DRIVER DEVELOPMENT: Car Control (For those looking to improve their craft)

Good stuff Billy. Good Luck this season.

Ritesh.

 

Always great to read articles like these to freshen up. Thanks for putting this up!

 

you going to be at Road America for the NNS race this weekend? you were awesome to watch last year

 

Chas, you making it up to RA for anything this season?

 

sadly no

 

Very eye opening thread and article. I do HPDE's with the BMW Club and the comment about them is right on. Having done other venues, I can say the the BMW Club does a fine job at bringing people along, but does not provide the kind of training you are discribing. Rather, they promote the official Club Racing clinics for that.

I have found that their "A" or Red classes tend to have these kind of people and I personally am not comfortable with them, regardless if the promoters and instructers feel my skill level warrants. I guess that makes me the unskilled driver that is creeping towards the refined driver category and it is a pretty conservative approach.

I don't really think that R rated or racing tires should be allowed in an HPDE since its about street car control. The Club Racing school is focused on training for those events. There seems to be a lack of the kind of cirruculum you are describing. At least in the BMW Club. Except when it rains on a HPDE class. Then it is exactly what you described. Maybe we should do more of them in the rain.

Of course that would never happen with the Ferrari Club since it is widely accepted that these cars are far from being hydrophobic.

 

Great read Billy. I picked up kart racing last sept and have done 4 events. Went out today to a practice track that I had all to myself. I found, as a beginner, consistency is the difficult thing to achieve. I could feel like I hit specific corners great and they felt smooth and fast. Just couldn't achieve the same result lap after lap. Need more seat time.

Thank you for posting the article.

 

Jim, What kind of kart do you have? If there's no natural landmarks to mark turn-ins, braking points & etc, get some cones to use as references to establish consistency. Also, if you don't have one, pick up a AIM MyChron4 & and learn to use the ProRaceStudio software to see the visuals of your laps. If you get the GPS add-on you can really see where your at & progressing.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

I have a '14 Rodolfo Reghetti (sp) with an ancient 2001 rotax motor. Need to upgrade the motor for sure. lol Yeah, I was using cracks/imperfections in the pavement when I could pick them out. I need to mainly work on my lines and hitting them. I was also varying my speeds, lines, tire pressures, etc, to see the differences in how the kart behaved. There is a hell of a lot more to karting than people think, I believe. lol

 

Karting is for people who have not yet broken any bones.

 

wow........

 

That's a boldly ignorant and uninformed statement to make. Do you know who 'karts' in the racing world?

 

I'd get an AiM Solo. Self contained and less than $400. Has GPS, lap timing, lap visualization, everything you need.

The MyChron4 is good and adds RPM logging and one temperature sensor with expansion to more, if needed.

 

You take yourself too seriously. Lighten up. After all you ride around a track on a grown up roller skate with an engine.

 

When it comes to certain things I guess I do 'tighten up' and on other things I'm as loose as they come. I just didn't appreciate the karting comment you made because I do race a kart in a race series -not just run laps for fun, so there is a serious & competitive side I'm immersed in. Its fun as heck to do, is quite the roller skate and yet a night and a day experience from being in a car on-track. Unfortunately people do get seriously hurt karting, and that's why your comment rubbed me the wrong way. In the last 2 seasons alone, 2 people I know well got med evac'd from the track. One was lucky to have only a broken collar bone, the other now has 2 fused vertebrae. I was lucky in an excursion that I 'only' fractured my tailbone. If someone's showing genuine interest in karting, I'll be as helpful & forthcoming as I can and don't expect to be jumped on while dong so.

 

Nice article. Having MotorSport Ranch at my disposal has been invaluable. It's probably the safest track in the world and definitely the safest I've driven and very slick in the wet. I've been off and spun almost everywhere and it's a great place to practice car control. I make a point of trying to head out when it is wet, too. I probably overdrive on most member days, esp when driving old rags down to the cords, but try to dial it back when racing.

 

Not sure I'd brag on "spinning everywhere," Keith! Hahahaha!

Great article, as usual, Billy!

 

If you've never spun in your career you aren't trying hard enough! I do it a lot less and almost never in a race unless it's wet and even then rarely. Now going off . . . .

 

Great article. Whenever it snows i go out to big parking lot to practice drifting. Do a good job of it too. Can keep slide going as long as i like in any direction. Unfortunately, does not transfer to dry condt or even to just rain either. Cannot 'get it'.

I am definitely on the under part of the graph. I just figured out in 15 yrs ive done close.to 100 track days which is about 8000 minutes on track, 6000 laps or about 60000 turns on tracks i drive. Ive had 4 spins in all that time. One was in sleet, other was after radiator leaked on rear tires. So thats only 2 spins on my own. Guess i have some things to work on this winter

 

its not that I hit a plateau, I do keep improving and having faster lap times. issue is I am not able to knowingly get to limit of adhesion or make car drift. im very uncomfortable when rear gets loose in the dry