Hey, everyone.

I attended a couple Evolution schools 5+ yrs ago, when it was then McKamey.

Now that I have an '03 JCW, I'm curious about the Wicks school. Would the driver training be better at the Wicks 'MINI' focused school, or about the same?

It'd be for me (experienced), and for the gf (never autox'ed).

Who's been to both schools, and what are the pros/cons (besides pricing)?

Thanks.


Zack

 

Since you mention your girlfriend has never autocrossed, I gather that is your main focus (rather than track). Based on that alone, I'd say go with the evolution school. I've been looking into doing that myself, but there aren't any upcoming evolution schools in my area.

I personally don't see a "MINI specific" school being very important. The MINI is a FWD car after all. The same issues are present as with other FWD cars.

 

Thanks Dave.

Yeah, hard to say--track or autox... For her, it'd be about learning to do more in the car than just driving around town. So, either school would accomplish that equally, I presume.

For me, well, I never hit the tracks, and I only get a couple autox's in a year--right now. That will prob change next yr, though.

I know all about autox & have raced 10's of diff cars in most all the categories. (Not that I'm a pro, just done a lot of autox's.) Never tracked a car before, though--so Wicks intrigues me.

I'm looking at either Wicks @ Summit Point, or Evolution in DC.

Is one day's worth of instruction equal at both schools? Wicks is just geared towards the track, and Evolution towards autox?

Thanks again.


Zack

 

There is nothing autocross related at the wick's school. It's purely done on the track. As a result the cornering speeds tend to be higher, so you won't get that slow speed rotation experience you'd really want for autocross. Also, you won't get any slalom drills to work on the transition handling of the car. From what I've seen there is also more emphasis at the evolution schools on skill building drills.

One other thing to consider about the wick's schools is that phil also runs the North American MINI Cooper Challenge race the same day as the school, so some of the time during the day is taken up by race pratice, qualifying, and the race itself.

 

The Wicks School at Summit Point http://www.summitpoint-raceway.com/ is being held on the Shenandoah Circuit, not the main racing course. The Shenandoah is a tighter and far more technical circuit and is used specifically for driver training. As such, it may provide some skill challenges applicable to autocross. I assume the NAMCC will be held on the main racing circuit and thusly won't have to share the track with Academy attendees.