Looks like rain for Laguna Seca tomorrow. I'm comfortable on the track in the dry, but tomorrow will be my first rain day. The track will be unpredictable, likely varying from damp to really wet with moderate rain fall. I've got my Bridgestone SO3's on my 78 911SC and the suspension is relatively soft (stock torsion bars) for a track car. Tips?

 

Your SO3s and particularly your soft suspension setup will be perfect for a wet track.

This is agreat opportunity to perfect your technique. The key to wet driving also happens to be the key to fast driving on a dry track - smoothness.
Your transitions must be smooth. Braking, downshifts, turn in, - all gentle and balanced. The effects of any jerkiness will be magnified by the reduced friction of the wet surface.

Don't be surprised if you learn more on the wet track than you usually learn in a day on a dry track.
Relax, be smooth, and you will get a lot out of the day.

FWIW, us east coasters are definitely envious of your mid winter track days.

 

Oooh, me first, me first! I have some non-track specific advice about driving in the rain. There are two schools of thought concerning the rain line. The first is to reverse your line; running from inside to outside to inside. This keeps you pretty much off of the normal line, which will be incredibly slippery when wet. The second is to brake a little inside the normal line, and then run the outside of the corner, all the way around, once again staying off of the slippery stuff.

I tend to prefer the first method, but both do work, and you may find yourself using both lines in different corners at the same track. Just remember that if it's shiny, it's slippery.

Also, though you can brake fairly well, your cornering grip will be greatly reduced, so be gentle with the throttle as you feed in the power. Good luck, have fun & keep it on the track.

Ah crap Tony, you beat me to it!

 

Well, relax as much as possible and try to just keep your nose clean. Sounds too basic, right? Well, as a co-worker once said "if you don't leave the basics, you don't have to return to them."

I had a horid night sleep before my only rain car race. It was the best race I've done. I started dead last due to a delay in tech and not getting the rain settings on the car in time to set a Q time. I literally passed half the field (20 cars) and finished on the podium in class. I was just trying to take it easy out there.

Just build speed slowly and don't worry about others. I concur with those who say to try off-line for grip. My very first race in the rain was in a kart race. On slicks. Hard slicks. In an endurance race. It seemed like I spent half the race going around in circles on the grass (but I finished 4th - go figure). Anyhow, I was told to try off-line and forgot in the chaos of just trying to stay on the track. Then one of the most experienced drivers there passed me and I was able to follow him a bit. I noticed he stayed off-line and turned in VERY late. When I tried it I found a bunch more grip and instantly when a whole lot faster. No guarantees you'll find more grip off-line, but it's probably worth trying.

 

Key to driving in the rain is being SMOOTH.... be as smooth as possible in braking, turn-in and applying the power. You may need to "look for grip" some tracks are well worn like Roebling Road (old asphalt & concrete patches), avoid shiny areas and try to be in a "straight line" when crossing these sections. Other tracks, Like Barber, have new asphalt, so you can drive most any where, but remember, you want to carry momenton.

As others have said, you can learn a lot... driving on a wet track!

Just be careful and don't try to HUSTLE the car! Drive smoothly and the speed will come!

 

A super good point!

An illustration....

At racing school we ran a little contest on a wet skidpad with some cones. There were two of us on the pad on opposite sides of the cone circle. We had to drive inside one cone and outside the next all the while going in a circle of sorts. The idea was to catch up to the other guy and then they replaced him with another driver until all drivers got a chance.

When it was my turn I just tried really hard to just keep the car under me and not get carried away. I made up a lot of distance on the other guy. But, as I got close and the instructors didn't send the other guy packing (they sent a couple of others packing very quickly when I got that close) I started to get frustrated and tried to push just a bit harder. Big big mistake. The more I tried, the worse I got. The other guy eventually caught up to me. I'm confident had I not gotten impatient I would have dispatched him eventually, but I just got impatient. I wanted to do it NOW so I tried to hustle the car when I shouldn't have.

 

Advice from a rookie in waiting.

Vision...look much further ahead because someone is going to get a 360 going.

Tires...let them tell you how you are doing and they will.

Drive smooth and deliberate, no stomping on pedals and drive as if you are on ICE.

Kill all mental thoughts/worries and RELAX!

Apply speed in increments as you get a feel for grip so don't be too gas happy on the first run.

My first run in the wet was a DE and started dead last out of 24 cars ended up in 7th as a result of practicing my advise given but heck I am a green horn.

 

Thanks for the great advice. I've also read the rain driving segment in "Going Faster", which echos much what has been said. The track has seen rain for at least a week so I think most of any rubber will have been washed off, but I'll keep vigilant. I'll try different lines and see how they turn out.

Cheers!

 

There are a lot of things you can do with setup, though this won't help if you can't make the changes.

You want the car as soft as you can get it. Set shocks to full soft (see below for option) and disconnect sway bars if you can.
Make the car understeer. Normally what you do (above) will take care of that, but if not, then only disconnect rear bar or soften rear shocks only.

If you can set the car up for a big push, then you will be driving the front tires - always sliding the fronts so you will know how much grip you have - but confident that the back will not immediately snap around on you.

 

do not cross running streams of water with your wheels turned.
read the surface as it will change with the conditions.
what worked last lap may not work this lap (pile up at watkins glen Grand Am in the wet)

 

Oooh, Oooh...

... And here's another one that I never see mentioned. Make use of the guys tire tracks that has just gone through the section you are heading into, especially through the rivers Bill mentioned. No sense redoing the work Moses already did!

 

Amen and hallelujah. You don't want the car rotating on its own, but rather YOU need to be able to induce rotation, when and where you want it. The balance is delicate...but once you figure it out, you can go like stink in the wet.

 

the biggest mistake i made in rain racing was to mount my tires backwards on the car. thats a bigee

 

Ouch. I guess that would funnel water from the edges to the center of the tire to induce aquaplaning.

 

Heavy rain morning sessions (Watkins Glen) I am 2nd on the grid out of 40 something. Track dries off I drop to 17th. Now the rain comes back for late day race and I put the hand cut Hoosiers back on (the wrong side of the car), drove 2 laps and pit in. Absolutely like ice. No control whatsoever. Won't do that again!