Secrets of Speed: Unfair Advantage (Segment 2)

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jaspal666Published on May 14, 2008Video from 1990. Story of Audi's quattro drivetrain in rallying, Pike's Peak hillclimb, SCCA Trans Am and IMSA GTO.

 

Secrets of Speed: Unfair Advantage (Segment 3)

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jaspal666Published on May 14, 2008Video from 1990. Story of Audi's quattro drivetrain in rallying, Pike's Peak hillclimb, SCCA Trans Am and IMSA GTO.

 

A lap at VIR: What your hands should be doing

sharetweetemailBy: MazdaMotorsports.com | April 10, 2019 6:58 AM
Driving tips from Tom Long, a former Spec Miata National Champion, IMSA Michelin Pilot Cup series champion, and a podium winner in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Virginia International Raceway has a diversity of corner types. The lap starts out tighter and more technical, then flows into a high-speed momentum section before finishing up with some “compromise” type corners. With the variety of corners and elevation changes that VIR offers drivers, you’re in for quite a treat whether you’re a regular or it’s your first visit!

And remember, slow hands for high speed, quicker hands for low speed, and smooth hands all the time.

“Fast hands for slow corners, and slow hands for fast corners” is a philosophy that can apply to any driver’s approach, and it’s something I continually utilize with my private coaching clients. It’s a great method for diagnosing your driving through each corner, either live or retrospectively. My home track of VIR has some great examples of these different types of corners and the steering inputs they require.

There are several corners at VIR under 65mph, which puts them in the “slow corner” category. A lot of these are in the first part of the lap at VIR; it’s very important to change your mindset for Turns 1-6 after being at such high speeds on the back half of the lap and front stretch.

 

Interview: One person's racing point of view...not a professionally done video
https://www.uslegendcars.com/handler...med_id=1813742

 

How to prepare for your first national autocross event

sharetweetemailBy: MazdaMotorsports.com | April 24, 2019 1:37 AM
Are you ready to see how you and your car stack up against some of the best drivers in your region? Mazda racer Deana Kelley provides a quick start guide to get ready for your first big event.


First, review the schedule on the SCCA website and pick your event. The SCCA has three different types of events to choose from: Championship Tour, Match Tour, and ProSolo.

• The Championship Tour consists of three runs on the course Saturday followed by three runs Sunday on a different course.
• The Match Tour has three runs in the morning of Day one and then three more runs after lunch. Day two consists of three runs in the morning, which then sets the brackets for an elimination-style match in the afternoon.
• ProSolos are comprised of two mirrored autocross courses that start from a drag racing style tree. There are four runs on each course on day one and two more runs on each course for day two. The fastest single run on each side is added together to determine the total time, and ranking for a final elimination challenge.

Once you have decided on an event, check the registration page for when registration opens for the event. Some events sell out VERY quickly, so set an alarm! Seriously.

While you’re still at the event page, check out the test and tune schedule. You’ll want to get some seat time on the venue surface.

Now that you’re registered, it’s time to prepare your car. The size of this task will vary depending on your particular car; however, there are things that need to happen no matter what hardware you’re bringing to the event.

Read the full story at MazdaMotorsports.com

 

How to Get Big Results from a Short Coaching Session

by Beth Dolgner | Apr 18, 2019 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

Last week was exceptionally busy with my coaching. I bounced between Virginia International Raceway and Road Atlanta for several different clients and events.

At VIR, I was able to join Will Cox once again as he evolves from go-karts to race cars. It’s incredible to see how a young talent like him learns and develops so quickly, taking feedback and immediately applying it. We had a very productive day, probably our best to date. He’ll be participating in some local races this spring, and I’m excited to see what he can do.

I was also coaching Mazda drivers during the SCCA Majors Super Tour event at VIR. I got to see a lot of great friends who were competing there in preparation for the SCCA Runoffs, which will be hosted at VIR in October.

Each of the Mazda drivers was eligible for a 30-minute one-on-one coaching session. That may not sound like a lot of time, but it can be extremely productive if it’s properly optimized. Here are a few tips for how to take advantage of a short coaching session.

First, video can be the quickest and easiest platform to start the conversation. There are a lot of aspects to video that you can easily dissect, such as driving lines and brake points. Even more detailed things can be assessed, too, like car dynamics, driver inputs and—if watching video of a race—race craft.

Another thing that can be beneficial is reviewing data, which can offer a more specific set of tools to work with. The key to data is having a reference point, such as another driver’s data or multiple laps in an outing, to provide comparison. Very quickly, you can look at braking traces, minimum speeds through a corner and even footwork, believe it or not. From there, a coach can give you feedback on those various aspects.

And no matter what, you should always go into a coaching session with a track map and a pen! That might not sound like much, but you can take some notes and study them later.

