Track Day Driving Techniques

Finding the Fast Line

Walking the course ahead of time can make a big difference. Since most autocross events only allow the drivers two or at most three runs, there really isn’t enough time to develop a strategy for the course and figure out the best line while driving it. Instead, serious competitors will arrive early enough so they can walk the course and scope it out.

When you do walk the course, try to ignore the rest of the crowd. Don’t just walk around to see where it goes; instead look at each corner, or sequence of corners and pause long enough to figure out how to go through that portion most quickly.

As you walk the course, divide it into cornering sequences and straightaways. You want to be in a position to get on the throttle quickly going into a straightaway, so that may sometimes mean planning your line through several corners in such a way that you can come out of the last corner at the right point and pointed in the right direction to burn up the straight.

The best strategy to deal with a sequence of turns leading up to a straight is to work backwards. Start with the straight, looking at where the car will be straightened out and pointed in the proper direction, then figure out how to take the previous corner so that the car winds up at the right point, facing in the right direction. Then evaluate the next previous corner and so on until you’ve figured out where you need to enter the sequence and how you should take it.

Autocross courses are typically made up of standard right and left turns, plus some ingenious obstacles that will be incorporated into every course. These include slaloms, chicanes, 360-degree turns, and sweeping turns. For each of these, we can offer some tips to take them as fast as possible

Slalom Segments

Slaloms are an important part of every autocross course. This segment of the course will consist of a straight line of cones, typically placed at equal distances from one another. The task is to go from right to left to right again, weaving through the line while maintaining as high a speed as possible.

To run a slalom sequence quickly, you definitely need to be looking two to three cones ahead, rather than simply concentrating on turning around the next cone. Drivers who focus on the cones one at a time typically start fast, then find themselves going wider and wider with each turn until they finally reach a point where they have gone too wide and can’t get turned without going off course or hitting a cone.

Instead, you should choose your turning point outside the line of cones, so that you just brush past each cone on the way to the point where you turn to line up to pass the next cone. If anything, you should start the sequence more slowly than you think will be necessary. That way you can gradually gain speed as you go through, rather than having to slide around and scrub off speed in order to stay on course.

Chicanes

Most courses you encounter are likely to have at least one section where the cones extend across your direct line of travel, on an otherwise straight section, forcing you to make a set of three tight turns, for example first right, then left, then right, to stay on course. These obstacles, a favorite of the fiends who lay out autocross courses, are called “chicanes.” (A good term, since the word is the root of the word chicanery, meaning trickery or deception.)

Often the chicane is enclosed in a box of cones to make the problem a little more difficult. A few tips will help you negotiate this obstacle as quickly as possible. First, remember that the main trick to autocrossing well is to turn series of straight lines into smooth curves. Don’t think of the chicane as a set of separate turns, but rather as a sort of slalom, where you want to take as straight a line as possible through the box.

Second, plan ahead to figure out where you want the car to be pointed when you exit the chicane. Then work your line back to determine how you want to enter the chicane.

Third, as you go through the chicane, don’t be tricked into dropping your sight line. Instead, look across and out towards the next turn as you enter the chicane. This will help you find the quickest way through.

Finally, don’t be timid, and don’t be tricked into making your turns sharper than they need to be. Be aggressive at the entrance and make your turns early. On most chicanes, you will be able to get on a straight line and back on the accelerator well before you’re actually through the obstacle, turning what could be three turns into only two turns.

Hairpins and 360 Turns

Another typical element of many autocross courses is the tight hairpin around a cone. Sometimes, the course may even require a 360 turn. This turn will be marked a single pylon sitting in the center of the path of travel with some large open space around it. Your challenge is to go around the pylon, executing a 180- or 360-degree turn and then continuing on the course.

This type of obstacle is tailor-made for the MINI’s front-drive capabilities and easily-reached handbrake. The trick to this is to use the handbrake or your left foot to release the grip of the rear tires on the pavement, then use the powered front wheels to pull you around in a controlled skid.

To manage this, you’ll drive close to the pylon, and when you’re even with it, turn the steering wheel to put the car in a sharp turn around the pylon. Holding the wheel turned with your left hand, you’ll give a quick pull on the handbrake, holding the button down and then immediately release the brake. You can also accomplish the same effect by using your left foot to stamp on the brake pedal and immediately release it, while keeping your right foot on the gas.

