A small Ewa company
is making a living from

ByDean Sensui, Star-Bulletin
Masakazu Kitagawa secures his helmet strap as
he gets ready to drive at Hawaii Raceway Park in Ewa
after a class at Hawaii International Racing School.

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Hawaii International Racing School
offers a safe way to play
Speed Racer

By Peter Wagner
Star-Bulletin

THE helmeted drivers sat deep in the cockpits of their race cars, two inches off the ground.

Masakazu Kitagawa, a 28-year-old visitor from Tokyo, locked his thumbs around the little steering wheel. His friend Masayoshi Misaki, 43, from Japan, fired up his tube-framed Renault with a roar.

Kitagawa's wife, Yoko, waited nervously nearby.

This was it -- the fusion of fantasy and reality. For $225 each, the fledgling speedsters were about to live their dreams on a hot race track in Campbell Industrial Park.

They sped around the 1.3-mile track last week under the watchful eyes of instructors at Hawaii International Racing School. Twenty minutes later, pausing for a critique, Kitagawa was too revved up to notice the discomforts of the cramped single-seater.

The six-year-old school, operating at Hawaii Raceway Park, is the only one of its kind in the state. It sees about 500 customers a year, mostly Japanese tourists, but also competitive drivers, corporate employees, car clubs, thrill seekers and a few housewives.

"It's a lot of fun," said Tom Bryant, vice president at Hawaii International and a competitive driver. "You learn a lot from it. And it pumps people up."

ByDean Sensui, Star-Bulletin
Masayoshi Misaki carves a turn. Most students are
tourists, but the school is branching out.

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Not to be confused with driver training schools that teach beginners the rules of the road, Hawaii International deals in high performance cars on a curvy track. Programs range from a three-hour, $185 introductory class on racing to a three-day, $1,300 competition driving course.

Learning car control skills, particularly how to handle corners, can help you avoid problems on the road, Bryant said. "The biggest benefit is in an accident avoidance situation," he said.

Much of the training is done in a classroom before students are taken out on the track in an introductory Renault "Spec Racer" or a more advanced Mitsubishi Formula Mirage that can hit 150 M.P.H.

"The thing about cars like this is they respond instantly to your command," said Sean Fuller, the school's mechanic. "You don't want to tell it to do the wrong thing."

Nevertheless, Bryant says you've got to push a car to the "gray area" where tires are barely holding the road to learn the lesson of control.

"We have people push their car to the limit," Bryant said. "We've found that when you push the limit, or even beyond, you start developing a feel for the machine."

It's a modest operation. Hidden off a scratchy road 25 miles from Waikiki, Hawaii International made just $140,000 last year. It's listed in tourist brochures, but fast cars aren't what most travel agencies are looking for, Bryant said.

"In Hawaii tour companies like to sell water sports, like jet skiing or surfing," he said. "Racing is more of an industrial activity and our customers are very limited."

The school also hosts competitive races about six times a year and teaches defensive driving.

ByDean Sensui, Star-Bulletin
Tom Bryant, vice president of Hawaii International
Racing School, gives a driving critique.

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Car racing schools are burgeoning nationwide, with customers looking for professional training, defensive driving skills, or not-so-cheap thrills. Feeding on a huge market of racing fans drawn by big events at major tracks -- something Hawaii lacks -- schools are popping up from Florida to California.

One growing source of clients are large corporations looking for ways to motivate their employees. Groups spend a day at the racetrack learning how to push a machine, and themselves to the limit.

The Connecticut-based Skip Barber Racing School, one of the biggest, generated $25 million last year handling 15,000 customers at 18 racetracks across the country.

The Richard Petty Driving Experience opened this year at the Walt Disney World resort, taking customers around a track at speeds up to 145 miles per hour in a Winston Cup Stock car.

And Land Rover opened an off-road driving school this year at the Equinox resort in Manchester Village, Vt. But if Hawaii International is scraping by on a limited market, the company hopes to tap a new source: high schools.

Bryant and company president Shigehito Hirabayashi -- a former driving champion in Japan -- plan to offer a driving safety program tailored for teenagers in which students using their own cars would learn how to avoid accidents. "We feel whether you're racing or learning how to control your car, the basic principles are the same," Bryant said.