Technique, as the schools and coaches teach it.

How the skills build

The pages in this section are listed below in a suggested reading order. Each one explains a principle and names the school, coach or book it comes from.

1. The racing line. Turn-in, apex and exit, and which corners matter most. See racing line.
2. Braking. Threshold braking, ABS, brake release and trail braking. See braking.
3. Weight transfer. How inputs move load between the tires, and the friction circle. See weight transfer.
4. Car balance. What causes the front or rear to lose grip first. See understeer and oversteer.
5. Vision. Where to look, and when. See vision.
6. Driving position. Seat, pedals and hands. See seating and hands.
7. Downshifting. Matching revs while braking. See heel-toe.
8. Rain. How the line and the limits change. See wet weather.
9. Other cars. Point-bys, passing zones and wheel-to-wheel conventions. See passing and racecraft.
10. A new circuit. Building pace one section at a time. See learning a track.
11. Review. Using a logger and video between sessions. See data and video.
12. The driver. Physical and mental demands. See driver fitness.
13. Simulators. What sim coaches teach, and what transfers. See sim technique.

If the basics are new, start with how grip works, track days and licences and schools.

What driver education programs require of novices

This section assumes you learn in one of two settings: a club's high-performance driver education (HPDE) program or a racing school. The two club organizations below both build instruction into their novice groups.

NASA HPDE

A 2025 NASA Speed News article by Ian Ruff describes NASA's HPDE program as four groups:

According to the same article, each HPDE 1 driver is paired with a NASA-certified instructor, included in the entry fee, who gives in-car feedback on the line, braking, steering, gear selection and track awareness. Sessions are followed by classroom debriefs NASA calls "download" meetings. Progress is recorded in an "HPDE Passport," and moving up a group requires an on-track check ride with a senior instructor. Newcomers with experience may be placed in a higher group, again subject to a check ride.

NASA says HPDE 1 and 2 concentrate on the line and car control rather than passing, which begins in Group 3 and is developed in Group 4.

SCCA Time Trials

SCCA's Time Trials rules say every driver, however experienced, should have a coach available, and that coaching should teach drivers to go faster while staying in control and keeping risk low. For novices the rules are more specific. Novices must:

• receive at least one classroom session on the Rules of the Track,
• have regular contact with instructors, and
• be observed by a Novice Coach or an assistant whenever they are on track.

Post-session debriefs are strongly suggested. The Novice Coach must hold a Driver Coach License at Specialist grade, and the Chief Driving Coach a Time Trials Driving Instructor Official License or higher. In-car coaching is not allowed during scored sessions.

SCCA Track Night in America

As Winding Road describes it, Track Night splits drivers into Novice, Intermediate and Advanced groups, instructors debrief each group after its sessions, and the novice group's first session follows a pace car to learn the line. An IMSA report from Nelson Ledges in 2021 describes five familiarization laps behind a coach.

Racing schools

A sponsored Motor Sport article describes Skip Barber Racing School, founded in 1975:

One-day course

Vehicle dynamics, the racing line, skid pan car control, corner fundamentals, track reconnaissance and lead-follow laps.

Three-day course

Adds threshold braking, race downshifting, race starts and passing.

Two-day advanced course

Covers trail braking and rotation. Students who complete it are awarded an SCCA full competition license, but only when the instructors judge they have reached the standard.

The same article gives the school's minimum age as 16, with younger students who have an approved karting background considered. A 2012 Motor Authority account of the three-day school describes alternating classroom and track sessions, with instructors stationed at specific corners and giving feedback after each session.

Why the pages name their sources

Coaches do not always agree, and the order in which they teach things differs. One example: Skip Barber, per the article above, holds trail braking back for its advanced course, while Blayze coach Dion von Moltke criticizes grassroots programs that teach only braking in a straight line, and Ross Bentley argues novices should learn trail braking early. Where sources differ, these pages give each version and who holds it. When your instructor teaches something different, follow your instructor. The PCA Northern New Jersey Region makes a similar point about its own classroom material, which it describes as advisory only, with learning valued over speed.

The main sources

• Ross Bentley, author of Speed Secrets: Professional Race Driving Techniques (Motorbooks, 1998), and his Speed Secrets columns on Winding Road and speedsecrets.com.
• Brian Beckman, whose The Physics of Racing series began in 1991 while he was a member of the No Bucks Racing Club in Burbank, California.
• Driver61's technique articles and HP Academy's Race Driving Fundamentals course.
• Blayze, a coaching platform co-founded by Dion von Moltke, a Daytona 24 Hour winner.
• Adam Brouillard of Paradigm Shift Driver Development, who works from vehicle-dynamics first principles.
• NASA Speed News instructor columns, and SCCA's Time Trials rules.
• Older books credited by these coaches: Piero Taruffi's The Technique of Motor Racing (1958) and Alan Johnson's Driving in Competition (1971). Carroll Smith also wrote Drive to Win as part of his "To Win" series; we could not obtain a description of its content, so it is not summarized here.