by Ross Bentley
Driving an oval—particularly superspeedways—requires more smoothness, finesse, and precision than road racing. Concentrate on turning the steering more gently and smoothly, arcing into the turn. Getting the car to take a set in the turns is critical on an oval, so don’t turn too slowly.
POOR HANDLING
Before my first Indy race on an oval, I was given some good advice: “If the car doesn’t feel right on an oval, don’t force it.” On a road course you can overcome a bad-handling car somewhat by changing your technique slightly. This is difficult—and dangerous—on an oval. This means that the car’s setup is more critical on an oval. Also, if it feels as though there is a mechanical problem with the car, come into the pits and have it checked. The result of a mechanical breakage on an oval is serious.
If the car is not handling well, do not try to force it to go fast. If you try to make a bad-handling car go fast on an oval, at best you will spin, at worst you will end up in hospital. This is especially the case with an oversteering car.
Oval tracks are not very forgiving, and a bad-handling car can get you hurt. You need to decide whether to continue or not with a bad-handling car. You won’t get any more credit for driving a car with evil handling to a mediocre finishing position than you will for bringing it in to make adjustments to it. You will get a lot less credit for stuffing the car into a wall than you will for making a smart decision.
Remember, it is your car’s life, and sometimes your own life on the line. It’s your decision.
If your car is oversteering on the oval, and you choose to continue, you need to have smooth, gentle hands. In other words, don’t turn the steering any more than you have to, and let the steering unwind as soon and as much as possible. With an oversteering car, a natural reaction is to hold the car away from the wall at the exit of the corners. That is about the worst thing you can do. The more you hold it away from the wall, the more likely it is that you will hit it.
Also, with an oversteering car, make your initial turn-in as gentle and progressive as possible. Do not make an abrupt turn-in.
With an understeering car on an oval, turn the steering even less, perhaps by driving a higher line through the turns. Let the car run free; release it from the turns.
When adapting to understeer, use the same weight balance adjustment techniques I suggested above, while becoming aware of what you are doing with the steering. As the car pushes, it will be instinctual to turn the steering a little more. As you know, this is not a good thing. Typically what happens is eventually the front tires scrub off enough speed that they begin to grip again but now you have so much steering input dialed in that the rear end breaks loose and the car spins. It is amazing how often a spin that appears to be caused by oversteer is actually the result of understeer.
THE LINE
The ideal line on an oval varies depending on the turn’s banking, its shape, and the handling of your car. You need to “feel” your way through the corners more so than on a road course; you need to let the car run where it needs to go. Everything I said earlier about the cornering compromise, reference points, and control phases apply to oval tracks as well. And just like on a road course, your straightaway speed is dictated by how well you exit the corners.
In fact, momentum is everything on an oval. The smallest error or lift of the throttle will have a tremendous effect on your lap speed. Don’t over-slow the car entering the turn. Try easing off the brakes just slightly sooner than you think possible and let the car run; carry its momentum.
As on a road course, on an oval you want to wait as long as possible before getting off the throttle and beginning to brake. This means you are going to brake into the turns, even more than you would on a road course. But gently. Remember the traction circle. You can’t brake as hard while turning as you could in a straight line. You have to ease the brakes on.
Looking far ahead is especially important on an oval. When driving an oval, I try to look as far ahead as I can, then just think about getting there as quickly as possible. This may sound obvious, but it helps. Often, a driver’s natural reaction is to look at the wall or the point you’re just about to get to. That’s not enough. You won’t drive a smooth, flowing line if you don’t look far ahead. And looking well ahead, and concentrating on getting to where I’m looking, seems to really help me.
Being fast on an oval requires looking farther ahead than you could on a road course, being very precise and smooth, and trusting the car to do the work of gripping the track. Shutterstock
OTHER CARS
Traffic on an oval is an entirely different experience than in road racing. Especially on the smaller ovals (1 mile or less), you are constantly dealing with others cars, either passing or being passed. Using your mirrors and peripheral vision is especially important in oval racing.
Turbulence from other cars is a tricky factor on ovals. When trying to pass another car, it may be difficult, as the closer you get the less downforce you will have (the leading car blocking the airflow to your car), slowing your speed. You have to ease off and try going into a corner a little slower, then accelerate earlier to get a good run out of the corner and slipstream past on the straight.
Particularly on superspeedways, a car closely following you can affect the handling of your car. When a car gets close to your rear wing or tail, the airflow over the rear is disturbed, decreasing downforce and causing the car to oversteer.
“How do I estimate the speed and braking through a corner I have never been through before?” There’s a question every rally and autocross driver would love the “secret” answer to. Even road and oval track racers could use it, although it is not as important since they have the advantage of being able to go round and round until they figure it out, using trial and error. Let’s take a look at what you’re up against when faced with a corner you’ve never been through before and see what we can do to discover that “secret.”
