[mitchntx]

Is it just me or has there been a rash of rookie student crashes?

In the last year, I can recall 1/2 dozen or so local HPDE crashes by inexperienced drivers (not that I have a ton of experience) where significant damage has occured.

Is this a Texas trend?

[CMC #37]

I think everyone who has instructed will encounter that "scary" student, hopefully not too often. The thing is, as the instructor, you are in charge of the student and it is important that is clear from the start. I think that helps calm the student down as it clarifies they can count on you for immediate feedback. Part of my spiel for new students is that if I think anything dangerous is happening I may ask them to proceed to the hot pits for a discussion, and not to take it personally, but as an opportunity to learn something valuable. At Thunderhill Street School we even went as far to have a instructor patting the roof as a cue for flaggers to black flag a car so they would for sure get the message.

After teaching the Thunderhill School for some time, I think we have been very fortunate to have a minimum of incidents. The leads of the school and the head cheese, David Vodden, have been very proactive as far as safety goes. NASA is in that same groove out here in the west, although more students are "loose" without instructors and that increases the chances of incidents due to that fact. As others have pointed out, cars running too close together seems to always be an issue. That is the easiest one to fix though! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) It is much harder to fix someone with a 'tude!



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