Ultimate Speed Secrets

by Ross Bentley

  There are really three ways or places to pass another car:

  • By outbraking it while approaching a corner

  • By passing on a straightaway (either because your car is faster, you got better acceleration out of the corner leading onto the straight, or by drafting the other car)

  • By passing in a corner (by far the most difficult)

  ILLUSTRATION 18-1 The correct way to outbrake a competitor into a corner: As you can see, all you want to do is get beside your competitor by the time you’re at the turn-in point. That way, the corner is yours. The only thing your competitor can do is follow.

  Probably the most important aspect of passing is to “present” yourself, making sure you get into a position where your competitor can see you. When you go into a corner on the inside of him, it is not necessary to pass him completely (see Illustration 18-1). Often, if you try to go too deep into a corner to get completely by another car, you overdo it, and one of three things happen: you spin, are unable to make a proper turn-in, or you come out of the corner so wide and with so little speed that the other car re-passes on the straightaway (see Illustration 18-2). All you really have to do is get beside your competitor, and the line through the corner is all yours. Just match your braking with the other driver’s braking. There is nothing he or she can do about it at that point.

  ILLUSTRATION 18-2 The wrong way to outbrake a competitor. If you get too enthusiastic and go too far past your competitor, it opens the door for him to repass you on the exit of the corner. This will probably be easily done, as you have gone too fast into the corner, cannot get back on line to block him, and will not be able to begin accelerating as early as your competitor.

  When outbraking a competitor on the inside approaching a corner, do you turn in at the same turn-in point? No. If you did, it would be much too early. Instead, continue straight down the inside until you intersect, and then blend in with your usual ideal line. That puts you in position to begin accelerating earlier than your competitor.

  When following a group of cars into a corner, you most likely will not be able to brake as late as you normally do. As each car in front starts to brake, the cars begin to “stack” up in front of you. If you tried to go as deep as usual, you will run into the rear of someone.

  When trying to pass another car, sometimes you actually have to hang back a little so you can get a “run” on him at a part of track where it is easier to pass. You often see a driver in a faster car that cannot pass a slower car because it is constantly running into the corner with the nose just barely inside the other car. Of course, the driver of the slower car takes the line through the turn and the faster car then needs to slow down as well, losing all its momentum. That driver would have been better off easing back just a little early for the turn, giving some room between himself or herself and the slower car, then accelerate early, driving the corner hard to gain the momentum down the straightaway, where it is easy to pass.

  Remember that anytime you slow slightly while trying to pass another car, you are not at the limit anymore. Therefore, you can probably alter your line to almost anywhere on the track without being concerned about spinning.

  SPEED SECRET

  When passing, always “present” yourself.

  ILLUSTRATION 18-3 The driver of the car on the inside deserves to have the door shut on him by the car on the outside, for two reasons. First, the driver hasn’t “presented” himself to the other car by getting far enough alongside him. Second, he is too close to the inside edge of the track—too far away from the car on the outside—making it very difficult for the other driver to see him. Instead, he should have eased off the brakes slightly to get farther alongside the other car and run closer to it as well (a small side benefit of running close to the other car is if the two cars do hit, the impact will be lighter).

  If you and another car just in front of you are passing another car, consider that the driver of the car about to be passed probably only sees the first passing car and not you. Be prepared!

  If you are obviously slower than the car behind you, try to let that car by. But do so on a straightaway, not in a corner. If you have already entered the corner, you are committed to the line. It is your corner. If you change your line in a corner after you are committed to it, you are going to confuse the faster car behind and possibly put yourself in a dangerous position. Be predictable! Wait until you are out of the corner and on the straight; then point to where you want the car to pass, and let it by. Pointing is important, but make it one or two quick points, then get your hand back on the steering wheel and concentrate on your own driving.

  BLOCKING

  Blocking is a controversial subject. A general rule is you can defend your position by altering your line, but only once. If you weave down the straight or alter your line two or three times on the approach to a corner, that’s called blocking.

  I don’t think blocking is right. Not only is it dangerous, but if that is what it takes to keep a competitor behind, you don’t deserve to be in front. Of course, in the last few laps of a race, almost anything goes, as long as you remember that you’re not going to win if you crash both of you out of the race. The balance between being a good aggressive racer and being a blocker is a fine one. Having a reputation as a fair but tough driver is great; having the reputation as a “dirty” driver or blocker usually ends up costing you eventually.

  ILLUSTRATION 18-4 When you have modified your line to pass a competitor, simply “blend” back onto the ideal line as soon as possible.

  You will learn who you can trust to race wheel to wheel. Generally, these drivers will not surprise you by doing something unexpected. They will not suddenly change their line drastically because you’re trying to pass. They are predictable. They may change their line slightly to discourage you from trying to pass, but that’s to be expected.

