With his car positioned at the starting line of his first Skip Barber racing series event, Walter Irvine ’84 felt both intense excitement and apprehension. Revving his engine, his heart drummed inside his chest as the flag signaled the start.
In a few seconds moving at 95 miles per hour, another car spun out of control in front of him at one of the most dangerous parts of the track. Irvine did what he calls a “sympathy spin” with his own car, avoiding a collision. Both drivers continued the race.
A situation such as this is just one of the things Irvine teaches his students to handle at the Skip Barber Racing School in Lakeville, Conn.
Irvine has always had a passion for racing, always gravitating toward automobiles, his toy cars being his most favored possession. “Nothing in my childhood specifically led me to my love of automobiles, especially since no one in my family has any automotive interests,” Irvine says. His love for the sport only grew with his exposure to automotive magazines, many of them featuring Skip Barber’s Limerock track.
So when a neighbor invited Irvine and his parents to a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) event at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania, he knew a life of racing was meant for him. “Our neighbor was a driver and knew that I was crazy about automobiles and racing,” he says. Not only was the SCCA event Irvine’s first opportunity to experience a racing event, but he also got to ride in the pace car prior to the race. The excitement and joy of that single experience was an enlightening moment, he says. “I knew at that point that it was exactly what I wanted to do.”
Irvine began teaching at Skip Barber 15 years ago when he was invited to join the staff after racing just one weekend in the school’s Eastern regional championship series. “The job is not something you apply for. They locate, interview, observe you, and then invite you to instruct,” he says.
Prior to joining the Skip Barber staff, Irvine trained at the Jim Russell Racing School Canada at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant, Quebec, where he received formal open wheel training, a process that requires a substantial amount of mental conditioning. “A lot of my training was learning how physics applies to any vehicle,” Irvine says. “It was all about learning the discipline to maximize the performance of the car.” After his training, Irvine won the championship at Jim Russell in 1990, making him the first American to win the Jim Russell post-graduate race.
As an instructor at Skip Barber, Irvine has taught a number of notable personalities, including Michael Andretti’s son, Marco, and Brian Johnson, lead singer of AC/DC. During his first few encounters with Johnson, Irvine didn’t recognize the iconic musician. “When I met him he didn’t tell me who he was,” Irvine recalls. “I just assumed he was some British racer.”
National Geographic Ultimate Explorer recently featured the Skip Barber School, and Irvine himself, on a show about the effects of the speed of racing on the human body. Irvine gave the National Geographic anchor a condensed racing lesson. The anchor and Irvine then circulated the track “doing a lead-follow with him in back of me,” Irvine says. Speeds were generally less than 100 miles per hour, Irvine recalls, “but the rate that we brake, turn and accelerate exiting corners is substantially higher than he had ever experienced.” Irvine and the National Geographic anchor raised their track speeds until they got to the threshold of the anchor’s driving experience, at which point they pitted in, took the anchor’s vital signs and drew blood.
The results showed that the body manufactures chemicals that create an anxiety similar to a “fight or flight” sensation, as well as a euphoria-producing stimulant and a large amount of adrenaline. “After he [the anchor] regained composure he said on-air, ‘that is the most exciting thing I have ever done,’” Irvine says.
But Irvine’s most memorable experiences come from seeing one of his students go on to win a series race. Close bonds are formed between instructor and pupil, and the success of his students fills Irvine with a great sense of pride. “When one of ‘my guys’ wins, it’s a feeling of excitement almost equal to the feeling I get when winning a race of my own,” Irvine says.
Currently serving the Skip Barber Racing School as both instructor and account manager for corporate events, he says, “Racing is eminently marketable and is seen as exotic and dangerous. We (the Skip Barber School) are very successful in that we make it obtainable for virtually anyone.”
A self-proclaimed Skip Barber “lifer,” Irvine would not trade what he is doing for a living for any other profession. “One in a million people actually get to have a career they love and be doing exactly what they always wanted to do,” he says. “I’m constantly humbled by what I do, humble in the respect that I am so grateful.”
– Jordan M. Mauger ’06