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Team O'Neil in the Press
<Back | European Car, February 2001 |
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by Tom McKinney
Photos by the Author
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I
love to play in the dirt. I always have. From mud pies to Tonka
toys, dirt can be so very entertaining. I once spent an afternoon
learning to push piles of it around with a bulldozer just because
I could.
Of course as we get older we sometimes forget the simple joys
in life. I left the Tonka trucks behind when at 12 I started
working as the press tower go-fer at Watkins Glen and was introduced
to Formula One. I became a motorsports photographer and from
trackside I learned to appreciate precision in driving and was
awesruck when I would see the likes of Stewart, Lauda, Hill,
Hunt, Andretti and later stars such as Mansell, Prost, Senna
and Schumacher turn lap after lap on the very edge of control.
I thought it was the ultimate in driving. |
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Somewhere between Stewart and Schumacher I discovered rallying.
I couldn't believe my eyes. Watching John Buffman or Rod Millen
slide through a corner they had never seen before, the car sideways,
engine screaming, gravel flying and the tires desperately searching
for grip, was exhilarating.
There was no way they could possibly stay on the road; they
were just lucky that time. But the more I watched, the more
I saw the some repeatability, the same discipline and even more
incredible car control than I saw on the road courses. These
guys drove flat out all day and half the night on dirt roads,
in any weather and never saw the same corner twice. I go to
every rally or hillclimb I can. Over the years I have seen some
amazing driving and have made some great friends.
One of those friends is Tim O'Neil. The former WV factory driver
loves to play in the dirt, too. He's the kind of guy who, after
wining several regional and national class championships, would
sell his business, pack his bags and head to Europe to see if
he could be competitive in the World Rally Championship. O'Neil
ran the Thousand Lakes, found he could indeed be competitive
and spent the next couple years looking for sponsorship and
learning the business end of the WRC.
He landed in England and worked for Ford as an instructor and
demonstration driver, eventually moving to corporate hospitality
with the factory Gp N British Championship team. O'Neil was
finalizing a driving deal when he realized it would mean spending
every waking moment of the next 5 years focusing on the rally
team. A little voice said, "Are you sure? What are your
real priorities?" and having no need to prove anything
else to himself, he once again packed his bags and came to the
States.
Once home, O'Neil worked for a while as a mechanic in a vintage
racing shop. He started instructing for the East Coast version
of Jean-Paul Luc's Winter Driving School and one year ran the
school at Killington. "I really liked teaching and realized
my direction," O'Neil said, "Jean-Luc made me explain
everything I was doing bit by bit, it was my big breakthrough.
Who cares if you ever won a rally. I quit being so selfish and
learned to teach."
And teach he does. O'Neil found himself back in hometown Franconia,
N.H., working at his old shop and giving driving lessons on
the side. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to
teach. He made the leap, leased a pretty valley in the White
Mountains, started building roads and now has one of the premiere
rally and driver training facilities in the world. An ever-expanding
work in progress, the site currently features a 200-ft skid
pad, an adjacent 80-ft-wide avoidance exercise and slalom area
and more than 3 miles of stage roads. All of the surfaces are
groomed gravel, and "Junction City" features 15 different
kinds of corners.
The team O'Neil Car Control Center and Rally School now offers
one- and two-day car control courses, winter driving instruction,
a three-day rally school and advanced rally instruction.
Of course, when the invitation came, I chose to attend the three-day
rally school and finally learn how these guys made their cars
do the things they did. To make things interesting I also signed
my wife up for the course. She has always been tolerant of my
fascination with cars, and I was certain she would be a better
driver after our time with O'Neil. I was also curious to see
how she would perform as a student and whether or not three
days of performance driving would convert her into a driving
enthusiast.
"A lot of people view rally driving as a 'black art,'"
said O'Neil, "or think you were born Finnish and that's
the reason you are good. What ever you think the reasons are,
it's not true. The reason is training. I destroyed 100 cars
to figure it out. You can come to a three-day school and learn
the same stuff I know. You might not be as good as I am because
you haven't done 100 rallies, but that's just practice and experience.
My only secret is learning how to teach these techniques. Fact
is, I can teach you the basic techniques in three days. People
come to me because they want to go fast. Speed is a by-product
of this course. By the time you get really good at these techniques
and everything becomes instinctive, you will be fast."
Day one starts with a breakfast meeting. O'Neil explains what
he hopes to achieve over the next three days and launches into
an explanation of skid control and the advantages of left-foot
breaking. We talk about weight transfer, the five basic types
of skids, how to use the throttle and brake to steer the car
and accident avoidance. "Your whole job as a driver comes
down to two tings. First, you become a weight-transfer specialist.
Second, you learn to consistently analyze local conditions and
use that to determine the proper speed for your vehicle. If
you have an accident, it's usually because you, or someone else,
didn't adjust for the conditions. You need to prepare and pay
attention, have a 'both hands on the wheel' kind of attitude.
