Under less-harrowing circumstances, the golden fescue and vineyard-speckled hillsides of California’s Sonoma Valley, which fleetingly come into view at various points of my early-afternoon drive, would provide an ideal backdrop for a leisurely, midday stroll ripe with absentminded daydreaming. But with my right foot firmly pressed to the floor as I accelerate out of the sixth corner at Infineon Raceway, my speedometer flashing triple digits, and lead instructor Jeff Sakowicz encouraging even more aggressive driving, the surrounding wine-country vistas are the last thing on my mind. "Full throttle, here, full throttle!" he commands, his voice bellowing out from a rear-mounted two-way radio in the cockpit of my Audi R8. "Three, two, one … now heavy to the brake! Heavy to the brake! Look up the left side; steady the throttle."

With Sakowicz behind the wheel of an R8 that’s leading the way in front of me, we power through the esses on the backstretch of the 2.5-mile-long track, maintaining a constant velocity in the mid-80 mph range before aggressively pushing the car back to triple-digit speeds. "Now once we get to here and we know we’re going to stay on the racetrack, we want to capitalize on this downhill run right here; this is acceleration zone," he instructs, leading me—and a fellow R8 driver two car lengths behind me—through turn 10 and up to a 35 mph hairpin corner that brings us back around past the track’s towering grandstand and toward the finish line.

It’s the second day of Audi’s two-day sports car experience, a program that introduces driving enthusiasts to the German company’s supercar and provides them with a complex and demanding road course on which they can grow better acquainted with the automotive marvel. Naturally, participants aren’t left to their own devices; a team of professional racing instructors provides guidance—both on the track and in the classroom—assuring everyone an opportunity to understand and apply the techniques required to power the 430 hp, mid-engine, all-wheel-drive supercar around the track as quickly as possible.

 "There’s not common knowledge that there’s this much technique in getting a car around a track quick," Sakowicz explains. "And once it’s brought to [the participants’] attention that there is that much technique, then it can be somewhat overwhelming, but it’s our job to convey it to them and gradually bring them along.

 "People think about driving fast as using the gas pedal and turning the steering wheel," he continues. "When it comes down to it, how quickly you are able to get around the corners is directly related to how well you can slow the car down and how well you can get the car into the corner to promote a good corner exit, which is what’s really going to improve your lap times."

Track Records

The program’s team of instructors is made up of a handful of professional racers. Although each one brings a different background and slightly different racing perspective to the program, during the introductory exercises on the morning of the first day their message to all participants is as uniform as the fleet of R8s involved: go faster!

"Let’s get more aggressive. More speed!" Tony Brakohiapa instructs while overseeing a five-gate slalom course designed to introduce the skills of looking ahead, balancing the car through the corners, and improving driving lines. "Let’s go, guys; they’re only cones. Push your limits!"

"Get the car on its heels. Full acceleration!" Sakowicz echoes later when those same participants segue to another cone-marked course, this time one that replicates a 180-degree left-hand turn and fosters proper steering rates, while reinforcing the correct cornering sequence.

It’s not the last time that the instructors will request the drivers to open up the car’s 4.2-liter V-8 engine. Although Sakowicz may joke in the preliminary classroom sessions that every participant signed up for the program in part to "stand on the gas," each person needs a few sessions behind the wheel to discover the stability control program’s level of responsiveness, not to mention just how capable the car truly is. As Howie Busse, a participant from Connecticut, explains after the morning track-driving session on day one, "It takes a few laps before you realize that the car can do so much more than you think it can."

Audi’s sports car program is all about providing a memorable on-track experience and teaching amateur drivers the skills necessary to successfully navigate a challenging racecourse. Naturally, the car itself plays a vital role in that process, but Sakowicz points to the R8’s capabilities as being all the more important, since participants only have a couple of days behind the wheel. "I don’t want to say it’s easy to drive," he says, "but it’s user friendly and it’s a great tool for us to use because the amount of engineering that’s in it really gives the participant a sense of security while driving. The car is very predictable. It’s a confidence-inspiring machine to drive.

"It’s always fluctuating and always seamless to you behind the wheel," he continues, pointing to the viscous clutch in the car’s center differential, an engineering element that continuously transfers the load of the car between the front and rear wheels. "It really helps give you that sensation that the car is going to do what you want. When you ask it to do something, it will. That being said, sometimes you have to be careful with what you ask for, because the car’s going to want to do just what you ask."

