In the recent past, we have talked about when is a good time to pass and how to do it. We have given some insight on why certain drivers win and how they do it. With the end of the season coming fast, now might be a good time to brush up on driving skills so that you can finish the year strong.
There is a way to drive and a way not to. Veteran drivers know what I am talking about, but it seems like that wisdom has not been passed on to some of our younger drivers. And some of those younger folks have dads who knew how to properly drive. You’d think this knowledge would get passed down, but in some cases it is not.
The original thoughts for this piece came from discussions with legendary drivers about basic driving tips. It soon became apparent that this needed to be about much more than that. It needed to tell the story once and for all about how the good driving of yesteryear evolved over the years into, in some cases, the mess we now have.
More than that, there is a way veteran drivers learned to drive that made them faster. These skills are as valid today as they were back in the day. We just don’t hear much about them now. Well, listen up, we’re going to give away secrets here and now.
Acceptable Way To Drive – Back in the day, and I’m talking about from the 1960’s up to the mid to late ‘90’s, the drivers policed themselves. It was widely known that if you knocked someone out of the way on the track to get around, you could usually expect to be confronted and fight about it in the pits after the race.
This is just how it was done “back in the day” and drivers evolved into careful and skilled pilots necessarily to avoid trouble. No matter how tough you are, fights take a toll and everyone ends up with some amount of pain.
What drivers had to learn back when our society was not so friendly to one another was how to carefully nudge someone out of the way in order to move up to the front. Anything more than that and boy there was going to be trouble.
I spoke with a very successful driver some years ago and we were discussing the art of moving slower cars out of the way. He said, “if you do it right, they never know it happened.”
In our current kinder and gentler society, fighting is a big no-no, so what has evolved is a rougher style of driving because there are no consequences to stop it. The officials should be the ones to throw the black flag, everyone knows when it’s deserved, but we are all concerned with car count and such, so some of those just turn a blind eye to the rough driving we all see.
Back in the day, drivers learned how to lean on slower cars to move them up and out of the way so that they could get on with their race. To the observer, if you saw that and the passing car motored away from the car that got moved, then it was legal and just.
Sure, the driver that got moved was mad, but the anger should be directed at his own car, or his driving, etc., not the faster car. Go back to the shop and work on your car so that next week you’ll be faster and maybe not get passed.
I spoke with a very successful driver some years ago and we were discussing the art of moving slower cars out of the way. He said, “if you do it right, they never knew it happened.” That is a classic line I’ll always remember.
The slower car’s driver most of the time thinks the car got loose, it’s that subtle a move. The very definition of subtle is, “so delicate or precise as to be difficult to analyze or describe.” I see far too many drivers who are not very subtle in their driving style. OK, so I made my point, now on to driver tips.
New Drivers – Many newer drivers will overdrive the car. The use of brakes is necessary to set the car going into the corner so that it will be prepared to accelerate off the corner. The more you learn about your car and the track, the less brakes you’ll need, but you’ll always need to use some braking, even at high banked and fast race tracks where it seems the cars never brake.
Driving past the proper lift point feels fast, but it is not. The right way, meaning the faster way, is to lift earlier, delay braking a tiny bit, then slow the car just enough to make the turn in, and then when the car is ready, accelerate through the middle and off the corner.
You’ll find that as you execute this maneuver properly, the earlier you let off the throttle, the earlier you will be able to accelerate, and that makes for a faster lap time.
Throttle Control –New drivers should learn throttle control. You will never become truly successful until you learn how to modulate the throttle. Many new drivers think they need to be either on or off the throttle. Not true. There are a whole lot of options in between those two.
How you lift the throttle and how you go back to applying throttle is an art that some can learn quickly, and some need more time to master. The legends of the sport that have attained much success will tell you that this is the one thing more than any other, that will make you faster as a driver.
In the first section of this piece we talked about moving slower cars out of the way. Using throttle modulation is the way this is done. You must work the throttle to put your car in a position to pass. Coming completely off the throttle and going full throttle quickly puts way too much pressure on the setup and will upset the car.
Qualifying – Where this technique of not over driving the car really helps is in qualifying. Many new and some older drivers think they need to drive the car harder in qualifying than they did in practice. That is just not true.
The new tires you use (if your rules allow new tires) will provide the added speed to qualify well. You just need to take advantage of the added grip to allow the car to roll through the corners faster and that in and of itself will provide a good qualifying speed.
Many new drivers think they need to be either full on or full off the throttle. Not true. There are a whole lot of options in between those two.
Running off into the corner two or three car lengths deeper than you did in practice will slow you down. If you drive as hard in qualifying as you did in practice, and no more, you will do well.
Corner Entry – Drivers need to get one fact in mind and remember this. Running deep into the corner, or dive bombing the corner as Dick Anderson once said, will ruin your lap times. It feels fast and it exciting, but it is proven to be slower than not going in so deep.
