Lap Timers & Students

[michael lang]

jakp993 wrote:

Mike,

You are not the norm

Way too many people are way too worried about how fast they went, what lap times they did, how many people they passed, etc. It's par for the course.

Take care,
Jack

No dude, I'm just a regular schlub who takes a beating everyday from his clients and every night from the boss and the monsters.

[JAB993]

David and I had three days at the Jim Russell School some time back. All students were provided a print out of their lap times after each session, your results were then reviewed with your instructor. 

Student lap times were not made available to the rest of the class and you were encouraged to use the data to improve your own driving skills; this was not a race.

The feedback from lap times is invaluable.

[Tony356993]

I would just go out & do my best.

My thoughts exactly.

The feedback from lap times is invaluable.

 

and can be be costly if used/misused prematurely.

[smankow]

again, lap times are good, but can be lacking.  They won't show that you were in traffic or waited for a pass signal, etc.

I believe that the times would be good when used in conjunction with video.  This way you could record you times per session and then compare them with the video to see what was good/bad.

Steve

[JAB993]

Tony,

Agreed , the school was in a very controlled enviroment, lap times were not taken until half way through the program and there was no overtaking or traffic. Given all this the knowledge of your own lap times was a great aid to improvement.

[Larry Herman]

Here's a funny (and self-indulgent) story about lap times.  In 1990 a few of us went down to the Akin-White 944 endurance racing school at Sebring.  We were taught braking and apexing, and a lot of stuff that most of us knew already.  We wanted to learn about racing.  Anyway things went at a calm pace until we had our "race" and they sent us out to qualify.

We were running 45s on the short course and they told us just to take it easy in qualifying because their club record was a "low 44".  That was absolutely the wrong thing to say.  With the bit between my teeth I beat on that car and cranked out a 44:02.  I turned the car over to Tony Bonanni and strode over to the instructors to ask how much lower a "44" that they ran.   With that the car came to a screaching halt as the trans packed it in for poor Tony right in front of everyone, and all eyes turned to me. hock:

The point is that knowing your lap times can sometimes cause the competitive juices to flow, and you start driving in a way that is counterproductive (to learning or relability).

[Tony356993]

Given all this the knowledge of your own lap times was a great aid to improvement.

Agreed. I'm using the data now to really see if I am getting any better. In a DE setting it seems there is agreement that a green/blue student does not and should not have access to real time data.

 

 

[michael lang]

Tony, now as an instructor, how do you gauge when a student is ready to move up in experience level/group color? In other words, when instructing, do you watch your students [lap times] to determine whether or not the group they are in is fast enough and you find the student is being held back by other students on the track?

 

[smankow]

As previously stated, lap times is not the gauge for advancement.  It's a combination of line, smoothness, track awareness, car control, speed, etc. 

[bobt993]

Please suggest to the moderator to move this thread to Club racing since lap times are specifically forbidden by our DE guidelines.  Now in club racing................ it's everything.