[h=2]IMS Runoffs speed tips from Mazda[/h] MazdaMotorsports.com









We turned to some pro drivers who have raced on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's road course for tips and tricks to help SCCA club racers at the Runoffs
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course is new to most of the SCCA National Championship Runoffs participants, but pro series have been racing there for years. And while the configuration that the pro series drivers use differs from the Runoffs layout racers will see this Sept. 25-Oct. 1, there is still plenty of useful information to be gleaned from their experience. The key differences are the use of the long, left-hand Turn 6 with the tight right back onto Hulman Boulevard (the pros use a left-right chicane), and the faster entry into Turn 7.
Tom Long guided MazdaMotorsports.com readers around the track with a turn-by-turn breakdown earlier this year, so we're focusing here on some little tidbits that might not be obvious to the first-timer with limited Indy track time.
For the purposes of this discussion, the right-hander onto the Hulman Boulevard back straight is 6a and the left-hander off the back straight is Turn 7, in order to keep turn numbers consistent between the configurations.
Robert Stout won the first of two Battery Tender Global MX-5 Cup Presented by BFGoodrich races at Indy. One thing he found that worked for him is to use the curbs, with the exception of the really big ones that define some of the corners.
"Turn 1 and 12, for starters, are the curbs you want to make sure you're staying away from," says Stout. "You don't want to get up on those unless you absolutely have to. That said, just about every other curb on that track, I'm not just using but using with all four tires if possible. And in Turns 7, 8, 9 and 10, I was very aggressive – I like to drive in with lots of speed, using every inch of the curb."