I'm looking into getting a gift for my dad for his 50th birthday and my mom and I decided to buy him 1 day at a high performance driving/racing school. I've heard most about the Skip Barber school, but does anyone have any other suggestions of school they've been to or heard about? Also, the school has to operate at a track in the NY/NJ/PA/CT area. Thanks.

 

I've done some research on this topic a few years ago. I never ended up actually going to one of those schools, but Skip Barber indeed seems to be the best in the area.

 

There are lots of different options here.

Are you wanting to put him in a REAL race car for a weekend and send him to a racing school to get his license? (Racing skool) These cost $3-5000 for a weekend.

Are you wanting to put him in a street race car (i.e. corvette w/ roll bar) for a weekend so he can play? ("racing" skool) These cost $1-2000 for a weekend, plus car expenses.

Or are you wanting to get him to a track and drive really fast in his or a rented car? (High Performance Driving skool) These cost $250-500 a weekend, plus car expenses.


All that said, pick up last month's copy of Grassroots Motorsports Mag. they did an article on what it takes to compete in racing, and they had many names and links and such for driving schools that offered all three types I mentioned above.

Some quick links for groups that I've driven with over the years.. Not necessarily in your area, but I'm posting these for benefit of others who may be interested elsewhere in the country as well.

http://www.faasst.com/
http://www.apexdrivingacademy.com/
http://www.hallettracing.net/comma.html (Tulsa, OK area)
http://www.texasworldspeedway.com/msc.htm (College station, TX)
http://www.msrhouston.com/msrhouston/schools.asp (Houston TX area)
http://www.chinmotorsports.com/ (All over the country)
http://www.racingadventures.com/ (Countrywide as well)

Skip Barber is all over the country too. Very good school, but more $$$ than others. But they also have some of the best instructors.
Bob Bondurant racing school is also very good. I'd rate them right next to Skip Barber. http://www.bondurant.com/
Jim Russell is also highly rated. http://www.jimrussellusa.com/



There's LOTS more out there, but those are the ones I can think of right now. all are good schools.

 

Thanks that was extremely helpful. I'm looking into a day with a street race car just for fun, not for a racing license. I'll check out the links.

 

I went and raced the max a few times at Pocono.....

if you want an unforgetable experience, you can run watkins glen, you just have to figure out how you want to do it (ie Matt's post)