Teen Safe Driving at Sonoma Raceway
Sonoma Raceway was formerly called Sears Point Raceway.
The all-new Teen Safe Driving Program at Sonoma Raceway is aimed at equipping young, inexperienced driver with the skills and confidence needed to navigate today's roads safely and responsibly. This program combines classroom instruction with extensive hands-on training in a controlled environment. Participants will drive behind the wheel of an official Sonoma Raceway vehicle with the aim to gain a deeper understanding of vehicle dynamics and essential car control techniques – knowledge that is crucial for accident avoidance and overall road safety.
After our son had two fender-benders while driving in traffic, we enrolled him in this one-day Safe Teen Driver Training course at the raceway in Sonoma: https://simracewaydrivingschool.com/programs-experiences/safe-driver-tr…. The course includes having teens drive through obstacle courses, and stop suddenly while driving at high speeds. Our son not only loved it and gained a lot of understanding about how to safely handle a car and either avoid or prevent accidents, he kept urging his dad and me to take the course, too. The course is pricey--but not as pricey as the potential damage and harm a poor teen driver can do.
The teenSmart program through Adept Driver is EXCELLENT. it’s on line, interactive and focuses on better decision making. There are activities you can do with your child as well. It’s helped my daughter notice things she wasn’t seeing before. It’s been a very worth while program for us and I believe she’s learned a lot more and is clearly applying it. We heard of it from our car insurance company.
Good luck.
Archived Q&A and Reviews
July 2003
I have taken several different one-day courses at Sears Point. I think that this is excellent training for all drivers, and especially for new ones who need some sense of what they and their vehicle can do in an emergency. Generally, they teach severe braking, skid control, and handling skills. Check the information under High School Safe Driver Program at http://www.searspoint.com/pages/racewayinfo/searscommunity.html. Linda
Oct 2001
We gave our daughter a Highway Survival Course for her 16th birthday at from the driving school at Sears Point Raceway. It is an all day course on the raceway in special skid cars taught by professional race drivers on how to handle extreme highway conditions. She thought it was a weird present but she finally went during the summer, (after having her licence for 6 months) and loved it. It cost around $300. Even after all this-following the rules, taking the survival course and almost one year of driving-she had a small accident, rearending a woman leaving the parking lot in Longs. That is a nasty corner and it could happen to anyone, but this one accident came back with a $3000 estimate from the other driver and this was a 5 mile an hour accident. All in all I would do exactly the same thing again. She is a good driver and she still loves driving.
The Highway Survival Course is through the Russell Racing School at Sears Point Raceway. The phone number is 800-733-939-7600. They have a website for the school which lists all their courses including the Highway Survival Course that is http://www.russelldriving.com or they have a special clickthrough to just the Highway Survival Course at http://www.driversafer.com.
80% of the attendees are teens and 20% are adults. They focus on 3 areas. They start out with a ground school on vehicle dynamics. 1) Skid Control- in wet conditions. They have special skid cars which simulate these conditions. A professional driver rides with them. 2)Accident Avoidence-they have a lane change simulator. The student has to drive around cones. 3)Panic Stops- they teach them aggresive stops with and without anti-lock breaks.
At the end they do a timed driving exercise for fun.
It is 5 hours on one day. They run them 1 weekend a month. You can buy gift certificates for the course and take it any month. There are 12 people in each course. It costs $385.
I think it is great for both girls and boys. It instills a sense of control over the vehicle and conditions their reactions without encountering them for the first time on the road. Laura
Nov 2001
RE: the Highway Survival Course : I guess I spoke too soon. I was the one who recommended the Highway Survival Course that my 16yr old Junior daughter took. She just got into her 2nd accident in less than 2 months. So maybe it just makes them overconfident. It obviously doesn't guarantee protection. I'm getting her a bus pass and nix on the driving for the indefinite future. Laura
Parent Reviews
Parents, please Sign in to post a review on this page.