Your Local Experts for European Auto Repair
Track Instruction & Race Coaching
About BDMLLC
Learn From the Best at Big Dog Motorsports
If you want to start racing or want to improve your time on the track, take advantage of track instruction and race coaching from the professional instructors at Big Dog Motorsports.
Track Instruction
High Performance Driver Education (HPDE)
High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) is your first step in learning how to quickly and safely navigate the race track. All of the tracks we work at have groups that host these events. Just about any weekend (and a lot of weekdays, too), you can find an event.
How Does HPDE Work?
You can enjoy a HPDE event in your daily driver or you can rent one of our HPDE cars that are specially prepared. Most cars (except convertibles and SUVs) are perfectly fine for a HPDE event as long as you run them through a tech inspection and change over to proper fluids. Also note that you don’t have to have a BMW to run with BMW groups, or a Porsche to run with the Porsche groups.
Why Should You Choose Big Dog for HPDE?
While most groups provide outstanding instruction, there’s always the chance that you’ll draw an in-car instructor who is not focused on you. Many groups offer instructors free track time in exchange for their services. Unfortunately, that’s the only reason some instructors sign up.
Don’t draw the short straw. Guarantee that you’ll get quality instruction by coming to Big Dog Motorsports. You’ll get an instructor who is there for one reason: to make your time at the track the most rewarding and productive it can be. We’ll give you the information and instruction that no club group will.
What Happens During My Session?
Here’s what happens when you come to Big Dog Motorsports for racing instruction:
- When you register with us, we’ll provide you with an introduction package that will tell you what to expect and what to bring to make your session even more enjoyable. You will experience some stress just from running on the track, but we try to reduce that by making sure you’re relaxed when you’re not on the track.
- Provide an experienced instructor who is there for one reason only—to teach you. Our instructors share their experiences to give you a sense of the ins and outs of track events.
- Your instructor will show you how to check your car over before and after each session. We’ll teach you how to make adjustments to tire pressure for better handling, check fluids to prevent catastrophic failures, check your brakes, and prepare yourself and your car for each on-track session.
Your instructor may attend classroom sessions with you. He will help you relate classroom materials to your on-track experience and may also provide additional theory lessons that you may not get from the classroom.
Race Coaching
For advanced students, those who want to get a competition license, or those who are already racing, we offer professional racing coaching with a proven driver. We offer several options.
Advanced Student Coaching
Refine your line and fine tune your control inputs. Advanced topics include trail braking, throttle steering, and how to run offline while maintaining (or gaining) speed. We’ll take our AIM data collection system, then overlay your data with the data we’ve collected for each track. Using this information, we’ll help you identify areas of opportunity.
Comp School Prep
All of our coaches have all been through some of the best pro and club race schools around. Some have even taught at Skip Barber and the Porsche Experience. We’ll spend a day going through the exercises you’ll see in comp school to help make the process easier and less stressful.
Chump & Lemons Race Coaching
We partner with our friends at Carolina Motorsports Park for run sessions for Chump and Lemons test and tune. On these dates, we offer a team package where we’ll coach your entire team. We’ll collect AIM data and video on each of your drivers in your car.
We’ll also do lead follow with our coaches car. Another driver will ride in the coach’s right seat so the coach can explain what he is doing. We’ll also take time in the paddock to review the data to find areas of opportunity. If you have any drivers with no track experience, we recommend that you enroll them in HPDE, which will be held on the same day and possibly with your coach.
Our race coaching produces proven results. Here’s one example: We coached 3 members of a 6 member team prior to a Lemons race. Those who received coaching were 5 to 10 seconds faster PER LAP than those who did not!
Comp Coaching
Using AIM data and video, we’ll run data laps in your car—and so will you. We’ll then spend the day tweaking variables that can make you faster. We’ll work with you on your car setup, too, so you can get the most out of your car. We can also provide both a race coach and a pro crew chief for your day at the track.
