LAKEPORT, Calif. – The National Auto Sport Association and the California Highway Patrol are bringing back to Lake County their popular Teen Car Control Clinic.
The clinic will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, in Lakeport at the parking lot at the Lakeside Family Fun Center in the Vista Point Shopping Center on Lakeport Boulevard. Each student will drive his or her own car throughout the day.
This is a unique opportunity for permitted and licensed drivers to practice hands-on driving skills throughout the day.
Essentially, every participant is coached through exercises that teach car control in all types of situations, from backing through cones, to parallel parking to slalom driving forward through cones, hard braking exercises, turning under hard braking, and many say the most fun is the figure eight on the skid pad.
The final exercise is the two wheels off exercise simulating dropping two wheels off the pavement during highway driving. That exercise is done at slower speeds but the training helps instill the proper techniques to follow should it happen at highway speeds.
The feedback from our previous two events in Lake County has been over the top. Parents and students alike wonder if it's going to be worth the small cost – $99 per student with scholarships available – but once into the program just an hour or so, wonder turns to smiles. Anxiety about the unknown becomes grins and thumbs up.
Parents are encouraged to cheerlead and some have signed up for the next event so they can practice these life-saving drills themselves.
Lunch – cheeseburger, chips and soda – will be made available by the Family Fun Center for a special of $5.50.
For more information visit www.nasacarcontrol.org or contact Officer Kory Reynolds at the CHP at 707-279-0103 or Lake County resident and National Auto Sport Association coach Eric Wheaton at 707-535-9148.