Approaching an “unknown corner,” there are four interrelated factors that come into play:
• Speed sensing: Your ability to sense, determine, and establish a particular speed. Obviously, this must be done at an intuitive level, not by looking at the speedometer.
• Traction sensing: Your ability to feel or sense whether and how close your tires are to their limit.
• Database: You have a database of information from the hundreds, thousands, or millions of corners you’ve driven in your life. Your database is primarily made up of visual images of what corners look like, along with the resulting speed and traction-sensing information. If your speed-sensing and traction-sensing skills are poor (a lack of sensory input), the database will not be accurate or as useful as it could be. Of course, you could say your database is just experience, or seat time, and you would be right to some extent. But why, then, do some drivers with little experience seem to have a larger database? The better your speed sensing and traction sensing, or sensory input, the better (richer) your database will be. In other words, your database is made up of tens, hundreds, thousands, or millions of reference points, ones you see, ones you feel, and ones you hear. It’s as if the file of information on each corner is much thicker or deeper, thus the more sensory information you have taken in.
• Car control: Your ability to “dance” with the car, handling the controls in such a way as to keep the car on your desired cornering line, while keeping the tires at or near their limit.
So heading into a corner, your speed-sensing skills sense the speed (obviously) you’re traveling at that instant, and your traction sensing says, “I am ‘this’ close to the limit.” All the while your database compares the visual image of the corner with others in its files, recalls one that most closely matches, and makes the best estimate of the speed required. Then, it relies on your speed-sensing skills to manage the adjusting of speed (slowing down) to “that” speed.
At that point your traction-sensing skills begin to take over, sensing “how close to the limit” you are. That is when your car-c
ontrol skills come in. If the speed estimate is too high, or your speed sensing didn’t do a good job of matching the estimate, then you have to control and manage the extra speed as best possible. Of course, if the estimate was too low, or your speed sensing over-slowed you, then your car-control skills will have to do what it takes to increase your speed.
Once you’ve driven the corner once, it is added to your database. Once it’s in the database, you can begin to work with it using mental imagery. Using the information in your database, along with awareness, you can update the database without necessarily driving. Ask yourself, “How close was I to the limit?” “If I carried 1 mile per hour more into the corner, what would happen?” “Two miles per hour more?” “Three miles per hour more?” Close your eyes, relax, and picture a mental image of that speed, but do more than just visualize it. Include more than just visual information. Also imagine how it feels and what it sounds like. That is true mental imagery, or mental programming.
Then, the next time out, simply compare the two: your mental image with your awareness of how close you are to that mental image of the ideal speed. This is using MI + A = G, the simplest, quickest, and most effective way of learning and improving that I know of. The stronger, more vivid your mental image, and the more awareness you have, the more effective this will be, the easier it is to achieve your goal.
If I had to simplify all of what I just said into “the secret,” it would be the following. Work at improving your speed sensing and traction sensing by practicing taking in more sensory input, from your vision, your kinesthetic sense (balance, feel, touch, the g-forces, vibrations, pitch and roll of the car, and so on), and your hearing.
ILLUSTRATION 36-1 Approaching a turn you’ve never seen before, like one on an autocross or slalom course, your mind goes through an amazing process to determine what speed you should slow to. It begins by comparing a visual picture of the turn with all the ones stored in your brain’s database.
Practice listening to the car. What is the engine note saying? What are the sounds coming from the tires telling you? Does the tire noise continue to get louder and louder, or does it taper off after the tires reach their limit? Are they growling, howling, squealing, screeching, or screaming? What does that tell you about their grip levels?
Practice feeling the dynamics of the car. Does the steering get heavier or lighter as the tires reach their limit? How much body roll is there before the tires begin to lose their grip? Remember, the tires are talking to you. Are you listening?
Practice seeing more. Take in more visual information. Act like a sponge, soaking up sensory information. Then, simply be aware. If you combine awareness, or sensory input, with a mental image of what you want to achieve, you will reach your goal of driving at or near the limit, even if it is the first time you’ve driven through the corner.
And that’s the secret to knowing what speed to enter a corner you’ve never seen before. Use your database, your speed sensing, your traction sensing, and then your awareness as you do it so that you can add that to your mental image later. Of course, that adds to your database, and the whole cycle continues, getting better and better each time you drive. That is, really, the secret: improving every time out.
SPEED SECRET
Sensory input and awareness are the keys to driving fast, no matter what the corners look like.
For those of you who thought I was going to provide you with a secret like always slow down 2 miles per hour for each foot of turn radius, and always turn in 6.73 feet before the pylon, I apologize. It’s just not that simple (as if you didn’t already know that).
If you look at every run, every stage, or every lap from this perspective, that you are soaking up information to add to your database, my bet is that you will be immediately quicker. There are two reasons for this: First, when you give your brain more information to work with, it will produce a better result. And second, with this approach it is more likely that you will relax and drive more at the subconscious level, rather than “trying” to go fast.