Either way, the quick braking should break the rear end loose so you can bring the car around with the nose almost touching the pylon. Once you’re about three-quarters of the way through the turn, you get hard on the accelerator to pull you back into a straight line and on down the course, and allow the steering wheel to unwind.

Track Day Driving Techniques

Chapter Fifteen
Basic Autocross Techniques

Competitive autocrossing is a great alternative or supplement to track days. In autocross events, yours is the only car on the course while you’re running, so you don’t need to worry about anyone else getting in your way, or worse. Speeds are typically slower than on the track, so if something should go wrong, you are more likely to be able to deal with it than you might on the track.

Under the worse of circumstances much less damage is likely to be done should the car get out of control on the autocross course. Typically only a few cones will get knocked around, and your pride might suffer a blow, but that’s about it.

Autocross events generally cost much less to enter than full-blown track days. While you’ll get less seat time, when you’re in the car you’ll be learning as much about driving and car control as you would on the track, generally in a much more concentrated manner.

Principles of Autocrossing

Autocross techniques are pretty much the same as track driving techniques. They’re just done on tighter courses and in lower gears, but the same principles apply.

Look Ahead, Think Ahead

The first rule for all types of driving is to look ahead of where you are and look in the direction you want to go. In autocross, this means that as you make your turn, you should already be looking at the next turn, or often the turns after that.

By the time your car is coming around a pylon, there is little you can do to make any difference, so your eyes should be on the next turn, and your mind should be planning the turns beyond that.

Look for the Straightest Lines

The second principle of autocrossing is to find the line that allows you to go as straight as possible. The straighter the line, the faster you’ll go. In autocrossing as in track racing, you need to look for every opportunity to point the car in a straight line so you can get hard on the throttle. Typically in autocross, this means looking for the straightest line through the corners, rather than turning every time the course turns.

Don’t be deceived by the cones. They define the edges of the course, but have little to do with finding the fast line. This is not a game of connect the dots; instead it is a game of turning square corners into smooth curves.

Be Smooth

When you watch other drivers going through the autocross, they can often be divided into two camps. There’s the noisy, almost out-of-control driver whose car seems to be skidding and squealing around each corner, with abrupt changes in direction. Then there’s the smooth driver who seems to be fluid all the way through, with the car rolling easily from one turn to the next.

If you were sitting inside the car, you’d see the first driver’s hands moving rapidly on the wheel, so fast they almost seem a blur. The second driver’s hands wouldn’t seem to move much at all. His hands would generally on opposite sides of the wheel and not leave the wheel nearly as often.

Which one do you think will come in with the faster lap time? If you guessed the smooth driver, you’d be right. The really fast drivers know where they need to go, plan ahead, rarely get caught off-guard, and very rarely look as if they’re out of control.

Track Day Driving Techniques

When You Get in Trouble

Sooner or later on the track, everyone has that moment when they believe they have just exceeded their ability to drive the car, or the car has just been pushed beyond its limits.

Running Out of Road

On a fast corner, you find that you’re going faster than you expected, and it looks as if you’re going to run off the outside of the track before you complete the corner. Or in the middle of a turn you find that your front or rear end is sliding and you’re not sure you can get the car under control. What do you do now?

By now, we think you know the answer. In your MINI, you are going to keep your foot on the throttle and use both your steering and your power to pull you through the corner. But what happens if you forget, or do find yourself in a spin. To answer this question, a little rhyme is often quoted in driver instruction: In a spin, both feet in.”

Once the car has gone into a spin, and you realize you’re just along for the ride, you need to do exactly the opposite. Now is the time to get your right foot off the gas and push the brake pedal in as hard as possible in order to lock up the wheels. At the same time, your left foot should push in the clutch so that the engine won’t die.

Locking up the wheels will generally keep the car spinning in a reasonably small area. Having the clutch in means that no power will get to the wheels that could cause the car to go shooting off in a different direction as soon as it regains traction.

In addition, the engine will still be running when you finally come to a stop. That will allow you to immediately shift into a lower gear and get the car to a point where you’re safe or where you can get back on track and into the flow of traffic.

Dropping a Wheel Off the Edge

It’s more likely that you might turn in a little too early, get too close to the edge at the exit, and have one or both of your outside wheels go off the track. Dropping one or two wheels off the track can be fairly benign, or the prelude to disaster.

