Rally 101

As a dyed-in-the-wool right-foot breaker, I thought it would be silly to left-foot brake in the first rally of my life.But that's what Tim O'Neil, who owns a rally driving school in New Hampshire, basically told me to do. "It's the only way you'll do respectably."
So, two days prior to the STPR, I found myself at the Team O'Neil Car Control Center and Rally School near the small town of Dalton, learning not just how it's done, but why. In short, O'Neil says left-foot breaking has two advantages: It reduces the time it takes you to apply the brakes, thereby helping keep the car on the road; and it can also be used while cornering to reduce understeer or induce oversteer, providing the driver with what O'Neil calls "an additional tool" in controlling the car.

And you know what?It works. In O'Neil'srally-prepped Golf (a front-driver similar inpower to my Tiburon),I spent the better partof a day with Tim and instructor Tony Brush weaving through a gravel slalom, left-foot braking to rotate the car and find the proper exit angle before completing each gate. And occasionally O'Neil would secretly move the cones to mimic the unknown nature of a SCCA Pro Rally.

All good fun, and with O'Neil's methodical approach and boundless passion for the sport, a true learning experience. For more information on his rally or car-control courses, call (603) 823-5558 or visit the website, www.teamoneil.com.