Skip Barber Racing School

What a waste of money. We entered into the driving school/ academy only to have the fastest cars handed to a rich family each and every race. Even though the car picks were to be "random". So if you want to be competitive this school isn't for you, unless you have a famous last name, or really deep pockets. Had I known we would have choosen another racing academy to put on money towards. Such a disappointment.

I purchased a one day training as a gift for my husband. The day was wonderful and exceptional. My rating is for the customer service. I purchased the video of him in the car. We received it and it was slow motion and had no sound. I contacted them and they fixed it, but the car he was in had no microphone. Watching a race video with no sound of the car is disappointing. So I requested a refund. They did give a refund, but the issue was one of my payments was on a gift card and others on credit card. They did not ask which card we wanted the refund to and they refunded the gift card. The gift card is long gone at this point and we are just out of luck.

So my rating of 3 has to do with having the video equipment in the car and NOT checking if that student for the day had paid for the video package ($250) and making sure he was in a car that would be able to be recorded along with the customer service situation above. At this point we are just out $250. UGH

3 day racing school wasn't that great. Most of my time was spent waiting for my turn to drive in the hot sun. Instructors have supervisor come out to be rude to you and tell you what not to do to damage the car but don't tell you what to do. Very negative experience.

Redeemed my Yelp racing intro deal on Sunday, whoa that was fun. Driving a formula 1-style car on a famous racetrack was quite the adrenaline pumping experience.

Can't say I got all that much out of the classroom hour, there was a lot of fluff time spent on instructor resumes, a photo/video sales pitch, and participant introductions... cut out the fat and you could get it down to 30 minutes, easy.

The track time was generous and while I enjoyed every second out there, I was spent by the end. Once you left the classroom session everything was very efficient... moments later you were zipping around at high speeds (trailing a speedy pro) almost uninterrupted for a couple hours.

The instructors were chill and very welcoming. They push you harder than you'd likely have pushed yourself, thought they do so gently in an unintimidating way. While I'm not sure I'm hardcore enough to do one of their mutiday classes, I'm sure it'd be fun... maybe someday.

After my wife gave me a gift certificate of High Performance Driving at Leguna Seca, I was elated. After a year had expired I looked into the Skip Barber (SB) program and found that it was not offered at Leguna. When I inquired at SB they told me that the high speed driving was being offered elsewhere in the country. As I was not willing to outlay any more dollars I waited until SB offered credit towards a one day racing out West. As I was not comfortable with the racing school I requested a refund which was immediately rejected. I just concluded an email trail with Scott Hartinger at the new SB (post chapter 11). Scott offered a full credit of my certificate ($1695), as long as I spend an additional $1695 for a more expensive program. I informed him that I would no longer be a customer of Skip Barber and would endorse their competition.

Worst experience ever. Dangerous and poorly maintained vehicles, poor management that refused to credit for the bad experience. Now under "New" management hahahaha. They still wouldn't honor any credit.

Stay away from them and find an alternative school. Don't fall for the "genuine" reviews, they are likely generated by a marketing company.

Wait a few years and see if they clean up their act. Way too much money to risk having another bad experience here.

My wife signed me up for Intro to Racing as an anniversary present. Yes, she is cool.

The cars are hardcore. The course -- the real F1 deal with Laguna Seca's legendary "corkscrew" and all -- is even more so. It felt like driving a ski run at Aspen. Fast.

I managed to spin out on turn 6 on my 3rd lap. No harm done, but definitely gives you an appreciation for what the pros are really doing out there at 100 MPH and scores of other cars on the road.

The lecture hour is helpful, and after the track time I ended up wanting more class time (to ask questions now that I had some experience) followed of course by more track time.

Insider tip for those like me who know nothing about racing: don't be scared to brake hard before the turns, even over-doing it so you are going quite slowly beforehand... which gives you tons of control and allows you to gun it once you're straightened out. I was coming from the video game school of racing, where you basically never use the brake - so anyhow, I think I would have been a lot faster had I been heavier on both brake and gas.

In all, definitely one of those lifetime experiences I am not going to forget. And if I manage to stumble into money someday, I could see getting really into this (e.g., trying their 2 day class, etc.).

VERY DISHONEST!!! Took our money in November of 2016 KNOWING that they were claiming bankruptcy. It is now August, I had been calling every month thinking that they were going to have classes in California at the Laguna Seca....the man, Scott, answering the phones was still claiming they would be giving classes just have not scheduled. He was taking peoples money KNOWING that they were in the process of BK. This is fraud!! I just received an email after numerous calls, letters, emails etc.... it stated:



800.221.1131 | skipbarber.com

August 7, 2017

This is an important message.

