Mazda Motorsports pro shares driving tips with Fountain Valley High School students

Mazda Motorsports pro driver and Cal State Fullerton student Kenton Koch recently shared the dangers of distracted driving with Fountain Valley High School students and provided tips to stay safe on the road.

The after-school presentation Tuesday was a collaborative project among CSUF seniors, Mazda Motorsports and Project Yellow Light, a scholarship competition in memory of Hunter Garner, a 16-year-old who died in a car crash in Virginia in 2007.

Koch, who has been racing for more than 14 years, explained CPR — correction, pause and recover. The driving tip is taught in a defensive driving course or racing school.

“This is something I’m not going to advise you try on the street, but if you do a defensive driving course or racing, it’s designed to save your life in different ways,” Koch said.

Koch described what happens when a car goes into an oversteer, a scene often seen in “Formula Drift,” a television series about race drivers trying to complete competition courses in the fastest time possible.

Koch, who has been racing for more than 14 years, explained CPR — correction, pause and recover. The driving tip is taught in a defensive driving course or racing school.

(Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot)

If you’re driving around a left-hand corner and are going a little too fast, Koch said the rear of the car starts to step around and slide.

“This isn’t a good thing,” Koch said. “Usually your life flashes before your eyes and if you don’t have experience in racing or driving school, people panic and don’t know what to do.”

The first step is known as the skid, which requires the driver to start turning the steering wheel toward the right if the car is going in the opposite direction.

Once the steering wheel is into a skid, Koch said, there is a brief pause for the car to stop rotating. Then, look to recover.

“If you’re looking at a tree off the right side of the road, most likely you’re going to hit that tree,” Koch said. “So you always want to be looking through the corner and looking for hope, not reality.”

By having a driver’s eyesight looking toward the corner, it’ll help time the recovery, Koch said. If there isn’t a recovery, then the car might go off the side of the road.

“It doesn’t matter how good of a driver you are if you’re looking down at your phone,” Koch said. “Just don’t look down at your phone during any period of time you’re driving.”

At the end of his presentation, Koch quizzed the students’ knowledge on what they learned. Those who answered correctly won Mazda snapbacks, lanyards and USB drives.

Spencer Tran, a junior, also won a prom ticket.

“I see people texting and driving all the time,” Tran said. “This is really good to raise awareness for students and society to see how we can prevent accidents.”

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