mjr62
11-22-2010, 09:14 AM
Wanted to share some thoughts on the 3 day school at Dirtfish.
Coming into the school, my expectation was to take my tarmac driving experience (karting, autoX, some track stuff) and learn to drive in the dirt. I had taken a 1 day Skip Barber course back in the day and set that as my baseline for the experience.
The Instructors:
Our lead instructor was Forest Duplessis (Chris’ brother). Forrest is an awesome, enthusiastic guy who is talented at describing what the car needs to do and how to make it do it. I overall rate Forest’s teaching skill and attention to client needs an A+. The guy lives and breathes making sure the clients are happy - making sure the car is warm, the water bottles are there, and the students are grinning ear to ear.
Our two in car instructors, Adam and Ted are very very (did I mention very) solid instructors. Each have different teaching and driving styles, so the students opted to switch back and forth between the in-car instructors to provide alternate point of views. I found that very helpful, and really enjoyed working with them both.
The three person team overall was a great combination of skills, personalities, and teaching styles. I don’t know if it was purposeful in their selection as one teaching team, but they were far better than the instructors I had at Skip Barber.
Day 1:
4 Students for the 3 day school arrive. We do brief introductions, and Forest goes over the basics of weight transfer and how to lift turn wait, and lift turn brake.
Out to the cars, first the "p" cars which are new STIs with bolt in 4 point cage and Tein suspension with proper gravel tires.
2 students per car, and 1 instructor in each car, with Forest outside talking to the students waiting to run working over points to work on the next lap.
Day 1 starts with practice the basic ways to pivot the car (lift turn wait, lift turn brake, power oversteer). This is done in a large skid pad to start, then a move to a slalom course to link it together.
We add trail braking to the skill set post lunch and work on that drill before then heading to a shorter course to add left and right turns requiring all three types of turn in techniques. The instructors provide real time feedback and each time "demo" the run before the students try to show the proper line and technique.
Day 1 concludes with working on these basic skills until they become second nature. We go into the classroom for 15 minutes to conclude the day review what we learned etc.
Day 2
Day 2 starts with classroom time (45 min) then out to the P cars again to add pendulum turns. We practice this for a while, then back to the course we started on yesterday to continue to link turns together using different skills. Here the instructors start focusing on getting your cadence right, and refining the skills.
Turns out I have a tendency to get on the power to soon and am steering too much with the wheel and need to use the pedals more. Both instructors independently are able to spot this and help me begin to think on how to "calm down the hands".
We goto lunch and they prep the “N” cars for us. These are Group N cars built by VSC with all the goodies (dogbox etc). Mine is a former Xgames car. Needless to say most of us will never own a racecar like this so driving this badboy as a standalone is worth the price of admission.
After lunch the slalom and the short course are put together as one longer course and we start running the N cars. Holy ****. Faster, handles crisper, better pedal feel, these things are insane. Here the instructors in car pick out for each of us a couple themes to work on, for me it’s to steer with the gas and the brake more, and continue to slow down my hands.
The day concludes and I am tired as hell from driving lots, and my brain is loaded up with learnings and things to work on.
Day 3
Day 3 is basically a fun day. We start the morning in the same course we did in the afternoon yesterday, and then in the afternoon we run the “facility” which is basically the short course, the slalom, and then a mile of legit woods runs. Here it becomes about fun.
We all get 5 or so runs running the facility through the afternoon, and finish with the instructors giving us a full out hot run. For me it was amazing because most of the corners run “hot” I felt I was on par, with some slower. Amazing in three days these guys taught me to at least be in the same ballpark as professional rally drivers.
Conclusions:
Beginning rally? – do the three day
Rallied a decent amount, but not finishing towards the top? – do the three day.
The other people in my group were a stunt driver, an instructor @ Dirtfish taking the class from a student’s perspective and a drift/track/autox guy and all of us improved tremendously throughout the 3 days.
Rallied a lot, finish top of class – do a 1 day in the N car – it will be a blast and these guys will at least pick up one bad habit of yours that they can help you with
Areas for Improvement:
1. I would have loved shorter lunches (1 hr in duration, maybe move to 30 min?), and add another half hour of course length per day (was 8:30am to 4pm) to get even MORE seat time, but that it nitpicky. We got ~30 miles on day 2 and 3, and a lot of practice drills on day 1. But it’s addictive and more time is always better.
2. Honestly that is all.
Concerns? Hesitations?
My only concern for these guys is how they will be profitable. How can a course that runs 3 instructors to 4 students, running 100 grand rally cars with fresh rally tires, using race gas with a couple mile stage rally style course make sense for them @ 3 grand for three days when other courses have a half mile course in 20 year old cars for the same price? I hope they can balance their costs with continuing a competitive price for us all the while making sure they get money in their pockets. I flew all the way across the country for this class, and even with the price of the airline flight paid the same amount as other courses closer to me.
