Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Volunteers Driven to Speed, Skid and Swerve : Law enforcement: Eighteen who donate time to the Sheriff’s Department maneuver their way through a training course.

Don’t try this on the way home.

Eighteen ordinary citizens got a taste of thrill-driving Monday, barreling through intersections, driving backward at high speeds and flinging their cars into wild 360-degree turns.

They were Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department volunteers, who give their time to perform clerical work and other jobs around department stations. Because their chores sometimes involve driving, they were asked to take a scaled-down version of the two-day driving course given to sheriff’s deputies.

During his two-hour lecture before the volunteers hit the course laid out at Fox Airfield, Deputy Rick Frempter noted that numerous orange cones had been placed on the driving area to simulate telephone poles and other hazards.

“You’ll know soon why we use cones instead of telephone poles,” Frempter said. “I guarantee most of you will get a panoramic view of the airfield today.”

The volunteers sped, skidded--and occasionally swore--their way through a dozen different training exercises. And some of them loved it.

“It’s better than a day at Disneyland,” said Rick Lexton, 48, a ham radio operator in Lost Hills, as he watched a car make a controlled skid through a sheet of water intended to test emergency steering skills.

There was plenty of frustration as well.

Scott Brewer, 36, another volunteer from Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, which serves the Las Virgenes area, found out the water driving exercise wasn’t as easy as it looked when he climbed into a patrol car with bald tires.

He sped several hundred feet across a parking lot before entering the sheet of water at 35 m.p.h., ending with an out-of-control 360-degree spin.

He drove through slower the second time--too slow for his instructors, even though he stayed under control. Faster, he was told. A few more times he tried. A few more times he spun out of control.

“It’s not a confidence builder right now, I’ll tell you that,” he said after his sixth trip through the water, only two of which didn’t end in spins.

But Brewer eventually got a grip on things, and a passing grade, after an instructor rode in the car with him a few times. Most other volunteers had similar experiences, gaining control of their vehicles after several trips through the water.

Another exercise forced volunteers to avoid two suddenly blocked lanes and maneuver into a third “open” lane as they drove through a simulated intersection at speeds up to 35 m.p.h. Drivers also practiced driving in reverse, maneuvering through slalom courses and a variety of other skills, including basics such as parallel parking.

The Sheriff’s Department started training volunteers from all over the county last year because of the increasing number who drive police vehicles as part of their assignments. The results of the driving tests are sent to the station where each volunteer is assigned, and a person who performs poorly could be reassigned to a non-driving task.

Volunteers drive vans, subcompacts and other civilian vehicles owned by the department during many assignments, as well as driving a regular patrol car from one location for use by deputies at another. Frempter warned volunteers that they might have to chase suspects someday--though that is highly unlikely--or even become targets themselves.

“Sometimes people start throwing rocks and bottles at vehicles,” he said. “There are some people out there who don’t like law enforcement.”

Most of the driving classes for deputies and volunteers are taught at the fairgrounds in Pomona, said Sgt. George Grein, a training bureau supervisor. However, the training is moved to Lancaster for a few weeks each year because of other events at the fairgrounds.

Volunteers at Monday’s class ranged from Crystal Perea, 21, a private security guard working her first day as a volunteer at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, to Hal Ratner, 77, a volunteer since 1989 at the same station who--among other things--is a retired driving instructor.

“We never gave anyone instruction like this,” he said.