Even professional drivers need a little refresher from time to time, and since the editor has recently spent so much time in SUVs and utility vehicles, the decision was made to send him back to school…

Just recently, an alarming headline about the road toll – yes, that again – came up during Covid-19. Apparently, our road toll did drop during the most intense state of lockdown, but as we moved to level three, the numbers shot up again. 

And we can’t blame our hideously high road toll on international travellers, because there weren’t any here. So, we have to accept the unpleasant conclusion that we are not so good behind the wheel as we think we are. 

One single day of driver training with professional and experienced instructors – like the team from TrackTime headed up by Mike Eady – can make a significant difference to our driving techniques, our driving habits and our awareness of how much we can contribute – by little improvements – to reducing the pointless and preventable carnage on our roads. 

I had a quiet word with Mike at the end of the day and he says there’s only so much the private sector will commit to when it comes to driver training. “Where it really counts,” he says, “is the corporate/business driver mindset. If more corporates put their people through, the knock-on effect would be tremendous, since those drivers can teach families, friends and colleagues by example.”

And corporates – more than ever in the post-Covid world of people working from home and driving with a higher degree of independence – would do well to remember their duty of care to their employees and what is required by law (Heath and Safety in the Workplace Act 2016) where all practicable steps must be taken to protect your employees and ensure they are trained on company equipment, which includes vehicles used for work purposes.

I reckon you never stop learning, so driver training should be considered as a regular re-occurrence, maybe once every two years or so, kind of like a First Aid re-certification, but with more frequency. 

But how much can you learn in just one day? You’d be surprised – I certainly was. In fact, let’s look at what I learned with a little bit of knowledge regarding my day job. When I’m not writing, I’m driving. 

Even so, my recent driver training day with TrackTime showed up my inadequacies (now adequacies, thank you) when it comes to things like emergency stopping, something I thought I had mastered a long time ago. 

Turns out, if I’d ever needed to do an emergency stop, the road toll would have likely increased by one. 

Food for thought, so what was I doing wrong? Believe it or not, it was where I put my bum. 

Being long in the leg, I usually drive with the seat as far away rom the airbag as I can get, and that’s comfortable for me. Comfortable yes, effective… not so much. 

On my first ABS stop run, I took out the cone quite effectively from a 60km/h hard brake (Mr and Mrs Cone, did you have a son?) but when Mike’s lieutenant Martin Collins found out that I wasn’t able to bring all my leg muscle to bear on the brake and repositioned my seat just one notch forward, way hey! Look at that, three metres clear of Junior cone! And I could do that at 70km/h too! 

The seat adjust actually worked and did not upset my hand position (quarter to two now BTW, ten to three was good 30 years ago) and I am now mindful of setting my seats up every time, and training myself into a new habit.

As to the rest of the day and the rest of my class, we all learned different things, which is as you would expect from a diverse range of drivers from different companies and a diverse range of vehicles. 

Some of us lucky ones got to use TrackTime’s magic Mazdas supplied very generously through Mazda New Zealand, but we had high top SUVs, a fully canopied ute, a couple of mid-sized SUVs, one very sporty Commodore and of course, the Mazda3 hatchbacks.      

In addition, we had very diverse track conditions from torrential downpours, to sunshine, to high gusting winds – the only thing Mike didn’t arrange was snow…

“This was a Stage 1 drive day,” Mike explains, “so we didn’t bring in any skidpan work and we didn’t do any off road or gravel, but the results everyone displayed – from the start of the day to the end – was telling. 

“Everyone improved their vehicle handling and control skills, there were some good questions during the technical walk around of the vehicle and the confidence levels from everyone went up spectacularly. It’s a really good day for us as instructors when we can see how well the exercises went and how comfortable and confident everyone was at the end.” 

The format of the day is really well done. Introductions and indemnity forms signed off, then a quick introduction to Mike and his team, explaining the motorsport credentials and why they know what they can teach. 

There’s an explanation about TrackTime as well, the services on offer and the fact that while TrackTime is based at Hampton Downs, training courses are held from Whangarei to Invercargill.

Then its off to the track for some driving evaluation. This gives Mike and team a chance to see who does what and where the focus of training should be. 

Back up to class for a reassuring chat and an explanation of what the team saw and what the vict…students will be doing, then its back to the track to improve on what was done the first time, and a little more. 

Then its lunch, followed by another classroom session to look at the differences between oversteer and understeer, the basics of passive and active safety systems and the important consideration of tyres and grip, at which point there is an unspoken salute to Carter’s Tyre Services and GT Radials as name support partners.  

Then its time in the workshop to go over some basic essentials: what’s what under the bonnet, where jacking equipment is typically found and a little reinforcement about tyre care and maintenance, which is just the reminder needed before the last on-track event.

This is by far and away the most revealing event. It involves a two-way slalom with a hard turn at one end and a simulated garage at the other. 

Each driver gets two runs, one to get used to the event and the second to set your ‘competition time’ which should always be a few seconds faster and demonstrate an improved level of control.

Everyone of the graduating class of July 23 improved on their times and control, with our most dramatic graduate driving a Ford Ranger ute and completing her competition run 11 seconds faster than her first run. 

Have to say, fastest time of the day was mine, but it was close between the Mazda3 time and that of a top-heavy Holden Trailblazer. 

And that takes us to the wrap up and prizegiving. The wrap up covers elements which were missed during the day and a decent discussion and tips for driving on gravel.

Prize giving is self-explanatory: event attendees are awarded a certificate and their employers sent a record of their attendance. The results of driver training come in the form of safer, more confident and capable drivers.   

To find out more about the next TrackTime course near you, visit the www.tracktime.co.nz website.