So Why Do You Instruct?

For those of you who do instruct, let's hear why.

Mine started pretty simply. I hated seeing people struggle with the fundamentals. For me it was painful to watch drivers doing things like being rough with their brake pedal release and then hear them complain about their car undesteering.

The secondary reason has been the benefit of once I started instructing my capacity to analyze and drive has increased. I've always been able to do both but now I can articulate it more clearly. 

Great topic. Totally agree with your first two; the ability to analyze while on track in right seat makes me more relaxed and alert in left seat. It's also a lot of fun for me to watch students get all excited when they start doing better. I'll often have a student for a whole HPDE weekend. It starts with "light bulb" moments, and then they gain confidence, then have fun. Then comes the lap time.

I stopped instructing a few years ago.  Wasn't worth the risk anymore.  I was instructing at PPIR, which is a roval with a short infield, we were running it backwards, so clock wise.  I was in a C6 Z06 with an older fellow who was very respectful of the car and me, I never felt in jeopardy.  He was short shifting at 4500 rpm and lifting at the start/finish line, so several seconds before the braking zone off the roval and into the infield.  It still felt like we were hauling the mail.  So I asked him, how fast are we going when we pass start/finish?  145mph he answers!

In a STOCK Z06 with NO additional safety equipment!  If he'd been taking it out to 7000 rpm and going to a proper braking point, that's 165-170mph.  In a STOCK car.  Yeah, no thanks!  The risks of injury at those speeds, with that lack of equipment are too high for me.  And for what, free lunch and a little free track time for me?  Nope, not for me anymore...

I am very much in the docwyte camp. I did it in the beginning because three different people did it for me when I began. I stopped for a very long time in around 1978 when I had a slow learner come perilously close to rolling a Lotus Elan at Bridgehampton station 4, with no roll bar, just the window frames . Did it again from 2005-2014, but only in cars with substantial safety equipment.

Autocross is different. Lower speed and lower risk but not zero risk of course.

While I have not yet done racetrack instruction (thinking about it when I retire next year), I have long been an instructor in several disciplines related to my career, including over 20 years of teaching others to be instructors.

Being a trainer/instructor, and being able to pass on the skills and knowledge that I've gained over the years has been one of the more rewarding parts of my career.  I would love to bring my experience as an instructor to racetrack driving, as I've often observed that track instructors are very knowledgeable and well intentioned, but many are missing some very basic things about adult learning and instruction techniques that would improve the process.  Additionally, you learn a great deal when instructing... if you're doing it right!

As docwyte noted, the performance of modern cars in the hands of novice drivers gives me pause.  The dangers are real, and sitting in the right seat, you are a captive audience to whatever plays out.  I have dealt with serious safety issues from students in the past, and even sent a few home, but in most cases, I had the ability to assert control immediately.   At 150mph in the passenger seat, that's a little more difficult.

Still, instructors are an important part of the learning process and someone's got to do it.  I'll probably give it a go when I more time to dedicate.  If nothing else, at least you can try to impart proper track etiquette to the new folks!  

I have only helped with autocross instruction.  I have spent my time in these situations asking the drivers what maintenance they have done on their cars, starting with the vintage of their break fluid.  Yes, the word "vintage" is used.  Gets their attention.

I first want to go for a drive along with them, some times it takes only a couple of corners to see some of the issues.  I can then offer to drive, their choice and then I only drive at about 60% to show them the line.  Yes, if given the chance and after they drive a few more laps, I move up the speed.  

I always enjoy the reaction, "my car can do that?", after a lap.  If they keep at it, they drop time from there. 

jr02518 said:

I have only helped with autocross instruction.  I have spent my time in these situations asking the drivers what maintenance they have done on their cars, starting with the vintage of their break fluid.  Yes, the word "vintage" is used.  Gets their attention.

I first want to go for a drive along with them, some times it takes only a couple of corners to see some of the issues.  I can then offer to drive, their choice and then I only drive at about 60% to show them the line.  Yes, if given the chance and after they drive a few more laps, I move up the speed.  

I always enjoy the reaction, "my car can do that?", after a lap.  If they keep at it, they drop time from there. 

Ride alongs are a great way for students to learn, but I've started saving them until last session of the day. On three separate occasions I've seen students crash their car the session after riding with a coach.  I think for some of them it's better not to know the car's capabilities until they have enough skill to approach them safely. 

In reply to docwyte :

This is a consideration; I typically get students with momentum cars as that's what I'm best known for racing.

I've did some Viper club events in years past. I was once asked to do Cal Speedway.......that was a hard pass for me.

ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:

jr02518 said:

I have only helped with autocross instruction.  I have spent my time in these situations asking the drivers what maintenance they have done on their cars, starting with the vintage of their break fluid.  Yes, the word "vintage" is used.  Gets their attention.