We have cell phones ringing and people applying make-up as they
drive. The world is going badly when the Germans put cup holders
in their cars. A car is like a lethal weapon, it's going to
kill you if you didn't know what you are doing, so you should
pay attention!"
Out at the school site, we meet the team of instructors and
get settled in our cars. For most of the first two days, we
will be driving rally-prepped WV A2 GTI's. The cars have full
roll caged, no interiors, carbon brakes, adjustable brake master
cylinders and full rally suspensions. Later in the school we
will practice in all-wheel and rear-wheel vehicles.
O'Neil chooses his instructors carefully, "I want serious
people that want to teach rather than someone who wants to race.
A lot of instructors use driving schools to forward their racing
careers; they don't want to be teacher, they want to be race
car drivers and the teaching suffers. Most of my guys are married.
Being married and having kids seems to give you a little more
patience," He said.
"Every exercise begins with an instructor giving a demonstration
ride. Students are able to see and feel the exercise being done
properly, know what to expect next and can tell that little
voice in the back of their heads, 'See. It is possible, be quiet.'"
The first exercise is an introduction to left-foot braking on
the skid pad. Students circle as quickly as they can, gradually
adding left-foot braking (LFB). It is unnerving feeling to brake
steer the car, but it works and you soon find yourself going
much faster and using less steering than you thought possible
5 minutes earlier!
"It's what we say here," explained O'Neil, "MORE
GAS, LESS STEERING!" The LFB transfers weight off the rear
tires, letting the rear of the car rotate around its axis more
easily.
From the skid pad the class moves to the slalom. We start out
with a five-cone, second-gear course. The demonstration ride
makes it look easy. It's not. I was constantly late turning
in on the cone, which or course make me even later for the next
one. I did not learn to commit and trust what the LFB technique
would do for me until O'Neil reached over, grabbed my knee and
firmly planted my foot on the accelerator.
If you keep your right foot firmly planted, turn in seemingly
way to early, add some brake and wait, the car will rotate without
changing direction. You find your exit angle well before the
cone, ease off the brake as you approach the cone, weight transfers
to the rear, the rear tires find some grip and away you go.
Forget to let go of the brake, and you will be very happy the
practice area is 80-ft wide. Speed can be deceptive, and as
the techniques you are learning begin to work you start going
much faster. Going back to your pavement techniques and standing
on the brake when you make a
mistake without straightening the steering wheel will send you
into the weeds.
After lunch, the exercises move to the accident avoidance area.
"A lot of my students don't want to talk about accident
avoidance; they just want to go fast. But these exercises teach
everything - threshold braking, weight transfer to help steering,
brake and throttle coordination, the need to anticipate what
the car will do and how to compensate (countersteer), and they
sharpen reactions. This needs to be instinctive. If someone
pulls out in front of you, you're not going to think, you're
just going to brake hard, release the brake, steer around them
and THEN think, 'WOW, somebody just pulled out in front of me,
that was close!' Besides, I always ask what they plan to do
when they come blasting over a blind crest during a rally and
find a moose in the middle of the road. They usually get the
point."
After the avoidance exercises, the class moves back to the slalom
for more practice. Put it all together, and it is the most incredible
feeling as you slide around every cone totally sideways but
completely in control. Do it right and it is time to take a
break. Every student does the "Chicken Walk" at some
point during the school. It is hard not to strut a little when
you think you are Eric Carlsson.
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Day One seems to end a little early. When things begin to come
together and start making sense, it is time to quit and let
everything you have learned sink in. O'Neil has a firm grip
on the educational theory behind his teaching methods. "You
need to make students good before you make them fast,"
he said. "You need to beat out all the old habits, and
you have to do enough reps so that the good habits are in there,
instilled without thought. We practice, stop, go again and stop
to see what you have absorbed. We use a building-block approach,
adding one thing at a time. Students start with the brake on
the skid pad. Then we use the brake and the steering through
the slalom. The avoidance exercise adds the throttle. We make
you think about it for a day and a half - vehicle dynamics,
car control, how does it work? After a while you just start
driving; it becomes instinctive. Women often make the best students,
but you have to carefully bring them up to speed. We always
have to slow men down, let them get it out of their system,
before they start to listen and learn."
The instructors rotate through the class, each individual style
bringing a slightly different presentation to the same material.
"Constantly changing instructors exposes the students to
fresh ideas. Instructors have to stay ahead of the students,
but only a little, not a lot. We need to teach without crushing
egos." Students also ride along with other students from
time to time. It is amazing what you can learn by watching and
feeling someone else's mistakes.
Day two starts out at the school and begins on the slalom. After
a few runs to get warmed up and a break to discuss things, O'Neil
removes a cone and straightens out the course. It immediately
becomes faster and requires a more subtle touch on the controls.