These are all messages that Sakowicz imparts on new drivers the morning of the first day, well before anyone slips on a helmet. The sports car experience at Infineon Raceway enters its fifth season in 2012, and to date, no one has put themselves into a wall, nor have there been any other significant incidents to report. Such a track record can be attributed to a few factors, the first being the car’s engineering, which Sakowicz regularly will praise. But the safety record also is linked to the way he and his fellow instructors gradually bring participants through their paces and incrementally increase the speed and aggressiveness of the group’s driving. Finally, Sakowicz prepares each new group of drivers when they first arrive, dispelling any misconceptions behind how a fast jaunt around the track should feel. "Technique is what gets you around quick, not effort," he tells everyone. "If you’re working hard, it’s going to feel fast. It’s like, man, I almost wrecked in turn two, that had to be as fast as I could go. But the stopwatch will tell a different story. It should be smooth and clean and the right line. It’s momentum management."

John Rhymer, an R8 owner and motocross racer from northern Indiana, came into the program with similar expectations, but after a few laps behind the wheel and post-driving track analysis, where each troublesome turn is dissected, Rhymer realized the error in his ways. "I came in thinking, ‘Mash the throttle; mash the brake. Mash the throttle; mash the brake,’" he says, leaning against the wall of pit row. "Man, I’ve got a lot to learn!"

During the two-day program, half of the in-car time is spent behind the wheel, with the other half spent as a passenger. In that way, participants can observe how their fellow drivers handle the car and the course, which introduces another angle by which to learn. But as Rhymer discovered, the greatest—and most instructional—passenger experience comes when seated next to the instructor leading the charge. "Driving with Mike [Hill] completely changed my view of the track," he says after a session early into the program. "Then I was like, ‘Whoa, I never knew you could do that!’"

A Racer’s Advantage

Sakowicz has held an instructor’s role with Audi’s Sportscar Experience since the driving event first was unveiled in 2007, and while the lineup of R8s has changed slightly over the years—transitioning from the 4.2-liter V-8s to the 5.2-liter V-10s and, most recently, back to the V-8s—the structure of the program itself has remained virtually unchanged. For the 29-year-old from Southern California, however, the program marks a significant milestone in his career as a racing and driving instructor.

Sakowicz first tasted the adrenaline of racing behind the wheel of two-stroke go-karts when he was 9 years old, and by his mid-to-late teens he was careening around tracks nationwide in single-seat formula Fords. In fact, his career as a racing instructor can be traced back to his go-kart days, when he got his first summer job as a 12-year-old. "My very first summer job was at a go-kart school," he says, "working as a grunt, a gopher, the kid sweeping the floor, being the lead follow, anything that the other instructors didn’t want to do."

He’s come a long way since then, and he’s reminded of that each day he drives to—and on—the track. "I like looking in my rearview mirror and seeing two or three Audi R8s lined up," he says. "From when I started in this business, that was two or three old dinky go-karts, and now I look in the mirror and think, ‘All right, we’ve improved our status.’"

Now, Sakowicz’s focus while at the track is to improve each participant’s driving abilities, and to achieve that, he and his fellow instructors all refer back to their competitive racing days. Because of that, each instructor may take a slightly different approach to explaining the best practices of racetrack driving, but the core principles are always the same. "Our lines, our theories are all very similar; but how we articulate them might be a bit different," Sakowicz explains. "From my own racing experience and the data acquisition that I’ve looked at, the proof of the pudding is in rolling through the center [of a turn]. Let’s roll the speed."

The instructors may put heavy emphasis on cornering, but the raceway demands it. Twelve turns over two and a half miles, including a tight hairpin and a gradual, 180-degree downhill left, mean drivers’ levels of success are linked directly to their ability to control and maximize the car’s ability when it’s not going straight. "With the challenge and difficulty of Infineon comes the reward of doing it well," Sakowicz says. "Four blind corners, over 160 feet of elevation change from top to bottom, and this place throws every corner shape at you. And you don’t have your hands straight on the steering wheel for very long. As much as anything, it’s rewarding for the participant because it is a challenge. You’re not driving a track that’s somewhat simple. It takes every session that you drive to get better at this place."

Advanced Efforts

For those who complete the two-day program ($3,495) and want to take their driving to the next level, Audi offers an advanced one-day program at $2,495, which takes drivers further in-depth with handling techniques aimed at pushing the car to the edge of its abilities. One-on-one instruction dictates the advanced program and, as Mike Strachan, a Bay Area resident who recently completed that program, explains, the experience is all the more adrenaline-packed by virtue of the fact that the lead car that drivers followed the first two days is now gone. "You have no car in front of you," he says. "That sets a different context when you’re driving because you no longer have that [lead] car as a reference point for braking or speed or turning. You only have your own car as a reference point, so you’re on your own."

Strachan recently purchased a 2012 R8 GT and expects delivery of that car by the beginning of the year. He previously owned an R8 a few years ago, which no doubt influenced his decision to purchase the new GT; but after completing the Sportscar Experience at Infineon, he feels all the more confident in his decision. In fact, he believes that just getting out on the open roads with it will lead him back to the track for future experiences like this. "Nothing more will make me want to go back to a track experience as much as I can," he says.

