Doing trackdays vs actually learning to drive

[nefarious986]

I just finished a AX day yesterday .. my 2nd AX day ever .. and had TONS of fun.

As with my first event, I went with an instructor again. Long story short, though I thought I pushed my car pretty hard ( 1 spin .. couple of almost that I caught luckily ) .. turns out I was not. My fastest non spin / dnf time was almost 5 seconds behind my instructor's first run in my car.

WOW!

That's quite a bit of time I left on the table .. more than a 7% difference. The car was actually capable of going even faster .. maybe low 60s if the instructor had more time with it.

Now my question .. how do I get faster ?

Do you guys just get fast by doing tons of events year after year for fun and eventually you just become fast .. or do you guys actually seek out "professional" instruction?

I left the event yesterday knowing SOME areas where I'm messing up .. braking too early in some spot .. not using the entire track in other .. ect ect .. of course I can try to keep working on these areas next event but this feel as if I'm trying to learn to fight by jumping into the ring .. instead of actually going to a boxing gym and LEARNING.

What are your thoughts ?