The other day John posted a blog indicating the he felt that he just wasn't going fast enough. After thinking about the comments it got me wondering about how can I get myself to get to my limit more frequently and stay there longer. What I mean is that there are times when I'm on track and for whatever reason I just am having trouble getting into a rythm. Or there are times that I'll be going as fast as I possibly can and I back off. Now please understand that I have only participated to this point in DE but I would like to compete wheel to wheel as my track experience grows.
Let me give you an example, Summit Point is my home track and I am confident driving it. T4 is the fastest turn on that track. It is the type of turn that is taken wide open and probably 50 yards after that is T5 which is a very slow (the slowest turn on the track). The trouble I have with this particular turn is because its so fast, it's also on a downhill section of the course it scares  the hell out of me. But in all fairness I'm more afraid to let up than I am of staying on the juice through that turn. Most every driver I have spoken with say that T4 is their favorite turn but I have to admit it is by far my least favorite turn. I don't seem to have any trouble on any other part of the circuit. I know that if I let up in the turn the rear of my car will come around and there is not much in the way of run off room on that section so I stay on the gas to keep that from happening. Many times I find myself just tiptoeing through it, just enough to keep the rear end loaded, but I know there is more to be had if I could just get past the intimidation that I have for that turn.
So, I now that I have laid it out, what types of things do you do to get past a section of a track that you might be hesitant about, afraid to go to that next level on, or have some personal hang up with while out on the track? Thaks very much for any suggestions.

Hi, Michael, I have the same issue. I posted in a thread started by Ross Bentley about it, and recommend the Perfect Driver book in his Speed Secrets series. There's a number of suggestions in it that I am eager to try out this year!

If you get through the turn comfortably, then one mile an hour faster next time.

Getting from tiny lift at the entrance to no lift at all can be hard and the car will behave differently at turn in when you make that little change. Just get to the point where it is a tiny change. Lift, small lift, micro lift, flat. You have to be careful because when you are making little lifts or modulating the throttle you may not be as close to flat as you think. When you are flat you are exactly flat and that can be a lot faster. I remember trying to go flat through 1,2 at LCMT. I stayed on the track but I didn't do that again. I think it might be possible in my car, but not today. One mile an hour at a time.

The data logger showed me some interesting stuff here. I was going over my lap times looking for anomolies.

At Mosport, my lap times were consistent but one lap was a full half second faster. According to the data logger, my entry speed to corner 2 was 2km/h faster. Instead of my usual 175km/h, I was going 177km/h (110mph). That was good for a half second. I don't recall the lap versus any other lap so obviously it felt fine.

At Tremblant you can do turn 1 & 2 flat if you take them properly. Manage your speed coming off the pit straight. I didn't brake but I did lift. Then drive down to within 3ft of the turn in cone. When the car starts to compress into the hill, look up the hill and "turn more". Then straighten out and put your foot to the floor. You want to be on the inside turtles at the top of the hill.

If you do it right, you are not sideloaded at the top of the hill and it's basically a straight. When the M3 was still a street car, I would see an indicated 190km/h (118mph) at the top of the hill (probably with 5% speedo error). Whether you tap the brakes coming down the hill before 3 is up to you. Mostly depends on the size of your testicles.

I like Ross Bentley's version of how to identify the most important corner. It's the corner that scares the crap out of your competition.

I would have done it OK but I opened a little too fast and the rear of the car came to the inside. I spent some quality time examining the chain link fence at the side of the track there before I got a chance to look at where I really wanted to be going and straightened out. I wasn't completely awesome through 3 that lap. The moment was interesting enough that my old tape camera lost it. I got solid state so that my camera wouldn't edit out the really interesting parts. I think I just need to work my way back up to it. I was doing the tiny lift before the turn in, then I went from nearly flat over the top to flat, and maybe changed my unwind a little at the same time (oops) and had one of those reasons why we find this sport so fascinating. I'll get it another day.

thanks for the suggestions Peter!

One thing that really helped me was spending a LOT of time driving well over the limit. That means lots and lots of snow driving, including many Audi winter driving schools and BMW CCA ice racing events. It also means lots and lots of wet trackdays (I've never once sat out a session because of rain). On top of that, I've done tons of track days on street tires (Falken Azenis, Yoko Advans, etc.).

All that driving past the limit of grip helped me to feel when my car is approaching the limit, how to keep the car balanced on the limit, and (crucially) how to smoothly recover if I go a bit too far. Your confidence goes WAY up since you know you can deal with things if you overcook it a bit.

That's what worked for me, anyway.

Thanks Emre, that's a great suggestion. One thing that I try to do is find an empty parking lot on an early Sat. or Sun. morning where I will make up a course in my head and drive it on the parking lot. Fortunately/unfortunately (however you want to look at it) winters have been relatively mind here in Washington D.C. over the last few years so not much in the way of snow driving.

This is the $30 million (that's what Schumacher was getting paid, wasn't it?) question, right? I love this discussion...