If you do take a corner too fast, and can’t turn the car enough to stay completely on the track, you may find yourself with one or both wheels on one side of the car dropping off the track. Usually you’ll have a pretty good idea that this is going to happen before it actually does, so you can prepare yourself for it.

Just as soon as a wheel goes off the track, the car is going to get pretty squirrelly (No, that’s not a technical term.). The wheels in the dirt are going to have very different traction than the wheels that are still on the track.

At that point, the worst thing you can do is try to wrench the car back on the track. If you do try to do that, just as soon as the off wheels grab the pavement again, the car will start to spin with a vengeance, generally sliding across the track and off again on the opposite side. That is, if you don’t encounter other cars as you slide across the track.

Instead, when you realize you’re about to drop wheels off, you’re better off continuing in a straight line until you either drive completely off the track, or slow down to the point where you can consider driving back on to the track.

If you can get the car back under control, before you drive back onto the track be sure you look behind you to make sure that there aren’t any other cars coming up on you. Only after you’re absolutely sure you can get back on the track without getting in anyone else’s way should you actually turn back on the track.

Completely Off the Track

What about going off the track completely? In the event you do slide or drive off the track, the first thing to do is to come to a full stop to make sure that the car is still running all right and you haven’t broken something or sprung a leak.

Before doing anything else, wave your hand out the window to let the corner workers know you’re all right. If they don’t see any movement, they’re probably going to assume the worst and call out the ambulance.

Once you’re sure that everything on the car is still connected to everything else, and you’ve had time to catch your breath, then you can consider getting back on track. Before you do that, however, be very sure that you are entering at a point where oncoming traffic can see you, and be very sure that there isn’t any oncoming traffic.

Then, and only then, should you move back on to the track. Remember that you’re going to be moving slowly at first and allow for that when gauging how much space will be needed. Remember, there’s no rush. This isn’t Sebring and your racing contract doesn’t hang in the balance if you lose a few minutes.

Once you do get back on the track, most track day organizations will expect you to come back into pit lane immediately and check in with the chief steward. At the least, the official will want to check to make sure that there’s nothing hanging off or stuck to your car. They also may want to have a few words with you about why the car wound up off the track to make sure that you can be counted on not to be a hazard to yourself or others when you go back out again.

If you’ve gone off and you think something may be wrong with the car, you’ll need to wait for the crash truck to come and get you into the pits where you can figure out what’s wrong. If the car is in a safe place, well off the track, the best thing to do is wait in the car until the truck comes. Keep your helmet on and your seat belts fastened. That way you’ll be as safe as possible while you’re sitting there, and ready to have the car towed in when the truck arrives.

Even if the car isn’t in a safe position, you are still likely to be safer if you are in it, belted securely and with your helmet on. You wouldn’t want to be half in and half out of the car and then get hit by another car. Wave an arm and flip up the faceplate of your helmet so they’ll know you’re all right and don’t require immediate medical attention.

Stay in the car until the corner workers tell you to get out. Most likely, they will push it out of harm’s way, or keep the flags waving until the safety crew can get to you and move the car. Either way, they’ll need to have you at the wheel to steer the car.

Only in the event of a fire should you make the decision on your own to get out of the car before the corner workers or safety crew tell you to do so. In that case, don’t waste any time; just get out as quickly as you can and then move away from the car and over the wall off the track.

Once the truck comes, you need to have your helmet on and your seat belts fastened before they can tow you in. Then follow their instructions as they hook your car up to the truck and tow you back to the pits. No, it isn’t fun, and it will be embarrassing, but getting yourself and the car the car back to the pits safely with no further damage is better than turning a small annoyance into a major disaster.

Track Day Driving Techniques

Track Day Safety
Track days can be an excellent way to improve your driving skills and become more familiar with your MINI under reasonably safe circumstances. However, there are some good rules to keep in mind whenever you are out on the track with other drivers.

Obvious point number one: be aware of other drivers. One characteristic of nearly all track days is that the capabilities and experience of the drivers, and their desire to drive fast, will vary significantly. Unfortunately, abilities and need for speed also often vary in inverse relationship to each other.

You always need to be very aware of the drivers around you. Those in front may create situations to which you will have to react, and those behind you can startle you in unexpected places. Try to concentrate on everything immediately around you, but focus only on what is going on at the moment. This is no time to be thinking about where you’re going for dinner after the event.

