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"  In the wake of the most recent death of a track-day instructor, Kenneth W. Novinger, who passed away in June following injuries sustained at Summit Point Raceway\u2026  Stop right there. The words &amp;quot;most recent death&amp;quot; are a problem. The fact that well-respected, level-headed voices are calling for the closure or redesign of several famous tracks\u2014despite excellent safety records in club and professional racing\u2014is a problem. There&amp;#039;s a problem with the way track-day drivers and aspiring racers are trained. But how do we fix it? Right-seat instruction is a relatively new phenomenon. Traditional race coaching used to be done through classrooms and external observation. The renowned Skip Barber Racing School and others like it use single-seat vehicles and instructors who watch from corner stations, taking notes for after-session review. It wasn&amp;#039;t until track-day culture took root in the Nineties that in-car coaching became the norm. It&amp;#039;s not an inherently unsafe process, but to function safely, it requires exceptional instructors. READ MORE: Driver coaching and the risks of the passenger seat That&amp;#039;s one issue. Too many &amp;quot;instructors&amp;quot; in too many car and track-day clubs simply aren&amp;#039;t up to the task. Often, they&amp;#039;re relatively inexperienced drivers with minimal or no driver-coaching training and zero competitive seat time. Many are just doing it to save money on entry fees\u2014most clubs offer discounted or free access if you agree to instruct. Such coaches are minted by the dozens to accommodate additional students per weekend, thereby covering event costs more easily. (With ever-rising insurance and track-rental prices, this is no small thing.) It&amp;#039;s also common to put the least qualified instructors with the least qualified students. The novice doing his first track day rarely learns his passenger&amp;#039;s last name before the two are breaking triple digits next to a concrete barrier. Which brings us to the cars. Many new family sedans can shame a Sixties Ferrari GTO in the quarter-mile, and the fastest modern sports cars rival Can-Am performance. Twenty years ago, a newbie might be lucky to play with 250 hp; today that number could be 650. Factor in a control-oriented culture that often encourages turning off electronic safety aids, and you&amp;#039;re left with a situation that can quickly deteriorate. READ MORE: Befriend the Beast - Driving the 730-hp Lingenfelter ZR1 It&amp;#039;s tempting to think that returning to the traditional classroom-and-observation model would solve the problem. But it would drastically raise the barrier to entry for open lapping, which is how many people enter motorsport. Other suggestions, like horsepower limits for new drivers and track safety ratings, will likewise discourage new drivers and increase costs.  It&amp;#039;s tough enough to get people to start track driving in a controlled environment. Over more than a decade of coaching, I&amp;#039;ve had multiple students who resented even basic restrictions. (No, you can&amp;#039;t go 100 mph exiting pit lane on your first-ever lap. No, you can&amp;#039;t weave to block other students.) If that person can&amp;#039;t set a wheel on-track without days in a classroom, we&amp;#039;ll soon be back where we were a few decades ago, with road courses closing left and right and clubs disbanding. The solution must therefore be a smarter version of the current system: more classroom time, lead-follow time, and opportunities for students to see the track in low-risk situations. Organizers must discipline wayward students, including ejection, even if it costs them money. And reduce the number of cars and shorten the sessions to alleviate novice-driver fatigue. READ MORE: Oh, the engines I&amp;#039;ve blown... But the most important change has to come from the instructor culture: mandatory &amp;quot;coach the coach&amp;quot; clinics and a vigorous system of testing and check rides to ensure safe, established techniques are being taught. Every right-seat coach should be strongly encouraged to shut down a session at the first sign of trouble, even if it occurs in pit lane before the session starts. Clubs should zealously police their own instructor corps, removing incompetent personnel even if it affects the bottom line. Nothing guarantees safety. But if we fail to make the necessary corrections, they will be imposed upon us from outside. Some students and instructors will gripe; others will quit. To them I say: You have your entire life to study the art of track driving, but the length of that life is up to you.     THE HARD QUESTION     Ride-along performance-driving instructors are dying on the job. How do we stop it?     Bill Wade &amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;gt; Chairman, BMW Car Club of America Driving Events Committee &amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;gt; 54, Louisville, KY &amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;gt; &amp;quot;A sense of a student&amp;#039;s goals and personality can make a difference. A five-minute conversation before buckling in helps decrease surprises.&amp;quot;    Ross Bentley &amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;gt;Speed Secrets racing coach &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; 57, Issaquah, WA &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; &amp;quot;Associations to standardize quality of training. And by looking at facilities and procedures proactively, then committing to making improvements.&amp;quot;    Aaron Povoledo &amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;gt; Grand-Am pro, coach &amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;gt; 36, Brooklyn, NY &amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;gt; &amp;quot;Right-seat instruction should only be for establishing the basics, and at low speed. It&amp;#039;s all about mental bandwidth. The slower you go, the faster you learn.&amp;quot;    Peter Krause &amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;gt; Driver performance analyst, coach &amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;gt; 54, Durham, NC &amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;gt; &amp;quot;More focus on what to do when things go wrong\u2014thinking clearly and having a plan to reduce or obviate unacceptable risk.&amp;quot; Originally published at Road &amp;amp;amp; Track. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a11165/the-unacceptable-danger-of-modern-track-day-coaching-17166530/>