derBayerische November/December 2024 - 28

J O I N T H P D E : N C C A N D N E W J E R S E Y C H A P T E R A T S U M M I T P O I N T
has transitioned into the role of NCC's Chief Instructor, replacing his
predecessor of three years, George Hovis. It's one of the hardest jobs on the
DSSC. The Chief Instructor develops the schedule of on-track, classroom, and
skidpad activities for the day. He assesses the pool of students who sign up for
the school, reviewing their recent instructor evaluations from other HPDEs and
assigning them to one of four run groups, depending on their relative
experience and pace as drivers. He also matches each student to an instructor
with strengths that should best meet that student's needs. Then he has to keep
the whole system flowing over the course of the event, making last-minute
substitutions as necessary, adjusting the schedule on the fly if sessions on track
get delayed cleaning up from an incident, and acting as the first-line authority
on on-track safety questions and driver behavior.
Since this is a joint event, New Jersey's Chief Instructor, Bill VanOcker, is
also at the meeting. As part of our plans to address the culture issues, Bill and
Mike have worked together behind the scenes to find ways to make it
a familiar experience for the New Jersey folks. Tomorrow we're expecting to
have a total of about 1520
New Jersey instructors
and about 25 New
Jersey students. Plus
another double-handful
of students who are
from other chapters
north of us, like
Nittanay Bimmers and
New York, who never
come down to drive
with NCC, but drive at
New Jersey's HPDEs
regularly.
Mike is kind of
like everybody's big
brother. He's always
busting your chops a
little, but you know he
does it because he
loves you. It's a little
different than his predecessor
George Hovis, who's a really nice guy but busts your chops with a
little more edge. For example, I can remember many times George started off
the Sunday morning instructors' meeting by saying " I would like to thank you
all for doing a perfectly adequate job yesterday. " Or starting a Saturday
instructors meeting saying, " I would have just sent you all this information in
an email, but none of you would read it anyway, so now you have to sit here and
listen to me while I give you the rundown. "
Mike's style hasn't always been particularly colorful. When I started
coming to NCC HPDE's in 2013, he had already been coming for a year or two,
with his wife Angie. She drove a BMW sedan in C group, while Mike drove in
B group with this huge factory-supercharged white Shelby GT500 limited
edition Cobra Mustang. It's still his only track car. I don't think the guy has ever
owned a BMW. Back then, he was a wallflower and Angie was in charge of
Suffice it to say, that has changed.
Mike does a roll call of the instructors, then he runs the group
through the agenda for the day, safety requirements, and expectations
for the participants. DSSC member Gordon Kimpel, who takes the lead on
sponsorship, gives us a five-minute orientation to the featured sponsors
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for the weekend and the services they provide. Then it's my turn to talk and
welcome the participants.
After that, Craig Richmond from our chapter takes over the meeting.
He administers the Instructor Academy, and he starts making assignments to
instructors for the day, giving them a schedule and assigning duties.
Most instructors get assigned to do role plays with the IA candidates, so each
one is given an outline of the character he or she will be using in the role.
Because I'll be pretty busy with event coordination duties all day, I get an
easier assignment. No role play; I'm just asked to go out in the right seat with
one of our newer IA candidates for a track session. I'll see if his line needs any
polishing, and give him some background information about the kind of
students he can expect to encounter, and the kinds of cars they'll typically
be driving.
And with that wrapped up, everybody spreads out in the paddock.
About 35 or 40 folks check the torque on their wheel bolts one more time,
wriggle into their safety gear, and head out to the track. Others are still
unloading their cars
from trailers, or saying
their hellos around
the paddock. Many
instructors are taking a
few minutes to connect
with their IA group
drivers and finalize
schedules. Another
team of five instructors
heads over to the skid
pad and turns on the
sprinklers. The day is
underway.
Parking
Problems
■ Dean Thuline working the grid, checks an instructor's safety equipment before he sends her out for
some track time. Photo by Patrick Torbik/ptorbikphotography@gmail.com
Friday goes by pretty
quickly, from my perspective.
Mike Meyer
spreads out his paperwork
at a table closest
to " the grid, " and spends most of his day there, so people know where to find
him. Another DSSC member, Dean Thuline, also spends most of his day at the
grid. The grid is a walled-off double lane of asphalt between the paddock and
the track. When a driver wants to go out on track, he or she puts on all the
safety gear and drives into the grid slowly. A volunteer (like Dean) checks their
car to make sure it has the sticker on the windshield indicating it has passed
the chapter's HPDE technical inspection requirements, and that the assigned car
numbers are affixed to the rear side windows. He also checks to make sure that
the car is credentialed for the " run group " that is currently out on track, like the
A group. And he looks over the driver's safety equipment to make sure it is all
buckled up and strapped down like it's supposed to be. If it's all in good order,
he releases you to go past him and into the area where the " pit-out " marshal
stands. The pit-out marshal holds you there until there's a safe gap in traffic,
then waves you out on the track. Dean and Mike each have a radio that lets
them listen in to the talk between the corner worker marshals out on track and
the coordinating " control " marshal back in the paddock. Over the course of the
day, other instructors with grid experience will swap in and out with Dean to
give him a few breaks.
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