Even during a short coaching session, you can develop a short list of action items or goals in an efficient manner to help steer you in the right direction, no matter what your experience level is.

 

Learning To Lead a Race

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SAFEisFAST
Published on May 13, 2019

One of the toughest things for a young driver to learn is how to lead a race. Join top drivers including Simon Pagenaud, Will Power, Colton Herta, Oliver Gavin, Graham Rahal, James Hinchcliffe, and Jack Harvey in this tutorial to find out what it takes to lead a race to victory lane.

 

At the FIRM open house I was in a go kart.
When the starter said "Go" I floored it and with fast reflexes, I was first into the first turn.

I focused on getting the right line all the time, every time, and racing instead of just driving around.

When things finally slowed down a bit, I thought I would see how close the pack was, and turned to look behind me.
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I was leading by 1/2 a lap.
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Braking points: Sometimes to go faster, you need to slow down

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By: MazdaMotorsports.com | May 23, 2019 7:57 AM


Mazda Team Joest drivers explain that late braking isn’t always the best braking

“I have to say, I’m one of those drivers … I want to brake as late as possible everywhere; but it’s definitely not always the quickest way.”

That’s Oliver Jarvis, one of Mazda Team Joest’s ace drivers in the No. 77 RT24-P that competes in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He speaks to the racing driver’s instinct that carrying speed as long as possible, and spending as little time on the brakes as necessary, is the ideal. For some corners it is. For others, there’s a bit of finesse involved.

“Sometimes I’ll look at the data with my teammates, and I’m 10 or 15 meters later on the brakes, gain two-tenths on the way in, but lose two-and-a-half on the way out. The thing you learn is it’s always nice to be late on the brakes and, once you get used to that mentality, it’s hard to step away from that. Sometimes when I brake where I see teammates or other competitors, for me it doesn’t feel right; I feel like I’m not pushing it into the corner. But you’ve got to appreciate when to brake late,” Jarvis continues.

There are many nuances to braking that can make a huge difference in lap times, or come into play in getting a fast lap time vs. racing against other competitors. There’s the classic brake-late-and-hard-in-a-straight-line that many racers start with, and for many corners, it’s the right technique. But there are others ways to work corners, like trail braking, light braking with an early release, releasing the brake sharply to add rotation, stabbing the brake to set the front on turn-in – it depends not only on the corner, but also the corner that comes next.

“If you have a tight hairpin and you have a very short straight after, you can afford to brake late and have a bad exit because you don’t get punished down the straight. But if you’ve got a hairpin and you have a really long straight after, the key is in the exit because you’ll gain more time by getting a strong exit since the time gain will go all the way down the straight,” explains Jarvis.

Finding the right technique and braking points comes through trial and error, and applying lessons learned in similar corners to the track you’re trying to learn. It starts by studying the track as intimately as possible.

“You can really get a feel for the type of corner based on a track walk,” says Tristan Nunez, Jarvis’s partner in the No. 77 RT24-P. “You get a sense of, OK, this is a high-speed corner, I don’t need a lot of brake and I can let the car be in kind of a neutral state and just let the car do the work. If it’s a sharper corner, you know that you need to slow the car down; if it’s after a long straightaway, you need to work yourself up to it.

“One guy that’s been driving there for 20 years may be telling you to brake at the 100 marker; that may be something he’s done in perfect conditions and it may not be the same that day,” he continues. “The best thing may be to brake at the 300 marker as hard as you can and you’ll feel as if you’re over-slowing, but you can work your way up to the 100 marker. The second you out-brake yourself and throw it off the track, your confidence goes sideways. It’s better to work your way up slowly, every lap taking little chunks.”

Then, if you have the option, look at the data or video to figure out what you did that worked best.

“After every session, I’ll sit down and analyze every detail,” says Jarvis. “Am I braking too late, too early? And I look at different laps as well, because everybody focuses on that quickest lap, but sometimes you got it right on lap four without even realizing it. It’s trying to maximize every little detail. For me, braking is a real art form.”

 

The Secrets to Winning The Indy 500

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SAFEisFAST
Published on May 29, 2019

2019 Indy 500 champion Simon Pagenaud reveals some of the secrets that helped him win the famous race in this short tutorial.

SAFEisFAST: The Secrets to Winning The Indy 500

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By: RACER Staff | 5 hours ago


Simon Pagenaud has long been a contributor to SAFEisFAST tutorials. And now that he has an Indy 500 victory under his belt, he’s been kind enough to reveal some of his secrets on the online resource for young racers presented by Honda.

When you’re leading the 500, the final laps feel like you’re in a pressure cooker — and Pagenaud kept his cool all the way.

How did he do it? Take a look — there’s a lot to be learned from this short video.