  Remember, there are no real hard and fast rules regarding passing on the racetrack. And no insurance on a race car (well, you can get it, but it’s expensive and you still have to pay the deductible yourself, no matter who’s fault it is!). So, it takes respect and courtesy for your fellow competitors for all of us to “play” safe.

  What about different cars? Are there different techniques required to drive a front-wheel-drive versus rear-wheel-drive car? What about midengine open-wheel cars versus front-engined production-based race cars?

  The answer is yes and no. It doesn’t matter whether it’s rear-wheel-drive, front-wheel-drive, four-wheel-drive, midengined, or front-engined, a race car is a race car. The basic technique is the same. The only difference is in the timing and amount of application of the technique and the slight variations in the ideal line I talked about earlier.

  In fact, there may be just as much difference between two rear-wheel-drive cars (a Formula Ford and a GT car, for example) as there is between a front-wheel-drive and rear-wheel-drive.

  The biggest difference with a front-wheel-drive car is this: The front tires are doing all the work, steering, accelerating, and most of the braking. Therefore, it’s easy to overload or overwork them. If you overwork the front tires, they will overheat and lose even more traction.

  With a front-wheel-drive car you have to be careful while accelerating in a corner. If you get on the throttle too hard, you overwork the front tires’ traction limit while causing a serious rearward weight transfer, resulting in extreme understeer. Be smooth with the throttle; squeeze the throttle.

  Since a front-wheel-drive car has a tendency to understeer (due to all the weight over the front end), it’s important to trail brake a little more on the entrance to corners. Left-foot braking is used by many front-wheel-drive racers to help with this trail braking. Additionally, you may have to use “trailing throttle oversteer” to control the understeer in the middle of a long corner. This means quickly easing off, or “trailing” off, the throttle in the middle of the corner to cause forward weight transfer, reducing the understeer.

  With rear-wheel-drive, you can �
�kick” the rear around tight corners with power oversteer by quickly applying lots of throttle, but not with front-wheel-drive. If you try this with a front-wheel-drive car all you’ll do is increase the understeer.

  Some say you must be more precise, that there’s less room for error, when racing a front-wheel-drive car. Definitely, you can’t be as harsh with the throttle to help overcome an error, as that will usually overload the front tires.

  ILLUSTRATION 19-1 A vehicle’s “polar moment of inertia” can be compared to a barbell. The more a car’s weight is concentrated toward its center, the easier and quicker it will respond to a change in direction. You need to adapt your driving technique to suit your car’s polar moment of inertia, by changing—among many things—the timing and motion of your initial turn-in. Usually, the higher your car’s polar moment of inertia, the sooner you need to begin turning in, as it will take longer to respond.

  You may want to try to straighten the front wheels a little sooner when exiting a corner with a front-wheel-drive, as the limit of how much throttle you can give while the wheels are turned may be less, due to the additional forces on the front tires. Usually, a later apex is required. And you know what to do to drive a later apex.

  The key to being a versatile driver is being able to adjust or modify your style or technique to best suit the slight variations of different types of cars. However, there is one rather subtle but important thing you should keep in mind when switching from one type of car to another. Fortunately, it can be summed up in one statement.

  What does this mean? Imagine holding a 4-foot-long barbell with a 10-pound weight at each end above your head with one hand. Begin to twist or rotate the barbell in one direction and then back in the other direction. What would happen? It would be difficult to change direction, causing your arm to twist prior to stopping rotation in one direction and going back in the other.

  Now imagine sliding those two 10-pound weights in toward the center of the barbell, until they are about an inch from either side of your hand. Rotate or twist the bar again and then reverse direction. Much easier to change direction, right?

  The same thing occurs with a car. The farther the mass or weight of the car is distributed from the center of the car (as with a production car), the higher its moment of inertia, and the more difficult it will be to change its direction. The closer the mass of the car is located to the center (as with an open-wheel car), the quicker responding and more maneuverable it will be.

  Therefore, when driving a car with a high moment of inertia, it will take longer for it to react to your initial turn-in. To compensate, begin your turn-in slightly earlier and make the turn of the steering wheel more progressive. If you don’t do that, you will probably find yourself struggling to get the car tucked right in close against the apex without over-slowing the car.

  The physical act of driving a race car is relatively simple in comparison with the mental aspects. In other words, your results are largely dependent upon your mental performance. Yogi Berra’s comments about baseball could be adapted to racing as well: “Racing is 90 percent mental, and the other half is physical.”

  If you want to win, having an understanding of how your mind works is not only beneficial, it is critical.

  My goal here is to give you enough information so that you will buy into the concepts and tools I want you to use. Without this basic understanding, I doubt whether you will believe in the concepts, and therefore, will not use them. With this as a framework, let’s dive into the driver’s mind.