Strachan learned of the Audi program through an invitation to a one-day R8 GT event at the track, but he had prior knowledge of the track and what it was like to drive it, thanks to the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School, which he attended a few years back. Unlike the Audi experience, the Russell school employs Formula One–inspired FJR-50 racecars built by Lola Cars; but it was the use of high-performance street cars that brought Strachan back to the track for Audi’s Sportscar Experience. "I thought it might be interesting to drive the track in a street car versus a racing car," he says. "And in some ways, I found the street car to be more interesting because you can relate to it more."

Rhymer, who currently owns an R8, also heralds the chance to log some track time behind the wheel of a familiar car. "If you’re buying an R8, you need to come here," he says. "Not for safety, but just for the thrill. This is really a gem, the whole program."

But the program isn’t tailored to R8 owners, nor is it intended to aggressively persuade any participants to become R8 owners. At its core, the two- or three-day program is meant to provide a unique driving experience at a renowned—and challenging—raceway and to give people a thrill. At no time during the event does that ring clearer than during our final lap of the two-day program, when Sakowicz gleefully declares, "You guys are scootin’! Two days on the track and we’ve got you moving. When you hit your marks and everything comes together, it’s effortless."

Back to School
“It’s like a dance,” chief instructor Jerry Pellegrino says as he leads the Porsche Boxster around the Watkins Glen International raceway, hitting his marks at the apex of each turn, powering out through the corners, and rhythmically flowing from inside to outside lanes to maximize the car’s capabilities and quicken his lap times. “If you look ahead, there’s no anxiety. Every time you turn the wheel or move the throttle or step on the brake, you’re decreasing the car’s performance potential. By looking ahead, you eliminate 75 percent of that.”

It all makes perfect sense to me in the passenger seat, as I grow familiar with the 3.37-mile-long track and commit to memory the ideal paths to take in and out of each of the 13 turns. It’s quite another story once Pellegrino and I switch seats. With the wheel in my hands and the pedals under my feet, it’s all I can do to not be completely overwhelmed. Porsche street and race cars speed along the track all around me and my brain has shifted into overdrive as I attempt to maneuver us around the course while also directing the more experienced drivers—and the more powerful cars—to pass me at the appropriate times. After a few laps and some gradual improvement, we head back to the garages where I pull off my helmet and collect my thoughts.

“Driving is one of the few things that men don’t like to admit they don’t do well,” Pellegrino says. “Their egos don’t allow it. They think they know what they’re doing, but there’s so much to learn.”

By that token, it’s why driver education events like this one offered through the Porsche Club of America (www.pca.org) prove to be so successful and occur so frequently across the country. For a couple hundred dollars a day, Porsche owners can bring their daily drivers (or their track-specific vehicles) to a raceway where instructors like Pellegrino, who previously served as the crew chief for three Porsche campaigns during the Rolex 24 at Daytona, can teach them not only how to drive successfully on a professional racetrack, but how to maximize the performance capabilities of their own car in a safe environment. “Nothing happens out there that isn’t predictable,” Pellegrino says.

But it can take some getting used to.

Such was the case for Mark Watson, a 60-year-old instructor from Bedford, N.H., who first experienced a driver education track day about a decade ago. A month after buying his wife a Boxster, Watson decided to see what the driver education program had to offer, and he quickly learned it was far more intense than he anticipated. “When I first did it, I almost got sick,” he recalls. “My legs were shaking and my wife said I looked white as a ghost.”

But it didn’t take long for Watson to grow accustomed to the g-forces, and a month later, he purchased his own Porsche and began traveling up and down the East Coast every few weeks to drive a new track and to improve behind the wheel.

“It’s transformational,” Pellegrino says of the program. “I’ll get in the car with someone who’s new at this, and by the end of the day or day two, they’re a whole new person.”

“You have to think about why you bought a Porsche and what you want to get out of it,” Watson says, explaining that a Porsche Club of America track event isn’t for everyone. But for those who always feel confined by highway speed limits or wonder just what their car is capable of, such a program can be the answer. “Sometimes the only way to get the most out of [your car] and to see what it can do is to do an event like this.”

Watson became so hooked that after five years as a participant, he took the necessary steps to become an instructor. And now, with a solid decade of experience under his belt, Watson can see how daily driving and track driving can be mutually beneficial. “I find that I’m much more aware of my surroundings,” he says of his time driving on open roads. “You can practice a lot of the techniques that we learn here on the road, and all of that reinforces your skills at the track.”

Those seeking a full-blown racing experience should look elsewhere, however, since laps are not officially timed and the club explicitly states that the goal of the events is not to race. Still, a competitive spirit does permeate the event. “Oh Jesus, yes,” is Watson’s response when asked if he’s compelled to outdo the other drivers at his ability level. “It’s not a competitive environment, but that’s not to say that we’re not trying to go faster than our buddies.”