Gauging interest

[Bleu Omdurman]

Hey everyone,

I am not sure if any of you guys know this or not, but Robbie Montinola has a team of instructors (most of the guys from skip barber) and they run a pro-coaching day and will travel to any track in the US. I am looking at bringing them up to either Seattle or Portland for a one day school. I wondered who here would be interested. Here is some of the info I have put together so far.

I am looking at doing this during a weekday (9-5 ish) somewhere around April to June 2010. The coaches would come in the night before and we could grab a beverage, at a local spot, show them the town. Then meet up from school in the morning.

We would have the track rented for the whole day, so it would just be us. Robbie does a 1-to-1 configuration so you always have an instructor with you and they are there to push you and get more speed out of you. These are guys that race professionally. This is their CAREER, how they put food on the table. Not a weekend hobby. This also allows for you to get exactly what YOU need rather than following a predetermined program.

I am not sure of the cost, but this year at Thunderhill they had 16 student teacher groups and the cost was $1400 per person. I don't think I'd want this to be any bigger than 16 people. They divided that into two groups of 8 cars. so there is never more than 8 cars on the track at a time. It is a rare day that you get time on the track with that few of cars.

This would be in your car unless you wanted to rent a car. I could look into that if you think that is a value add.

I think this post sums up the course pretty well Pro coaching at Thunderhill -- who's with me?

If there is some interest with this I'll carry it forward. I can turn the professionalism switch up a bit and coordinate to have name tags, a nice meal on-site, etc. If you think that would be something you like to see.

Best,

Trevor

[Kiowapilot]

I would give it serious thought but I will probably be back in the desert by then.

[Interceptor]

I just bought a Lotus, I cant afford $1400 lol

[Bleu Omdurman]

Yes, there are cheaper ways to get started for sure. But for breaking a plateau, this might be a good thing for those who want the very best instruction.

[Bleu Omdurman]

So I just got off the line doing some of the planning for this.

This should be a realitively easy thing for me to set up. And I have about an 18 month planning horizon. So here's the concept as it stands.

1 day of instruction
Coaches arrive the night before
That night there is an optional gathering at a local spot for light drinks and conversation. The next morning, track set up (i'm not sure yet what this entails as I have never set up for a track event, but Robbie and I are talking through everything). Students/clients arrive at about 8am ish. Welcome briefing, nametags, divide into two run groups of 8 cars, orientation to the track and the event, other admin things. On the track by 9am. End the day at about 4:30 pm. Track teardown and admin work to wrap everything up.

Right now I am thinking through what the most potent value adds will be. Some ideas:

Bring a couple of the local businesses in that cater to this crowd. I'm thinking in-car video, maybe provide data aquisition and analysis.

maybe a happy hour to send the instructors off.

I'm also thinking about having some "fun" awards. Like most improved.

let me know what you all think.

[Patricko]

Why so far in advance?

Post again in 14 months

I think it is a great idea and I would love to take part in this but it is too far out to even consider for me.

At least the thread is ready and waiting for you

[Bleu Omdurman]

Well, I have done a bunch of homework on the topic at hand and at this point, I think this is going to work quite well. This should be an incredible value.

I think that there are a bunch of people in the Seattle/Portland area that would love to make it down to a Skip barber event, but once they factor in all of the time involved (flights, hotels, etc) they are out of the office loop for 2 or 3 days which can be a far larger cost than the school itself. So, I am looking at bringing Robbie Montinola and his team of professional instructors to the Northwest in 2010. I doing a long lead-time for a few reasons. The least of which is that I'm not in the US right now!

The goal is to create a top notch event that by far exceeds what any of the local school environments can provide. This will be in our own backyard which means those of us that are very busy working much more than 9-5 type jobs, will be able to leave the office in the AM be at the track all day, and be back at work or home by dinner time. I want to help provide a level of professionalism and quality of coaching that is second to none and easily accessible.

I have put the numbers together and I think we can put together an absolutely top notch event for less than the Skip Barber 1 day program. Dollar for dollar. Once you add in the costs of time, flight, etc, this is far far less than the cost of going to the nearest Skip Barber.

I've given this an 18 month lead time so that we can do it right. So if you have done the Proformance 1-day, 2-day, or other events in the northwest, or if you have done the Skippy 1-day, you should consider this the next step. This is one on one instruction with the best instructors available. To that end, if you have some experience with the various schools from across the country and have ideas for how to improve the event, please send me a note. PM is fine. If email is more convenient let me know, and I'll PM you my info.

Some of the value adds that I see going forward:
Finding a sponsor (perhaps a local exotic cars dealer would like to put some fine automobiles in front of us?).
Professional photography.
On-board video recording.
Data-logging service and analysis. (doing research now on the insurance implications of that). I can probably also set it up so that the data logging (g-forces, speed, lap time, etc is displayed on the video).

I have not rolled these into the cost yet, so let me know if there is interest in any of them, or others you’d like to see.

Any help or advice as I move along on this project is welcome. In addition to the above, if there is a special group that you think I should make sure I get the word out to, please let me know. I'll be making the track reservation in September ’09 (for spring 2010), so I'll probably open the official client sign up then. Please post up here if this is something you would be interested in or if you have any questions.

I look forward to your feedback.

Best,

Trevor

[Bleu Omdurman]

Originally Posted by Patricko

Why so far in advance?

Post again in 14 months

I think it is a great idea and I would love to take part in this but it is too far out to even consider for me.

At least the thread is ready and waiting for you

Patricko, the military beat planning into me and I just can't shake it. I plan everything. But I finish my work early. Then i go back and look at it with fresh eyes and improve it.

You're right though. This will likely take a back seat once I get teh major pieces in place. With this thread, I hope to draw on the collective wisdom of others (like you and Jon) so that this event is simply the best. Getting in early also allows me to pick the right date. Most of the 2009 schedule is full on the local tracks.

[Rei]

It really depends on the exact date of the event. Cost is always going to be an issue but for some quality training I will be all over it if the timing works out. Sadly wont know till spring what time looks like for myself.

One thing to note is location and insurance. If it's possible that the event would qualify for HPDE track day insurance I think it would be a big benefit.

[pfanning]

Have you looked in to Oregon Raceway Park?

[Bleu Omdurman]

I have looked at ORP. I'll keep an eye on it for sure.

I'll be talking to the community (all car types) but I think that there is a need for this type of thing very close to Seattle. It's actually an interesting market research problem. What I mean is, answering the question of who the custonmer is exactly. Is it guys like you and I Pete, that totally understand how important a good instructor is and would likely travel some distance to do this? Or is the customer the busy exec/venture capitalist, who places much more value on it being local and has the means to not be as concerned about price as long as the quality is top notch? In the end, it is obviously a little of both.

I have found that the cost of the track, has very little influence on the cost per person of the event. I didn't realize that before. It is however, the single largest fixed cost. The biggest factors in the cost are # clients and student : instructor ratio. i think that going beyond 20 clients is the point where the quality of the experience is deminished. any change to the S:I ratio directly effects it as well.

So keep me posted on what everyone would like to see.