Obvious point number two: follow the rules. The supervisors of each track day will have specific rules for you to follow that will be determined by the nature of the group you are driving with and the characteristics of the specific track.

For example, areas of the track where you can pass, and where you can not pass, are likely to be specified. Procedures for passing, such as that the overtaking car is always to go to the driver’s right or driver’s left of the car being passed, are also likely to be specified. These rules are not suggestions or simple courtesies. They are mandatory, and if the supervisors are doing their job, breaking them will bring a strong warning, followed on a second occurrence by immediate expulsion from the event.

Watch your mirrors. Even more than in everyday traffic, you need to check your mirrors frequently to be aware of cars behind you, especially those that are overtaking you. Try to develop a habit of checking your mirrors at least once and preferably twice on each straight portion of the track.

Check your mirrors first just as soon as you complete the corner to see if there may be a car behind you that will want to take advantage of the straight portion to go past you. Check again just before you commit yourself to the next corner to make sure that no one is going to try to get around you just at the point when you are coming across the track to apex the corner.

Allow others to pass safely. During your first few track days, when you’re feeling a little tentative about your car and your driving ability, and getting to know the track, it will seem as if everyone in the world is going faster than you are and is crowding your bumpers.

Typically, you’ll find that you’re being crowded on the corners, since you’re likely to be slowest in those areas. Don’t let that worry you, but be ready to let the faster cars go around you as soon as you’re in an area where passing is permitted.

As soon as you’re in a safe passing area, point in the direction you expect the driver to go as he passes you. The point lets the driver behind know that you know he or she is there and that they can pass you without causing you to do anything unexpected.

Don’t try to move over, or move off the line that you would otherwise be traveling. The driver overtaking you needs to know that you aren’t going to turn abruptly in one direction or the other as they’re trying to pass. It is up to them to make the pass safely.

It doesn’t hurt to slow down just a bit to allow the car behind to get completely around you before the next corner. Typically at a MINI track day, the cars will be fairly evenly matched, but driving abilities will vary.

As a result, you might be able to hold your own on the straight, or even outdrag the overtaking driver, but that proves nothing. If they can stay on your bumpers through the corners, then they’re probably driving better than you and should have the right to practice their cornering without having to slow up for you.

Remember that there may be more than one car behind you waiting to pass. They will often assume that if you’re letting one car pass, that you will be letting anyone behind them around as well.

Just don’t be disconcerted by being passed. If you’re courteous and predictable in your driving style, no one will mind that you’re driving more slowly than they are.

If you’re the overtaking driver, make your passes safely. As you gain a little experience, you may find that you are overtaking other drivers. In this case, it is your responsibility to make the pass safely. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about this. The safe pass is solely the responsibility of the overtaking driver.

After you’ve gotten near the car ahead, wait for the next safe passing zone and look for their signal to pass. If you are not sure the driver ahead knows you’re there, or not sure there is enough room to make a clean pass in the safe passing area, then wait until you can make the pass safely.

Be careful to completely pass the car ahead before you change direction. If you don’t think you can pass them before the turn-in point for the next corner, then wait until the next passing zone to make your pass.

If you find that you simply can’t get around a driver safely on the straights, even though you know you’re faster on the corners, then the best thing to do is to back off. Track days aren’t races, and there are no prizes for proving you’re faster than someone else. You might even pull into pit lane and then go back out on the track to give the slow car as much room as possible. Pausing for even thirty seconds is usually enough to get enough track space for yourself so you can go back to practicing at the speed that suits you.

Obvious point number three: If the program in which you’re participating offers to provide a coach or instructor to ride with you on your hot laps, take them up on it. This is no time for a macho “I’d rather do it myself” attitude. Once you’re out on the track, you’re going to discover that there is about twice as much going on as your mind can process and your memory store.

Having an instructor or coach in the car will make sure that if something starts to happen that is beyond your power to control, there will be an experienced driver in the car to holler or grab the wheel to help you avoid the problem. More likely, having a quiet voice next to you saying, “brake now” or “turn-in here” can help you stay focused.

Best of all, the instructor/coach can store up all the little data that you might miss or forget in the sensory overload on the track, and help you put it all in perspective once you get off the track. Having someone who can say, for example, “You’re coasting into the corners by pausing between brake and throttle,” can make everything suddenly make sense.

