The VIR Club provides on track coaching and instruction from our VIR Club Chief Driving Instructors free of charge to members. VIR Club instructors are provided by Kaizen Autosport.
Wyatt Foster: VIR Club Chief Driving Instructor
Wyatt Foster is driven by motorsports. Since 2004, Wyatt has been racing anything from go-karts to factory-built race cars, and everything in between.
Building on his driving skills and knowledge, Wyatt studied Race Car Technology in college. Other skill-building experiences have included working with race teams for various series such as NASCAR and Indycar. To further his love for all things technical, Wyatt apprenticed at Power Plant Racing, where he learned the meticulous skills required in precision engine building. This broad foundation has equipped Wyatt with the unique skills of synchronizing man and machine. This enables Wyatt to effectively interpret and communicate both personal and automotive performances.
Wyatt has been driving at VIR since 2009. To share his passion for motorsports, he became a qualified driving instructor in 2015. In addition to his role as Chief Instructor for VIR Club, Wyatt is also the Head Driving Coach of Kaizen Autosport located at VIR. You can find him at VIR anywhere from teaching drivers to racing schools. You can also see Wyatt participating in club and endurance racing. Wyatt is available during VIR Club events for data, video, and in-car coaching. If you are interested in his services outside of VIR Club events, reach out to him at info@kaizenautosport.com or call (919)-741-7151.
Basic Coaching & Driving Instructors
Bill Foster:
Bill Foster has been racing for more than 31 years with SCCA, Champ Car, and Lemons. Bill teaches for 16 high-performance driving groups and is a certified instructor with NASA, BMW, and Porsche. Bill has been coaching drivers for the past 24 years and has taught exclusively at VIR for the past 15 years.
Bill is available to assist novice, intermediate, and advanced VIR Club members with mastering the basics of driving VIR in a fast and safe way. Bill can work with you both in the classroom and in the car to help you take seconds off your VIR lap times. If you are interested in his services, contact Bill at whfoster@triad.rr.com or call (336)-402-4320
Bernie Baake:
Bernie Baake started in 2004 with Tarheel Sports Car Club. Raced with SCCA, NASA, Lemons, and Champ Car. Bernie has been instructing since 2007 at VIR, Rockingham, Roebling, Carolina Motorsports Park, Summit Point, and NCCAR. He offers both on track and classroom instruction. He has instructed in club events with BMW, PCA, Audi SCCA, NASA, THSCC, Corvette Museum, and numerous other car clubs. He has also worked with numerous VIR Club Members to advance from Touring Lites to solo status. Bernie can be reached at bbaake44@gmail.com
Dave Hartman:
Dave Hartman has more than 8 years of driving and coaching focusing on VIR and is an MSF level 2 certified instructor for NASA, BMW & Porsche. He also coaches for most major driving organizations including Chin, Hooked On Driving, SCDA, Tarheel Sports Car Club, Track Club USA, and various regional Audi and private car clubs. Dave has thousands of laps on all VIR configurations and was fortunate to have Bill Foster as his first driving coach and mentor. Dave has also instructed at Dominion and CMP. Dave has owned and driven a wide variety of cars on VIR from momentum cars to high horsepower race cars, including RWD, FWD, and AWD, so he can tailor instruction that directly benefits your vehicle and driving style. Prior to driving cars on track, Dave raced motorcycles in the AFM & CCS for 7 years on tracks including Sonoma Raceway, Buttonwillow, Thunderhill, Willow Springs, Firebird, and Laguna Seca. You can contact Dave at djhartm69@gmail.com.
Geoffrey Koteles:
Geoff’s motorsport story began at a very early age mainly due to his father being one of the original members of Cal Club in the 50’s which later became the Western Region of SCCA. Geoff’s dad ended up the Western Division Chief Steward for over 20 years. As a result Geoff literally grew up at race tracks throughout the western US. Geoff spent a lot of time with some of the most notable personalities in car racing including being a “shop boy” at Dan Gurney’s garage in Southern California. After college Geoff
was a medical provider for the top teams in Indy Car, IMSA and NASCAR for 23 years and was very fortunate to have developed friendships with many of the best race drivers in the world and been able to glean indispensable wisdom from those drivers regarding high performance driving. Geoff took his first race driving course at Riverside Raceway at 16 years of age with a guy named Bob Bondurant who was a friend of Geoff’s dad. After doing autocross for 2 years he went on to take advanced race driving school with Skip Barber at age 18. Geoff competed in SCCA in a Mini Cooper S, a Datsun 510 and BMW 2002. Geoff has raced open wheel cars to include Formula Ford and Formula 5000. After college Geoff raced
off and on in closed cockpit cars to include a Mazda RX3, Mazda RX7, a 1967 ex-TransAm Camaro and a 1985 former TranAm Camaro with close to 800hp. Geoff currently competes in vintage racing events driving an ex-factory supported Mazda GLC that competed in the IMSA Champion Spark Plug Challenge in the 80’s. Geoff has been coaching and instructing high performance driving for over 20 years and has a passion to share his love of motorsports. Because of the variety of cars he has raced as well as the years of on track experience, Geoff can identify the areas of need for any driver at any level that has the desire to improve. Geoff is available for individual one on one coaching and can also do groups up to 3 students. Please fell free to contact him any time at gk615@gmail.com for rates and availability.
