Though I've moved away from working with guys tracking their street cars this year, out Chief Instructor for the Preformance Driving Experience part of our events posted some good thoughts after watching the Nascar race at Sonoma yesterday. good advice for you guys that run on the track and autocross.



[Soap box]
I hope you watching Sprint at Sonoma or watched Nationwide at Road America.

Never will you see better road course coverage of heavy cars muscling around a road course which is pretty close to what we do. Watch their hands and listen to the engines as they come out of the corners, and watch where they put the tires lap after lap...

The guys in front are braking hard and getting the car turned so they can get on top of every apex rumble strip, often using 1/2-3/4 of their length. They are also unwinding the wheel and track all the way out as they add power.

The guys further back are not. They are not braking enough and over driving the turn in, missing rumble strips and adding power while the wheel is still turned.

If you want to be better/faster next weekend at RFR, you need to do the same thing. If you are one of those drivers who misses apex rumble strips and tells yourself you were "close" and are thinking you need to upgrade your car in some way to be faster...

The best upgrade you can have is a better driver, you!

Brake a little earlier/harder and get the car turned so you can make those apexes and be unwinding when you get there, not fighting lap after lap to get close to them, eating up your tires as you do.

I promise your lap times will come down and you will feel smoother. It might feel slower, but done right, it WILL BE FASTER.

Maybe another way to look at is to stop trying to go fast through the corners and focus on going the RIGHT speed through the corners so you can accelerate as early as possible out of them.

Spend some time getting your head turned and eyes looking all the way through the corners and up the hills, putting the car where it belongs lap after lap, not trying to go faster. The former will actually make you faster, the latter will not.

When you are in the pits, spend at least as much time thinking about what you did well and what you need to work on next session as you do working on your car. Think about it again while you are on the grid. Have a specific plan on how to drive a specific corner differently/better, not just a general "make more apexes" goal.

If you want to be faster, what you are really saying is you want to drive better and very seldom does that involve a heavier right foot.

Driving is a mental sport. Think about what you should be doing, are doing and were doing, and how you could do it better.
[/soap box]

And one of our drivers replied:
It is a better clarification on a few things my instructor was saying at the last PDX, and something that I feel cost me time this weekend, even autocrossing.

Its difficult to fight that feeling that if my steering and throttle/brake aren't overlapping, even a little, that I'm just coasting through the turn.

Dean replied:
There is nothing wrong with overlapping as long as that overlap is proportional and you are not asking more than 100% of the available traction.


The problem is that most people treat it like a check list, A wrong check list...
1. Brake hard at the same place I braked last time.
2. When I think I am done braking, turn
3. When I get close to the inside of the track I am at the apex, time to accelerate.
4. Unwind the wheel once I get to the outside of the track.

All of these are wrong.
1. Where and how much you brake changes every lap dependent on how fast you are going and how much traction your tires have at that moment. Braking too much is much better than braking too little.
2. Where you turn in changes too. Depends on how fast you are going and where you are left to right on the track and traction. Often, you need to turn harder than you think to get to the apex. A good plan is to turn hard enough to get your inside tires 3 feet into the dirt inside the apex.
3. The Apex moves a little too and in most situations it involves being on top of a rumble strip for some to all of its length. If you braked and turned hard enough you should be able to start unwinding the wheel BEFORE you get to the apex and start adding throttle proportionally.
4. Did I mention unwinding the wheel? Keep doing it, don't stop until it is straight (if applicable). If you don't and keep adding power the front end will start sliding and you will turn less than if you had unwound the wheel. Really, you turn more the less steering input you have under acceleration, REALLY!!!

And of course, I had to chime in.

Coasting/overlaping - The only time you should be coasting is if the car is not pointed towards the apex (not ready for the early power application thing). And if this is the case, your line in the corner needs a bit of adjustment (or your technique in that corner - Dean's correct speed thru the corner thing).

My thoughts on the race:

I love left foot braking and dog ring transmissions.
That's why my FF has 5 pedals.

The Nascar course sucks vs the Carousel.

All this very much applies to the "Lap Record" thread below this one and Bill's excellent driving.

oh, and the COT is a pig on the road course...

excellent advise. I will re-read this the next time I go to the track1!

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And so is Dottie

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Good write-up, Bill!

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I've said the same thing many times.

Well, some of the same things.

OK, a statement or two of what was written.



Alright, alright; I've used the word apex correctly in a sentence.


Good one Bill.


Come to think of it, this sounds like me.

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I'll be doing this fun stuff both Sat & Sun this week.

Hey Bill-

Maybe one day you'll get to ride side seat with a guy that learned how to turn corners in a Dirt Late Model.....

Then you'll have something to talk about.
Will

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Ah, hell Will, I grew up in dirt country, Williams Grove, etc. There was a circle track every 20 miles in Pa.

I crewed on a Sprinter when I was in college, did some laps in it. I've driven a Late Model and an IMCA.
And spent 5 years going sideways on 2 wheels.

"I love left foot braking...."
Maybe this sounds dumb, but would that be with an automatic trans, also?

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Yea, Joe.
Left foot braking on the track in a auto can have some of the same advantages. But left foot braking should ONLY be done if the driver's been doing it for quite a while and is used to it.
Moving your right foot from the gas to the brake and back takes a few tenths of a second each time you do it (more important in a race than when you're just doing laps), when you are'nt on the brake or gas, you are coasting.

And if you're manually downshifting an auto, you can blip the throttle to make a smoother downshift. A smooth downshift doesn't upset the chassis (maintains the tire contact patch).

Note that those Nascar drivers aren't touching the clutch anywhere on the track because of the dog ring transmissions.

Talking street driving now, but I never used to left foot brake, it's awkward in most cars and half the people that do ride the brake.
In the C4, however, the pedal position makes LF braking a natural for me. I do it except in heavier traffic where it's not an instinct yet and I might have to make a split second braking decision.
Hmmm, blip the throttle for a smoother downshift, have to experiment with that.

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I even do it in my Silverado especially coming down hill with a trailer on and going from OD to 3rd.