jgrant

Hey there-

The unfortunate incident in Fontana has really got me thinking about my driver training stuff, and led me to a quick question.

How do you safely practice emergency situations like emergency braking, colission avoidance, etc., when you're doing 140+?

I'm totally new to the sport (getting hooked fast, though), and at my first DE last month we practiced the typical stuff like threshold braking, brake and avoid, slaloms, etc., but all of that was at pretty low (and safe) speeds. How do you safely practice or prepare yourself for having to do high-speed collision avoidance?

For instance, take Ben's unfortunate scenario; you're doing 150+ and a car pulls out of a lousy pit entrance and potentially into your path. You're approaching the car at 100+ relative speed, and have to avoid him.

At that speed, your controls have to be VERY smooth and limited, or else everything can go wrong in a hurry.

So, how do you practice that?

It could just as easily be a deer on the course, or a tire that came loose, etc.

I haven't been able to find anything on how (or if) people train for that.

Any thoughts? Experiences?


...jeff

Geo

Jeff, while some may not agree with me, I believe the only way is to get out there and get experience. It's important to learn to be calm out there and that means not being on the verge of terror (and some folks will drive on the edge of terror just to say they are fast).

You can go over scenarios in your mind and while a good school or DE will help, ultimately the only things available to you are experience and mental preparation (which doesn't necessarily require preparation). You have to be able to remain calm in a storm, or at least in that specific storm.

Go out there. Listen to your instructors. Get experience. Go over scenarios in your mind.

Good luck.

jgrant

Yeah, there is no substitute for seat time, but I was just wondering if there is any training that is available for practicing these kinds of scenarios, at speed.

Geo

At speed?.........

Well, for some that will help. For others, simply going over scenarios in their head will help more. Sadly, until the time comes, you don't know where you fall (or many do not).

jgrant

I hear ya... when I did my glider training years ago, we had to deal with potential rope breaks (glider being towed into the air) on short, wooded landing strips... "what happens if the rope breaks at 100 feet and you're looking at trees in front of you, and if you turn, you'll dig a wing-tip into the ground". There are some scenarios you can't put yourself into in order to practice...

I was just thinking that it shouldn't be too dificult (in my naievete) to have single cars get up to relatively high speed on a straight and try doing small turns/avoidance/braking in a DE environment, with cones, or whatever, so you at least get a taste of what the difference between low and high speed car control is like.

Bob Rouleau

I'm with Geo and the rest. Seat time is the best way. Smoothness and feel for the car becomes natural over time - instructors call it unconscious competence. When something happens confidence and skill developed over time will help immensely. That's not a guarantee mind you but it puts the odds in your favor on the track and on the street where the danger is greater.

JackOlsen

In one sense, there's no training for it needed. And by that I mean: you already know how to turn a steering wheel to avoid an incident.

Obviously, that doesn't really prepare you for sudden high-speed surprises at the track. What George said, though, is key. You just keep logging time in the car at the track, hopefully in lower-speed situations as you start out, with instruction, and slowly train your body to react 'better' as minor situations present themselves.

By this, I mean you get familiar with your car's particular high-speed handling characteristics, as well as the types of incidents that do typically occur at a track, and you slowly get better at managing those situations. Aside from some general maxims that can help (keep both hands on the wheel, don't lift in a drift, consciously 'under'-do your corrections, make your inputs as smooth as possible, maintain your situational awareness at all times, in a spin, both feet in, etc.), the key is to just get smoother and more predictable in your responses, slowly eliminating the tendency to immediately do a panic lift and go into 'please God just let me live' mode.

The biggest dangers you'll face are your own 'automatic' reactions -- lifting, turning, braking -- all in a sudden and uncontrolled fashion. Familiarity with driving on a track, and looking at it as something that can be done in a safe and methodical fashion, is key. Try to think of every corner on a track as somethng with analysis, prediction, decision and execution -- including an exit strategy if things go wrong. The more you make a conscious 'I am talking inside my head' method to driving, the better, in my opinion.

And all that said, here's a way you can get some training. Spend time practicing getting out of your car. Put on all your safety gear and repeatedly get yourself out -- both through the door and also the opened window -- until it becomes second nature. If you keep a fire extinguisher in the car, also practice finding and unhooking it -- again, with your eyes closed.

