About this event
Northwest Alfa Romeo Club has been providing fun and informative High Performance Driving events to automotive enthusiasts at the scenic Pacific Raceways and Bremerton Motorsport parks for over 20 years.
This is a driving school for car control/safety and understanding vehicle dynamics.
Introduction
The purpose of our Driving School is to enhance your awareness of the conditions around you and develop your ability to respond quickly and properly should a dangerous condition be upon you in daily driving.
NWARC's Driver Skills event is a one-day course on the fundamentals of performance driving. Appropriate for novices and experienced drivers alike, Driver Skills provides all participants with lots of seat time and personalized 1:1 instruction. The day is divided into five primary segments:
- Slalom.
- Wet skidpad.
- Threshold braking and accident avoidance.
- Handling oval.
- Autocross.
Together, these segments improve students' ability to look ahead, control weight transfer, steer with the throttle, and brake effectively. Run groups are small, which means that wait time between runs is minimal. At the end of the five sessions, students are encouraged to apply the skills they've learned by taking free runs on a large autocross course. The intensity level and focus on driving is high, but so is the fun level!
The Driver Skills participation fee is $110 and this covers a full day of training plus a hot lunch.
You will need to provide your own helmet of at least a SNELL 2000 rating. We have a few loaner helmets which are first come, first serve. You also need to provide your own set of driving gloves. They must be all leather or nomax.
What you Gain
The Driving School is designed to teach all students that the act of driving a motor vehicle is an intensive mentally activity. You must pay strict attention to your actions and those of the drivers around you. Through classroom and in-car instruction, you are taught how to be observant of your surroundings and vehicle. You learn how and why a car will respond to inputs to the steering wheel, gas pedal and brake pedal - the physics of car control. The school provides a way to prepare for the unexpected, and to practice accident avoidance skills.
You don't need to be a member of NWARC to attend our Novice Schools, but you are welcome to to join here: http://nwalfaclub.com/club.html.
Event requirements
This event is open to all valid licensed drivers with NO prerequisites required to attend. Invite your teenage* children, parents, friends or coworkers to experience the art of car control.
*NOTE: Teen(age) is 16-17 years old and valid drivers license is required for participation.
More on the driving school...
Ground School
The school begins with a general explanation of the day's activities, safety issues, and how the in-car activities will be conducted. There will be a discussion of each in-car exercise so that you understand what the exercise is designed to teach and how best to perform it. Questions are encouraged.
Driving Exercises
Exercise segments have been designed to allow you to physically experience the vehicle dynamics theory explained in the classroom. Using orange traffic cones, exercises are laid out on the pavement for you to negotiate. An experienced instructor will ride with you to explain the exercise, offer corrections, praise accomplishment and answer questions immediately. With this real-time feedback, learning is enhanced.
The exercise segments are laid out with safety buffer zones around them to provide you a large margin of error, keeping you out of trouble. The exercise area is isolated to preclude access by non-school participants. The pavement in the exercise area is wet down to minimize tire adhesion. This allows you to experience the vehicle's responses to your inputs at much lower speeds than in the dry.
Go to the NWARC Track Events website and check out more information about the Driving School: http://www.nwalfaclub.com/track/driving_school.php
