Alex Clamon–Volunteering with the DPS Trooper School
Alex Clamon in a Panoz
Alex Clamon jumped at the opportunity to volunteer to help Texas Department of Transportation Troopers learn the basics of high-speed vehicle handling. When the school put him in the lead and told the Troopers to keep up, he was ecstatic. The DPS Troopers school provides classroom instruction covering car control and handling. After going through the physics of high-speed driving and discussing how to approach cornering, braking, and acceleration, the Troopers are given a chance to apply various driving techniques on a winding three-mile road course near Angleton, Texas.
“While I can’t deny this is a load of fun, we also spend a lot of time talking to the Troopers about safety and planning ahead,” said Alex Clamon. “Most people can’t just jump in a car and go a hundred miles per hour and be able to handle turns and curves effectively. And since folks who flee the law typically don’t head for oval tracks or completely straight runs, we use the track at MSR Houston as a training ground. This driving school is designed to teach DPS Troopers how to handle vehicles at a high rate of speed and to give them a chance to practice in an environment with no speed limits and no cross traffic. We actually encourage these guys to push their cars far enough to cause a spin so they know what a spin feels like. The first step in correcting a spin is feeling it start.”
Clamon volunteering at the DPS Trooper School
As a semi-professional sports car race driver, Alex Clamon, along with other drivers and volunteers at MSR Houston, help DPS Troopers and various other members of law enforcement agencies learn to drive at high speeds and give them the practice it takes to be more comfortable while in emergency response and pursuit situations. Like anything else, a driver only gets better and more comfortable with high-speed driving by doing it. While driving in a straight line or around ovals can be thrilling, those styles of driving provide very little in the way of real-world driving techniques that involve turns, stops, and obstacles.
“At the end of the day,” said Alex Clamon,” we are interested in helping the Troopers be more effective in pursuit, safer at high speeds, and more aware of the limits they might encounter when chasing the bad guys. This is all about increased safety, for the Troopers and the public alike. I’m glad to be able to help out. And I have to admit that getting to run from the cops without having to go to jail afterward is pretty thrilling!”
About Alex Clamon
Alex Clamon, Vice President at TaxMasters, Inc., has a long-standing love affair with fast cars. His first car was a 1968 Porsche, which Clamon still owns and drives after a recent restoration and “upgrade” by legendary Porsche builder Jeff Stone at Kelly Moss Motorsports in Madison, Wisconsin. After receiving the 2009 Regional SCCA Rookie of the Year award, Clamon joined the Tax Masters Racing team as one of three drivers running in the 2010 Patron GT3 Challenge by Yokohama.