FredC

Will race at Sebring for the first time in February. Does anyone have good night racing video to share?

any good tips?

Thanks

Fred

LDadrenaline

https://rennlist.com/forums/racing-a...g-footage.html

Gary R.

To learn the track - Join iRacing, buy Sebring and run the SRF around the International (17 turns, assume that's what you will race) track. You will think you had been there before by the time you arrive...

FredC

Sounds good!

Land Jet

That is a very bumpy track by looking at the Fying Finn's video. I wonder if the iRacing game shows that in their vids.

93 FireHawk 968

Best bet is to watch day time video repetitively and know the track as much as possible when you can see it. I did the night race last year and was surprised and how difficult, at least for me, it was to drive consistent laps the first few sessions out. Once I had the brake points, turn in and other key aspects mastered it made it far easier to avoid the mind games you'll experience. It's no surprise they mandate some track time in the light before trying to drive at race speed when dark and I do mean dark.

Make sure you run the most powerful lights you can and their adjusted perfectly. I ran with stock lights and they sucked.

cobrien

Hey Fred, how are things??

I just ran Sebring for the first time last month. I learned the track basics by doing 40 or 50 laps in Forza 3 on my XBox and watching some video. It's obviously not the same as actual track time, but it's still very helpful (at least for me). When I got on the track the first time I already knew where I was on track at any given time, what kind of turn was coming up next, some general ideas of where and how much to brake, general idea of turn in points and lines, etc. So instead of wasting my first test session or two just figuring out which way the track went, I immediately jumped into working on braking points, etc.

I also ran my first night race at Sebring, which was a blast. For me, the darkness itself wasn't much of an issue. A lot of people talked about how dark the track is (and it definitely was), but there wasn't really any point at which I lost track of where I was or where I needed to go. For me the biggest problem was the start of the race and glare from the lights around me. Despite putting tape on the rear window and dimming the rear view mirror, glare from the side mirrors and the lights all around me seemed to really screw me up. Anyhow, I mention that because I've talked to a few pros about it since then, and a couple of them had had the same problem. Their suggestions were: 1) if you wear contacts, take them out and wear glasses instead (contacts just make glare worse for a lot of people, including me), and/or 2) wear glasses/sunglasses with amber lenses - supposedly that cuts the glare without making things too much darker.

Don't know if either of those suggestions will help, but I plan to try them at the next night race.

Good luck!!

FredC

Thanks Colin, things are good.

great suggestions, very appreciated!

TRAKCAR

Here is one in slow motion, my first time at Sebring with this car..
http://www.youtube.com/v/CLOD3uKTVGk

VERBOTN

back marker weighing in:

The track had a light stand in T3 to "light" the corner but fo me when I was going thru T1-T2 it seemed to be aimed at me which created a momentary flash. That could have been a one-off and has since been corrected. The other area that I noticed was coming out of T7 it is dark not an issue but after leaving a very well illuminated corner (T7) the run to T10 is like a black hole unless you have traffic.

Several people I chatted with posted either their best or near best time as the night takes away alot of the "noise" that is available at day, it requires total focus which correlates to fast laps.

Enjoy

Gasser

Yes, my buddies ran their best times at night. Weard. Didn't know if it was just the focus or cooler air and more horsepower.

VERBOTN

Gasser:

For me = both.

Rick DeMan

Hey, watch this clip...after about 3 min. or so there is a night lap...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDTtKfOLx6U

sbelles

Trying to find the apex at 9 was the hardest thing for me the first time at night. After a while I just decided that there is so much room there that "close" was good enough. Sorry I'm going to miss it this year.

DrJupeman

Here's my night video from '08. This is me chasing Musante. I came in 2nd overall and won Worker's Choice for the effort. (Video quality is not that great.)

Sebring in 964 Cup at night

(Btw, racing at night is awesome!)