News Director 
Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – MIDDLETOWN, NY – Sunday at dawn in the Middletown area was cloudy, blustery and not really nice looking. But shortly later, the clouds moved out, the winds decreased and it made for a fine day for the return of the Brett Hearn Driving School.
With 30 cars signed up for the school, by all appearances, it was a rousing success. It was an excellent chance for drivers of all abilities to get some valuable instruction from the best there ever was plus get some valuable seat time and work out any bugs in their rides before things get serious very soon.
It had been so long since Brett had done the school at the track he wasn’t sure how many years it had been between the 2023 version and the previous one. But he was pleased with the response the school generated and all the different tracks that had cars at OCFS on Sunday.
“I’m not really sure how long it’s been, at least 15 or 20 years since we’ve had one. We had a lot of interest in this one. The interesting thing about it is that we have cars from 6 or 7 different tracks here today,’ Brett said. “It’s one of the good things about having this early before many of the tracks haven’t started stuff yet. We have people here from Devil’s Bowl, Albany Saratoga, Afton and others plus we have many of our OCFS guys here.”
The class was divided into 3 different parts. First part was a car control drill where cones were placed in the middle of the turns. Drivers were instructed to go fast, but don’t knock down the cones. Each driver did 5 laps until pulling in to get some feedback from Brett.
The second part had two drivers at a time on the track. And the third part had 3 on the track. All the while, Brett made himself available to anyone who had questions. And they all had a good amount of track time.
Being the only full fender car at the school. Tyler Romer was interested in what type of feedback he was going to get from Hearn.
“Brett chuckled when I pulled up to talk with him and he said, ‘I’m kind of new at this’. He said it looked good in the corners, I almost clipped the tire. I’m pretty impressed with how the track came out. The new pony, she runs pretty good.”
Cody Higbie was at OCFS Sunday, with his Dad’s #51 car to take his first ever Big Block laps.
“It was cool. We’re going to tune on it a little more and try to get a little bit better. Brett gave us some good ideas and we are going to try them out.”
OCFS announcer, Tim Pitts, was there with his Vintage MOO car and he turned many laps. While some drivers were making handling or motor adjustments, Tim had a completely different issue to deal with.
“It’s my first time back in that car ever, Brett said it was a little wobbly in the turns. Going to concentrate a little more this time and I’m going with a bigger steering wheel also. I had never driven with such a tiny steering wheel. it didn’t feel good. I have a bigger wheel with me, so it’s been swapped.”
OCFS Sportsman driver Randy Torres was really happy with the school and something he learned that he feels will help him out.
“It’s great, I’m loving it. Brett gave us some very good feedback. We’ve been fighting a tight car all last year. He gave us some pointers that we are going to try.”
A driver from a well known family in our racing world made his on track debut Sunday. Ryan Behrent took his first laps in the morning and during the afternoon, he looked to be gaining confidence and speed.
The track was in excellent shape and held up well under the sunny, windy conditions.
It was a great day for action to get underway at the Orange County Fair Speedway with the successful Brett Hearn Driving School. Very well done by Brett and his team.
Action really ramps up at OCFS this week. Friday will be an Open Practice with the running of the Hard Clay Open to get the actual racing underway for 2023. Support your local speedway!!!
