[Perfectlap]

socal? nice. lots of good clubs as some of the socal forum members will tell you.

at begining, I'd skip the driving schools in favor of some autocross. The driving schools are great but driving is not something you can pick up in a day or two as a newbie. Those ah-ha! momments come after days and days of mistakes,
Its very much a trial and error thing that takes dozens of hours. Porsche racer Randy Probst began his road racing career in Autocross and still does it localy.
Basically you pay $40 have an instructor ride with you on each of your 10 or fewer runs and along the way you will pick up all the basics at a fraction of the cost of the expensive driving schools like Skip Barber. After about a dozen autocross events sign up for the EVO school and do some PCA DE track days. You'll show up like a pro and with more confidence.