  THE PERFORMANCE MODEL

  The Performance Model was developed by my friend, Ronn Langford. It’s used to explain and understand how we, as humans, perform practically any activity. The model works like this. Information, primarily from our senses, is input into our brains, which we can look at as operating like a computer. In this “bio-computer,” the information is processed based upon our software or programming, resulting in an output. When it comes to driving a race car, this output is some form of action or reaction: using the pedals or steering wheel, looking at something, making a decision, behaving a certain way, having confidence, or literally millions of other actions.

  Within your software, or mental programming, are your psychomotor skills (physical actions and movements that you can do without having to think about), state of mind, decisions, behavioral traits, and your belief system.

  You could have the latest and greatest super-computer, with the best software or programming available, but if you give it poor quality or little quantity input, you will not get the output you were looking for. Conversely, if you give an old computer with a slow processor lots of great quality input, you still will not get the output you were looking for. In other words, the processing speed of your brain and your software (programming), determines the output as well. And your output is your driving performance.

  USING YOUR WHOLE BRAIN

  Have you ever had days or times when you feel completely switched on and performing at a high level, and other days when it seems you can’t get out of your own way? Part of the reason for this is how well you’re using your whole brain. When you’re switched on and performing at your best, you’re using your whole brain, and you’re processing information quickly and efficiently. When you’re not performing well, it’s as if you’re only using half a brain; you’re not processing information fast.

  Surprising to many drivers is the fact that you can actually use some exercises to speed up your brain’s ability to process information and therefore drive faster and smarter. I’ll look into brain integration and how you can improve your brain’s functioning in the next chapter on brain integration.

  SENSORY INFORMATION

  Anyone familiar with computers will have heard of the slogan, GIGO, which means garbage in, garbage out. The same thing applies to our minds: If we input garbage, the output will be garbage. Of course, the opposite is also true: quality in, quality out.

  So where do you get the information that is then input into your brain? From two main sources: sensory input and thoughts. Sensory inputs can be broken down into three categories: visual, kinesthetic, and auditory. Since your sense of smell is only used when driving to deal with problems (overheated brakes or engine, for example), and not to improve your performance, I’ll not deal with it in this book. And, of course, we don’t use our sense of taste while driving on the track, at least we shouldn’t!

  It’s obvious that most of the information that you put into your brain when driving comes visually. What is not so obvious is what exactly visual means. To many people, having 20-20 vision means having good visual input. While central vision acuity, which is what the 20-20 measurement relates to, is important, it is not the most important part of the visual input. For example, visual-spatial awareness, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to change focal points rapidly are much more critical to race-car driving. This is why some drivers with 20/20 vision do not “see” as much as others who have lesser vision.

  ILLUSTRATION 20-1 Information from the driver’s senses (visual, kinesthetic, and auditory) and his thoughts are input into his brain, which operates like a computer. Based on the software or programming in the brain, a psychomotor skill is triggered. This is an action. Then the loop begins all over again in reaction to the action.

  ILLUSTRATION 20-2 A driver receives sensory input from his vision, his kinesthetic (feeling, motion, balance, g-forces), and auditory. The better the quality, and the more quantity of sensory input the brain has to work with, the better the quality the output, the better he will drive.

  The kinesthetic sense involves much more than just the sense of touch. It also includes your proprioceptive system (the ability to sense forces acting against your body) and your vestibular system (sense of balance). Is your sense of balance important to driving a race car? Is your ability to sense the g-forces against your body important? Is your ability to feel the vibrations and feedback through the steering wheel, pedals, and seat important? You
bet!

  Some people seem to think that auditory input is not that important when it comes to driving race cars. Boy, are they wrong! Great drivers receive a lot of input from their hearing. The drivers sense when the tires are at their limit of traction to a great extent by the sounds they make. They sense and set the corner-entry speed by the sound of the air rushing past their helmet or car. They use the sound of the engine to tell them a lot about steering angle, shift points, traction, and so much more.

  The overall message you should be getting from this is that anything you can do to improve the quantity and quality of sensory information going into your brain, the better your performance will be. I’ll get into the details of how exactly to do this in the chapter on Sensory Input.

  YOUR SOFTWARE

  Everything you do behind the wheel of the car, and outside of the car, is a result of the programming in your brain. What do I mean by programming? Each time you do something, anything, the synapses in your brain that relate to that activity fire off bio-electrical current from one to another. This pathway now becomes the program for doing this act. The more often the act is completed, the deeper the programming becomes.

  It is much like the pathway flowing water makes in dirt. The first time the water begins to flow, it seeks out a pathway. The more it flows, the deeper and stronger the pathway becomes. The same is true of the neural pathways in your brain. The more you practice anything, the stronger and deeper the programming becomes.