“Day Away” Driver Education Experience

Our motorsports guru, Glenn Crawford, asked me to provide a few words about what it was like for me to start doing Porsche track events and my transition from Autocross (AX) to Driver Education (DE). Let me share how I’ve become hooked.

I did not grow up around Porsches. I started with a 1969 Datsun 510 in high school. A long-term girlfriend had a new 1979 Damask Red MGB, so I had some background with rag tops. I then had a 1987 Supra Targa Top, a 2001 BMW 740i, and horses (25 mph on a quarter horse is no joke). So, yes, I like speed.

At one point, I was inspired by an old faded yellow 1966 Mustang 350 Fastback sitting in an empty lot, which we saw every time we took our dogs for a walk. I thought of inquiring about it, but one day it was gone. Next, I stopped by a local Porsche dealer to look at their pre-owned selection of two-door cars. After trying out a couple, I was sold on the Boxster with the PDK. It had a great transmission, much better to me than the heavy clutch of the other Boxster I tried. The salesman, who was a competitive driver, strongly suggested that I join the local Porsche Club of America, which I did.

After driving my car for a while, I was looking for more than canyon carving, but it’s really rare to find an open road and most drivers aren’t very good. On Motorsportsreg I

Story by Steve Columbus

saw AX and DE events along with the PCA drives I had already signed up for. I checked into it. I got good advice from Glenn Crawford to start with AX because the speeds are lower and it helps with building to faster track speeds, as well as improving everyday driving skills. The worst thing that can happen to your car is having to pull an orange cone out of your wheel well.

My first event was at the last Festival of Speed in October 2021: their mini (demo) AX course. I spent 80 percent of my time at that course and had a blast. I signed up for a full AX event that same month. My next events were real eye-openers: learning to drive smoothly and fast takes work and practice. Those first events are with instructors in the passenger seat. At the fifth event I got a “checkout ride” for the first lap from an instructor and was allowed to drive autocrosses solo the rest of the day and thereafter.

The Day Away event last March 27 was my first Driver Education event. It was held at Streets of Willow in Rosamond, north of Lancaster, and was promoted jointly by the Grand Prix, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara regions. This track is 1.6 miles around and has a storied history, having been built in 1953. The direction to drive this time was counterclockwise. For variety, the route is sometimes run the other direction.

The track is a blast. The start/finish line was at the lowest elevation—on the skidpad—and leads immediately to a left hairpin turn. There are 16 turns and 2 straightaways, and one chicane. At the highest elevation of the course is the “bowl,” a banked, 20-degree left hairpin which exits with a hard left and then a quick right turn.

something like “I’m definitely signing you off to drive solo.”

I have found that driving AX has improved my driving skills, I have had cases on the 23 freeway in Thousand Oaks to be hit by debris, such as tire pieces that destroyed my BMW’s left fender, and again on another car a few years later. Recently, however, I had an object in the same place come flying my way and I smoothly drove around it like a slalom cone in AX. The car behind me was not so lucky.

Over the day there were five 20-minute sessions for each of four run groups. As a firsttimer, I was in the Green group. These were some of the quickest 20 minutes I’ve ever experienced. On my third session my instructor said he was going to sign me off to drive solo for the remaining two sessions, which he recorded in my new Drivers Logbook. That sign-off will allow me to drive solo in future events as well.

An unexpected excitement took place on that third session. While entering Turn 3, the 944 immediately in front of me lost control and spun off the track in a cloud of dirt. I made a quick right to avoid him and headed to the next turn. It was at this point that the instructor said

Performance driving really makes you a better overall driver and gives you the tools to deal with the challenges we face on the road. This was the case with the spinning 944: I could see the car breaking contact with the road probably before he knew it. In a split second I could calmly calculate a different course knowing he was going to continue in the direction he was already on. On my last session I was able to lap that same 944 just before the final checkered flag ended my day. In DE those passes are always safe, with “point-bys” signaling to the car that wants to pass that you will safely let it do so.

Starting a new motorsports hobby like DE can be frustrating at the beginning, but all that you imagine changes when you hear “GO!”. It wouldn’t be much of a challenge if it wasn’t, and the steady improvement is such a reward. By my third session of my first DE I was truly starting to enjoy driving the track. By the last lap I was hooked. I’m now looking forward to my next DE, as well as AX, time permitting. It’s nice to be retired!

Steve Columbus has been a member of PCA since 2019. He drives a 2016 981 Boxster Black Edition.

Opposite page: “The pits,” where the drivers assemble before and after their runs. The author’s car is #155. Photo by Steve Columbus.

Upper left: The Streets of Willow track map. The start-finish area this time was the skid pad in the lower right corner and proceeded counter clockwise uphill to the bowl at turn 8 and back down to the straight beginning at Turn 1.

Lower left: The author’s 2016 Black Edition Boxster.

2009 Cayman S.