Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/673867
March / April 2016 14 TECHNICAL EDITOR By Karl Wilen I t's that time of the year again, when the weather has warmed up, the spring fun drives and car shows are in full effect, and the urge to blast your car through the corners in a controlled environment are here. High performance driver's education (HPDE) is a great opportunity to test yourself and your car out on a racetrack under direct supervi- sion of an experienced instructor. You can learn what the car can do, but more impor- tantly, you learn the biggest limitation to per- formance is the driver and how to improve on your skills! What do you need to do to make sure your car is ready for an HPDE event? Well, in the early stages it is pretty simple; and you will build on those preparation skills the more you advance through the program. Yes, it is a slippery slope. One day you are out there in your nice street car learning how to drive on a race track; the next you realize you own a track car, a trailer, a tow rig, and a bazillion sets of tires! What do you really need to get started though? A car that passes tech, an approved SA2010 or SA2015 Hel- met (SA2005 is being accepted, at least in club racing, until approximately June of this year when they will expire; but this being a transition year for helmets, double check with your organization), a torque wrench for your wheels, a tire pressure gauge, and may- be a folding chair, cooler, etc. to sit and have snacks etc. in between sessions/classroom. Lets start out easy first though. The best way to see what your car needs is to down- load (whichever organization is hosting your event) the tech forms for your event. These are usually a one or two page checklist of things to go through. KCRPCA used to have a great tech form, which I can no longer find on the website as we are not a track event club any longer; so here is a rundown of the Cimmaron (Oklahoma) region's checklist to show an example of what a form looks like. Both the Cimmaron (OK) and Great Plains Region (IA) host HPDE events at MPH (Hastings, GPR), RPM (Omaha, GPR), and Hallett (Tulsa, Cimmaron) High Performance DE PREPARING YOUR CAR