The GHR Experience

The Ultimate Racing Resource for Girls

The GHR Experience is our introductory racing program geared just to young women, taught by a current female race car driver. It will provide a completely positive and supportive environment that will give a young woman a chance to develop her driving skills, have fun, and come away with the huge smile and second helping of self-esteem that motorsports can bring. They will include both off-track and on-track instruction tailored to each young woman’s skill level.

The GHR Experience has 3 stages where girls can progress from learning basic car control and driving skills (Stage 1 – Start Your Engines) to intermediate driving skills and introduction to racing (Stage 2 – Taking the Green) to developing competitive skills (Stage 3 – Victory Lane). The first two stages will be conducted at Fastimes Indoor Karting in Indianapolis. For Stage 3, we will introduce our drivers to competition at New Castle Motorsports Park, one of the finest outdoor karting facilities in the country.

The GHR Experience is focused on individual development and goals. While some girls may have the interest and talent to progress to a professional auto racing career, our focus is on providing each girl with the opportunity to develop her individual skills at a pace which will be both challenging and rewarding, to matter what Stage they are in.

The GHR Experience has a structured approach to skill development, assuring that at each Stage drivers are of comparable skills and are prepared for the challenges of moving to the next Stage.

What is the GHR Experience?

Who can Experience?

Anyone can learn to drive and race and have fun doing it! Don’t believe us? Read about the first time Shannon and I put my 9- and 12-year old daughters in karts. The GHR Experience is currently open to girls age 10-16 who are interested in taking on a fun, new, and rewarding challenge. Minimum height for the karts used in Stage 1 and Stage 2 is 53 inches (with shoes).

As a father of 3 girls, I started Glass Hammer Racing for some of the same reasons you are here right now. I wanted to share my passion for motorsports with my daughters and give them the opportunity to find the same joy and sense of accomplishment that motorsports has brought me. Your girls will not just learn to drive and race, but will also learn some of the traditions and culture of motorsports. They’ll take a track walk, learn (and feel) what it means when the car is “loose” or “pushes”, and they’ll gain an appreciation for the athletic talent professional drivers bring to the sport.

Whether your daughters are destined to be the second female to win the Indianapolis 500 (sorry, but Collete is going to take the honor of being the first) or just interested in having fun and competing against themselves to improve their best time, the staff and instructors of GHR Experience will be delighted to help them along their way.

Here is a brief outline of the skills racers will learn as they progress through each Stage of the GHR Experience. Each racer will progress at her own pace and advance when she has mastered the skills at each Stage. Some racers will be ready for Stage 2 after just one Stage 1 experience. Others will enjoy several Stage 1 programs before they feel ready to move on. Still others may be happy coming back time and again to Experience one of the Stages without feeling the pressured to move on.

GHR Experience Skill Progression

Stage 1 – Start your Engines: (Beginning Drivers | Intro to driving skills)

Seating position (reach pedals and steering wheel comfortably)
Controls (gas, brake, steering)
Hand Position (no locking thumbs, be conscious of a firm but non-death grip)
RULES –safety (including safety gear and overview of what each is for), lights and flags
Basic car control– acceleration, slowing, braking, steering
Accelerate on straights, slow and brake for the curves
Straight line braking and acceleration
Parts of a turn – turn in, apex, track out
Driving line – slow in, fast out
Driving line – hitting the apex

Stage 2 – Taking the Green (Intermediate Drivers | Intro to racing skills)

Prerequisite: Mastery of all Stage 1 skills

Spins/sliding – how and why
Skid/spin recovery
General Passing
Late braking/threshold braking
Oversteer (loose)
Understeer (tight or push)
Pushing out of a corner into wall (too fast)
Throttle-induced oversteer
Bumping and rubbing (with walls or other cars) slows you down
Traction/force vectors
Weight transfer
Dealing with bumps
Trail braking

Stage 3 – Victory Lane (Advanced Drivers | Intro to competition skills)

Prerequisite: Mastery of all Stage 2 skills

Racing for position
The “racing line” vs the “driving line”
Driving off line
Positioning for the pass
Passing off line
Passing on line

What will the GHR Experience racers learn?