RJay

I think this is absolutely spot on. My most recent stupid spin occured last year at VIR (first day ever at that track) when the guy in front of me went into the top of the hog pen too hot, got sideways and slid right off. I had closed hard on him, started to turn, got surprised, lifted and spun, fortunately in a different direction. Had I not been surprised, it never would have happened. Personally, I think getting surprised is the single most dangerous thing that can happen on track. Last week at NHIS, I was in a similar situation, a guy went too hot into three, I knew he was going too fast, I broke a slightly earlier and as he slid wide toward the tire wall (he didn't hit it, but he came close enough to scare himself), I just stayed on line, passed in the corner and of course got black flagged for it. I was ultimately pronounced innocent by the attitude adjuster, but even if I hadn't been, it was a proud moment for me, in which I was able to anticipate what was going to happen and was fully prepared to deal with it. The key difference is that in the latter situation, I wasn't surprised at all, so I reacted correctly to the point where for me it was literally a non-event.

Like most acquired skills, at first you're overwelmed with sensory input. After a while you begin to adjust to the amount of information to be processed and are able to see more, be more aware of whats around you and spend more time thinking in the future, rather than reacting to the present. The more seat time, the more free thinking I'm abele to do. OTOH, from the descriptions of what happened at Fontana happened at speeds far in excess of the two incidents I described. I'm under no illusion that were I to find myself in a similar situation, the result could likely be the same. I think one of the big takeaways from this tragedy for me is to try to devote more attention to pit traffic and pit out flaggers at tracks where if the blend line is disrespected (I'm thinking of LCMT) it could be serious. Hopefully none of us will ever find ourselves in a simliar situation to last weeks tragedy.

David Ray

Don't foget to be able to respond to mechanical failure. Ayrton Senna never had a chance to respond. How do you respond to this - you don't! Racing is high risk and there's no way to prepare for the unforeseen inevitable situation.

As mentioned above, avoiding driving incidents will come with seat time there's nothing to prepare you for a high speed tire blow out, fire, oil on the track, dust from runoff, broken steering link or transaxle, or anything for that matter, it is a high risk sport!. I pray a lot!!!

pole position

Senna was not killed by mechanical failure , it was driver error.

Geo

Really? I hardly think Senna drove straight off that corner through driver error. He would have had to pretty much be asleep at the wheel.

RJay

A wise man once said to me, an accident on the track is a meteor hitting your car, everything else is driver error.

As far as I can remember, the Senna incident was put down to having to run at low speed behind the pace car for several laps. His tires were presumed still cold and he pushed too hard to distance himself too early which resulted in his off. I believe there was some speculation as to whether the tire was loosing air, but I can't recall if that was ever proved or disproved. As he's my hero, I hate to admit it, but I lean toward the accident being caused by driver error. The death OTOH was caused by mechanical failure, which resulted in stricter rules on tethering wheels, which likely saved Kimi's life last week.

tlark

Can't be said any better than that. Case in point at Heartland Park Topeka at the highest speed section of track a off-camber kink exists where a poor soul lost his life in a DE. Knowing this I asked why from those that had been witness to it. Most conclusion was an over-correction after a mistake. Plenty of run-off room available in this area if you use it, that why its there. A "automatic reaction" as stated above cost this driver his life by slamming into a wall on the opposite side of the track where he shouldn't have been anyway. Just a few weeks ago at the same track and same place on the track a instructor in a turbo apparently took the an excursion. The result when proper and controlled thinking is applyied left him with a damaged radiator and minor body damage in that area and thats all.

In short, know where the problems areas are, study the track maps, talk with those in the know, visualize in your mind all aspects of the track and memorize what you can before you hit the track. Look on the net for in-car camera stuff, and most of all recognize your abilities for what they are.

38D

Some good advice already. The only thing I can add is to practice your track/car awareness so you don't event get in these types of situations. Many times, mechanical failures manifest themselves slowly. For example, if a tire is going down, it might start as a small shimmy in the steering. In general if you car's handling suddenly changes, you probably want to slow down and come in. For track awareness, you could practice looking way ahead (even if there is a car in front of you). The last DE I did before my first Club Race, I practiced checking all 3 mirrors going into every corner.

Honkity Hank

I agree that seat time is invaluable for this but it is also the most expensive and scarce method. To supplement seat time I am a firm believer in the power of mental simulation. Read (or re-read) Inner Speed Secrets. Any incident like Fontana or that we are likely to experience at the track cannot be dealt with effectively by the conscious mind, the sub conscious mind is at work there and is much better suited for the task anyway. The neat thing about the subconscious mind is that you can train it through with the conscious mind (I know this is sounding a little familiar). Just start consciously thinking about a ripe juicy lemon and you can see how the sub-conscious can be tricked.

You need to train the brain as much as the body.