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On the track at Sanair

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Daniel Lafrance
On a nice Saturday of October, many writers, employees and friends of Auto123.com gathered around the famous Sanair drag strip. We had made a reservation for us and our own private vehicles. Everyone had
(Photo: Philippe Champoux)
been waiting anxiously for this day. We met at 8:45 a.m. in the glass tower overhanging the track. Very impressive! All of us were excited to get the day going and to receive a very special training.

Advanced driving trainings
The goal was to offer an advanced training for driving on a closed racing strip, in a safe and controlled environment. The training is similar to the one given to members of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). We learned how to react better on the track and especially how to foresee everything that might happen during a race.

Hold on for a second
Warning! You don't go out on the track and begin to drive as fast as possible! No! This is not a real race or even a real race training, but rather an advanced training on preventive driving. We had three seasoned instructors and three assistant instructors supervised by the chief instructor -- all were race drivers in various series or trainers from various driving schools. Needless to say they have a tremendous amount of experience behind the wheel and with students. There was also a track official handling the flags to signal the safety directives. After some interesting theoretical lessons mixed with questions and debates, it was time to hit the tarmac with two instructors for each group.

Open to all
Of course I know how to drive; I've been driving for a very long time! These are the kind of comments we hear when organizing an event like
(Photo: Auto123.com)
this. Most people don't think they need any training. How about the driving position, the acceleration, the controlled braking, the weight transfer of the vehicle in emergency situations, the importance of tires in extreme conditions, and the visibility? Do you master all these techniques? Don't you think there is place for improvement? On that day, we had drivers with more than 40 years of experience and others with only a couple of months. In fact, half the drivers had less than 10 years of experience. At the end of the day, all the participants were smiling and seemed happy to have learned something. No matter how experienced they were, the guys all came out with the feeling of being better drivers. Vision is undoubtedly one element that everybody was talking about. Indeed, I think we all improved in this area; at least, we realized the importance of having a good vision when driving. Elementary, you might say... well, you have to know exactly where to look at all times!

Next stop
The next driving program we want to organize is an advanced training on driving in the snow and on the ice -- on a specially set up track. Again, we will be supervised by experienced instructors and everything will be done safely. We're planning the event somewhere in February or March. If a lot of people are interested, we could even form several groups.

For more information, please contact me at : dlafrance@auto123.com
Daniel Lafrance
Daniel Lafrance
Automotive expert
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