DDun911

Took the leap in 10 and started club racing and found it to be a blast. My goal in 11 is to move up the standings there are avenues to get faster but how do you accelerate the learning curve to learn race craft ?

mdrums

I would hire a race coach. There are a couple guys on this forum like Seth Thomas and Veloce Raptor are racers and also coach.

DDun911

I guess my question is with a coach is that they can't ride with you in a race situation. Video ?

winders

As with any endeavor, identify the low hanging fruit first. In other words, fix the obvious (not necessarily obvious to you) stuff that is costing you time. Working with a competent instructor is the best way to do this. Does this need to be a high dollar race coach? Probably not initially but that depends on your current proficiency and pocket book. Once your skills reach a certain level, the race coach becomes the best option.

Having a quality data acquisition system would be a good idea too. You can use that data to improve in many ways.

Scott

bobt993

I agree with Scott. I would work on being fast and able to qualify well. Race craft is going to happen when your able to stay near the front of your class. One way is to get comparable data from someone who is a front runner in your class. Another option is have a coach drive your car at the next level you need to work towards. If your 2 seconds a lap slower than your competition blocking is about your only defense and that would not be very popular or make any friends in the paddock. Once your able to look forward more and less checking your mirrors for approaching cars, your able to become more aggressive. Eyes forward =predator.

winders

Another tactic that is useful for racing is learning how drive the track off the qualifying line. You are not going to be able to pass very many cars, much less cars that run similar lap times, on the ideal line. So you might as well get used to being off line so you have a better idea what to expect.

Note: Be prepared to have people come up to you and ask you about your crazy lines......

Scott

Veloce Raptor

You're right--most race groups do not allow a coach to ride with you in a practice session. So you can get aorund this limitation several ways: work with a coach in your right seat on a test & tune or open track day; also sign up for a DE if it is simultaneous with the race weekend; also have the coach look at data and video.








Professional Racing and Driving Coach

Circuit Motorsports

Lots of things can help. I'm only going to address the 'racecraft' and not so much the fundamental driving that others already have.

1. Karting at a place where the karts are good and equal. Try to make passes without doing a blatant bump and run.
2. Make sure you're in a class that has enough people. 3-6 car classes can easily spread out and become a big DE session. 15-25 car count classes, especially if they're similar cars will force you to race for much longer periods of time.
3. Video, front and rear facing. You'll be able to go back to the 'game tape' and see what you did and what the other guys did to you and how that worked.
4. Race more. 3-6 weekends a year racing which is what most people do really isn't that much seat time. PCA is tough as there aren't as many places to race as some of the other groups. Look into NASA and their GTS classes for more local opportunities.
5. Choose to run at courses you've spent the most time at. Going to a new place is fun but the first weekend for most people is catching up to speed on where the track goes and getting the rhythym down.

Rich Sandor

There are 4 basic things that you can do to improve yourself:

1: Body Fitness
2: Mental State
3: Car Control
4: Racecraft

1: I'm not going to go into physical fitness, but basically if you don't work out regularly, you are leaving time on the table.

2: You attitude and state of mind is important. It sounds like you have a desire to improve yourself (as opposed to just improving your car) so you are on the right track. The important thing is to identify weaknesses, and reinforce strong suits, and understand that no matter how good you think you are, you can always be better. I remember hearing Ross Bentley once say: "Act like the person you want to be like" - meaning, if you wanna be like Michael Schumacher, you gotta do what he does, from fitness, to overtime in the garage, and be ruthless in your pursuit to win.

3: Car Control. There is no shortcut here either. Seat time is the only way to improve your car control. What does help, is experience in recovering from slides, and finding your braking thresholds, and being smoother, etc etc. If you can't practice in your race car, practice in your daily driver (within the law) or go karting, or play on the sim.

4: Racecraft - driving offline, blocking, strategy, etc, can really only be learned at the track or in the sim. I try to do 1 hour indoor karting enduros once a week, and that really helps. Doesn't take too much time out of my scheduale and doesn't cost too much - but it really teaches you racecraft, like how to be defensive or how to carve through traffic.

My thing is that as soon as the green flag comes out, I'm in a rush as if I have an upset stomach and I need to get to the can ASAP. If you don't have that level of urgency to get out front and pull ahead, then you won't be competitive. I can't afford to get stuck behind anyone for any amount of time. If I slide too much, it's like someone is jabbing me with a knife.. it hurts to slow down too much. Now of course, sometimes you have to pace yourself, because you literally cannot pass yet and you have to wait for a window. (some windows are smaller than others!)

Sometimes, you don't have a hope in hell of winning or even finishing well, so you have to quickly change your goals to self improvement with what you have to work with. You can reduce your pace a little and stay out of trouble, so that you can improve your consistency or try something new, for the next time.

There is one other thing that REALLY helped me and that was having a teammate or codriver that I could ride with, or at least compare data with. Monkey See, Monkey Do. (just the copy the good stuff, not the bad stuff!) Have someone who can ride with you to see where you are losing time or gaining it. Obviously you can't do this during a race, so the next best thing is to video tape it and compare videos with your racer friends after the events.

There is no real shortcut. Just get as much seat time as you can, and try to open your mind and learn as much as you can.

LDadrenaline

^^post of the year?


also just helped me explain why starts are my weakest point.



for my input it would be: for time get a coach. for race craft you have to race as much as possible. rent cars in a more competitive series like SM or SRF and do some enduros with them.

924RACR

Best way I've found to learn racecraft - getting beat by guys who have more, while being fast enough to make them use all their tricks!

38D

By not posting racecraft secrets on the internet

FredC

LOL

Potomac-Greg

I'm heading into my first season of racing (SRF) and was wondering how you coach a single-seater? Obviously, the people at Skippy do it all the time, but the best teaching is live ("brake here" "throttle now") and I wonder if single-seaters make that difficult.

Veloce Raptor

First of all, I love SRF's, as is evident from my past comments here. So congrats on selecting a fantastic racing platform! You're right, ideally being in the right seat is IMO the best way to impart better skills in the least amount of time (and for the least amount of money). It's also the best way to observe & address clients' bad habits that kill speed. However, with single seaters, video with audio, good data, and the Skippy technique of watching from various corners, work great, IMO.

EDIT: feel free to email me offline with any specific questions dave@racecoach.net








Professional Racing and Driving Coach