g-50cab

That's interesting - your RA1's must be well worn. I know of several race teams that use full tread RA1's as their rain tires. I have been surprised at how much grip they provide (with treads) in the rain.

When they are full worn (slicks, with just the two groves) they are faster on a dry track not not worth too much in the rain.

pmason

From now on I will skip the wet sessions, learned my lesson this last spring, customized the drivers side with armco, risk too high.

Ed Hughes

Plenty of people have had mishaps on dry tracks too. IMO, that is dependent on the track. We ran a big DE in the rain once at MSR in TX. The first day showed 50+ spins across all sessions as it was pouring and there was lots of standing water. Not a scratch. A few cars got a bit muddy, but they hosed off in quick order and got back on the track.

We ran one on a very cold day after a snow @ Eagle's Canyon in Feb of last year with temps in the 20's to start. I think we only had two or three offs, but again, no problems.

Now that I think about it, I'm glad I moved back to Calif.

Sorry about your mishap, but that can happen at any time and should not dissuade people from trying it once. Nothing says that one would have to run every lap in every session if they felt like the weren't gaining anything.

whalebird

I've had some guys tell me that the line is different in the rain. Now in competition this may be so and I would not offer the best advice here for instruction. I have only a few slow sesions in the rain to my credit. Way back when I was crewing at a 24Hour race in Mosport and one of our drivers(among Hurley Haywood) turned the fastest lap of the race at night, in light rain on rain tires. We finished 3rd overall.

Ed Hughes

The line is different so that you stay off the rubber that is typically laid down on the track and becomes quite smooth. The parts of the track that are typically unused normally, offer the most grip when wet.

whalebird

Thats what I understand Ed. So offline can be faster in wet conditions but my lack of time in those conditions found me trying to just stay on the track. Although I would strongly suggest the OP to default to a good instructor at the track. Probably a good time to be in a DE as the skills honed there go home with you and make a safer driver on the street.

Bob Rouleau

The wet line is where the dry line isn't and on tracks that have a lot of activity the wet line has a lot more grip than the dry line if the track is wet. The tricky part is at every corner the wet line will cross the dry line twice. The idea is to use a line which lets you cross the dry line in a straight line. One odd thing is that the wet line is where the slippery dirt and marbles accumulate on a dry day. In the wet, marbles or not there is more grip out there. Strange but true.

best,

whalebird

That is an outstanding perspective Bob. The OP just learned a lot I suspect...I did.

Oldtee

I like a few rain sessions in a DE. I reduce my tire pressures a few lbs and slow down. If I start slipping and sliding, I know to slow down some more, then I gradually increase my speed. After three or four laps I find my speed increasing and while I never reach dry speeds you will be surprised how well you do. Be a jack *** and it will catch up to you pretty quickly. If you loose it, don't try to yank it back on the track. Drive thru the off and since you are not going that fast you should be OK. Stay away from standing water.

Ed Hughes

I'd think that keeping your pressures up a bit would help keep you planted, as opposed to lowering them. Try that next time out, and you may be surprised.

David993S

Your tires won't build up as much heat & pressure, so as others have said, set them accordingly. Always good to disconnect sway bars, if possible but for a street car at a DE or track day probably not necessary. In the wet you need to do everything much more gently and smoothly.....brake earlier and more gently, turn in more gently, ease on the gas more gently.....you get the picture. Generally speaking, in the (very) wet you'll usually be one gear lower than in the dry. i.e. if it's a 3rd gear corner in the dry, use 2nd in the wet. The rain "line" may also be different than the dry line, but not always. For examaple, Mid-Ohio used to have an off-line rain line, but when the track was resurfaced at one point grooves were added and now the dry and rain lines are the same, but usually the wet line is different....check with someone that is familiar with that particular track when wet.
Just take it easy and have fun. Wet/rain racing was always one of my favorite things to do.

Cheers.

Ed Hughes

I think you have it mixed up. You don't want to run a gear lower in the rain, you'll spin the tires and break traction. You want to go a gear higher to keep the tires hooked up.

David993S

Of course that's right......that's what happens when I try to write something at midnight after being up 19 hrs.

DesignerGenes

I was scared of tracking my car in the rain, but I swallowed hard and did my best to apply all of my skills and learn. Here's one of the things I learned: tires are important. The picture is me doing 110 in the rain -- on Kumho Ecsta SPTs. Check the write-ups at tirerack.com on these tires. Don't go out on the Kumhos without putting real air in them. The stories you read about too much flex in the sidewalls come from people afraid of air, or riding on tires that haven't been broken in -- hard.

Pavegeno928

Did my first Autocross this weekend. As chance would have it it was wet and raining on and off. I think I had more fun driving on the wet course than I did driving on Sebring dry...learned a lot about how hard I can push my car. There were plenty of obstacles (light poles and curbs) but the course was designed well so it was never an issue.