kill no cone wrote:
horizenjob wrote:
There's a good book by Keith Code called "A Twist of the Wrist" where he talks about this. It's a motorcycle road racing book but this part was excellent advice.
GREAT book suggestion, thank you. Changes the way a person thinks when in the car.
JEB
I'm glad you liked it. It's been a long, long time since I read it. I remembered thinking it was well written, by a person that teaches real racing professionally - not a journalist etc.
So perhaps you can provide some details. I remember he talks about an "attention budget" and that has always stuck with me. I don't remember the amounts to spend on things. What I took from it was to be self aware and leave enough mental capacity to be able to have some larger picture of what's gong on. A little bit for checking gauges and along with that paying attention to the feel and the sound of the car so you also know to check the gauges. Noticing a tiny shiny spot on my car's half shafts one day during lunch and remembering on the hardest slowest most banked turn a slight surge and thumpy feeling. That was the rubber doughnuts failing, the halfshaft yokes were banging the yokes on the transaxle. So the car went on the trailer...
A little bit for traffic and lap planning. Especially when I'm new at a place or for me, I don't get tot he track very often right now - I try to pick one corner at a time to focus the bulk of my efforts. Not every corner, because that's just to much to retain. So I push hardest one place at a time. Trying to start with the corner that has the longest straight after it or some measure of importance. It doesn't mean I slouch around the rest of the track, it's just the real effort goes into one place. That let's you build a little courage and plan and visualize what your going to do next lap at that same place, instead of flushing your mind with general panic as you flounder thru 3 other corners at your absolute limit. So no slouching, but take your risks one place a time.
On the straights I make sure to keep attention on the driving by really putting the car where I want it. I try to follow a line all the way down the straight.
OK, so you guys can laugh at me but I'll ell you how I learned this the hard way. I drove a couple of events in a Crossle 16F, a really pretty and tiny FF that looked like a 1965 F1 car. Over that winter I had a good mechanic go over it. He was laughing when I went in a few weeks later. It had been really messed up, so much bump steer it just made the dial gauge spin in circles. Then he dynoed the motor and found the previous owner had put the jets back in the wrong holes.
I went back to the track and picked up 3 seconds. I already knew the track well from a street car, so I was really flying. I was in way over my head but not really picking up on it. I noticed I kept having to put my tongue back in my mouth. It was just hanging out and flopping around. I was doing this probably 10 times a lap. Then I noticed I could actually feel my cheeks sliding across my face in the corners.
I'd been following a real SCCA veteran and he took a really unusual line thru turn one. I thought I'd try it too. It was probably my second session. At some point at the exit of the turn, me thinking things were fine, I noticed the car was pointed down the straight but it was just not hooked up at all. I was in some marbles and off the line and it just wasn't going to stick. There was a corner station and a gully / stream to the right. I let the car come around and got on the brakes and clutch. I was going about 110. and went down that short straight and hit the wall in the next corner going backwards after a couple of rotations. I can still see the smoke rising off the pavement, in 1981.
So, when your tongue hangs out, go into the pits. That was happening because my concentration had become so complete and fixated that my mind had let my face muscles go completely slack. What ever brain cells would put an expression on your face had been drafted. I was way over committed. Take a break. You will only get so much better in one day. At a new track I pick up 2-3 seconds after sleeping over night, and I do that with less effort and mental strain.
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