The method that has been taught by many skilled instructors is this. Lift before you think you need to, use less braking, and let the car slow as needed related to the arc you are following. The following explanation is very important, so read this as many times as you need in order to get the point.
When we enter a corner, we are turning the steering wheel more and more as we approach mid-turn. This means that the initial radius is larger and the closer we get to mid-turn, the smaller the radius becomes. And, we know we can go faster through a larger radius than a smaller one, right. Got it? This radius thing is the key to speed on entry.
So, we can all agree that the line we drive entering a corner is not a constant radius. In almost every case, the line tightens up the farther we go towards mid-turn. So, we need to keep the car going faster where the radius is larger.
If we slow the car too quickly to the speed we need to get through the shortest radius, then we give up the speed we could have gone where the radius was larger and the car could have gone faster. This simple concept is worth two to three tenths at a lot of race tracks.
Corner Exit – If you comprehended the above concept, then you will be ready to execute corner exit. When we enter the corner correctly and do not overdrive, or dive bomb the corner, we are all set to exit the corner.
When the car is settled into mid-turn, we are now ready to begin accelerating. “Settled in” means that the car is under control, is not slowing down any more, and it is ready for application of power.
When the entry is executed correctly as we described, the car will be ready much earlier to accept the throttle. When we dive bomb the corner, the car will not be ready as quickly for acceleration and the driver has to wait until it is ready. This adds unnecessary tenths to our lap times.
So, the correct corner entry allows better control through the mid-turn, and subsequently earlier application of power off the corner. This all adds up to a quicker lap. And this method is used in every type of circle track racing from Street Stocks to Super Late Models.
During The Race – Once the race has started, or re-started, a driver needs to settle down and be cautious. This doesn’t mean giving anything up, it means to watch out for squirrels. The drivers who are driving over their heads will make mistakes early in the race and you should be ready to avoid the damage.
In some recent videos I have watched, the advancing driver just waited for the driver ahead to overdrive the corner, slip up the track, and then drive underneath to take away the position. The only contact that was made was the driver being passed to try to squeeze down on the passing driver when it was too late to do anything about it.
It is important to take your time. There is usually plenty of time to get the job done, even in a 30 or 50 lap race. You have time to move to the front and pass slower cars that are not driving the right way like you are.
Races are won by drivers who make it to the end of the race unscathed. Making it to the end should be your primary goal when starting out. As you become more experienced and successful that goal will never go away, you’ll just get better at recognizing trouble and better at avoiding it. And, you’ll get faster and better at passing those slower cars in front of you. When there are no more slower cars ahead, you are probably the leader.
Working Traffic – The main thing for new drivers to learn when working traffic is to be aware of their surroundings. It’s easy to get tunnel vision when you’re racing. We’ve all been there. But as you become more comfortable with the car and where your marks are, you can then bring your concentration out of the tunnel and think about the cars around you.
If a car is under you or outside, your line needs to change from when you were driving alone. The line will be where the other car is not. Two cars cannot drive the same line, but they often try, right?
If you decide to run a different line because another car has taken your normal line away, make the most of it and execute that new line as accurately and fast as possible. Often times, your new line will be quicker through the middle if you’re on the inside, or off the corner if you are on the outside, because the other car will be crowded.
If you are on the inside on entry to the corner, don’t move down towards the apex too quickly. By staying up longer before you turn in, the outside car will be at a distinct disadvantage and have to lift and begin slowing much earlier.
If you are being pressured from behind, try to concentrate on your race and make that car work for it. Losing concentration by giving too much attention to the car behind will slow you down and cost you a position in the end.
In most cases, protecting the bottom by entering on a lower line than you usually run will slow you down and you are then at risk of being passed on the outside. Or, the passing car will take advantage of your high exit, a result of going in too low, and do a cross-over maneuver to pass you on exit off the corner.
Race Re-starts – In your racing you will always have cautions where you’ll need to re-start the race. The tip from the legends is to be ready and go as soon as you get the green flag. Anticipate the flagman and jump on one of the only opportunities you might have to pass cars.
A quick reaction time here can make a huge difference in where you end up at the end of the race. Most experienced and successful drivers understand the importance of this part of the race as far as the opportunity it presents.
Dick Anderson watched one of his drivers get jumped on a restart a few years ago and he turned to a bystander and said, “if had I let someone beat me like that on the restart, I’d go home and beat myself”, and he meant it. You don’t let that opportunity pass by.
Conclusion – We’ve given you plenty to think about. Our thanks go out to Dick and the other legendary drivers who have contributed to this discussion and who have passed their knowledge on to writers like me.
It would do a new driver good to have discussions with some of the older and more successful drivers at their track. These guys would be happy to help you become better drivers because when you improve your skills, there will be less trouble overall and then everyone wins.
Sources:
Brake-O-Meter
www.brakeometer.com
Coleman Racing
www.colemanracng.com
800-221-1851
Performance Friction Brakes
www.performancefriction.com
800-521-8874
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