Coming into the school, my expectation was to take my tarmac driving experience (karting, autoX, some track stuff) and learn to drive in the dirt. I had taken a 1 day Skip Barber course back in the day and set that as my baseline for the experience.
The Instructors:
Our lead instructor was Forest Duplessis (Chris’ brother). Forrest is an awesome, enthusiastic guy who is talented at describing what the car needs to do and how to make it do it. I overall rate Forest’s teaching skill and attention to client needs an A+. The guy lives and breathes making sure the clients are happy - making sure the car is warm, the water bottles are there, and the students are grinning ear to ear.
Our two in car instructors, Adam and Ted are very very (did I mention very) solid instructors. Each have different teaching and driving styles, so the students opted to switch back and forth between the in-car instructors to provide alternate point of views. I found that very helpful, and really enjoyed working with them both.
The three person team overall was a great combination of skills, personalities, and teaching styles. I don’t know if it was purposeful in their selection as one teaching team, but they were far better than the instructors I had at Skip Barber.
Day 1:
4 Students for the 3 day school arrive. We do brief introductions, and Forest goes over the basics of weight transfer and how to lift turn wait, and lift turn brake.
Out to the cars, first the "p" cars which are new STIs with bolt in 4 point cage and Tein suspension with proper gravel tires.
2 students per car, and 1 instructor in each car, with Forest outside talking to the students waiting to run working over points to work on the next lap.
Day 1 starts with practice the basic ways to pivot the car (lift turn wait, lift turn brake, power oversteer). This is done in a large skid pad to start, then a move to a slalom course to link it together.
We add trail braking to the skill set post lunch and work on that drill before then heading to a shorter course to add left and right turns requiring all three types of turn in techniques. The instructors provide real time feedback and each time "demo" the run before the students try to show the proper line and technique.
Day 1 concludes with working on these basic skills until they become second nature. We go into the classroom for 15 minutes to conclude the day review what we learned etc.
Day 2
Day 2 starts with classroom time (45 min) then out to the P cars again to add pendulum turns. We practice this for a while, then back to the course we started on yesterday to continue to link turns together using different skills. Here the instructors start focusing on getting your cadence right, and refining the skills.
Turns out I have a tendency to get on the power to soon and am steering too much with the wheel and need to use the pedals more. Both instructors independently are able to spot this and help me begin to think on how to "calm down the hands".
We goto lunch and they prep the “N” cars for us. These are Group N cars built by VSC with all the goodies (dogbox etc). Mine is a former Xgames car. Needless to say most of us will never own a racecar like this so driving this badboy as a standalone is worth the price of admission.
After lunch the slalom and the short course are put together as one longer course and we start running the N cars. Holy ****. Faster, handles crisper, better pedal feel, these things are insane. Here the instructors in car pick out for each of us a couple themes to work on, for me it’s to steer with the gas and the brake more, and continue to slow down my hands.
The day concludes and I am tired as hell from driving lots, and my brain is loaded up with learnings and things to work on.
Day 3
Day 3 is basically a fun day. We start the morning in the same course we did in the afternoon yesterday, and then in the afternoon we run the “facility” which is basically the short course, the slalom, and then a mile of legit woods runs. Here it becomes about fun.
We all get 5 or so runs running the facility through the afternoon, and finish with the instructors giving us a full out hot run. For me it was amazing because most of the corners run “hot” I felt I was on par, with some slower. Amazing in three days these guys taught me to at least be in the same ballpark as professional rally drivers.
Conclusions:
Beginning rally? – do the three day
Rallied a decent amount, but not finishing towards the top? – do the three day.
The other people in my group were a stunt driver, an instructor @ Dirtfish taking the class from a student’s perspective and a drift/track/autox guy and all of us improved tremendously throughout the 3 days.
Rallied a lot, finish top of class – do a 1 day in the N car – it will be a blast and these guys will at least pick up one bad habit of yours that they can help you with
Areas for Improvement:
1. I would have loved shorter lunches (1 hr in duration, maybe move to 30 min?), and add another half hour of course length per day (was 8:30am to 4pm) to get even MORE seat time, but that it nitpicky. We got ~30 miles on day 2 and 3, and a lot of practice drills on day 1. But it’s addictive and more time is always better.
2. Honestly that is all.
Concerns? Hesitations?
My only concern for these guys is how they will be profitable. How can a course that runs 3 instructors to 4 students, running 100 grand rally cars with fresh rally tires, using race gas with a couple mile stage rally style course make sense for them @ 3 grand for three days when other courses have a half mile course in 20 year old cars for the same price? I hope they can balance their costs with continuing a competitive price for us all the while making sure they get money in their pockets. I flew all the way across the country for this class, and even with the price of the airline flight paid the same amount as other courses closer to me.