to its limits around a 15-turn, 1.6-mile road course. By the time you leave, though, you’ll realize you’ve learned just as much from the classroom chalk talks and picking the brains of experts like Radford’s chief instructor Danny Bullock and head instructor Will Parker as you have while behind the wheel.Bullock took his first racing lesson when he was 14 years old with none other than the legendary Bob Bondurant himself.
After attending the three-day Performance Driving program, I sat down with Bullock and Parker to distill their curriculum into six key tips anyone can use to become a better driver both on the road and on the track. Here’s how you can sharpen your skills today.No matter your driving experience, you’ve hopefully heard the adage, “Look where you want to go.” Radford’s top instructors say vision skills need to be at the top of the list for anyone looking to improve as a driver.
There is a delay in what you see reaching your brain. To create completely stable images, our brains update an image created from roughly the past 15 seconds of collected information. In a sense, we are always looking in the past. The sooner you start looking where to you want to go, the sooner that point gets processed in your brain. Parker explains, “Eventually the car’s pillars become invisible or thinner because you’ve already filled in the information by scanning the line ahead.
Most other car-control skills, though, do need to be taught in a controlled environment like Radford Racing School. “We teach good line technique here at the school, but that doesn’t mean you get to leave here and clip every apex on the road.” Nurture those skills by going to an organized amateur event, track day, or autocross. You’ll be with other enthusiasts who also want to improve.