The Weekend with Brack Driving Concepts

I was planning to go to this event for more than two years. From my first look at their lesson schedule to my actual participation, I drove over 50,000 km on at least 8 different cars. To be honest, my initial reason was to become a more sporty driver, but my actual visit was to restore my interest in driving (I am simply tired of wasting time behind the steering wheel during rush hours on GTA roads).

Now I can pronounce myself as my own hero – I could wake up at 5-30 AM, drive to the Motorsports Park and be in the class by 8-30 AM!

Lovely morning at SMP

Driving experience

The big article about the weekend with Brack Driving Concepts is on the way. First, though, I want to introduce the school and the facility where we (my car and I) spent a beautiful weekend.

About two years ago my friend suggested me to connect with Ken Pavri, the founder of Brack Driving Concepts.
Ken Pavri and John Burnet are professional racers and racing coaches that decided to help everyday drivers improve their skills.
Currently, their school offers a High Performance Driving course, for anybody who wants to improve their confidence in driving and learn how to achieve better control over their vehicle; Advanced Racing Development for people that do racing and are working on improving their lap time; and Shannonville Race Academy for competitive  drivers (this was designed for experienced drivers and requires advanced skills). This school united dozens of car enthusiasts that are working as instructors here. From my personal experience, I can tell you that those people know what to do, how to teach and also have stainless steel nerves to deal with some students like me ;) Their web-site is http://www.brackdriving.com/

Brack Driving Concepts is using Shannonville Motorsports Park as their base.
Shannonville Motorsports Park is located between Belleville and Kingston just south of hwy 401.
The park had the long track (4.03 km, 14 turns), the pro track (2.47 km, 9 corners), Fabi circuit (fast circuit, 2.23 km, 8 corners), Nelson circuit (teaching track, 1.8 km, 6 corners) ; 1/4 mile drag strip; and go-kart roadcourse. The beauty of the track is in its design. It is a safe place to practice, as it was originally designed for training purposes. More about the Park : http://www.shannonville.com/

Stay tuned...

Back home...

What do you do during long flights? Watching movies, sleeping, reading, talking to your neighbors?
I had a five-hours flight this weekend. So I was trying to use this time wisely and continued writing about cars. Update is coming soon.

 

Ireland: Galway

Galway is a city on the West coast. The first settlements here are going back to 12th century, while the status of city was awarded to Galway only in the end of 15th century. The city started as a fishing village turned into a major trading point thanks to its strategic location. Though later on, the major port got relocated to the east coast of Ireland.
Right now the population of Galway is close to 80K. The city is growing due to the interest of foreign companies in running their business in Ireland. For example, a Cisco office is located on the entrance to the city.
It is also a famous historic place and tourist attraction point. City's downtown has dozens of stores of all kinds.

Ireland: Baby Cliffs near Ballyreen

The Cliffs of Moher were a unique experience mixed with disappointment: thick fog created that surreal feeling of being away from everything, but knowing that only 200 meters away there is an ocean and real puffins left us feeling betrayed by nature, which decided to hide a real gem from us. However, our next stop compensated for unfortunate experience at the Cliffs - we got to the Baby Cliffs, which have a bit of a different structure and are much lower. Over there we finally saw the Atlantic ocean on the east side.

Ireland: Cliffs of Moher

If someone would ask me to describe our trip in one word, I'd definitely choose the word "hectic".
To be honest, four weeks ago no one was planning to travel; more than that, Ireland wouldn't be my #1 choice as a travel destination. Nevertheless, four weeks ago I was paying my monthly bills, sitting in PJ's with a cup of coffee in front of a laptop. Once I finished transferring money to my internet provider, credit cards, and insurance, I realized that the situation didn't look too pessimistic. So to treat myself with something positive, I opened a website with air tickets. What a surprise! Tickets to Dublin were cheap and pretty attractive. So here it started. The next two weeks were extremely busy with work and home, but time after time I was checking the options as to what to do and where to stay in Ireland.

Other side of the planet: cars in UK

After visiting UK I realized that Smart is not a small car. It is a European car. Actually, it could be bigger (at least taller) than some fellows that we met on streets of London
Should I mention that I almost twisted my neck looking around? I like compact cars and North American fashion for a bulky transport with 3+ L engines makes me sad. Therefore walking on the streets of London was like visiting a gallery with real art.