Ultimate Speed Secrets: The Complete Guide to High-Performance and Race Driving

by Ross Bentley

In any turn leading onto a straight it is best to brake early, get the car well balanced

When a straight leads into a corner that is not followed by a useable straight—one that is long enough to allow passing or being passed (Illustration 11-2)—an early apex is used.

compound curve,

where two or more turns are linked together, such as esse bends (Illustration 11-3). The rule here is to get set up for the last curve that leads onto a straightaway. Drive this last corner like you would any corner leading onto a straight, with a late apex. The first curves in the series are unimportant and must be used to get set up for the last one. Try to get into a smooth gentle rhythm in this series of turns.

On a track that is new to you, drive all corners with a late apex at first. This will allow you a little extra room on the exit if you find the turn is a little tighter than you thought. Then, with each lap, move the apex earlier and earlier in the turn until you are beginning to run out of track on the exit. Then go back to where you could accelerate out of the corner and still stay on the track. That’s the ideal apex.

positive banked corner,

try to get into the banking as soon as possible and stay in it as long as possible.

Just remember, a car going uphill has better traction than one going downhill, as the forward motion of the car tends to push it into the track surface, increasing the vertical load on all four tires.

Your goal is to do as much braking, turning, and accelerating as possible on the uphill sections, and as little as possible on the downhill portions.

rubber from the tires, stones, and dust will end up just outside of the ideal line. This is called

“the marbles,

Remember, also, to walk the track exactly in line with where you are going to see it from: the driver’s seat. Even squat down to see elevation and asphalt changes and how the track looks from the height of your driving position.

• Discovering and perfecting the ideal line • Driving the car at its traction limit on that ideal line

The dark black tire marks

are a result of drivers trying to tighten their line or make a correction: either feeding in massive amounts of steering, causing understeer, or controlling the back end of the car from a slide (oversteer).

you don’t hold the car in tight

(pinching it)

Remember to let the car “run free” at the exit. If you hold the car in at the exit, you have greatly increased your chances of spinning, and you are scrubbing off speed or y...

After the ideal line becomes a habit, a subconscious act or program, you can begin to work on driving at the limit.

(traction sensing).

With each lap, begin accelerating a little earlier and harder...

(actually, remember the corner priorities: fastest corner lea...

the car must be sliding (understeering, oversteering, or neutral steering) somewhat, or you’re not driving at the limit.

In some cars, running your inside tires over the curbing can help load the outside tires, providing them with more grip.

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Once you feel you’re getting close to the limit under acceleration (on the ideal line),

then begin to work on your corner-entry speed.

Working on the fastest corners first on down ...

Don’t forget that when working on the acceleration or corner-entry phase, that just because you sense you’ve reached the limit, you can’t go faster still. It may be that the technique you are using now results in reaching the limit, but by changing that technique slightly you may be able to accelerate earlier or carry more speed into the corner and raise that limit. For example, you sense the car is beginning to oversteer too much under power on the exit of the corner. You’ve reached the limit with the way you are applying the throttle now. But if you apply the throttle a little smoother, more progressively, the car may stay more balanced and not oversteer as much. Another example: You carry more and more speed into a corner until it begins to understeer as you initiate the turn. You’ve reached the limit with the technique you’re using now; however, if you used a little more braking while you turned (keeping the front tires more heavily loaded), or turned the steering wheel more “crisply,” perhaps it wouldn’t understeer at all.

Corner-entry speed and exit acceleration are related. If your corner-entry speed is too low, you tend to try to make up for that by accelerating hard. The hard acceleration may exceed the rear tires’ traction limit, causing oversteer. If your corner-entry speed was a little higher, you wouldn’t accelerate so hard and wouldn’t notice any oversteer.

Of course, if your corner-entry speed is too high, it may result in getting on the power late. This is going to hurt your straightaway speed.

The line: At a slightly slower speed (difficult to do in a race weekend practice session with other cars around), drive the ideal line until it becomes habit, a subconscious, programmed act. • Corner exit acceleration: Working from the fastest corner leading onto a

straight down to the slowest, progressively begin accelerating earlier and earlier until you sense the traction limit. • Corner-entry speed: Working from the fastest corner to the slowest corner, gradually carry more and more speed into the turn until you sense the traction limit. • Evaluate and alter your technique if required: Try accelerating more progressively or abruptly, trail braking more or less, turning in more crisply or more gently, a slightly different line, whatever it takes to accelerate earlier and carry more speed into the corners.

If you’ve been driving on racetracks for some time now, you drive the line you do either because someone told you to, or because it just feels right.

Preparation

track maps, in-car video, computer simulation games, and descriptions of driving a lap written by someone

track’s website, then an online search, and then computer games.

The main objective during the preparation stage is to become as familiar as possible with the direction the track goes and any references you may be able to

A mistake a lot of drivers make when they first go to a new track is to place too much emphasis on “learning the track,” which way the corners go and what the line is through them. If they put that much focus on simply driving the car at its limit, this information about the track would naturally come to them.

Be a sponge

first few sessions, focus on soaking up as much information about t...

visual information, then more kinesthetic (feel, balance, and g-forces), and finally more auditory information.

Download

make notes on a track map of every detail

of what you’re doing where on the track (shift points, where you begin braking, where you end braking, where you’re back to full throttl...

Mental imagery

replay it in your mind. The more repetitions you do during your mental imagery sessions, the more effective it will be.

Drive the car, not the track

stop thinking about the track

focus simply on driving the car t...

The key point I want to make here is that overlapping your braking, cornering, and accelerating, without asking for more than 100 percent from the tires, is critical to going fast. It is your ultimate goal.