here's what my students say
Scott Keller - Good Morning Simon! The whole drive home yesterday, I had a huge smile on my face, going over all the details of the day with you. It was inspirational, awesome and absolutely a blast!!!! I felt that I learned, for me, a completely new skill, and did, in fact, get to the next level, as you originally stated in e-mail to me back in May. It seems like yesterday couldn't get here fast enough, but in the end, patience paid off huge!!!! What a satisfying feeling to absorb new information, process it correctly and begin to utilize the knowledge.
Sincerely and with deep appreciation
Alan Wilzig - The Skip Barber 3 day Race School is universally-known as “Racing 101”. I made the not-quite-fully-baked decision to go semi-pro IMSA-Lites racing for the complete 2011 & 2012 seasons, after but a few SCCA and NASA races, subsequent to completing SBRS (and their Advanced Car Control clinic). What a mistake! What a missed opportunity. Simon was right under my proverbial nose; and while I appreciatively accepted his continual encouragement; it was not until Summer 2013 that I found the wisdom to take a season OFF racing and spend the season being coached by Simon (or Si as I like to call him). What a REVELATION! By having him in the car WITH ME; not just “GoPro & Data”; coaching that I received after every IMSA session (but did very LITTLE to improve me as a complete-driver) – he instantly felt “with the seat of his pants”, virtually everything I was doing wrong; and set out a curriculum to correct it. When it comes to teaching ADVANCED driving skills such as trail braking; car-control and weight transfer, under & over steer: he is THE MASTER.
Ron Savenor - I consider myself a pretty good driver and a student of the sport, and it is my belief that a good coach observes, analyses, suggests improvements, never too much information at once, just help-ing to put one brick in the wall at a time, until everything comes together. Simon has been key to fitting together a few missing pieces of the puzzle for me. The little things he showed me made a huge difference resulting in my LRP times dropping from 56’s to 54’s! I was ecstatic, so when I went to WGI I jumped at the opportunity to have Simon coach me again. From the right seat he calmly talked me through some changes and again my lap times dropped from 2 minutes to 1 minute 58's, better than sticker tires.
Frank Daniele - Simon - I just got home and haven’t had much of a chance to process all the work we did today, but for the moment I just wanted to thank you for such a professional and immensely enjoyable day of instruction. No knock on the other instructors I’ve had - a couple of them are very good - but I feel like I made more progress in 4 hours today than in my past 4 full days of instruction on the racetrack. I wish I had thought to do this before my race - it might have saved me some physical pain and a lot of money - but there’s a lesson in that, too.
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Roger - Simon, Thanks for everything! Looking back on the weekend, I’m so thankful for your insight and guidance without which I would have languished at some type of sub-par level. It was unfortunate that you were not able to ride in my car, but between the ride in Carole’s car and all of your external analysis the effect it had on my driving was rather amazing. Just as remarkable to me was your ability to understand how to make positive adjustments to my car, with virtually NO input from the rookie pilot! That’s certainly something that I want to work on - understanding how to communicate and correct car handling situations that can be addressed at the track. - Ciao
R\Scott - Okay, this just in! And man o' man! Am I smiling! I kept digging to find my last recorded time at LRP. Looks like April of this year I ran a 1:06 something. So, looks like the quantitative "magic" number is 2.5 second reduction in lap time with my day with you! Simply incredible! What an improvement! Guess I really don't need track buddy...just more time with you riding shotgun.
Giulio - I wanted to thank you for sharing your extraordinary driving skills and knowledge with me yesterday. The day was really fantastic. I appreciate your help in moving me in the right direction. I feel like a made a lot of progress in just one day, and you have provided me with a game plan on things to practice in the future. It really is amazing to experience what these BMW’s can do, essentially out of the box- in the right hands, of course- yours!! I hope you are having a great day at the track and otherwise.
Van Svenson - Simon, I thought you’d like to know that you were spot on with that 4th-5th gear shift point. Look at the attached screen shot. The blue speed and black shift point are one lap, and the red speed and orange shift point are the other lap. Not shifting while going up hill buys me .4 of a second and 2.5 MPH at the end of the straight. - Cheers,
Carole Halvorsen - Hi Simon, Roger and I concluded that was the best weekend of our lives. Many thanks for helping me be really successful. You are a truly gifted coach and I am delighted that I feel completely at ease with you...now. Through the course of this year, I have gotten such terrific coaching. It is why I instantly felt comfortable on a track of that proportion. - Until we speed again.
Marc - Simon, Thank you again for taking the time with Camille and me on Saturday. We both appreciated it very much and it was great for Camille. Like a different driver at the end of the day.