Sherman instructs in police cars, races at Riverhead

Tom Sherman's 1934 Ford Coupe doesn't have flashing police lights. Nassau County Police vehicles don't race around the quarter-mile oval at Riverhead Raceway.

Yet Sherman, a driving instructor for the county's police academy and a seasoned Legends racer, incorporates both types of cars into his everyday life. One would assume the mission is the same - don't get passed and make sure you avoid other cars on the road. But in reality, Sherman says his tasks are quite different on and off the track.

"It sounds like it's a round peg in a round hole," the 43-year-old from Farmingdale said Friday. "But most of my job is lecturing. All the hands-on stuff is usually me in the passenger seat with other people."

A police officer since 1994, Sherman works as an EVOC (Emergency Vehicle Operator Course) instructor. While many Riverhead drivers fuel their hobby through full-time jobs as body shop owners or car salesmen, Sherman, the only Legends racer to win two feature events this season, said the relationship between his occupation and his amusement is strictly coincidental.

"They go hand-in-hand, but it's completely by accident," he said, no pun intended. "While I was working patrol, I just happened to strike up a conversation with the instructors who were there."

In fact, most of the officers Sherman teaches don't know he races. After all, the 1934 Ford Coupe probably isn't street legal anymore.

"A Mini Cooper is the closest thing I could relate it to on the road today," Sherman said of his Legends whip.

But whether it's a tanker or a go-kart, there are some principles of driving that are universal.

"The stuff I probably pull out most is the dynamics of the vehicle," Sherman said. "Like weight transfer and turning points and braking points."

Though there's not much braking involved in either.