Full Circle

That uncomfortable dream of running around the paddock being late to grid or wherever had awakened me enough times over the years to know I needed to be in the classroom on time.

I was one of the first people there, still a bit unprepared, and as the HPDE1 and 2 drivers began quietly taking their seats, in that moment I had a rush of memories come flooding back. I remembered being in their position 17 years ago. I don’t remember the exact date, but my first track day in NASA HPDE1 was November 2007 at Buttonwillow Raceway.

I did spend one day before that at a NASA event at what was then Moroso Motorsports Park in Florida when I was in grad school, but I didn’t drive. Knowing no one, I still somehow managed to get a ride with an instructor in an Acura Integra and an old air-cooled 911 in full race prep — until last month my one and only experience in a Porsche on a racetrack. I was so taken with how friendly and welcoming everyone was. They were sharing cars, high-fiving and back-patting and giving rides. It was infectious. As soon as we moved back to California, I signed up for my first day of HPDE in my first of many Miatas.

It seems like such a long time ago — because it was — but I remember much of my first day driving on track vividly. First, it was raining. I remember how incredulous I was when my first instructor Tom Paule told me he goes over Phil Hill in fourth gear, a turn I was gearing down to second for.

I also remember walking into the same classroom I was now standing in front of, as all those memories came flooding back. I was just filling in for the regular HPDE classroom leader and I had reviewed the PowerPoint presentation the week before, but I felt that deep sense of responsibility to the drivers who had come to NASA for their first weekend of HPDE.

“Good morning. My name is Brett Becker. I’ll be your classroom instructor today,” I began. “It has been a long time since I’ve been in a classroom like this and even longer since I’ve been in front of a classroom, but I’m glad to be here sharing the joy of driving fast on a racetrack. You’re going to remember this day for the rest of your lives. I still remember mine, and these people are the best friends you never knew you had.”

I told them how my first instructor might be the guy getting in their car that day and that if at first they don’t succeed, try doing what your instructor tells you. That got a few laughs.

After their third session on track, as I approached the classroom with a sparse violations report, the quiet and reserved students from the morning’s classroom introduction had morphed into a raucous and animated bunch, laughing and smiling and using hand gestures to help describe driving their cars on track.

That was probably the best part of the day. Sure I get a charge out of teaching and leading a classroom and sharing the joy of driving fast, but it was during that moment that I felt like they got it. They had met their people, the best friends they never knew they had.

Here’s how I know that. I have three friends to this day that I met in in NASA HPDE so many years ago. Some of us have continued with NASA, racing and doing Time Trial, and a couple of others have come and gone from being track rats, but I think they’ll be back. I still keep in touch with all of them to this day at least a couple of times a week. That’s the tacit appeal of NASA. You come for the cars and the speed, and you stay for the people.

I had experienced that camaraderie through racing, but it took standing in front of an HPDE classroom to get things to come full circle — and I never saw it coming.