Emre makes a great point. When you have the you-know-what scared out of you, or even if you're just not comfortable driving at or near the limit - getting to the edge - what's stopping you from going faster? Fear, right? Fear of not being able to control the car just over the limit. Fear of not having the ability to control your car well enough to bring it back if you step too far over the limit. If you really think about it, that's the only reason (that I know of from talking to thousands of drivers, and from my own experience) anyone would not go faster.

If you knew for sure that you could go over the limit - have the car step out sideways, have the car push off the edge of the track, have its tail try to pass the front - but you could control it and bring it back safely, you wouldn't have that fear, would you? Sure, you might make a mess of the turn and be slow that lap, but that's okay if you live to tell the story!

So, knowing that you can control the car when it's over the limit/edge is the key. In fact, it is THE key to being consistently fast. The biggest difference between my driving today and when I first started driving is that I'm waaaaay better at making mistakes. When I first started driving on a track, if I made a mistake there was a very good chance I'd end up in the weeds somewhere. Today, if I make a mistake, I make the most of it and stay on the track. And that's why I can take a car I've never driven before (did someone say "rental car"?) and throw it into a turn I've only ever seen once or twice and not worry about it. I know that it won't be a big problem - I may scrub off some speed while collecting it up, but I now know what the car can do (or can't do in the case of a rental car... oops, I didn't say that - I'm just joking).

Spending time on a skid pad will help more than most things we do with a car to help learn that we can bring the car back from being way out of shape. Driving on snow or ice will do the same thing, but that's a bit of challenge if you live in Florida. It's why living in the Northwest is so good for developing these skills (it rains every now and then here...). You need to spend time making more mistakes, and learning that you can survive them.

If you could develop just one skill, the one that I'd most recommend is the ability to save a car from a skid, slide, push, lock-up... The moment you realize you can bring the car back from the other side of the edge, you will be FAST.

But, how do you develop that skill? I'm going to leave that for another day and maybe even another topic (I've got an idea for another topic I'm going to post tonight)... and I'm going to leave that to you guys to discuss some more before I jump back in again.

Though I'm glad it's over, winter is one of the best ways to practice. Doing doughnuts in the show is the best way to learn car control. It sure worked for Gilles Villeneuve.

My girlfriend Suzanne is one of the best rain drivers I know. I think it's partly because she's from Montreal.

I remember New Years Day a couple of years ago. Montreal got almost a foot of fresh snow. We decided we needed something at Canadian Tire so we hopped in her BMW 318 and headed out. For some reason in her neighborhood you were not allowed to park on the street. The streets were curved with lots of sweepers. I think we must have done 10 drifting laps of her block before we finally got around to leaving.

When we arrived, Canadian Tire was closed. It was New Years Day. But there we no cars in the parking lot either. So we designated it an oval and did another 30 minutes of perfectly controlled sliding. Just get the tail out and keep it there.

After an hour of this silliness, she FINALLY let me drive...

The reason I mentioned driving in the rain in particular is because I noticed Michael drives a 911 (I'm quite jealous, BTW ... I love 911's! The 964 RS America is my dream car).

One strange thing I've noticed about PCA events in the northeast is that, for some reason, no one seems to go out in the rain. I remember instructing at a PCA-NER event at The Glen a few years back. At one point, it started pouring rain...I'm talking monsoon rain. I thought I was the only car on the track. Lap after lap, I saw no one else out there. Turns out there were only 4 of us driving that day: me, Andrei Maistrenko, Suzan Kohler, and Jeff Smethers. Is it a coincidence that all of us are BMW CCA folks?

My student was co-driving her husband's 993. When the rain came out, her husband packed it up. She wanted to keep driving. We put on the street tires and went for it. The husband seemed pretty nervous about it. Again, we had the track to ourselves the whole session. I guarantee we had more fun than anyone else that weekend.

Andrei tells me the same thing happened again recently. Again, it was the BMW CCA folks who were out enjoying an empty track.

I've seen the same thing at LCMT with the same club. It rains, and all the NER guys put their cars back onto the trailers. I really don't get it. Driving in the rain is one of my greatest pleasures.

My impression (and this is just an impression...I've only instructed at a handful of PCA events) is that Porche guys seem to start running R-compound tires very early on and tend to shy away from the absolute limit of grip. They seem very uncomfortable when the car starts moving around. I suppose if I were driving an older 911 I would probably feel the same. But modern 911's, Boxsters, Caymans, 944's, 914's, etc. all seem to handle very sweetly at the limit (again, based on my limited experience). I think if the drivers ran more events on street tires and didn't shy away from hitting the track in the rain, they'd be more comfortable and ultimately faster.

