Higher Learning

Just like in the corporate rat race, you also need a pretty good education to get ahead of the pack in motor racing. Attending the School of Hard Knocks may have its merits, but it may also mean signing up in the School of Hard Crashes. All the horsepower and suspension trickery in the world don’t mean crap if you can’t learn to drive well. To win races, a true understanding of the art of race car driving is a must. And the quickest way to learn the quickest way around a racetrack is to get it from a qualified mentor.

Which is exactly what any speedstruck aspirant would get when he — or she, it doesn’t matter — signs up for lessons at the Tuason Racing School.

Headed by two-time Karter of the Year and Formula 3 ace JP Tuason and wife Jeanette — who races karts as well — the Tuason Racing School was established in order to offer race car driver wannabes a venue wherein genuine and professional race driving education can be availed of. Patterned after some revered racing schools in the US (which the Tuason couple also attended), students at the TRS are assured of highly competent instructions and use of honest-to-goodness race machinery. All activities are conducted in a safe and proper environment too — which means a racetrack. As the school’s pitch says, real race cars, real racetracks.

TRS offers basic and advance classes in both circuit car racing and the seemingly childish motorsport discipline of karting. As most everybody who can spell Raikkonen without first looking it up knows, a kart is the most instructive race vehicle on the automotive planet, and from which virtually all drivers on the current F1 grid launched their careers from. So scoff at karting not. And learn it at TRS.

In the basic courses offered for both kart and circuit car racing, students are taught the fundamental principles of racing, also known as driving quickly but safely; distinguishing the all-important racing line; vehicle dynamics and balance which are actually Physics 101 lessons (Example: No two objects can occupy the same place at the same time, so learn not to crash into your competitor); knowing where the racetrack’s braking points are; and other essential tricks of car control like the heel-and-toe shuffle and downshifting without wrecking the car’s gearbox. Of course, a student is also taught the proper attitude in racing, like race on racetracks, not in C5.

Advance courses mean students learn more advanced (duh) driving techniques like rolling starts, passing manuevers, threshold, on-the-edge, on-the-limit braking and cornering, and a more thorough approach on tackling the racing line. Whatever course though, the adage "If anything goes wrong with the car, hit the brakes!" is drilled into a student’s head a gazillion times all throughout the course.

For the circuit car racing classes, students take the course at the Batangas Racing Circuit. There, eight properly-equipped Ford Lynx race cars await them for a day of lapping and learning the theories taught in the classroom sessions. Each student is oriented with the racetrack and the car, and the course’s first lesson, which is the braking exercise. During the actual driving around the racetrack, instructors ride shotgun with the students to constantly coach them, evaluate their skill and progress, and remind the students things to do to a car at certain parts of the track. Like brake and downshift (while performing the heel-and-toe bit, of course) before taking that corner where there is an unforgiving concrete wall on one side awaiting its next prized trophy.

For those taking the karting courses, the Carmona Racing Circuit serves as the classroom.

But TRS does not stop at merely teaching students racing then letting them loose at the racetrack. The school also organizes a series of race events where graduates can compete while hopefully not putting their cars into the unforgiving concrete walls sitting on one side of a corner awaiting their next prized trophy. The school hosts the TRS-Ford Lynx Cup wherein participants get a taste of competitive racing at a minimum cost. For a nominal fee — at least relatively nominal for motorsports standards — participants can rent a Ford Lynx race car for the entire race weekend starting on Friday practice and ending at the Sunday race finish. Everything is taken care of by the school. Mechanical assistance, fuel, food, etc. As TRS puts it, all one needs to bring is their helmets and their guts.

For the karting enthusiast, meanwhile, there is the Arthur Tuason Memorial Cup, named after the late racing great, and who is JP’s father. This annual karting event serves as a sort of tune-up race for new karters, and one that through its three years of existence has gathered the biggest novice grid the country has known. This gig also allows most budding race drivers their real first taste of a true racing experience, and a place to put their lessons to actual practice.

And at the racetrack’s starting grid, a good education gives them that edge to win. Just like in life’s starting grid, too.