Hi everyone. I'm posting this for a friend who is organizing a private performance driving course at Thunderhill on June 6, which I will be attending. The instructors will be from Jim Russell. It will be a pretty small group, but there are still some places available. My friend is not making any money on this event - he's just trying to get enough enthusiasts together to make it happen.

Incidentally, at this point the cars participating include the organizer's Murcielago LP640, a Gallardo, a 997GT3RS, and my 996GT3.

Please see below for more details. Hope to see you out there.

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This is a course to teach you to drive your sports car to its limits -- while staying within your limits. Although the course is taught on the track, the focus is learning the safe handling of your car under aggressive driving conditions, on or off track.

The Performance Driving Safety Course will be taught at ThunderHill on June 6 by instructors from the Jim Russell Racing School. The course will have several segments and some classroom time as well as driving. The segments are expected to be:

1) timed slalom to learn handling;
2) wet and dry skidpad experimentation with understeer/oversteer and recovery;
3) braking fundamentals;
4) track instruction using follow the leader, in-car instruction, and hot-lapping (instructor drives to demonstrate); and
5) fundamentals of passing on the track.

All this will occur in your own car, so you will learn to drive your own car to the best of your ability. The student instructor ratio will be about 3 students to each instructor.

The cost will be $1,000 per driver. Participants will need sign a driver's waiver and pay a $500 deposit very soon. You will need to arrange your own lodging in Willows the night before. Information about the track and lodging is available at www.thunderhill.com.

There will be another group at the track that day, but we will never be on the track with them at the same time. We will be on the skidpad or in the classroom while they have their heats.

Please email J. Reed at june6course@live.com to enroll, including your name, email and cell contact info.