Biography
I find that competing myself helps me keep my perspective when coaching, from learning new skills to relating to the stresses of an event and appreciating the effort that goes into preparation.
Growing up in a large family that was very active in sports exposed me to lots of different activities from watersking to pole vaulting to hiking to alpine ski racing. I was a member of the New York State alpine ski team for a few years and while in high school in New Hampshire I got involved in rock and ice climbing with several first ascents to my name. I had the opportunity to spend some summers in the Tetons in Wyoming and Yosemite Valley in California where I climbed some of the hardest routes in the USA at the time.
My skiing backround taught me about line and momentum and the value of working with a dedicated coach while the climbing taught me the strength of planning and discipline in order to acheive my goals.
I got involved in autoracing by doing autocrosses and then the Skip Barber Series in 1980 and 1981 when I won the championship. In 1981 Skip hired me to work at his schools and race series and I worked there until 1991 when I started Sliderule Motorsport Inc to fill a gap I felt existed in the motor racing world.
My coaches when I was growing up had helped me look at and understand the sport of skiing as something that could be broken down and examined and then put back together stronger than it had been through understanding it better. The Skip Barber School had done this for beginners but then when racers moved on it became more learning by just doing, racers did not always understand why something worked or didn't.
I felt there could be a use for someone such as myself to coach racers at many levels and I have shown this to be true. I have thirty years experiance coaching auto-racing, twenty as a private coach and I bring that experiance with me every day that I work.
I continue to compete at sports, I have raced at the Mountain Bike World Championships (top 50), the Alpine Masters Ski Nationals (top 15) and currently race my bicycle in cyclocross races in the fall and hillclimbs (third in age group for series- one hill record - Twentieth overall out of nine hundred and forty competitors) in the summer when I get time.
