Romanian Off Road School

The off road fever has kept a lot of people merely dreaming about owning a car that they can feel safe and happy going on the mountains and in mud with. But now, a bigger Europe, cheaper second hand cars and a lot of companies that create gear for equipping such a truck have created a favorable series of circumstances for off road lovers all over the continent.

Needless to say the car has never been enough. As everyone knows, the driver makes a car good or bad and, based on these ideas, two of Romania's best have created an off road school, where the enthusiasts of the sport can get the basics and more. The purpose of this is to teach people how to drive but also to educate them with regards to ethics and the destruction of forests. The school also aimed their training at presenting the idea behind off road, the team work and the benefits of a good time among people who share the same hobby.

Here is an interview with Mihai Popa and Maurilio Zani, also known as Pepi and Mauri for those who attended their school and raced along side them.

R.T.: How did the idea came up in your mind to create an off road school? Did you feel that there was a necessity for such a preparatory school?

M.Z.: After participating at the National Championship, I saw an increasing interest in this sport. Year after year, the number of people and cars attracted by this sport has massively increased, especially in the open class. I also observed that more and more people come to race without any prior training. We thought of them, firstly as potential clients but also as people who love the sport, including those who will never participate in a race.

M.P.: Apart from what Maurilio stated, I always found that at our friendly get-togethers for a round of off road, people would always look towards me and say: "well we don't know a lot because nobody's teaching us anything about off road". This happened because I had the longest experience in auto racing, of over 40 years. Practically we have begun this whole project at the request of our "scholars"

R.T.: I saw a very little number of such events, most of them in private gatherings or organized by industry giants such as Toyota, Land Rover or Jeep. What did you use as guidelines for your project? Did you participate yourself at such an event or everything was based on your experience?

M.Z.: We knew there were a lot of such companies organizing off road experience courses, but we considered that their ones revolved more around a communications and marketing policy, which I find quite natural to be honest. our school is opened to everyone, regardless of the vehicle they own or want to own.

M.P: Since there was no marketing for any company involved, and off road in Romania is so much different than the one in other countries - we only based our plans on what we considered important, as instructors, to teach people who want to know more about this sport. We can very much say that this is something unique and has not been tried anywhere else of what we know.

R.T.: What did you feel was necessary to offer, as information and experience?

M.Z.: Piloting skills, navigation, orientation. Team spirit and the capacity to be on top of any and every possible situation, especially in tight situations. Our team motto was: "Don't panic!!! We'll get out of this one somehow!"

M.P.: To give you the courage to participate in any competition, for the Cup or just friendly meeting, without fear and always with the line "I can do this" in their heads.

R.T.: Please tell me more about how did the project go, a little bit about the location as well as the experience:

M.Z.: This is what Pepi will answer, he's the school's Headmaster.

M.P.: I suppose that the particular period, which for me personally was extremely stressful having in view the organizing outside working hours and so on - aiming for a very well structured schedule, breakfast, theory classes, practical applications, sandwich and a bit of water on the tracks followed by dinner and the day's analysis and discussions about off road. Te location was Baisorii Mountain resort, and it's surroundings, at altitudes from 600 to 1850 meters, with all sorts of obstacles - all with loads of natural obstacles. As far as the the experience and it's transfer to the pupils, I am proud to announce that we have seen wonderful improvement transferred from both Mauri and myself to the people attending the course.

R.T.: What was the feedback you received from the participants?

M.Z.: At the end of the first off road school, the participants have been very enthusiastic and immediately asked when our next event will be - therefore I am proud to say it's gone pretty well.

M.P.: The feedback was absolutely wonderful, nobody complained during or after the course about anything.

R.T.: Were you happy about how things worked out in the end?

M.Z.: The thanks we got from the participants were the way we metered our success.

M.P.: I personally was very pleased, keeping in mind that I managed to turn a handful of people from rookies to off roaders, hopefully for life. In the day before last, there was a road-book based competition which came out completely spectacular from my point of view. The team spirit everyone showed was incredible, and the same I can say about my enthusiasm when I came to realize that they turned into a strong group in just a few days.

R.T.: What was the most challenging problem that arose before, or during the course?

M.Z.: It was, without a doubt, pretty complicated to pick up a course that everyone can follow, although the cars had such different technical specifications - not to make it too easy though. But somehow this was of course the charm of the track: for most people was a real challenge to confront areas where even people with race specs cars had real issues.

 

M.Z.: In the first course we had very very dry soil. We just want the participants to experience the whole series of terrain grip you can encounter. The idea behind everything is that the dry land can be the same as tarmac. It's the rainy days as well as the snow - covered ground that that can provide the full raw experience of off road racing.

R.T.: When will the next course be?

M.P.: Well we are considering having the nest session at the end of December, beginning of 2009 depending on the weather forecast. As it seems, the school will be in January since I would like the participants to learn how drive on extremely slippery terrain, which is a useful skill to master both on road and off road.

Images Courtesy of the Romanian Off Road School