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Defensive Driving Course on Backroads
Drive to Learn All-Season

Defensive Driving Course on Backroads

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Optimize your speed, safety, and control on open roads through a high-class military-inspired curriculum. Perfect for everyone from enthusiasts to future rally competitors

Defensive driving is a multidimensional style of driving that optimizes speed and safety on the road by taking into account vision, car placement, grip level, and plenty of other elements.

With this course you are getting the absolute highest quality open roads defensive driving training in all of Canada.

The curriculum is based on elements of tactical driving taught to the Canadian Military and Special Forces and over 20 years of experience in international-level motorsports.

This defensive driving course is 1 or 2 days of custom private coaching on dirt and gravel backroads (Canadian forest roads are perfect for this!) Expect elevation changes, variety of types of turns, varying grip levels, and other unique challenges.

This course is designed for:

  • ANYONE who wants to learn safe driving on open roads
  • Serious car enthusiasts who aren't interested in competing
  • Driving instructors
  • Rally marshals
  • Future rally competitors

The pricing listed is PER CAR. Please see the quick guide for more info.

Use your own car or Race Lab's Subaru Imprezas which are automatic with a manual gear selector.

If you choose to drive our Subaru, the price for the car includes: fuel for the day, 6 tires specifically chosen for the season (including 2 spares), tire changing equipment, rally headsets and intercom, recovery equipment, encrypted radios.

Four main life-saving teaching points you will learn, regardless of season or surface

Head-on collisions are one of the deadliest types of accidents. We've designed a methodology to minimize the risk of collisions with oncoming vehicles on difficult roads.

Previously only taught to the Canadian Armed Forces, this knowledge is now available to the public.

While car placement will limit the risk of head-on collisions, it will also enable you to save money long-term on vehicle wear by being a smoother driver

Trees, power lines, lakes, buildings and other elements provide you with important information about the upcoming road and helps you predict corner severity, elevation changes and surface conditions.

Unlike the ‘advanced driving schools’ that teach on race tracks and skid pads only, we realize that people do not drive on race tracks in real life. Therefore, we have designed training that will help you master some of the most challenging roads you are likely to experience day-to-day.

Vision is key in driving, and most ‘advanced driving schools’ teach students to look in two different places: far ahead and to “look where you want the car to go” in case of losing control. At Race Lab, we teach you to look at four different places, which makes you a more well-rounded, safe, and fast driver.

You will learn about ‘deceptive’ corners - when the road does something unexpected and sudden, which is virtually impossible to predict. You will train how to anticipate them, how to adjust your driving accordingly and how to memorize sections of roads so as not to get caught out in the future.

How this Works

After you complete the purchase, we will reach out to you to discuss your current driving level, your goals, and what location(s) and date(s) is/are most convenient for you. Please note that if you choose 2 days, the two days don't have to be back to back.

Approximate training start and finish are 10 AM and 6 PM, respectively. This is flexible, however, dependent on your preferences and goals (e.g. you want to work on day driving or night driving). Exact times will be confirmed after you sign up.

We will then create a customized curriculum based on this conversation and send you all the details.

You'll get a link to an advanced steering tutorial. We STRONGLY recommend practicing it in an empty parking lot before the event. This way you will be able to drive at a safer and more advanced level, and the instructor can push you to your limits.

This is optional but almost not optional because of how important it is.

The day of the adventure starts with a 45 min to 1 h in-person safety brief and classroom session, covering defensive driving concepts that you will then apply to your driving.

After the debrief, you will spend the rest of the time out on the roads! You will be one-on-one with the instructor for the whole duration of the training.

The experience lasts 6-8 hours per day, with pit stops for gas, food, and breaks. If you get tired, you can stop early—knowing when to rest is a key driving skill.

After the training day, you will get an email with custom feedback. This will include notes your instructor made during the training, additional commentary about your performance, as well as custom recommendations for future training and practice.

Generally recommended next steps would be:

  • Retaking this same course, no two training days will be the same.
    • Every time you will encounter new roads, new conditions, and new situations to learn to navigate.
    • We recommend to especially take this course at least once every season, because road conditions change radically from season to season.
    • The location and material is custom-curated for you. So every time the training will increase in difficulty.
  • Custom training, contact us to discuss your choices
  • If you are into motorsports, the next steps to look into would be
    • Pacenotes Course for Drivers and Co-Drivers
    • Custom training, contact us to discuss your choices

IMPORTANT: Please note this training happens on public roads, therefore the driver must have a valid driver's license, the car must be road legal if you drive your own car, and you must abide by all laws and regulations.

You can take this course as many times as you want - there will always be something new to learn.

If you are looking for a more lighthearted option, check out the Defensive Driving Adventure (Full Day)!

Tune your package

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Options Selection Guide - Defensive Driving Course on Backroads

TRAINING DURATION

Select 1 or 2 days. Each day is 6-8 hours.

INDIVIDUAL DRIVERS

  • If you want to bring ADDITIONAL DRIVERS IN THE SAME CAR, you are welcome to do so free of charge. Select 1 "Cars" and the driving and coaching time will be split across the number of drivers in the car. Please keep in mind that one spot in the car must be empty for the instructor. (e.g. In a 4-seater car, the maximum number of drivers is 3 people. Each person will get about 2-3 hours of driving with personalized coaching per day)
  • If you have multiple drivers who each wants full days of training, please add as many "Cars" as you have drivers who want to drive separately. Please note their training will happen ON SEPARATE DAYS.
  • Please contact us if you have questions about the way this works.

VEHICLE

Choose between your own car or Race Lab's Subaru Impreza.

Race Lab's Subaru Imprezas have the following features and mods:

  • AWD
  • automatic transmission with a manual gear selector
  • special rally tires and wheels
  • special rally underside protection
  • handling mods affecting brakes and suspension
  • rally lights for night driving

ENVIRONMENT

You will be driving on public backroads. Both asphalt and dirt surfaces are possible.

Flexible Date (pick date and location later)

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