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11-16-2009, 03:28 PM
Steve,
One of the biggest mistakes is fighting with the wrong car in the wrong place. Know your competition and where they are strong and weak on the track. I spoke with another guy who started racing this year and he was having a battle with a car out of his class. They were both close on lap times, but the combination was causing both of them to drop a second or two a lap. I told him if he gets tangled up that more cars in his class are going to come up on him possibly losing positions.
I would suggest finding out what pace your competition is running especially the front running three. Use practice to throw down a solid lap as a comparison and spend the rest of the time following your closest competition around. My last race at Tbolt, I had at least 8 M3's in my class and some very fast drivers. I followed a couple of the guys I knew would be tough through the final four turns of a complete lap (prior to checker) looking for a difference in racing lines M3 vs 911. One such turn gave me full confidence I could take an early apex and actually race under for the pass while blocking the exit to the next turn in point. I practiced this on two M3's up a class successfully to use it when I needed a late race pass.
Traffic is an art. Look as far down track as you can, especially if your the faster class on the track. Clusters on the straight usually mean the same in corners. Eg: Summit Point I snatched 1st from 3rd in the last 4 turns of a hard fought race by letting P1-P2 battle for position and when they lost interest in me, I made my move with only 4 turns to the checker. That one was close .2sec to 2nd, .8sec to 3rd. Traffic was a huge factor as their battle was focused on each other and not the bottleneck in front of them.
One of the biggest mistakes is fighting with the wrong car in the wrong place. Know your competition and where they are strong and weak on the track. I spoke with another guy who started racing this year and he was having a battle with a car out of his class. They were both close on lap times, but the combination was causing both of them to drop a second or two a lap. I told him if he gets tangled up that more cars in his class are going to come up on him possibly losing positions.
I would suggest finding out what pace your competition is running especially the front running three. Use practice to throw down a solid lap as a comparison and spend the rest of the time following your closest competition around. My last race at Tbolt, I had at least 8 M3's in my class and some very fast drivers. I followed a couple of the guys I knew would be tough through the final four turns of a complete lap (prior to checker) looking for a difference in racing lines M3 vs 911. One such turn gave me full confidence I could take an early apex and actually race under for the pass while blocking the exit to the next turn in point. I practiced this on two M3's up a class successfully to use it when I needed a late race pass.
Traffic is an art. Look as far down track as you can, especially if your the faster class on the track. Clusters on the straight usually mean the same in corners. Eg: Summit Point I snatched 1st from 3rd in the last 4 turns of a hard fought race by letting P1-P2 battle for position and when they lost interest in me, I made my move with only 4 turns to the checker. That one was close .2sec to 2nd, .8sec to 3rd. Traffic was a huge factor as their battle was focused on each other and not the bottleneck in front of them.