Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SKIP BARBER RACING SCHOOL
rev your engine
LAKEVILLE, CONNECTICUT
Racing is a matter of spirit, not strength.
—Janet Guthrie, first woman to race in the Indy 500, in 1977
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There's a reason American Express, Citibank, Pepsi, and hundreds of other corporations
have sent their employees to Skip Barber Racing School. And it's not because they want faster
drivers.
“It develops confidence,” says Rick Roso, the company's marketing manager and an oc-
casional instructor. “When you do something that you thought you couldn't do, something that
seemed impossible, it carries over into other parts of your life.”
But what's so impossible about racing a car?
“When you watch it on TV, it looks easy,” Roso says. “But that's only because you don't
feel the g-forces, the braking forces. When you're in a race car, it's ten times more difficult
than it looks. You'd be surprised how many people don't want to come back after the first
day.”
That's where the confidence-building comes in. Skip Barber instructors, all competitive
drivers, are masters at pushing through those psychological barriers, those fears that inevitably
taunt you when you realize you're going to be hurtling around a racetrack at 130 miles an hour
in a flimsy, 1,100-pound car.
That's why Roso has often heard the Three-Day Racing School—the company's bread
and butter—referred to as the “Outward Bound of motor sport.” According to him, it will do a
lot more than teach you how to downshift, brake, corner, and pass other drivers. It will make
you a better person. “When you do something this radical, it changes you,” he says.
The Three-Day Racing School is held at some of the best tracks in the United States and
Canada, the same tracks that pros race on—Laguna Seca, Daytona, Sebring, Lime Rock Park,
to name a few. In fact, if you look at the roster of pros, you'll find that a good percentage of
them have trained with Skip Barber.