Ross, I totally agree with you. Fear was the main thing that kept me from going FAST. I was afraid that I couldn't control it past the limit. After reading one of our books, I picked up that going fast, you have to constantly drive above the limit to eventually average out to being at the limit (above, under, above, under... and so forth). After reading it, I went out to the track realizing that in order to go truly fast, I would have to push the car past its limits. I had much experience controling the car in slides, but my confidence was low at the time. The next time I went out, I went in with the game plan that I would push the limits hard, and the mentality that I would save the car, no matter what situation I was put in. I gained 2 seconds that day on my personal best by just constantly pushing past the limit and coming to a closer average of being at the limit. That confidence that I took into that day has carried on with me and I am finding myself being able to push the limits even more and still improve my times.

Emre, it's funny that you bring that up. I'm a member of Reisentoter PCA (just outside Philly). The chief instructor is an excellent driver as are all of the instructor with that chapter. I have come to hope for atleast 1 session of rain of any type. I have really learned to like track driving in the rain. What I like most is how my car hooks up in the wet.

Getting back to my original hang up, after having thought much about what to do. I decided to go to Summit Point, study a few drivers diving into the chute and then just start asking those drivers what types of things they are seeing, thinking, listening for, where are they pointing the car. Just about everything I could think of that would be pertinent to that particular part of the course. We'll find out next weekend how it helped. I can't wait actually, car just about prepped, track box packed & ready, all I need to do is flush the brakes, put oil in the motor and go drive.

On Saturday as I was preparing for my very first race (ever!) at the BEMC event at Mosport this past weekend, I was optimistic about the weather and ran slicks... I blame my BlackBerry, it showed that the radar was clear after the last burst... I think it's trying to kill me... Anyway, that worked very well, despite a still damp track, for about the first ten minutes of the race, until the the torrential rains came again. Seeing as it was my first race, there was *no* way that I was going to let the rain stop me from finishing, so I clenched the cheeks and kept going, albeit a lot slower.

I have to say I ended up learning a LOT about how to handle the car with zero traction in that race! I tried doing the rim-shot around the "forbidden" concrete patches, and found it very uncomfortable out there; little to no margin for error if you over-drive it and then you are in the grass and into the wall. So, being just that little bit insane, I started to enjoy setting up the turns by taking the dry line, and used the concrete patches as a "known" slip zone where the whole car would slide laterally across the patch out to the asphalt to where I would regain a small amount of traction and could keep going. Turns 1, 3, 8, 9, and 10 this started to really work well for me. That said, if I'm ever stupid enough to go out without rain tires like that again, I will do the rest of the field a favour and make my rookie triangle a lot bigger and maybe even illuminate it for them; I'm sure the guys behind me weren't expecting me to be taking the turns in quite that fashion! :-)

After that, the only thing that really scared me was when I found myself looking out the passenger side of the windshield to see where I was going when I hydroplaned up the back straight, that made my heart jump a bit. Long story short, for the first Sunday race, in the dry, I had no fear to go where I had never gone before; if I could hold on in that rain, I realized that I'm not even coming close to the "edge" yet. Unfortunately, towards the end of that race, my power steering rack decided to purge all of the fluid, so I went from racing to doing an upper-body workout for the last three laps of the race, which in turn meant I couldn't run the afternoon race (and no one wanted to lend me a car for the afternoon for some reason... :-)

Greetings All,
My first post, I don't know anyone here but have read all the Speed Secet books, good stuff for sure. I'm getting ready to take the step into club racing with the BMWCCA. I live in Michigan and we get hit with a lot of snow, I agree it's great car control practice.

I have to say that if any of you are lucky enough to have ice racing available to you, definitely make the effort to participate. After my first season with MIRA (Michigan Ice Racing Association), my performance at HPDE took big jumps. It's cheap thrills and really makes the winter something to look forward to. I'm on the cover of the of the 2009 gallery:
http://www.michiganiceracingassociation.com/html/modules.php?name=Gallery

Since traction is lost at much slower speeds, you have a lot more time to recover and process what's happening with the car. Left foot braking is critical, you really develop a feel for the balance of the car and how minor brake and gas inputs impact cornering.

Check it out.
Best
Chris

Sorry in advance but I'm going to bring a thread back from the dead. I have made substantial progress in my driving since I started this thread originally. Last season I noticed that I was pushing harder & harder going through the Chute (T4) at Summit Point. I feel like because of my being able to get past my hangup of that turn it has strengthened my confidence to make me push harder on other parts of a course. Mr. Bentley couldn't have given a better description when he wrote that any track has the same type of turns. My using Summit Point Main as my baseline for learning has helped me tremendously go fast on other tracks as well. By doing that, I have really become quite comfortable in the rain. I went through my evaluation run this past November to move up in run group in the pouring down rain and the instructor told me that if I keep up that kind of progress I will be in the next run group up before the end of next season. With the season beginning just around the corner, I absolutely can't wait for it to started so I can pick up from where I left off.

Three words...Skidpad skidpad skidpad. If you want to feel comfortable on the edge this is a must!

Three words...Skidpad skidpad skidpad. If you want to feel comfortable on the edge this is a must!