by Suzanne Ashe

STAFF WRITER

The storm on Christmas Eve had me, my brother and nephew sliding all the way up SR-36 from Tooele to Erda. I focused on the road and other cars, and kept a tight grip on the wheel. All the while thinking in the back of my head: "What should I do if the car were to spin out?"

Conventional wisdom tells you, when driving in wintery conditions, to slow down, don't slam on the brakes or turn into a slide, don't oversteer, and above all don't panic. But no matter how many times I would go over the scenario in my head, it still didn't boost my confidence.

So I was delighted when I got an invitation to the Winter Driving Academy at Miller Motorsports Park's Performance Training Center. The event last Thursday included several members of the media. It was a shorter version of MMP's Winter Driving Academy -- a course that any one with a valid driver's license can participate in throughout the months of January and February.

The course begins with a classroom session where we were quizzed on our knowledge of braking distances and other feats of physics. We learned about the importance of keeping the car's tires on the road in slick and icy conditions.

The lesson really came alive during the Skid Car control exercise.

The Skid Car is a Ford Mustang rigged with equipment that can simulate loss of traction. That's a fancy way of saying that you can really spin out in this car.

I was excited to get behind the wheel and give it a go. I'm a safe driver, I thought.

On a course delineated by small orange traffic cones, the driving instructor let me know what he was throwing at me before the next set of cones would come up.

"This is oversteering," said the English-born drive instructor James Burke.

I pulled back on the accelerator and tried not to turn the wheel too tightly. Oops. Too late. Suddenly, I felt as if I was in a spinning tea cup on the Mad Tea Party ride at Disneyland.

The end of the car whipped around and we spun around about two and a half times. Transcript-Bulletin photographer Troy Boman had the daunting task of holding on and snapping pictures while being knocked around in the back seat of the car.

After fighting the "Wow this is fun, let's do it again" feeling, and briefly contemplating signing up for a course on drifting and stunt driving. I got back in control of the vehicle again.

When the car's rear wheels lose traction, the weight shifts to the front. When the car's front wheels lose traction, the weight shifts to the rear. Add turns and acceleration into the mix, and whoosh, the car starts spinning.

But by listening to Burke's advice and braking on the straight-aways, looking where I wanted the car to go and letting my hands steer it there, I was able to complete the course one last time without spinning out.

Now, the trick will be to practice what I learned the next time the roads get slick.

sashe@tooeletranscript.com