A little bit of history at the Glen
When I first got into cars it was always my goal to race on a real race track. It took me until I hit my mid 30′s to accomplish that goal but the moment I drove onto the track I knew my next goal was to be an instructor. That took a few more years but I reached that goal and have since moved my sights even higher with the One Lap of America race.
As my goals for racing grow with my experiences their still remains a big part of me that loves sharing my passion for racing and my knowledge of Watkins Glen. There is something that comes over me when I get into a students car. My voice gets loud and my tone gets stern…”brake..lift..gas..gas..gas!” I love being the cheerleader in the car and nothing makes me happier then to help somebody do what they thought they could never do. When given the oppertunity to take on the worst student in the bunch I jump at the chance. I want the student who can’t drive a strait line. I want the guy nobody can handle and I have a smile a mile wide when I help that student pass their first Porsche, and then their second…and third!
I have also had the pleasure to help some really good friends and family enjoy the thrill of the Glen. They have all since moved on to solo driving and are making their way to being instructors themselves. Its fun to hear their stories about epic battles and out braking the GT3′s into the corners. I get a little teary eyed when they say “I could hear you yelling in my ear…wait..wait..wait..wait…NOW!..gas..gas..gas!” . I can’t really put it into words but I guess I am a closet teacher because I never would have guessed in a million years that I would enjoy teaching people how to drive as much as I enjoy driving itself.
This past spring I had the pleasure of instructing Mark Holdren. Mark is retired now but his claim to fame is that he was a VP of marketing at our local Genesse Brewing Company. The Brewery has a rich history of supporting Motorsports and I have no doubt that Mark was at the heart of that. Mark also has the pleasure of dating my Mother in Law so he is family to me. Mark drives a neat Mini Cooper Clubman which is nothing more then a Frenchy powered go-cart.
Being Mark’s first time on a race track we started slow and worked through the basics. ”Brake, lift, gas…move on to the next turn” . Once we got the rhythm down we were able to pick up the pace. This is were my voice gets louder and the fun begins. We worked on driving the right line and not letting other peoples bad driving mess us up. We worked on braking deeper and later then your brain thinks it supposed to. Fighting that “pucker” effect until it was just a distant memory. We worked on getting on the gas early to balance the chassis and making sure we had our foot to the floor before the apex of the turn. In some cases we learned that the little Mini has more grip then we gave it credit for and in some cases more Hp too.
At the end of the two days Mark walked away knowing he had done “it”. Not only did he get to drive around the famed Watkins Glen race track but he got to really drive the track. He experienced what it is to push yourself and your machine to its limits. He got to experience one of the greatest race tracks on the planet not from a chair in his living room but from behind the wheel. The way Milliken and his Cornell buddies designed it. A track that rewards patience and punishes the early entry. A track that when driven right has a rhythm to it and rewards the driver who can maintain the most momentum.
Mark was over the house last weekend to help celebrate my wife’s Birthday. He had just come back from watching some of the F1 qualifying and practice runs and he said it was a whole new experience for him after having driven the track. His eye was sharper now and it was easy to spot the drivers who were attacking the Glen and the ones who were just trying to survive. At one point he was able to see a driver heading into turn 1 with a little to much heat. He said to himself “you’re not going to make it!” and sure enough they didn’t. ”slow in fast out” still hold true even with the pro’s
When the gifts for my wife had run out a final gift was revealed. Mark had commissioned a good friend and local artiest, Richard Burandt, to paint a picture of me at Watkins Glen. It was Mark’s way of saying thank you for helping him reach one of his goals. To say I was “floored” would be too mild. I’ve had pictures taken of me and stories told but nothing matches the permanence of paint on canvas. Nothing matches the time and effort it takes to sit down and paint a picture. It makes me feel like I’ve made it. I’ve gotten to a place where all the work and effort has been captured in a medium that is meant to last. Almost like I am part of history. Maybe that’s a bit to corny but to anyone who’s spent a day in the hot sun challenging themselves to master the art of driving can tell you it can be a surreal, even romantic experience. Movies, books, magazines, TV shows have all been dedicated to capturing this spirit. It’s what makes racing addictive and its why I am hopelessly hooked.
“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.”
-Ernest Hemmingway
I want to thank Mark Holdren and Richard Burandt for their thoughtfulness and the wonderful painting. I will cherish it.
-painting by Richard Burandt (http://richardburandt.com/)
