Head-to-Head Reversing: The first real challenge of the season requires two drivers at a time to reverse down a pair of lanes, turn the car around in a small area lined with wheel rims, and then reverse the car down the lane in which they started. Ashley (who had admitted to Tim in her pre-challenge lesson that at home she exclusively relies on her car's rea camera when reversing) and Melanie (who doesn't even reverse at all at home, and gets someone else to do it for her) are the first pair to take the challenge; Melanie does reasonably well for most of her run, and while she gets careless and causes a couple of hits while reversing, her performance is good enough for a pass. Ashley, however, refuses to apply Tim's lesson and insists on only using the reversing camera, causing her to quickly get stuck, and resulting in Melanie finishing the challenge before Ashley even gets into the turning area.
Breanna and Shayne are second to take the challenge, and Breanna performs terribly in the first half of the challenge, before getting it together and managing to reverse back to the starting line with no hits; Shayne isn't quite as bad as Breanna in the first half of the challenge, but his second half doesn't go any better than his first did, and he also proves very slow. Next-up are Julie and Travis, and Julie performs well, her only issue being having a little trouble getting the car turned around at the bottom of the course; Travis on the other hand is another driver who refuses to apply Tim's lesson (claiming that he can't use the recommended technique because of poor vision out of his right eye), eventually proving very slow and causing several hits during his run.
Adam and Joe are the final pair to take the challenge, and Joe, who was already a competent reverser even before attending rehab, quickly finishes the challenge with no issues; Adam eventually manages to finish the course with no major hits, but his run is another very slow one, and he also fails to properly use the recommended reversing posture.
Riding the Rails: In a test of the drivers' knowledge of where their wheels are, each driver is tasked with driving a Toyota RAV4 along a set of rails, and then reversing the car along the same rails back to where they started. Falling off the rails and getting stuck will lead to an instant fail. Julie is first-up, and sets the bar very low, managing to fall off before even getting a full length of the car onto the rails. Travis doesn't have much trouble getting across going forwards, but then takes six attempts just to get onto the rails in reverse (the drivers are allowed to continue if they fall off, but don't get stuck), and then quickly falls off again and gets completely stuck. Joe and Breanna not only pass with ease, they both remember to adjust their wing-mirrors for reversing without any prompting from Andrew, which Breanna attributes to her remembering the need to do so from past seasons of the show.
Adam gets across while going forwards without any major issues, but loses his nerve while reversing, and his excessive number of steering adjustments ultimately causes him to fall off. Ashley is forced to take her run without Jillian in the car, so that she will have to think for herself, but this only results in her panicking and falling off halfway through her forward run. Melanie has her wing mirrors adjusted for her by Andrew, and while she gets across forwards okay, she still falls off while reversing. Shayne's run is practically a copy of Melanie's, as he gets across forward just fine, but is only able to make it about halfway across in reverse before falling off.
Camaro Challenge: The Shoulder-Check Challenge: In one of the show's oldest challenges, the drivers each have to drive the Camaro at 70 km/h down a straight, check over both shoulders to see which of a pair of markers is green, and then steer into the corresponding lane. The drivers each have only one shot at getting it right. Melanie is up first, and her run rapidly turns into a complete disaster, as she never once checks her speed, resulting in her accelerating all the way up to 115 km/h, then losing control of the car and destroying a large chunk of the course.
Travis's run is almost as destructive, as he unwittingly turns the wheel when he goes to shoulder check, then loses control and swerves erratically. Shayne practices shoulder-checking before his run, and nearly passes, but unwittingly hits the gas pedal while steering, causing him to clip the wall dividing the lanes. Ashley gets a demonstration from Andrew in an attempt to build her confidence, but ends up jerking the wheel back and forth when she turns her head, causing her to hit the lane markers. Julie becomes the first driver to pass the challenge, doing so with no issues, with Andrew subsequently predicting her as this episode's graduate. Adam fails by the narrowest of margins, nicking one of the lane markers when he turns, but is nonetheless credited for understanding the lesson. Breanna achieves the rare dishonour of failing the challenge before even doing her shoulder-check, when she clips the entry lane marker, and then fails to identify that both of the markers are actually green. Joe is the final driver to take the challenge, and passes with no difficulty, leaving him 3 for 3 on this episode's challenges.
When meeting with the experts, Julie makes a strong case for being the season's first graduate, admitting that she's learned a lot and needs to grow up. Joe also expresses a desire to graduate, but damages his chances by admitting that he probably won't slow down if he's allowed to go home, and then admits that even if his daughter was in the car in front, he wouldn't slow down. To Joe's shock, his daughter, Kristin is then brought into the studio, and she's able to persuade him to promise to be a safe driver, for his own sake as well as his family's.
With it obvious that there's nothing they can really teach Joe in terms of technical skills, the discussion quickly turns into one of how he should leave rehab; Tim does not believe his promise to slow down, and advocates expelling him rather than letting him graduate. However, the other experts are ultimately convinced enough by Joe's promise to Kristin to allow him to graduate. Before he leaves, Joe is given a rear-view mirror air freshener with Kristin's photograph on it, to remind him never to speed.
