To the instructors
10-26-2013, 11:04 AM
#1
Drifting
Thread Starter
To the instructors
With all the bad news in motorsports lately and the with some of the doubt expressed by instructors about instructing I thought I would repeat something here on the forum that I originally did via email.
I've never really had a sport I was good at until I tried driving a car on the racetrack. I'd played with computer sims for years until a friend finally talked into coming out to a PCA HPDE at TWS in September 2009 in my daily driver, a 2003 Jaguar XJR sedan. I had a ball and was hooked. Did another DE with the Jag and bought the M3 in my avatar from a PCA instructor named Michael Foertsch. Made it to yellow fairly easily and then the real uphill climb began.
Turns out I wasn't as good at this as I thought, but I was hooked nonetheless. Getting into white (LSR PCA groups are, from newbie to instructor: Green, Blue, Blue Solo, Yellow, White, Red) turned into a stretch goal and took quite a bit of time and effort. Decided to push for white in late 2011 and was given a laundry list of stuff to work on. Each DE the list got shorter and I achieved my goal in Sept 2012. When I got there, I belonged there and was relieved that I was not a moving chicane.
My point is I wouldn't be at the level I'm driving at today with the help of a long list of instructors. Many of these guys have become good friends. All of them hopped into my right seat without knowing me beyond what some other instructor's notes may have said. Jerry Paladino hopped in my right seat knowing nothing about this guy who brought a Jag four door to a Porsche event
So, the point of this post is a public thank you to the following instructors who were willing to put their life in my hands by getting in the right seat so that I could drive safer and faster, in alphabetical order:
Todd Bevan
Edwin Bomer
Chris Campbell
Glenn Campbell
Ed Cavalier
Haas Fogle
Jim Gewinner
Mike Globe**
Tomas Konvalina
George Kopecky
Jacy Legault**
Charles Mathes
Mike Merritt**
Steve Mikula
Claus Nielsen
Jerry Paladino - First instructor in Green Sept 2009
John Rapano
Mike Roznofsky**
John Schanzenbach
Dave Scott
Andrew Seifert
Jack Smyth**
Michael Stein
Henry Stewart
OJ Young
**Multiple times/events
I'm sure there are lots of guys like me on the paddock who would not be there without you guys. Every one of them has contributed to the "TXE36" style of driving.
So thank you and .
-Mike
I've never really had a sport I was good at until I tried driving a car on the racetrack. I'd played with computer sims for years until a friend finally talked into coming out to a PCA HPDE at TWS in September 2009 in my daily driver, a 2003 Jaguar XJR sedan. I had a ball and was hooked. Did another DE with the Jag and bought the M3 in my avatar from a PCA instructor named Michael Foertsch. Made it to yellow fairly easily and then the real uphill climb began.
Turns out I wasn't as good at this as I thought, but I was hooked nonetheless. Getting into white (LSR PCA groups are, from newbie to instructor: Green, Blue, Blue Solo, Yellow, White, Red) turned into a stretch goal and took quite a bit of time and effort. Decided to push for white in late 2011 and was given a laundry list of stuff to work on. Each DE the list got shorter and I achieved my goal in Sept 2012. When I got there, I belonged there and was relieved that I was not a moving chicane.
My point is I wouldn't be at the level I'm driving at today with the help of a long list of instructors. Many of these guys have become good friends. All of them hopped into my right seat without knowing me beyond what some other instructor's notes may have said. Jerry Paladino hopped in my right seat knowing nothing about this guy who brought a Jag four door to a Porsche event
So, the point of this post is a public thank you to the following instructors who were willing to put their life in my hands by getting in the right seat so that I could drive safer and faster, in alphabetical order:
Todd Bevan
Edwin Bomer
Chris Campbell
Glenn Campbell
Ed Cavalier
Haas Fogle
Jim Gewinner
Mike Globe**
Tomas Konvalina
George Kopecky
Jacy Legault**
Charles Mathes
Mike Merritt**
Steve Mikula
Claus Nielsen
Jerry Paladino - First instructor in Green Sept 2009
John Rapano
Mike Roznofsky**
John Schanzenbach
Dave Scott
Andrew Seifert
Jack Smyth**
Michael Stein
Henry Stewart
OJ Young
**Multiple times/events
I'm sure there are lots of guys like me on the paddock who would not be there without you guys. Every one of them has contributed to the "TXE36" style of driving.
So thank you and
.-Mike
