2025 Drivers Skills Seminar

With Brian Till

The day started off a bit cool, but over 100 drivers and volunteers found the auditorium at the Hamilton County Coroner’s office to be quite comfortable. Brian Till once again agreed to speak to our group. His explanation of safety gear, its use, and purpose went to the heart of each track weekend’s focus. How to keep yourself and those around you safe while exploring your limits. Following lunch and some lively discussions with old friends, Brian once again took the reins, discussing how to come up to speed quicker when first visiting a new track. It allowed everyone time to reflect on how they approach not only learning a new track but how they go about learning in general. Brian is an incredibly generous individual, staying until everyone’s questions have been answered.

While heading home I reflected on how close our motorsports community truly is. With very few exceptions, everyone from drivers to team owners, to broadcast commentators will take time for a photo, a question, or an autograph. Unlike many sports that have barriers and security guards to keep you from the teams, motorsports does quite the opposite. At any IMSA race weekend, pit lane opens before the race encouraging autographs and photographs with the cars, teams, and drivers. Unless 4-year-old Johnny is covered in goo, most teams are happy to have him around the car that is about to compete and with some luck he may even get a photo sitting behind the wheel.

I find that Brian is an incredible emissary of the sport. His ability to take a complex question and break it down so everyone can both understand the answer and begin to apply it to their driving. I want to thank Brian for continuing to visit our humble group of drivers to pass along his experience so we can all improve.

Also, a big thank you to everyone that jumped in to help with even the smallest details. From carrying in cases of beverages to handling registration, Thank you! The teamwork that we experience at each event from the members of the Ohio Valley Region is the best there is. We do have other regions interested in what we’re doing and may want to be involved in expanding this event to include vendors and additional speakers, making it a true regional event. Please reach out to me if you have any topics that you would enjoy having discussed, any other speakers (maybe even a pro driver) you would like to hear from, or a track owner, or team owner that would be interesting to hear from.

Thank you for attending and if you happen to miss this one, there will be another. You can reach me at: HPDE@ovrpca.org. Thank you!

Jeff Woodard