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Track Attack Review

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I started a thread earlier asking for tips about the Track Attack and everyone was spot on. Thanks! I did want to write a quick review that I'll send to Ford Performance though. To be clear, my wife was driving, not me. We did pay the extra fee for me to tag along on the first day and they let me squat there on the second day too.

It was one of their smaller classes with 6 drivers total. She upgraded to the 302FRS for the second day.

The Good:
- Very well organized and a great facility
- Professional photographer was a nice added touch
- Catered food was good, but not great. Plenty of food available though.
- Instructors were great; very friendly and accommodating. And man can they drive.

The bad:

Day one
- The instructors were great race car drivers and extremely nice, but not the best teachers in the classroom. Just because you can drive does not mean that you can teach. I was surprised that there was no set course material prepared or something for the beginners to read. I was also surprised that it wasn't a full-time instructor at the facility.

- I wish there was more time spent in the skid car. It is such an amazing learning tool and they only had about 10 minutes for 3 drivers.

- I wish that there was someone there from Ford who knew more about the GT350 itself: alignment advice, tire pressure, issues to look out for, etc.

Day two:
- I wish that the GT350s were available for the second day as well, especially for those that will spend a lot of time in it on the track. I wish it was more focused on driving THAT car on the track.

- We didn't realize the 302FRS only had one seat when we signed up. My wife gets the most out instructions from the passenger seat and we didn't know that that wouldn't be an option on the second day because of the race car. Approaching a driver after a session and saying "remember what you did wrong in Turn 7 of lap 4" doesn't really help.

- The 302FRS was not set up for short people either. We maxed out the travel on the seat and had 3 cushions trying to get her to see over the dash. There wasn't enough length in the crotch strap with the seat moved so far forward and it dug into her thighs. She's not THAT short at 5'7" either.

- The data logging for your car should be provided to each driver at the end of the day, with a reference lap from an instructor. The data can be a great learning tool from a racing school, especially since it is fairly easy to get from the cars.


Overall I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars. I'm very glad I didn't spend the $3200 for me to run along side of her, but it was fun. I think the Track Attack program does what it was intended to do to give a novice driver a feeling of driving it on the track, but I was expecting more out of day two. I wish it was more of a school like the name implies.
 
I had a similar experience but maybe different expectations.

Hard to fault the instructors in the race cars with no passenger seat but they are race cars and are there mainly to certify drivers for NASA and SCCA licensing and are used in actual races. @Black Boss got his license and ran a race there. Charlie Putman was one of my instructors and they don't get much better than him. With that said I though the instructors were of a higher caliber five years ago during BTA when I had Charlie Putman, Joe Foster, Gunnar Jeanette and a couple of other young racers.

There were 10 TMO members that drove the race cars the second day and I had two goals from that. One was to drive a race car and the other was to drive a race car with a bunch of friends several whom I've been on track with before. We had an absolute blast! I did learn and improve my driving but not as much as when I've had an instructor sitting next to me. I agree that it would have been nice to have the data logging information available. Several of us have discussed going back for two days in the race cars and our discussions with the Ford Racing School included data logging.
 
Nice feedback. I also did the BTA class in April of 2014 and in looking back I wish there was more formal classroom training. I think beginners may find that kind of structure beneficial.

Myself, being the squirrel that I am just wanted to get out and drive! :eek:
 

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