Car control is the ability to control the car at the very limit. It is the most important skill a driver can ever learn. The ability to make a car do what you want it to—brake, steer, accelerate, oversteer, understeer, neutral steer, and so on—comes from coordinating all the basic control skills together with the correct timing, precision, and application.
Great car-control skills allow you to drive at, and just beyond if you wish, the “theoretical” traction limit. This is where the car is in a slide all the way through the corner balanced on the edge of control. However, it’s easy to slide the car too much, which actually slows you down by scrubbing off speed. Remember the examples in the slip angle section in Chapter 5.
A lot of this great car control will come with experience, getting comfortable with being able to “throw” the car into a turn and feeling confident with being able to then catch it at the limit. Of course, this must be done smoothly.
I believe a driver who has great car-control skills but who is not driving the ideal line through a corner will be faster than a driver with the opposite abilities. Therefore, if you want to go fast, if you want to win, develop your car-control skills through practice. Then make sure you are driving the ideal line as well; that should be easy.
FIGHTING THE CAR
Although driving the ideal line is important in terms of maximizing your cornering speed, fighting for perfection may actually slow you down. Don’t fight the car, if that’s what it takes to make it drive the ideal line. If you do, you will actually scrub off more speed than if you drove slightly off-line.
Too many drivers fight the car to clip past the perfect apex, only to slow the car down doing it. This shouldn’t be an excuse to drive off-line. But, if you do turn in to a corner and realize you are going to be slightly off-line, don’t fight it. Let the car go where it wants. Don’t fight the car to stay on the ideal line if you have to force it. The car will tell you if you are driving the right line or not. And again, don’t “pinch” it into the inside of the turn on the exit. Let it run free as you unwind out to the exit.
I remember the first time I drove the Milwaukee oval I learned quickly that it’s better to let the car run where it wanted to, rather than fight it to run on the theoretical ideal line, which was bumpy at Milwaukee. Often, driving the ideal line is not the fast way around a turn or track.
Consistently driving the limit, as fast as you and the car can possibly go, is the ultimate goal. So how do you get to that limit? How do you learn where the limit is? You simply make changes that result in you driving the limit or in lower lap times. And you either make these changes by:
• Analyzing and planning prior to going on the track, or
• Trial and error experience on the track
The first may be dangerous if you analyze and plan with misleading information or without having sufficient background, while the second can only be done on the track (costing money).
Keep in mind when looking at a map of a track that trying to learn the ideal line by studying a diagram can sometimes fool you. Elevation, banking, and track surface changes aren’t evident, not to mention the accuracy of the map may be less than perfect. This sometimes leads to a misconception of how to drive a corner. Therefore, before you can actually learn the right way on the track, you have to unlearn the preconceived ideas. This can take up a lot of valuable track time.
You must be able to observe what you are doing so you can improve on it. Errors should be looked at to see what influenced or caused them. This is not to suggest dwelling on every single mistake you ever make. But, study the decision or action that led to the error, to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Observing what you do is the key to learning from your errors. In fact, sometimes, let small errors happen; learn how a different line works, or doesn’t. You should consider that in most cases, by the time you notice an error, it may be too late to correct it anyway. About all you can do then is minimize its effect. In fact,
that is the key: minimizing the effect of an error and doing so as soon as possible.
Mistakes are a natural process. Don’t fight them. Instead, consider what you can learn from an error, then reprogram or see yourself doing it the correct way and forge ahead.
Imitation is the ultimate learning technique. Copying is the most instinctive, simple, and natural way to learn. After all, that’s exactly how we learned to do practically everything as a child.
Learn by observation, appreciation, and imitation. If you want to learn a skill, find someone who is good at it, then watch this person very carefully. As you watch, feel yourself moving in the same way, then practice by visually imitating. That doesn’t mean just what the driver is doing in the car. How a driver acts outside of the car is just as important. “Acting as if” you were Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Jimmie Johnson, or Dario Franchitti outside the car will improve your ability to drive like them.
Even if you aren’t able to imitate someone perfectly, your attempts will increase your awareness of what skills, techniques, and mental approach you still need to develop. Of course, you must first be prepared to imitate someone. Don’t try copying the advanced techniques of a world champion before mastering the basics.
And remember, every driver’s learning curve is different. Some learn and progress quickly; others learn much slower. This is not an indication as to how much talent a driver has.
DRIVING THE LIMIT
How do you really know when you’re driving right at the very limit, getting the last ounce of speed out of your car?
Ultimately, and simply speaking, your speed is limited by three things: engine output, aerodynamics, and traction. With more engine output you will be faster on the straights; with more traction you will be able to brake harder on the approach to a turn, go faster through the corners, and accelerate harder coming out of corners; and aerodynamic downforce helps traction while the drag slows you down. Once you’re in the car, you can’t do much about engine output or the car’s aerodynamics, but you may be able to do something about traction. You may not be able to increase the amount of traction your car has, but you can drive so that you use all the traction effectively.
