2006 Year One Experience - Dukes of Braselton

A short ride from the back country roads on which Bo, Luke and Daisy used to outrun the likes of Roscoe P. Coltrane and the devious Boss Hog, late model GM EFIs were outrunning the shadow of their carbureted predecessors on the famous Road Atlanta 2.5-mile road course at the 2006 Year One Experience. Given the exclusive company found at this year's car show and spirited parade laps held June 21-23, it was no easy task to keep pace with some of the old musclecars. However, Third and Fourth Gen F-bodies, C5 Corvettes, GTOs, CTS-Vs, and even a few Solstices held their own during the three-day affair in Braselton, Ga. A few even made it out to Atlanta Dragway in Commerce for a little bracket racing.

Forty underprivileged media types such as myself were treated by Year One to a one-day course at the Panoz Racing School on Thursday (the day before Road Atlanta was opened to the public). Road course virgins and veterans alike took to the Audi A4 and TTs for wet and dry autocross training, threshold braking, and emergency lane change drills. Seen here is the wet autocross demonstration, where drivers can experience understeer going around the skidpad and induce oversteer by throwing the emergency brake.

The highlight of the day was, of course, when all the participants squeezed into the Panoz GT-RA race cars attempting to muster the courage to pin the accelerator on Road Atlanta's infamous Turn 12, not to mention holding your line on any number of off-camber turns, blind corners, and altitude changes. The little steel tube frame, fiberglass-bodied Panoz had a wonderful power-to-weight ratio, thanks to a 250hp V-8, and a slick shifting Tremec five-speed that made them a heck of a lot of fun on the 2.5-mile course. The live axle race car also came with a well-vented set of Brembo brakes, BBS wheels and sticky Pirelli rubber that was very predictable and never degraded as the day wore on. It seemed relatively easy to find the limit of the Panoz, however, it wasn't until a ride along with an instructor at the end of day did we all know just how much more the car had to give. For the following two days, these ride-alongs were available to anyone who wanted one, and in fact another one-day course was offered on Sunday, the final day of the Year One Experience. The one-day introduction to road racing sold out again, and another 40 people had the experience of a lifetime in racing on one of the best tracks in country with the expert guidance of Panoz's experienced instructors.