As I sit to compose this month's entry of Hittin' the Apex, I am in the middle of preparation to head out this weekend to Grattan Raceway, providing technical support for the local Porsche Club's weekend long HPDE event. What is HPDE you ask? That's a great question! HPDE stands for High Performance Driver Education. There are many forms of HPDE events, through many sanctioning bodies, with the basic idea is that anyone can drive their own race or, in most cases, non-race prepared vehicle on a race track in an organized, controlled environment, broken up in run groups based on your experience. Before a Novice or Intermediate-grouped car hits the track, these drivers attend a mandatory class room session to provide the necessary "law of the track", then are always accompanied, at least for the first session, with individual instructors. Novice drivers always have instructors with them on track, while intermediates may get sessions by themselves once signed off by the instructors. As I mentioned, when run well, it is a very controlled environment. The purpose and goal of these style events, is to give people a chance to improve their driving skills in a performance setting. No one is competing against anyone, which brings me to the whole point of this blog today. You cannot win an HPDE event. I am going to say it again for those in the back. YOU CANNOT AND WILL NOT WIN AN HPDE EVENT. There is no race to be won. Many experienced drivers go to these events to hone their skills, test modifications made to their cars, break in a new or rebuilt car, or just go out to have fun. Some, however, take these events as an opportunity to live out their dreams of winning the Indy 500 or break the Nurburgring track record. There is a problem with this specific mentality however. No one else on the track has or shares this mentality. When you are on track racing people who do not know you are racing them, it is inherently dangerous. And by the way, the people running the event and operating the track are aware of you and are paying very close attention. Before I get off my soap box let me make myself very clear. At these HPDE events, you SHOULD be pushing yourself to be a better driver, a faster driver. If you are an experienced driver with a race car and are using these events as cheap track time, this is absolutely fine. And if this is the metaphorical dipping your toe in to test the waters of track life, HPDE is a fantastic, cost effective way to do so. I think HPDE events are fantastic, essential places to nurture Motorsports and I urge anyone and everyone to check them out. It is my job at these events to make sure that cars are safe to be on track, and safe to keep on track. If I am not busy looking at problems or shaking down cars that went off the track, then everyone is having a good time. I prefer to not be busy for that reason alone. Here is the bottom line. If you set tire on a track at an HPDE event, play by the rules. That's the only way its fun for everybody an keeps events like these alive. Don't be that guy....or girl. Hittin' the Apex is an equal opportunity read.
Til next time!
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