I first want to go for a drive along with them, some times it takes only a couple of corners to see some of the issues.  I can then offer to drive, their choice and then I only drive at about 60% to show them the line.  Yes, if given the chance and after they drive a few more laps, I move up the speed.  

I always enjoy the reaction, "my car can do that?", after a lap.  If they keep at it, they drop time from there. 

Ride alongs are a great way for students to learn, but I've started saving them until last session of the day. On three separate occasions I've seen students crash their car the session after riding with a coach.  I think for some of them it's better not to know the car's capabilities until they have enough skill to approach them safely. 

I always encourage my (first time, never-evers) new students to not ride along with anyone until at least after lunch (hopefully after their third session or so).  I tell them that they need to be able to feel what they're doing in the car before they can even think to try what whoever they ride with can do.

I do it because I love it.  If it wasn't for instruction, I probably wouldn't go to hpdes/track days very much.  After wheel to wheel, regular track days just aren't quite as entertaining.

It's super rewarding when you can help someone overcome their fear of the track to learn things and have a great time.  It's great when you can help a student start to appreciate what their cars can do.

Sometimes, though, I do it because I get paid to drive and then instruct in some really cool machinery, and that's just plain fun:

I do it to support my club.  My vintage racing club does a driver school once a year and it's one of the biggest ways we get new drivers into the club.  Donating my time is one of the ways I give back to the club.

I find it terrifying.  Part of it is that I've spent a thousand hours teaching people how to fly airplanes, and that's something I still love, but those instructional skills don't transfer as well as I might hope.  Sitting in the passenger seat while someone drives a fast car around a track quickly is maybe the scariest thing I regularly do.  It's rewarding, but if it weren't out of a dedication to my club, I don't think I'd do it.  I suspect a big part of it is that I'm really good at teaching people to fly, mostly because I did that for a living for so long, but I still don't actually know the best ways to teach them how to drive around a track.  For instance: I know exactly which mistakes to let students make and how long to let them make it so that they can learn from those mistakes in the air.  It's pretty hard to let someone learn from lift-off oversteer and be sure that the results are minor.

I enjoy it, but...

I enjoy it because I seem to have a knack for being able to explain the concepts in a way students understand. I'm no spectacular race driver but have always had a knack for knowing what a car is doing and how to transfer weight, etc.  The reward of a student "getting it", particularly when they have struggled with something, is a great reward.  I started doing it for the free track time, of course, but now don't care if I miss a session or two giving a student some extra post-session download time. 

As others have mentioned, the capabilities of modern cars have given me pause. I've only raced stuff with under 200hp. Riding in some of these massively fast street cars with just a shoulder belt and a few airbags makes me uncomfortable. And that seems to be the norm for most of the cars that come out anymore. I'd much rather ride in a rickety old Fox Mustang with no ABS but with a full cage and proper seats. I have only instructed with NASA which (so far) has usually assigned me similar cars to whatever I bring to the track. But if they are low on Miatas, well, I may get an old guy in his first Corvette. 

Dont instruct but wanted to say thank you for being patient with us novice/intermediate crowd. Its always a pleasure to have a pro in the right seat making sure im not overdriving the car like a gorilla.

I did auto-x instruction locally. It was fun teaching people the basics of car control and how much faster their car was than they were. I almost aways had some Korean crapbox that was silly quick for what it was. 

This year I started doing external track instructing. Follow/Lead, drills and then slip onto track in the day to watch and put them into specific conditions. I started for two reasons, monetarily it allows me to do track things cheaply and because once again it's awesome watching people get comfortable with their car and its capabilities.

I guess in my mind teaching them how to control their vehicle in a controlled environment might make one less poor driver on the roads.

EDIT: I stopped doing the autox instructing because I now get car sick. Every time I ride with someone on track I spend most of my time keeping lunch down and no paying attention to what is going on.

In reply to ddavidv :

I instructed with NASA for years.  I basically never got a miata because I don't fit in them, my head sticks up way past the top of the windshield.  Generally a novice is coming out in their street car, so stock safety equipment will be the norm.  Given that years ago a camry had 300hp, more than the "hot" E36 M3 240hp, it's been a fairly dodgy situation for us right seat riders.

I never got into a truly scary situation, went off once or twice, thankfully in cars with rollbars/seats/harnesses, but the speeds that Z06 was hitting, without even trying, were enough for me to hang it up.

I used to intruct HPDEs frequently.  I found it rewarding - you get to share knowledge with people on one of the most exciting days of their life, while helping them build skills and stay safe.  

