stock performance at the track

[ninjabones]

bobt993 wrote:

I really wasted a lot of time focusing on exit speed years ago when the entry was just as critical and harder to re-learn.

I remember reading an article on lap comparisons between Schumacher and other F1 drivers of the day.

Bob, I wouldn't say that you were wasting time focusing on exit speed. Ross Bentley talks about this in his second Speed Secrets book. Essentially, he believes that every driver goes through mandatory step-wise phases of learning. The typical weekend warrier club racer begins his progression by working on corner exit, whereby generally speaking the guy who can get on the throttle earlier and earlier on exit will be faster.

After absolutely exhausting the car's abilities at corner exit, the next phase (which he describes as separating the club racers from professional level racers) involves the type of skills that you're describing, namely to carry more and more speed into the corner. Obviously, your speed sensing skills have to be spot on (pro drivers will consistently be within 1/2 - 1 mph at turn-in at every corner on every lap) and you have to have incredible position and traction sensing skills. The consequences of mistakes at entry are obviously more inherently dangerous and require a lot more experience, consistency, and skill.

At the F1 level, all the drivers have long since mastered corner exit skills (by the time they graduate from karting) and are able to consistently get everything out their cars at entry. The difference between Schumacher and the rest of the top echelon F1 drivers was mid corner speeds (Benltley's third phase), where he consistently drove 1-2 mph faster than his competitors.


So, I think that perhaps the techniques that you've been working on with Chris Cervelli may not necessarily be the right things to teach or emphasize to guys (like me) who aren't quite ready. I think that perhaps mastering corner exit first may just be part of the natural step-wise process.