Recently, my student and I were fortunate enough to get out on the race track together at Winton Motor Raceway!
This was all thanks to Essendon Hyundai covering some costs, and the Nthused car club and Trackschool working together to provide sessions with Hyundai N cars ONLY.
This was quite fitting as back in 2014, I went to my first track day with my personal car and developed new skills that I translated into every day driving, one of them being a heightened awareness of my surroundings and a little more knowledge on car control.
The image below are 2 shots in the same location, 10 years apart with my 2001 Holden CV8 Monaro in 2014 and my now 2022 Hyundai i30 Sedan N in 2024!
After my first track day back in 2014, the idea of becoming a driving instructor on public roads and providing more knowledge on driving than the average instructor, started to unfold. From 2015 onward, CRUDE Ultimate Driving Education was born!
My student and I both went into this track day with safety and car care in mind, but toward the end of the day we both wanted to go faster and realised the car could truly handle anything we threw at it.
Regardless, this was all about the experience and an opportunity to learn about a vehicles behaviour more than ever before. This was also the most appropriate and safest place do drive fast, have fun and learn how to respect the vehicle.
Public roads are not a race track and we continually advocate for these amazing track day experiences.
Check out what my student had to say below:
“After taking the 3-hour Vehicle Dynamics lesson with Courtenay, and learning a lot about all the different ways a vehicle can behave as well as experiencing some of it myself e.g. braking with and without ABS at a high speed, using lane assist, etc. It really made me want to have a chance at experiencing more of it and what better place for it than an actual race track.
Courtenay took the time to research the right venue and organisation to make it happen. That place would be Winton and it would be run by Trackschool!
When we got there it was great to see a friendly bunch of enthusiasts (or Nthusiasts) as well as a very talented crew running the event ensuring the right balance of fun and safety.
On my first session I really expected to be nervous and I suspect I may have been if I was doing it completely on my own but with Courtenay next to me I was never affected by nerves at all. We set out on automatic mode initially to keep it simple and learned how to take the right lines and get a feel for the car at higher speeds as well as letting other drivers get past. I was still going very light on the brakes which was something to fix next time. However, you might be able to tell from the video I had an absolute blast!
In the second session I was able to use the semi-manual mode with paddles which was a lot more engaging and I went into the corners a bit faster and braked a little harder. Still loving it! Courtenay showed me with video footage that my racing line was far from optimal and it was the next thing to try to work on.
In the third session we took the first lap gently and got my racing line to be more efficient allowing me to brake later and accelerate out earlier. Having been able to push the car to the fastest of the sessions so far I’d learn once again how much harder I still needed to be braking as on one of the laps I entered turn 1 a little too fast but without any major issues. Then like all the other sessions the end came very quickly as time does indeed fly when you’re having fun.
Incredibly thrilled to have experienced it and can easily say it won’t be the last time I get on the track. Massive thanks to Courtenay for making this happen and I look forward to seeing others getting involved.”
Check out a video of the experience:
For information on Trackschool, visit: https://www.trackschool.com.au/
Check out the Nthused car club at https://www.instagram.com/_nthused/
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