Countries, states and provinces have their own special requirements to get a driver’s license. In Finland, for example, the road test includes night driving and a skid pad session to help new drivers deal with treacherous winter conditions in that part of the world.
At Demaras Racing, it is our theory that to improve road safety in Ontario, each newly minted driver’s license should include a one year pass to a drag strip or road course near the drivers home. Inexperienced and immature drivers are just going to speed on public roads, so providing a safe place for them to feed their need for speed may just save a life.
For example, here’s a news story about a kid driving 54 km/h over the limit in his mom’s car on Friday. At that high a speed, the car was immediately impounded. Wonder how mom is getting to work on Monday!
The very next day, this news story about a kid in Brampton caught excessively speeding. To give you an idea how bad this one was, the article is from Road & Track rather than the local news. This kid was driving his dad’s Corvette, and got caught going 126 km/h over. At triple the speed limit, it’s totally justified to impound the car. It’s just too the dad is the one taking the fall for this.
The kids in these news clips aren’t bad. They just lack the judgement that comes with age. We all do stupid things when we’re young. But these speed demons could end up killing an innocent bystander. And that’s why we strongly believe that giving them access to a track would be the safest thing to do.
A couple years ago, Atlanta was being overrun with ‘take-overs’ and fielded the idea of a space out in the industrial lands where road rules would not be enforced by cops. Seemed like a terrible solution to a bad problem.
Places where rules of the road don’t apply already exist. Where you get recognition (and even a trophy) rather than a ticket or license suspension. They’re called race tracks. And we should encourage young drivers to take it to the track, rather than risking everything by doing something stupid on public roads.