In order to teach anticipation and compensation, the cones are
sometimes moved between runs, without the students' knowledge,
much like the constantly changing real roads of a rally. A few
more runs and the speed is picked up considerably. It is suggested
we try a run in third gear. With less power available and more
speed, control inputs must be even more gentle and precise.
It seems contradictory with the cars sliding and gravel rattling
off the floorplan, but the faster you go the less control input
you use. Care must be taken to not lose speed and bog down in
the higher gear. Third-gear runs also give students the opportunity
to learn downshifting without the clutch.
The exercise area ends at the bottom of a small hill which leads
up to the turn-around area. O'Neil teaches that unknown blind
crests should always be crossed with the car slightly pitched
one way or the other. It is easy to straighten out if the road
continues straight and the car is already moving if there is
a surprise corner or obstruction. The crest is a perfect place
to grab second gear while left-foot breaking.
After a few more exercises, discussions about LFB, timing, anticipation
and compensation, and a quick trip to town for lunch, it is
time to learn rallying's signature move, the pendulum turn.
Otherwise known as the "Scandinavian Flick", the pendulum
turn picks up where LFB leaves off and is by far the fastest
way through a right-angle (or sharper) turn on a slippery surface.
Left-foot braking is most effective through corners of 45 degrees
and loses its effectiveness as corners approach 90 degrees and
as the road narrows. The pendulum turn becomes most useful on
narrow roads and through corners of 80 degrees or more.
A properly executed pendulum turn requires the driver to do
between 8 and 14 things in a half second. The turn takes everything
we have learned so far - weight transfer using the brake and
the throttle, threshold braking, countersteering, skid control,
anticipation and compensation o and turns it into the automotive
equivalent of the Bolschi dancing Swan Lake. There is speed,
power, grace and finesse all rolled into a single, seamless
move. The more we practice the easier the turn becomes and the
less road it uses. By the end of the day, a tree-lined one-lane
road feels like the interstate.
Day three is where it all comes together. The morning is spent
on the practice areas doing another round of exercises. The
slalom course is faster and leads into a pendulum turn, which
exits into a big sweeping turn on the skid pad, which leads
back to the slalom course. The discussions during our breaks
turn to reading roads, when and where each technique we have
learned is appropriate, and instincts. Said O'Neil "Nine
out of 10 corners are faster than you think but that tenth one…if
you have a little fear it helps. You need to develop this (road
racing) instinct. Some little voice, which hopefully sounds
a lot like mine, says, 'Anchors and gears now!' and you need
to listen. Sometimes, though, to learn to respect your instincts,
you have to hit a tree…with guys anyway!"
The final exam comes after lunch. So far all our time has been
spent on the wide-open practice areas. The narrow, tree-lined
roads of Junction City have an example of every kind of corner
O'Neil could think of. There are acute turns over blind crests,
fast sweepers, little kinks, uphills, downhills and both increasing
and decreasing radius corners. Once again the demonstration
ride is awe-inspiring, but this time the little voice in my
head is saying, "Hey, it's my turn. I can do this, stop
the car and let me drive." The afternoon is spent in rally
heaven. Junction City is slow enough not to intimidate, fast
enough for real thrills and is surrounded by real trees to help
keep everything in perspective. The 15 turns provide a near
endless variety of challenges, and when you start to remember
them, the instructors turn you around and have you run the course
backwards.
Personally, I can't wait to go back; the winter school sounds
awesome. As for my wife, she can't seem to resist construction
cones, often wondering aloud if her Previa All-Trac is too top
heavy to practice in, and last night she suggested we buy our
friend's old Jetta…to build a practice car.
The team O'Neil Car Control Center and Rally School is located
near Littleton in New Hampshire's White Mountains, a few minutes
north of the famous Franconia Notch on I-93. The Mount Washington
Hotel and Cog Railway are less than half an hour away. Go south
a few minutes and venture across the 35-mile-long Kancamagus
Highway to the outlet towns of Conway and North Conway on your
way to the 6.288-ft summit of Mt. Washington via the Mt. Washington
Auto Road. Any season of the year provides outstanding recreational
opportunities. The fall foliage is spectacular and the 770,000-acre
White Mountain National Forest is laced with 1,200 miles of
hiking trails. Fishing and hunting is good throughout the area.
The state boasts 21 downhill ski resorts, 24 cross-country ski
areas and 6,000 miles of snowmobile trails. If winter sports
are your thing, include a couple extra days in your plans, as
Team O'Neil teaches year round and offers discounts on winter
rally schools.
Team
O'Neil
(603) 823-5558
N.H.
Travel and Tourism
(800) 386-4664 (state travel info)
(800) 258-3608 or (800) 262-6660
(Foliage and Ski Reports)
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<Back | European Car,
February 2001
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