greg F]

Twenty five short videos, but none as nice as the one by nrg3k_civic above...

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=eagleawd70&view=videos&start=20

[BryceD]

Thanks to everyone involved, it was a great event to be a student at!

It was great to have a chance to hit the same corner 5-10 times and try out different lines and methods of attack.

I learned a lot, and I think it really helped me do well at Mosport DDT in the first event!

Only thing I found was that I could have used more tips/help before we started a run. I think this got better though on day 2 when instructors tried to stay in the same 3-4 cars the whole exercise, so they knew how each student was progressing.