Yesterday I attended a drivers training at The Next Level school at Reno-Fernley raceway. I wanted to do something fun this week, so I checked out the schedules at all of the tracks and found this school date. So on Sunday I drove from the Bay Area over Ebbets pass and then up Highway 395 to Reno and out I 80 about 35 miles to Fernley. It is a non-descript town and the Best Western cost as much as at Thunderhill, but there was a Casino and inexpensive food across the street.

The school was taught by a woman named Eileen Thomas (better know as E.T.) who races Spec Miata and her friend Bonnie, another Spec Miata racer. It was similar in style to the SCCA school that I took at Thunderhill. The classroom covered discussion of lines and shifting and brakeing and passing technique. For the first session an instructor drove a student car with the student as passenger and showed us the way around the track. Next we followed the instructors in their Spec Miata cars and they followed us. Later we practiced passing and being passed. At the end of the day we had open practice until the track closed. Over all a fun day.

www.tnldrivingschool.com/
www.reno-fernleyraceway.com/

 

I got there early and was all alone just waiting for everyone to show up.

 

The gates were locked so I just waited.

 

I looked down the track imagining myself zooming in to Turn 1.

 

After a bit a guy with a trailer showed up and said that he was delivering a car for his boss to drive at the school. He had just bought it yesterday. Here it is being admired by one of the other students who arrived in a Subaru.

 

So that was it. Just the three of us and two instructors and a track. We got plenty of track time and the guy in the Subaru and I had lots of opportunity to compare performance and lines.

 

Did you run on the new technical section?

 

No. It isn't open yet. They are still doing the curbing. It will probably be ready next month. I looked at it. It looks tight. There are so many configurations.

 

Thanks,

I ran RFR last spring and didn't find it to be a MINI friendly course. Pretty much pedal to the metal and watch the rearview mirror for Corvettes. The new section should be a hoot in a MINI.

 

It is a fast course. No Corvettes there that day. The Subaru and I were evenly matched. The Miatas could not pull the MINI on the straights, but in the corners it was a different matter. I had a fun day learning to keep the pedal down while skating through the esses. I am looking forward to the new section as well.

Here is the current course.



Here is the whole course with the new section.

 

Here is the track map.

 

The Esses at RFR are really really fast. Much faster than the esses at Infineon. It took most of the day for me to muster the courage to take them flat out, but 100+ mph is quite a rush.

How did you like the bowl in t13?

 

The bowl was pretty fun. When I hit it right I dropped down in like entering a whirlpool. It was pretty bouncy coming down the straight in to Turn 12 though.

 

Oooooh.... That looks FUN!

 

So for a persno who has never taken atrack class....would you recomend scca @thunder hill or this one?

 

I would recommend www.ncracing.org at Thunderhill. I have been to SCCA events and while they are a blast, I felt the NCRC events were run better.