Advanced Coaching & Driving Instructors
In addition to our VIR Club Chief Instructor, we also offer a list of advanced driving instructors who work as independent driving coaches for VIR Club members. These independent coaches are available for a fee and are invaluable resources for members looking to move beyond the basics. Our Advanced Driving Instructors have an impressive array of club and professional racing experience and are highly qualified to help you improve your race craft. Whether you are looking for that last tenth or need help setting up and understanding advanced in-car data systems, these Instructors have the competition-tested experience to meet your needs. Please contact our Advanced Driving Instructors personally to determine their availability and coaching services fees.
Peter Krause
An experienced, trained educator with proven communication skills, Peter Krause is considered one of the top professional private driving coaches in the country. Krause holds VIR Club member number 005 and served in an advisory capacity through VIR’s reopening between 1998 and 2003. In 2010, Krause was selected by Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal as Lead Coach for his Legends of Motorsports racing series. In addition, Krause is the chief instructor for the North Carolina Region SCCA, SVRA, BMW Club Racing School Southeast, and several other club racing and marque club driving event programs. His graduates have included professional drivers Tom Long, Seth Thomas, James Clay, and Mike Skeen.
Krause attended his first SCCA race in 1981 as a crewmember for a Formula Ford driver. His competition success began with several local and state autocross championships, graduating to competition with Historic Sportscar Racing, SVRA, and SCCA starting in the late 80s. Krause has a record of over 230 class and overall race wins in a dozen organizations at tracks throughout North America.
With over 40 SCCA National, Regional, NASA, and historic race wins alone at VIR, Krause is intimately familiar with the psychology and technique of “going fast.” Known as an early adopter of modern data and video logging technology to objectively measure driver performance, Krause has brought scientific study to what was often a subjective measure of techniques that make drivers better and faster.
Krause spent more than 25 years as a Ferrari and Alfa Romeo racing prep shop owner and recently sold his shop in 2007. He now maintains a 1,200-square-foot learning facility in the VIRginia Motorsport Technology Park, adjacent to VIR, equipped with plasma screens to review video and data, a simulator to practice and be coached “virtually,” and thousands of pages of reference material on tracks across North America and worldwide. More information on Krause can be found at www.peterkrause.net and www.gofasternow.com. Contact Peter Krause at (919) 740-1871 or peter@peterkrause.net.
Tom Long
Tom Long started his racing career in grassroots sports car racing with the Showroom Stock and Spec Miata classes. He quickly took a liking to lightweight sports cars, setting multiple track records and winning Championships while competing in the SCCA Runoffs with podium results. Long then went on to win the 2005 Mazda MX5 Cup National Championship, before moving into the Grand Am Continental Tire Series in 2006. By 2007, he was on the steps of the Grand Am podium, winning his first race in the series at his home track of VIRginia International Raceway in 2009. In 2010, Long was a regular in both the Grand Am Rolex & Continental Tire Series, winning multiple races and a Top 5 result in the championship. In 2011, Long achieved one of his greatest results to date, leading several hours of the Daytona Rolex 24-hr and going on to a podium finish with Dempsey Racing.
Currently, Long is the team manager and a full-time lead driver for Freedom Autosport, a top Mazda team in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Series, while also a replacement “stunt double” driver for Patrick Dempsey at Dempsey Racing in the Mazda RX-8 GT for the Grand-Am Rolex Series. On his off weekends, Tom works as a professional driving coach and instructor with the BMW Performance Driving School and Skip Barber Racing School organizations. Long graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2004 with a degree in business marketing. Contact Tom Long at (919)-906-8404 or tom@longroadracing.com or visit www.tomlongracing.com.
David Murry
David Murry’s career began in Formula Fords, leading to the Sports Renault Series. From 1981 to 1991, while driving everything he could get his hands on, he won numerous races, including the 1985 Sports Renault Championship. 1991 saw the beginning of David’s long-term relationship with manufacturers. He drove an Esprit for the Lotus factory and went on to win 2 races. He impressed Porsche so much that they decided to hire him as a factory driver.
Driving a Porsche 968 in the Firestone Firehawk Series, Murry recorded 3 wins in the 1992 and 1993 seasons. In that same Porsche 968, he won 5 races and claimed the 1994 Firehawk Driver’s Championship and the manufacturer’s title for Porsche while finishing second in the prestigious World Porsche Cup Championship. Murry also won the World Challenge Championship in a Porsche 911 Turbo. In 1999 David was hired by the BMW factory to drive its highly successful GTR-M3. David currently races in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Series. Contact David Murry at (404) 513-9992 or david@davidmurry.com.