what's the best way to gain performance driving skill for a beginner?

NismoZ_840

Let's not forget old fashion treeware - books! Ross Bentley's "Speed Secrets" series is great. The Skip Barber "Going Faster" is quite good too and fills in some gaps or expands on the Speed Series. These will help, along with occasional in car instructors/veterans, to make sure your seat time is quality seat time. Another great teacher is an in car lap timer, ideally predictive lap times, and data logging. You get instant feedback on how you're doing (via the lap timer) and can do post-track analysis to figure out lap to lap how it compares and how to put together a fast lap.