Track Day Driving Techniques

Corner Workers

This is probably a good point to discuss one of the important roles that corner workers play at race tracks. All sanctioned race tracks will have at a corner-worker station at each blind corner. Two workers will be posted at each of these corners.

During a practice session or race, one of the workers will face towards oncoming traffic to watch for unsafe situations that require drivers to be warned with a flag. If there is a faster car overtaking you, he’ll wave a blue flag with a yellow stripe to warn you. If there is debris or fluids on the track, he’ll wave a red flag with yellow stripes, and if there is a safety vehicle on the course up ahead, he’ll wave or show a white flag.

The other worker will be standing with his back to the first worker, looking further down the track. That worker is your eyes into the area that you can’t see, but which you are about to drive into at high speed. He has only one flag under his arm, the yellow one.

If he sees something around the corner or over the rise that you need to be concerned about, such as a car spinning sideways or off the track in an unsafe place, he will turn around to face the oncoming cars, and wave that yellow flag to let you know that it isn’t safe for you to drive around the corner at high speed.

We can’t emphasize too much that you must look at the flag station before you drive into a blind corner. If the flag workers are standing there with their flags tucked under their arms, you can safely pick your line into the corner and take it with all the speed that’s appropriate.

If, on the other hand, the course worker is waving the yellow flag, that’s your warning to slow down and be ready to even stop, if necessary, becauuse there will be an obstruction to avoid on the other side of the blind spot.

Wet Tracks and Slippery Pavement

Whenever we visualize ourselves driving at speed on a racetrack, the sun is always shining, and the temperature is comfortable, but not too hot or too cold. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the situation. It can be rainy and it can be cold and the track day will still take place.

With the high costs of track rentals these days, and the complicated logistics involved in putting together a track day, cancellation due to bad weather is just not an option. It’s only at the Indianapolis 500 that they wait for the rain to stop before running.

Consequently, a few words about techniques for running in the wet are in order. Most of the following tips are also relevant for driving on highways in the rain or where glare ice may be a possibility.

Obvious point number one: slow down. You’ll have more time to react to unexpected situations should they arise, and be carrying less momentum should you find yourself in trouble. Leave more room than normal between yourself and the vehicle ahead, and look well down the road for developing problems such as a car skidding out of control.

Obvious point number two: be alert. When you find yourself on the wet, or in the middle of that unexpected shower, narrow your focus of attention to your driving. Make sure you’ve got both hands on the wheel in the proper eight or nine o’clock and three or four o’clock positions.
Use your hands to feel for any loss of traction in the front wheels. If the steering wheel starts to feel as if it isn’t quite connected with the wheels, then you may be hydroplaning on top of the water, instead of moving through it with your wheels in contact with the pavement.

Be smooth in your response. Any slickness in the pavement is going to multiply your reactions. You want to be even smoother with your direction corrections, acceleration and braking that you would otherwise be. Be sure that you are going straight before making any braking or acceleration changes. If you do need to make any changes in direction, do it slowly and carefully rather than abruptly.

Here again, keep in mind that you are driving a front-wheel drive car. As long as your foot is on the throttle, your wheels will help you handle the situation, just so long as you are very smooth with your inputs.
On the other hand, on a wet track, if you release the throttle or hit the brake in the middle of the corner, the rear end of your car is going to get loose and spin out even more quickly.

On the track or highway in the wet, try to stay away from the most-traveled portion of the pavement. On the track the standard fast line around the corners is often called the “dry line.” Because most of the cars travel on this line most of the time, that pavement will be impregnated with oil and rubber, which will rise to the surface first in a light rain. Instead, take the “rain line,” typically about one car length in from the edge of the track.

On the highway, your best bet is to stay in the slow lane which will be slightly less slick, keep you out of the way of those who think that rain can be ignored, and will give you run-off space if you need to avoid a problem.

Track Day Driving Techniques

Sequences of Corners
The corners on a track or autocross course that really show off a driver’s skill and experience are those where several corners come in a row. In these circumstances, taking the optimum line around one corner may make it impossible to take the best line around the next corner.

For example, many tracks have a situation where if you go all the way to the outside of the track to prepare to enter the first corner in the sequence, the result is that you wind up exiting that corner way beyond the point where you can get a proper line into the second corner.

