Veteran road racer Ron Fellows reaches over from the passenger seat, clutches the bottom of the steering wheel with his index finger and thumb, and gives it a firm tug to move the C7 Corvette a metre to the left as we approach Turn 4 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP).
"There," he says softly as the car approaches the blind left corner.
"Now, aim for the new strip of pavement on the inside of the corner."
Getting hands-on tips from inside the car usually isn't the kind of one-on-one instruction students receive when they attend a Ron Fellows Performance Driving School, but this one was a bit different.
On that day, Fellows had transported some of his school cars to CTMP for the first time since he and Carlo Fidani bought the track three years ago. One of the track's major sponsors, Hawk Performance, used them to reward employees and entertain customers, so Fellows, who normally travels to his school just outside Las Vegas to teach about once per month, made sure he was at his track to oversee things.
Having the car in exactly the right spot at the turn-in point makes the downhill left-hander almost seem easy, although the speeds I carry in the corner are a fraction of what Fellows would be hitting if he were behind the wheel as the C7 glides through the turn and rockets toward the apex on the other side.
Well, maybe rocket isn't the exact term here. With an instructor always leading the five-car pack of school vehicles, the speed stays at a manageable rate as the students behind his Chevy Camaro learn the ins and outs of getting CTMP right.
The class only gets to try what Fellows calls the "big boy track" after a morning of learning the ropes on the facility's driver development centre circuit. With speeds controlled, there are no helmets, five-point harnesses, or fire suits as the brake salesmen and company executives-turned-race-drivers do their laps.
"The way we formatted the event for Hawk Performance gave people the opportunity to get comfortable with the car in an environment that was controlled and corner speeds that were lower and then get on the legendary grand prix track having some level of knowledge of the car itself," Fellows says.
The skill of the instructors can be eye-opening for some who may have thought of themselves as accomplished drivers when they arrived at the track. Many struggle to keep pace with the instructors who use only one hand to steer on the challenging 10-turn, 3.96-kilometre road course while constantly watching their students' track positions in the rear view mirror so they can talk their charges through every corner on a walkie-talkie.
"You get kind of humbled because you thought you were fast until you see one of these guys take those things around," says Matt Dietrich, president of Carlisle Brake & Friction, which has Hawk Performance as one of its divisions.
"When you get the chance to hop in with them, it's a great learning experience about treatment of racing lines, braking and shifting techniques. It's one thing to have them on a walkie-talkie and being told how to do it, but when you are watching an instructor do the lines you just drove for the last three hours it's a humbling moment but also really cool because you say, 'Ah, that's how I am supposed to hit that turn.'"
The track day offers the company a way to get a full day with customers or potential customers that may not be possible in other situations.
And the cost of renting the facility that once played host to Formula One racing legends like Mario Andretti, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Niki Lauda, Jackie Steward, and Gilles Villeneuve? Budding racers can bring their own cars and get a full-day on CTMP starting at $10,000.
A school session is pricier because the fee also includes meals and refreshments, the cost of instructors, and shipping the Corvettes from General Motors in Detroit or the Fellows school in Las Vegas. Neither CTMP nor Hawk would say how much the corporate track day cost.
It's also not just about having fun. Fellows insists that spending a day of lapping at a race track goes a long way to helping people improve as their street driving.
"When you listen to people who come to the school, the first thing they tell you is how quickly they get fatigued and that's because of the heightened concentration and awareness that you have to have when you are at speed," Fellows says.
"As you go faster, you have to lift your eyes and keep them moving to scan the environment around you and be keenly aware, but you also learn how to relax. People tend to see and sense things far differently after getting the opportunity to do this."
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Jeff Pappone