I had the enormous privilege of participating in Ron Fellows’ ZR1 Performance Driving School at Spring Mountain Motorsports. Led by Rick Malone and his lead instructors, Tom Lovelady and Justin “JJ” Johnson, this is one awesome two-day program that gives ZR1 owners a chance to track their beloved car under the guidance of top-notch instruction.
The Program
Ron Fellows’ ZR1 Performance Driving School for ZR1 Owners is a two-day program set on the luxurious grounds of Spring Mountain Motorsports. Spring Mountain boasts a massive 6.1-mile road course with more than 50 (yes, 50!) available configurations. That’s pretty special, and word has it Spring Mountain is working on further expansions to the course.
The goal of the school is to get new ZR1 Owners acclimated to their super car through controlled track use supervised by top-notch instructors. And, students learn how to use the onboard Performance Data Recorder (PDF) in great detail, using tools like Cosworth Toolbox to review each session and compare it to a second “reference” session to see where you might be gaining or losing on the track. If you dare compare your session to the instructor’s reference session, you’ll be humbled quickly. It’s almost like learning how to play Stairway to Heaven on guitar, then overlaying Jimmy Page’s recording on top of yours to see where you have room to improve.
Our school was primarily conducted on the Villeneuve configuration, which is a 2.2-mile course that’s comprised of 10 turns, challenging corners, varying elevations, and a couple of nice straightaways. In addition to sessions on Villeneuve, we also did some brake work, oval driving, and autocross in separate, designated areas.
The instructor to student ratio was fantastic. There were just nine of us in this particular class (and nine very cool people by the way), and among us we had five steady instructors, plus one or two additional “floating” instructors that stepped in from time to time for certain exercises.
The Experience
Day 1
The first day was really a break-in day to not only get students used to the car, but most importantly to establish the relationship between teachers and students, as well as between students and other students. In order to learn effectively and improve universally as a student team, this sort of bonding was important.; and, of course, this bonding was very rewarding because there’s nothing better than making new friends with a common interest.
There was a fair bit of classroom training on the first day to work through various theories and techniques such as breaking, cornering, transitioning, balancing, throttle management, gear selection (especially for us “purists” that still think we should be driving cars with manual transmissions), and much more. We did get in the cars a good amount, and during the first half of the day we worked on breaking, upshifting and downshifting, and cornering on an oval. With the basics in place, we were now ready to put our freshly-acquired knowledge to work on the track.
The second half of the day was all “lead / follow” work, where during each session one of the instructors would take the students out to learn the line and gradually increase their skills. In an already-capable Z06, the instructor would lead the pack of students following in their higher-performing ZR1s. During the session, each student would follow the car in front of them, and at certain moments the students would rotate so that eventually each student had the chance to fill the second car position, directly behind the instructor. The lead/follow format is extraordinarily helpful as there’s no better way to learn the track, and understand how to manage all the intricacies of the course such as turn-in positioning, breaking zones, elevations, and more. And, the instructors are quite adept at watching you behind them, and all the while they’re giving you real-time feedback using a CB-style radio. The fact that the instructor can work the radio while driving fast on a racetrack is really impressive.
By the end of the afternoon, we achieved our fastest lap time of precisely 2 minutes and 0 seconds.
Day 2
The second day was a heavy driving day, which is exactly what we were hungry for. We started off with another lead/follow session to see the track and get the cobwebs off, and then we each had the chance to go right seat (passenger seat for you, ahem, non racers) for a hot lap. Well, let me tell you, the instructors are capable of doing this course in a manual ZR1 in just under 1:40, which is a full 20 seconds faster than we students did on the previous day. That’s a serious difference, and enough to plant you in the back of your seat (at least until the lateral g forces toss you left and right). The experience, while humbling, certainly opened the students’ eyes as to what the car was capable of in the right hands, and we knew there was now a goal for us to work toward.
Just before lunch, which by the way was an amazing spread of delicious Mexican food, we were invited to participate in a mini competition on the autocross track. Nine of us and one prize: a very cool ZR1 baseball hat. Did I win? Not quite. I took third behind fellow student Chris Martin who took first place with a time 1 full second quicker than my time. Great job Chris!
After lunch, we were all-out driving in our lead/follow sessions. We gradually improved, all of us, which was really great to see. My fastest lap time was 1:52, which was achieved in the very last session of the day. That’s still a full 12+ seconds off the pro instructor time, but shaving 8 seconds off in just a single day during a controlled group track session was still something to feel good about.
Memories and Skills to Last a Lifetime
As someone who experienced this course first-hand, all I can say is that the team at Spring Mountain is first class in every way, and Chevrolet is an amazing company for making this program possible through the loan of their prized ZR1s. There aren’t too many places on planet Earth like Spring Mountain Motorsports, and the experience we had here will never be forgotten. Will it further instill loyalty to the Corvette brand? You bet. We just can’t wait to see what the C8’s rendition of this course will be like. By the looks of things, that day won’t be too far away.
Thank you Spring Mountain Motorsports and Chevrolet for this wonderful experience, and thank you to my fellow students and new friends for sharing this awesome ride.
