As I climbed into my two-layer, fireproof racing suit and donned driving gloves, a head wrap called a ‘balaclava,’ and shoes that felt more like slippers, I wondered if I would make it back to Akron in one piece.
I found myself just east of Toronto at a place called the Mosport Driver Development Center, home to the Bridgestone Racing Academy, owned and operated by the brother-sister team of Brett Goodman and Kim Deluliis. Founder and former racecar driver Goodman has been running racing schools for 21 years.
In 1991, Goodman purchased cars and equipment from the former Spenard-David Racing School and created Goodman Motorsports. A year later, Bridgestone/Firestone Canada Inc. signed a title sponsorship agreement with Goodman, officially creating the Bridgestone Racing Academy. In 2003, the tiremaker renewed its sponsorship through 2014.
For Bridgestone, title sponsorship comes with several advantages. The Academy provides an ideal venue for dealer incentive trips and brand exposure. It also helps showcase the tiremaker’s ultra-high performance tires.
Each of the Academy’s 21 Raynard Formula 2000 cars rides on Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R UHP street-legal tires. The single-seat, open-wheeled racecars are equipped with 2.0-liter, 130-hp engines and four-speed gearboxes and can reach speeds of 116 mph, accelerating from zero to 62 mph in 5.5 seconds.
Both beginners and seasoned racers are welcome at the Academy. Many companies have awarded racing classes to their top salespeople, VIP suppliers and executives. In fact, about 55% of the Academy’s revenue comes from corporate events.
The school offers 18 different learn-to-race programs, starting at $565 CDN and running well into the thousands. More than 30 staff members – including full-time instructors, race mechanics and office administrators – are on hand to serve the typical 12-student class.
For $3,990 CDN, enthusiasts can take the Academy’s race license course, a three-day program that will make them eligible for racing licenses. The Academy even offers a nine-race series – called “Arrive and Drive” – for graduates and licensed racers from around the world.
A particularly unique program the Academy offers is mechanic training, which puts students in charge of the regular functions of a race-team crew during the eight-month season that starts in April and ends in October. This hands-on training has landed several graduates jobs with F1, Indy Car, Formula Atlantic and more.
All in, some 15,000 adrenaline junkies – including Fortune 500 CEOs, truck drivers, soccer moms, teenagers, grandparents and, yes, tire dealers – have earned graduate certificates from the Academy since its inception.
Most surprisingly, not a single injury has ever occurred.
Granted, I’m an exception to most of life’s rules. Still, that solid safety record put me at ease. Comforting me further was the track itself, which, I was told, could be configured 24 different ways to suit different experience levels. Its wide run-off areas and few walls and guardrails assured me that I could hammer the throttle without worrying about a head-on collision. As long as I focused my gaze on the Chrysler Crossfire SRT6 pace car in front of me, everything would be dandy.
After a tutorial on racecar driving fundamentals – including all-important safety precautions, basic vehicle dynamics and something called ‘heel-and-toe downshifting’ – I was ready to rock. One of the professional instructors helped me climb into a silver Formula 2000 car – Number 17 – and strapped me in tight.
I admit it: I didn’t push the car to its limits at first. The roaring engine, six-point harness, in-car fire extinguisher and recent waiver-signing memories were all a little much for me.
But, I’m happy to report that, after the first 10 or so laps, I started to relax, applied the principles I learned at the Academy and really crushed it. I guess it paid off; at the end of the day, I was presented with an award for “Most Improved Driver.”
From now on, friends, my lucky number is 17.
