From a Free Track Day to Teaching the Next Generation of GR Drivers

When Kim Coffey goes on track with a student for the first time, she remembers the mixture of excitement and nervousness. After all, Coffey was once a student in NASA’s GR Experience, a free track day offered to new Toyota GR owners.

“I’ve worked with a lot of intro students that are scared, and they’re overwhelmed because it’s a lot of information you are processing,” Coffey said. “I’m not that far removed from that. I try to communicate with them in a way that’s meaningful and valuable to them, so they get the most out of this experience. I want you to have fun, I want you to be safe, and I want you to have a really good experience with NASA.”

Coffey has progressed quickly on track since joining NASA in 2020 after purchasing a Toyota GR Supra during the pandemic. The NASA MidSouth member had always wanted to track a car and without experienced racers to guide her, Coffey had no idea how the process worked.

“For many years I was trying to figure out how to get on the track, but I didn’t have the terminology,” Coffey said. “I was looking at the websites to see if there were any open track days. I learned that tracks don’t advertise when you rent their track.”

Coffey saw in a Facebook group that new GR owners get a free track day and a one-year membership to NASA, a welcome incentive at a time when COVID had the world stuck at home. She did her track day with NASA Great Lakes at Autobahn in Joliet, Illinois.

“I was on track with Eric Meyer in my car and I was like, ‘I know I’ve only been doing this for 15 minutes, but I get it, I think I could do this, and I would be good at it,’” Coffey said.

Nearly five years later, Coffey, 56, is making up for lost track time by participating in HPDE4 and Time Trial 5, while serving as an instructor in the GR program. She plans to get her competition license in March 2026 to potentially campaign another Mazda Miata in Super Touring 6, a car she won in a raffle. Coffey currently runs an NC-chassis Mazda MX-5 for Time Trial.

Unlike many NASA racers who had prior track experience from karting or dirt bikes, Coffey came in with no background in motorsports. What separates Coffey from other racers is that she’s willing to do her research and ask questions.

Michael Morris, a friend and fellow racer in NASA MidSouth, said while Coffey may lack seat time, she makes up for it by being one of the best prepared students he’s ever seen.

“She knows more about these tracks we go to than I do,” Morris said. “I show up and left, right, right, right, left, and go. She’s printed out a track map, she’s got elevation changes, she has weather reports. Her level of detail and the preparation she puts into it is unmatched.”

It’s true that Coffey carries a binder around with her at the track, but it’s only part of her process for a track weekend. Coffey studies track maps, watches videos, drives tracks on the simulator and even seeks insight from drivers with similar cars.

“I try really hard not to go into a track just blind because I get more out of the weekend if I’m starting with something,” Coffey said.

Coffey has also had to navigate the world of maintaining and improving a track car. Though Coffey owns sports cars, a track car is a different animal. She leaned on advice from fellow NASA racers, quickly recognizing her Supra would be expensive to operate as a daily driver and track car.

Coffey researched track cars, and with an assist from Eric Meyer, went with a Mazda MX-5. Although Coffey has never wrenched on a car, she’s been working alongside other mechanics to learn.

“We did a motor swap on her car, and she was down there underneath with me the whole time,” Morris said. “You’re not going to slow her down. If she decides she wants to do it, she’s going to do it.”

Coffey plans to use the off-season getting the Miata ready for ST6. While Coffey does endurance racing, she’s taking a wait-and-see approach before fully committing to wheel-to-wheel racing.

For now, Coffey enjoys the mix of instructing and running Time Trial. Coffey is at the track at least one weekend a month and when she’s teaching, her priority is with the GR students, where she serves as an in-car instructor. Coffey emails and talks with her GR student before they arrive at the track.

“I kind of know what their expectations are and what they’re looking for,” she said. “I want to be as prepared as possible to make the best experience for them.”

Chris Herbst, group leader for the NASA Great Lakes HPDE program, said Coffey’s participation in the GR program is what the NASA-Toyota partnership is about. It gives GR owners a chance to scratch a racing itch and to continue improving as a driver going through the HPDE program. Coffey has since sold her Toyota Supra.

“I’ve had a real close seat to watch her development over the last four years,” Herbst said. “It was really fun to see someone come full circle and then join us as an instructor.”

Coffey knows she has room to improve as a driver, but Morris said Coffey should appreciate how far she’s progressed. Morris tells the story when he was Coffey’s instructor in HPDE, and they pulled up to the grid for a track session, and he jumped out of the car.

“I literally had to baby-bird her out of the nest,” Morris said. “She wanted just as much instruction and help as she could get. I just told her, ‘You’re ready, fly.’”

Coffey, who does project management for a telecom company, wants to keep learning and be a competitive racer.

“I’m going to do as much as I can to the best of my ability and scope, whether it’s mechanical, financial or time,” Coffey said. “I just want to get better at it, but my attitude has always been if I’m not having fun, I’ll stop. Right now, I’m having a blast.”