DRIVING PROGRAMS
SOMMER SCHNELL / HPDE
Introduction
Driving schools have been extremely popular with performance-oriented owners of all cars, but none more so than BMW drivers. BMW Car Club of America chapters have hosted driving schools around the country since the 1970s. Our North Star Chapter offers three types of schools:
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Advanced Driving Skills for Adults
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High-Performance Driving Education for Adults
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Street Survival School for Teens
We welcome the camaraderie of all enthusiasts with all different makes of cars at our schools – you don’t have to own a BMW to enjoy our events!
Our driving schools are set up to meet everyone’s needs, and you will be instructed within your comfort level. We want everyone to enjoy the track, the friends, and the facility. Each driver will have an instructor in the car to coach them and help them learn the proper lines of the course. All participants also attend classroom sessions to reinforce what they are doing and learning in the car.
Safety is always the greatest of concerns at any driving school, and it’s always the focus of everything we do. We want everyone to enjoy the event and to take their cars home in the same condition as when they arrived. But we also want you to go home with an improved awareness of your skills and your car and a lot of track experiences to share.
About our Instructors
Our instructors come from two basic driving backgrounds: accomplished driving school students, and successful amateur racers. Regardless of their backgrounds, our instructors conform to a uniformly high standard of competence, professionalism, and enthusiasm for teaching.
Candidates selected from our student roster have a documented record of achievement. Candidates applying from a racing background must have comparable skills and experience. As part of the qualification process, we apply a series of student instruction simulations (using our instructors as the “students”) to ensure that the instructor candidate understands not only how to drive, but how to teach and display impeccable attitude and driving etiquette.
We draw our instructors from BMW CCA chapters, Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), Audi Club, Porsche Club, and other marque clubs. We select our instructors very carefully to ensure that every student receives the best possible instruction from the safest, most professional, and most knowledgeable people we can find. We are very proud of our instructor corps, and we trust that you will share that pride.