Zero to Apex: A Beginner's Crash Course In Track Driving

by John Parenteau

Want to learn how to race a car but never knew where to start? This is it!

Or maybe you just want to understand racing better when you watch Drive to Survive!

Traditional racing schools provide instructors and a program of racing that will bring you up to speed. Track days, or HPDE (High Performance Driving Education) events often offer some limited instruction, but never enough, and always delivered at a moment when you are already overwhelmed by a wealth of new information, which makes it all hard to digest.

Zero to Apex is a resource that you could study before you arrive on track, giving you a leg up, with key information you can put into action immediately. Here, you will gain enough background and concepts that when you drive on track for your first session, you can speak the language of racing, and begin to build on those concepts with actual experience.

Racing is a blast, and if you take your time to understand the concepts here, you will learn to love it even more.

91 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 27, 2025

About the author

John has been an entertainment professional for most of his career, with a passion for storytelling and filmmaking that has kept him busy in Hollywood since 1983. John has worked in nearly every aspect of film, from visual effects and cinematography to directing and producing. He has also written a number of feature length screenplays in a variety of genres.

With a desire to keep his un-produced work alive, John recently began converting his scripts to novels, with “Stillwater” being his first completed effort. John also loves writing about auto racing (“Zero to Apex”) and filmmaking (his forthcoming “Breaking In”).

Reviews

[RK Byers · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's funny: when you read the author's backstory; a kid from a single-parent family growing up in Oregon, you'd think he'd be more prepared to teach you about running than driving and then you get this! what's great about this book - well, one of the things that's great about it - is the fact that many of the definitions for the plethora of terms you have to learn are included right there in the text and not JUST in the glossary (where they are as well). I, for one, didn't know that there were two kinds of pits (hot and cold) and I certainly didn't know what half of those flags that they use in racing meant. (Meatball?!?!?!) I took a cart racing class once and the only thing the instructor told us was don't look at what you don't want to run into. If you look at the wall, you're going to hit the wall. Well, this book was MUCH more informative. It actually gets into the, as the author puts it, "Business of Racing" and even that is not exactly what you think. I'm ready to drive!

[Randal White · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting and informative beginners book on the sport of motor racing, specifically how to drive/handle a race car on the track, things to look out for, things to avoid, and how to describe how the car is handling. Full of definitions of racing terms. Touches on the business side of the sport. Great resource for someone thinking about getting into racing, or for someone who just wants a better understanding of what they see at a race.