Getting Up To Speed

At Formula Hawaii racing school, students go from classroom to zoom

Well, maybe my Saturn won’t get up to 110 mph in a quarter mile straightaway, but it was the same principle, right?

I realized how wrong I was when they started folding my 6-foot-3-inch frame into this winged machine. Sitting inches off the ground with a monster fire extinguisher aimed directly at my lap, I realized I should have listened more closely.

“One guy panicked and hit the fire extinguisher and gave himself frostbite,” says Bryant, pointing out a lever whose purpose I never imagined needing in my life. But it does make for a good bar question: For castration, which method would you prefer: burning or freezing them off?

But fear soon gave way to embarrassment as I proceeded to stall out three times in a row. I could hear my wife’s voice in my head: “You never listen!” as Tom patiently explained how not to slip the clutch in this non- Saturn machine.

Finally, I caught first gear (and a little rubber) and I was off — and my eyes were opened to the world of openwheeled racing. Or maybe my eyelids were just blown back by the force of the wind through the visor I had forgotten to close. Either way, I was hooked.

The close proximity to the ground combined with the ability to see exactly where your tires are allows for extremely accurate racing, letting you hit spots, not just areas. They lay out the practice course with cones, indicating where you should break and shift going into the turns.

I felt like a pro pulling into pit row after my first lap, waiting for Tom to tell me how I would be the next Danica Patrick. Instead, he tells me I started in third gear, I missed my shift on the chicane and to slow down coming into pit row, I’m making him nervous.

The next 10 laps proceed about the same, missed shifts, misstarts and mystified by this dynamic machine that weighs in at just over 1,000 pounds. But in this process I was learning, and the first time I hit the off-camber just right I was smiling like I did after hitting my first home run.

The top speed on these cars is 135 mph, which I never approached, but hitting 100 in an open-cockpit vehicle, your head hitting the roll bar as you jerk back from the acceleration, is awe-inspiring. At top end turning, it can handle up to 2 Gs in force, which I understand is enough to make me qualified for NASA.

The 20-minute session was done in a flash and I began to protest for more when I felt my legs. They were aching like I’d been playing basketball all day. So I gamely pulled myself from the car and took off that race helmet and realized why the sport is so beloved.

So much power in such a little package, I can only imagine having a dozen other cars on the course with you, pushing you and threatening your every turn. This is the kind of excitement that Bryant and his crew are trying to bring out to Campbell by certifying new drivers.

Coming into the curve at high speed

Admittedly, it is on the pricey side. At $250 for the introductory lesson, it is a bit out of the average Joe’s budget. But considering the $3,500 it could cost you elsewhere for a three-day certification course, it’s a deal.

“Here you can buy however many lessons you need and learn at your own pace,” says Bryant, who will soon be licensed by the Sports Car Club of America to certify drivers to race nationwide.

“Instead of taking a lump sum payment, you can learn as quick as you want. If you are serious about it, you can get certified for $1,000.”

Once certified you can race in the Super Lap and other series held out at Hawaii Raceway, either in your own car, or one rented from them with new racing tires and pit crew for $900 to $1,200 for a full day of racing.

Now to get the feeling of a multimillion-dollar racing team for a fraction of the cost makes it seem a lot more reasonable.

Now if MidWeek will just give me that raise …

You can contact Formula Hawaii through Tom Bryant at 306-2761 or at www.formulahawaii.com

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