derBayerische November/December 2024 - 31

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
two big groups and send them out to meet their instructors in front of the
classroom building.
On Saturday morning, we give the instructor-student pairs a few
minutes to chat, then we open up the track for about 20 minutes to do an ontrack
orientation. Anybody who is interested is free to ride on-track as a
passenger with their instructor and check it out. We keep the speeds down;
nothing faster than highway speeds, and you don't need a helmet. Even if you
have been to the circuit before, it has probably been at least a year, so it's a good
opportunity to refresh your recollection of the layout.
This is particularly true with the Shenandoah Circuit. In the configuration
our chapter utilizes, it has 19 corners in total, and a ton of elevation changes.
Like the other circuits at Summit Point Motorsports Park, it was designed and
built by Dr. Bill Scott, a Yale-educated geophysicist and former World
Champion sports car racer in Formula Vee. He laid it out to include a wide variety
of challenging corners represented on different tracks around the world,
including the steeply
banked " Karussell " turn
from the Nurburgring. It
has been open since
2005, and it's heavily used
for much of the year. On
weekends, it hosts sports
car and motorcycle enthusiasts.
On the weekdays,
it's used to train government
agents and diplomats
on what to do if they
are attacked on the road
while they are driving on
official business. In fact, a
handful of NCC HPDE
instructors, including
George Hovis and Craig
Richmond, are some of
the people Summit Point
employs to instruct at
these " drive and shoot "
schools.
The circuit has some
idiosyncrasies that make it
polarizing, and sports car
drivers tend to either love it or hate it. To facilitate its use for " drive and shoot "
schools, the pavement has a steep crown, similar to those found on paved
roads in lesser developed countries. Tracks used purely for motorsports
typically are sloped with positive camber (think about a banked expressway
entrance ramp) that helps the car maintain traction at speed on corners.
Because of the crown, there are some places on the Shenandoah Circuit where
the crowning creates the exact opposite effect on one half of the track.
This means there are corners in which the classic racing line would dictate use
of the full track width, but drivers need to be aware of the camber problems and
use half the width. It's a lot to learn and retain in a driver's brain. Just to make
it more interesting, the pavement has more undulations than a typical track, and
in most areas there is fairly little " run-off room " if a car accidentally slides off
the pavement. Jersey barriers and tire walls are never far from view as you
speed around the course.
For the students, the Saturday and Sunday schedule consist of four
November I December 2024
on-track sessions of about 25 minutes each, preceded and followed by a
one-on-one discussion with their instructors. There are two one-hour
classroom sessions, and one session on the wet skidpad, where instruction
focuses solely on controlling understeer and oversteer. There are three on-track
sessions scheduled for the instructors, but any given instructor typically only
has time to go out for one, or maybe two, of those each day. More often than
not, NCC instructors are assigned two students for the weekend, and it's a
tightly packed schedule.
For me, the weekend schedule is a lot like the Friday schedule.
I bounce around the paddock checking in with the different stations, covering
here and there. I also make time on my schedule to instruct one student for the
weekend. I really enjoy in-car instruction, and I don't want to give it up.
My student this weekend turns out to be especially rewarding to work with.
She doesn't have extensive HPDE experience, but she has enough that
things are starting to come together for her. She's very poised on track.
By the time she leaves on
Sunday, she will be turning
textbook laps around
the circuit on the " school
line, " consistently.
Late Saturday after■
Darren Andre and Soo-Lynn Getz work up the crowd during the door prize raffle at the Saturday
social hour. Photo by Alan Olson/formerinstants.com
noon, I start hustling to
set up for the end-ofday
social hour. I wing
it as an amateur caterer,
assembling platters of
snacks for 170 people.
Gordon Kimpel, SooLynn,
and a handful of
NCC instructors start
trickling in to help.
By the time the track goes
cold at 5:30, we are
ready to go. I duck out to
change my t-shirt, which
I had sweat through
humping everything up
two flights of stairs to the
plush conference rooms
above the paddock classrooms.
By
the time I get back from my trailer with a beer in hand, the place is
already filling up with people chatting about the day. I see plenty of unfamiliar
faces, which is good: that means our New Jersey friends have turned out to get
to know us better.
I have time to speak with a few folks around the room before I need to
reload a couple of the chip bowls, and head downstairs to see if the track walk
is organizing itself. George tells me I need to get the door prizes all distributed
by seven o'clock so we can get the track walk done in daylight. I also touch
base with Vin's people and make sure they are getting everything they need to
set up the potluck cookout.
When I get back upstairs, I see Gordon has the door prize raffle under way,
and people are really into it. A couple of our sponsors heard there would be a
big turnout, and they donated an unusual amount of BMW swag for us to
distribute. Soo-Lynn and Darren Andre have the microphone and they're working
the crowd. Darren is employed by one of the local BMW dealerships as a
31

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derBayerische November/December 2024

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