When you think of team building exercises, hitting the track in a high powered stock car doesn’t immediately spring to mind. But Roy Gangdal, general manager of Proformance Racing, insists that a day racing and learning high-speed driving skills can build cohesion in a corporate group in a way that other traditional corporate activities --  golf tournaments, for instance -- can’t.

As an official sponsor of Proformance, Seattle Tool sees first hand how outfitting the Proformance crews with high quality products is an important element of making sure each new driver has the best experience possible come ‘race day’.

Gangdal, who has a wide breadth of experience in racing, including a  number of years in NASCAR (most recently with Penske Racing and Ganassi Racing), finds a lot of fulfillment in coaching neophytes through their first laps behind the wheel.

“When people first get into one of our cars, they don’t realize how busy they are going to be,” he says, pointing out that good racers learn to make precise and consistent shifts, become accustomed to the motions of heal and toe downshifting and threshold braking, and practice regularly hitting the apex of turns.

That’s a lot to do in what he says are “tenth of a second” windows. Yet, learning the fundamentals of the sport as a group has proven to be a shared experience that brings people together, even if the boss loses on the last lap.

A day at the track includes a lot of intermingling between racers and a team atmosphere comes naturally as the dynamics of exhilaration and healthy competition work together.

Some corporate clients have been treating their employees, sub trades and dealerships for more than a decade, never missing a year.

In a way, the track becomes a great equalizer. Gangdal notes that when some construction companies book a session, everyone from architects to back-hoe operators come together to learn the sport at the same time, cheering each other on by the end of the day.