Skip Barber Racing School's assets have been sold.

The buyer is analyzing potential strategies and, until a plan is established, is not sure whether he will operate the business or sell the assets to a party that will operate the business.

As a result, events and programs have been suspended until further notice.

While much can unfold in the coming weeks and months, operations may be launched again given the strength of the Skip Barber Racing School brand and 42 years of developing great drivers, racers and champions.



WHAT A SCAM!!!!

OK, 1st of all, I'll be completely honest. Anyone who can get me track time on Laguna Seca is gonna get at least 4 stars regardless of any other circumstances. Laguna Seca has been the racetrack of my speed-crazed dreams for years & years now.

When I saw the Yelp deal for $350 off the price of a racing school session at Skip Barber Racing School, I knew the dream would soon be reality. After talking to the guys at Skip Barber on the phone, I was informed that the discount could be used toward any session in any program.

Though I was more interested in a Mazdaspeed Intro to Racing session, I ended up reserving a spot on a Formula Car Intro to Racing session because it fit my schedule better. That session also, luckily, fit the weather better too, as it was on a dry day between 2 rainy weeks.

The whole Formula Car Intro to Racing session is very brief. Altogether, it was about 3 hours. There were 6 of us in my session. During the classroom portion, we got suited up & went over the very basics of the car itself, vehicle dynamics, the racing line & how we should apply it to the track.

Just to note some add-ons, we were offered while in the classroom:

+ Insurance for the race car, $75 for coverage with a $1000 deductible. It was, by no means, a hard sell & the instructor sort of assured me that I wouldn't need it.

+ Photos & video of our session, $120 for video, $190 for photos & a Skip Barber photo frame, $100 for digital copy of photos only. The video is shot by a camera mounted to the top of the roll bar on the car & displays an array of real-time drive data. The photos are shot from various vantage points around the track, including the Corkscrew.

After all that, we headed out to the cars. The instructor went over the cars with us, reiterating some of the stuff we got in the classroom. Then it was time to get in, sit down, strap in, shut up & get ready to go like Hell.

For the driving portion, we got to lap the track for 3 sets of 20-ish minute intervals. It was, essentially, follow the leader with an instructor out in front driving the ideal line through the curves. For what it was, a very simple & basic introduction to race car driving in a nimble but not too fast car, it was a blast.

Ultimately, a racing school session like this is just to provide a taste of what it's like drive a race car. Truly, it's too short to come away with a whole lot of new driving skills. But the experience alone was well worth it for me, especially with the Yelp deal discount.

No doubt this was a "bucket list" kind of thing for me. Drive a race car on Laguna Seca? Check. Thank you Skip Barber for the opportunity. Just a taste, however, wasn't enough & I will absolutely be looking for more chances to put the rubber to the road on Laguna Seca!

I have mixed emotions on this school. It was extremely fun and I feel like I learned a lot about the cars, car control, and learned the beginning of race craft. I took this school 12/21/15-12/23/15 and it rained the first 2 days, which provided the opportunity to learn to race in the rain, a valuable skill.

The instructors were all experienced racers, so they were able to provide valuable feedback to go with the instruction.

As someone who really wanted to learn about racing and measuring my progress, I felt there were some problems. First, they combined two classes into one, so there were 23 students to only 4 instructors. This limited the instructors being able to watch individuals and limited the feedback they were able to provide. I asked specifically for feedback, and I got a little bit more than I was getting, but there were many sessions were I received no feedback. Also, due to the lack of instructors, the driver I was sharing my car with ran out of gas at the start of an open lapping session and was not found stalled on the side of the track until the end of the session. I had even mentioned to an instructor twice during the lapping session that I had not seen my car at all during the session and the instructor never radioed anyone to go check for the car.

Second, they did not have enough back up cars for a class of this size. People inevitably will crash if they are pushing their cars. For a class of 23 they only had 3 back up cars. When these cars ran out, lapping sessions were lost. I bent a tie rod on my car and this put my car out of commission, and because others had crashed earlier, I lost several lapping sessions as the instructors tried to figure out what to do.

Third, for someone who wanted to measure improvement, I was disappointed to learn once I arrived that they do not time any of your laps. The instructors said this was something they used to do, but it caused students to compete with each other which lead to more crashes. While I understand how this can cause issues, lap times are needed to measure progress.

Because of these issues, I feel like this was a very introductory race driving school. Their advanced school seems more like what I was looking for. Don't misunderstand me, this program was extremely fun and the instruction was very progressive and each lesson built on the last, helping you go faster as the days went on. I just expected a little more personal instruction so I could make more progress.