I quit for the some of the same reasons as docwyte - speed creep.  Everything is fast these days, and the right seat is a scary place to be when everything has 400+hp.  It's also a hectic day if you're instructing and driving.  I don't get out to the track enough anymore, and when I do I would rather a more relaxing pace.  If I want a hectic track weekend, then I'll go out with one of the endurance series. :)

Story time:

I had a student in a Porsche and kept telling him that I needed him to stay on the gas through the transition from the banked straight down onto the infield roval.  It's scary because you're going fast, but there is plenty of room to brake for the next turn once the car settles after the transition.  I warned him that he would likely loop it if he kept jumping off the gas.  Then about two laps later, I calmly said "we're entering that spin that I was telling you about - stay calm, put both feet in, and don't try to collect the car until we stop."  Backward through the grass and dirt at 90+mph.  He asked me what next?  I said, if you're okay just look for traffic and re-enter when safe and let's finish our session.  He asked me why I was so calm about it.  I knew it was coming, I guess.

I started instructing to "give back," because people took a risk instructing me when I got started.  As I've been doing it longer I do it because I like teaching, and teaching novices how to get around a track safely is something I think I'm qualified to teach.  It's rewarding and I like working with the students.

I've definitely figured out my comfort zone and I tend to stay in it.  I prefer instructing at my home track, because I'm hyper-attuned to all of the pitfalls that novice drivers can get into and I'm able to correct them before things get bad.  I prefer instructing with a specific organization that takes safety very, very seriously and doesn't foster a competitive environment.  And I don't like instructing intermediate students because I'm less comfortable with the margin for error at the speeds they tend to run.

In reply to ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) :

Good point about the ride-along. On occasions when students have ridden with me, it's in my car. It's different enough and "racecar" enough to distance its capabilities from their perception of what theirs can do. I agree about timing of the ride too: it's usually last session on Saturday for me. This gives them plenty of fresh perspective to mull over, talk about over evening socialization, and dream about, but not another opportunity late in the day when fatigued to push too hard.

With regards to instructing in fast machinery, I don't think it's all that much different than what we do with our own on track. Granted, I would pull the plug mighty quick if someone was tending toward unsafe. As the instructor, it's your responsibility to keep enthusiasm in check. It's also the instructor's responsibility to know limits of track, adhesion, and sanity; to be able to recognize a harrowing situation develop; and to keep both occupants out of dangerous situations. This usually means keeping them at 8/10 or less. I've had a few clear-headed and competent students I'd let go at 9+, and some we stayed at 6/10 the whole weekend.

Part of the enjoyment of instructing for me is also putting teaching skills into practice, which means adjusting effectively and efficiently to each student's learning style, competence, and attitude. It's fascinating how differently each of us processes the same set of information.

I was a professional instructor and coach.  I also volunteered with a couple different organizations as a way to grow the sport, support those organizations, and give back.  I enjoyed it a lot and got to drive a lot of neat cars.  I didn't do it for free track time and usually didn't use my free track days.

But the organization for which I volunteered the most didn't treat me very well and I stopped supporting them.

But it's different than it used to be due to the faster cars novice drivers show up with.  But I think novices often show up with less patience and more insistence to go fast right away rather than treat it as a journey with lots to learn along the way.  Modern cars are too fast for novices.

I instruct with PCA amongst others. It's very rewarding to see the student progress through the weekend. I've found that I typically do a lapping day before the instructed weekend, and then only run a couple of sessions per day over the weekend as I'm focused on my student. I started instructing to give back, as I'd had great instructors with my local PCA chapter and have really enjoyed getting into the hobby. When I have the student ride along, it's to demonstrate a certain line or car behavior, so I'm typically not going hard.

I appreciate that cars are getting faster and have a lot of power for a novice, but have found most students are receptive to a plan for the weekend and have generally remarked how much quicker they were going at the end of the weekend vs. the start. I've had no problems pulling students in to the pits for a discussion if things start to get a little out of shape.

I did invest in a Hans Hybrid S, though

In reply to Tyler H :

Agreed with the hectic pace, especially if you have to do anything to your car.  I do track tech's for PCA now and even that really makes it hard, as my car needs to be 100% ready and on the grid before I start teching other peoples cars.  I'm usually in the first run group out, so that means an extra early morning for me to get to the track in time to get my car ready...

In reply to docwyte :

and that's why I Sundae Cup. Car's always ready. My "prep" is checking the oil and tire pressures lol.A tank of fuel lasts all weekend.

I instructed SCCA Solo 1 (time trials) a couple time. First time I was roped into it since they were short on licensed instructors. I used my old Pontiac station wagon to show them the track (Riverside) and the sound of my tires squealing scared the stuff outta them.  

L5wolvesf said:

I instructed SCCA Solo 1 (time trials) a couple time. First time I was roped into it since they were short on licensed instructors. I used my old Pontiac station wagon to show them the track (Riverside) and the sound of my tires squealing scared the stuff outta them.  

First time I ever did a trackcross, they gave newbies a sighting lap in a Suburban, driven with a respectable amount of vigor.  It was the perfect way to introduce newcomers, myself included.