A writer from Motor Trend secured a seat to the Lexus Performance Academy held two weekends ago at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana California. Here’s how the event broke down:
For the most part, it turned out to be a fun way to spend a day. The four-hour-plus event is broken up into several parts, about 30 minutes in length. The Academy starts off with the program’s rundown and a brief introduction to proper driving techniques by a professional driver. Afterward, attendees are split into four groups. Each will rotate through the day’s four sessions — autocross, team relay, lead follow, and advanced theory — before finishing up with a few laps in an IS F with one of the pros behind the wheel.
Each of the four events described sound like plenty of fun, particularly the lead-follow session:
Three people in IS Fs follow a pro driver in an IS 350 or IS 250 around a road course; in this case, the 1.4-mile course on the speedway’s infield. Despite the IS F’s power edge, keeping up with the pros predictably isn’t easy.
The writer’s main complaint was that the event was fairly basic and intended for only novices, though I wouldn’t have expected anything different.
Update: The event described here is the paid version of the Performance Driving Academy.