Back at the end of October I did my last driving event of the year. For the past two years, I have done an event with the Patroon chapter of the BMW Club of America. One of my friends, Kevin Belden, is the chief instructor, and I like to help Kevin by instructing. Really, I just like to drive, but helping Kevin is nice also. One of the things I like about the BMW club is that they don't require BMW's (obviously, otherwise I wouldn't be driving with them, now would I?). Anyway, it's fun to drive with other cars on track, like BMW, Ferrari, Honda, GM, etc. This year was no expection, there were supercharged M3's, an M coupe, a Viper GTS, and the usual contingent of other high performance cars, ncluding a number of fellow PCA members.

As this was my last event of the year, I decided to run my Hoosier race tires. They were terrible at the Summit Point race, but since no cords were showing, I figured I might as well run them. Either something was wrong with me at Summit, or, more likely, those Hoosiers just has too many heat cycles. Either way, I would try to burn them up, and buy new tires for next year. So, on a cold October morning, I was sitting on the grid, waiting to head onto the track.

Once we got on the track, I was very gentle in my driving. The weather was good, bright and sunny, but very cold, in the low 40's. Can you say 'no grip'? Between the extra power the turbos make in cold weather, the general lack of grip on cold days, and my worn tires, it felt like driving on ice. I could only use full throttle if the car was totally straight, and I was able to spin the rear wheels when cresting the hill after the uphill corner. Normally, that only happens in the rain, but this time the track was bone dry. Anyway, it was fun, and the car was working well. The run ended, and I headed into the pits.

It was now time to meet my students. The BMW club lets instructors drive for free, but you pay for it by having two students. The schedule was set such that I was always in the car for one run (either instructing or driving) then out of the car for 1 session. This would go on all day. Anyway, I had one experienced student, and one novice student. The experience student, Juan Froelich, was very interesting, and I could write an entire story on him. To save space, I won't, but I must describe him.

About two weeks before the event, Kevin B, the chief instructor, sent me an email asking if I was planning on attending the event. I told him that I was. After that, I received another email from Kevin, asking if I minded having a special student. It turns out that Juan doesn't have the use of his legs, and drives with hand controls. Kevin wanted to know if I minded instructing him. I told Kevin that I would be happy to, as long as we worked out some details before the event. I was concerned because I would not be able to drive the car, and I wanted to know responsibilities in case of any emergency situations.

So, before I got into the car with Juan, we discussed his plans, and I reviewed the car. He has a late model Mazda RX 7 Turbo. The car was very well set up, complete with race seats and harnesses, roll bar, advanced suspension, and of course, the hand controls. The car was a standard 5 speed transmission. Juan and his brother created the hand controls, and Jaun holds a patent on the design. The throttle is a lever connected to a disk that is mounted on a disc that is behind the steering wheel. The lever can move around the disk, so when you steer the car, the throttle can move with your hand. It's connected by a cable to the accellerator pedal. The brakes are operated by a rod that is connected to the steering column. The steering column can slide up or down. The rod, being attached to the column, presses on the brake pedal when pressed down. The most interesting arrangement was the clutch operation. A pneumatic system was engineered, and a button attached to the shift lever. When you press the button, a rod presses the clutch pedal, then vents the pressurized air, and the rod retracts, allowing the clutch pedal to return. There were valves that could be adjusted to control the speed of the clutch. Very trick!

I was a little apprehensive about my first ride with Juan. The car was well designed, but how well would he operate it? Could he co-ordinate the hand controls? Could he generate enough braking force with the hand control? More importantly, could he drive, or was he a maniac (like some of my other students)? I was very happy to see that Juan could drive very well, and, more importantly, he had an excellent attitude. To be perfectly, honest, he did not need any instruction. If I could, I would have allowed him to drive solo. However, the run group that he was in did not allow that. So, I rode with him all day, and at the end of the day, I informed the BMW club that Juan should be in the next group. He was a very good, very fast driver. That Mazda could fly! And Juan could handle it very well. It was really a lot of fun.

Back to my car, nothing too special to report. I had a very nice time. My 944 was one of the faster car there. Not the fastest, that was either a Viper GTS that was all set for racing, a 993 twin turbo, or Bob Scotto in his F class 80's Carerra. Those guys would fly by me, but otherwise I was passing lots of car, which included late model Corvettes, both C4 and C5's, numerous M3's and other makes and models. Everyone was well behaved, expect for some one in a Neon (of all cars) that seemed to me to be driven erratically. However, it was really a great day, and now I'm done for the season.