The key to these situations is to think about where you want to be when you come out the other end of the sequence of corners and are back on a straight section, whether that sequence is two corners, or five corners. As a general rule, the driver with the best lap time is not the person who goes through the corners fastest, but the one who gets from the beginnings of the straighter high-speed sections to their ends fastest.

To get the highest speed on the straighter sections depends on coming off the last corner before that section on the best possible line. Sometimes this is impossible unless a less-than-optimal line is selected through one or more of the earlier curves in the sequence. This principle is sometimes called “sacrificing a corner” for speed.
Obviously, you aren’t going to get this right the first time you drive the course.
In fact, you have to find that line through the sequence of corners one step at a time, starting from the very last corner before the straight. As you start to learn the track, or begin working to lower your times, start by driving relatively slowly through the sequence so that you can set up the last turn as effectively as possible in terms of how fast you’re going when you exit. Once you’ve figured out where to begin your entry into that last corner, then you can do the same thing by determining where to turn in and how fast to enter the second-to-last corner in the sequence.
By following this process back to the first corner in the sequence, you may very well find yourself starting the first corner at a point that wouldn’t make any sense at all if that corner were the only one, or you may find yourself going relatively wide and slow around a corner in the middle of the sequence in order to finish the sequence at the highest possible speed.

We grant that it is much easier to explain this process than to follow it. Nevertheless, if you were to watch a professional driver who was learning a new course, or mastering a new car on a known course (nearly the same thing), you would see that their lap times get progressively lower, one step at a time, as they continue to practice.
It isn’t that they are getting better and better at the whole course. Instead, what is happening is that they are finding a good line through one corner of a section at a time, and then progressively learning the corners leading up to it.

For the near term, the main thing to remember is that when you confront a sequence of corners, you won’t necessarily be able to follow the theories of correct lines through corners and find yourself going fast at the end. Instead, concentrate your attention on the last corner in the sequence, since that’s where the greatest gains will be made in improving your lap times. Be willing to sacrifice speed around earlier corners in order to find that good line out of the last corner, and you’ll be on your way to driving better.

Blind Corners
Whenever given the chance, those devious track designers will generally take advantage of terrain changes, or geographic characteristics to make the driver’s task even more difficult. If they do very well, they will be rewarded by having their track called “technical.” In our terms, a technical track is one that calls on all of the driver’s skills to get good times.
One of the favorite strategies to do this is to use changes in elevation to create a blind corner, where the important elements of the corner, like the apex and exit point, can’t be seen until the driver is already making the turn and is committed to a line. One of the best examples of this is the “corkscrew” at Laguna Seca, but just about every good track has at least two or three examples of blind corners offering similar challenge.
To drive these blind corners well, two tips are in order. First, try to see the entire corner, including the part you can’t see, in your mind’s eye before entering it. Second, help yourself by finding visual landmarks that you can see in order to take the corner well.

Seeing the corner in your mind is a trick that all good drivers use. It’s often noted that an experienced driver can remember every foot of every corner of every track that he or she has mastered, and can drive the track in their mind so accurately that if you tell them to start, and they tell you when they’ve completed the mental lap, the elapsed time will be almost precisely the time it takes them to physically drive a lap.

The idea is that as you come up to a corner that is obscured by a rise in the terrain, or other barrier, that you try to see through the barrier in your mind, picturing what the corner will look like as you clear the barrier. Do this several times as you begin driving a new track and fairly soon you’ll have a clear picture of what the corner looks like in your mind. At that point you’ll find that your confidence has been built up so that you can clear the barrier without slowing down more than is justified by the actual characteristics of the corner.

The second tip is to select a physical landmark that you can see, to give you a guide point to tell you where to aim the car as you go over the rise, or around the barrier that obscures the corner. For example, drivers who have mastered Laguna Seca will tell you that they aim for the top of the first oak tree as they make their turn and prepare to dive over that blind crest into the Corkscrew.

On other courses, the landmark might be a particular lamppost, or water tank, or other physical landmark in the distance that you can aim for when you round that blind corner or crest that blind rise into the next corner.

But if you use the combination of creating a mental picture of the corner, coupled with a physical reference point to help you find your line, you’ll be able to take the corner almost as if you had x-ray vision.

Track Day Driving Techniques

Stitching the Corners Together

If driving fast were a simple matter of braking, downshifting, turning in, hitting the apex and accelerating out as you released the wheel, then speeding down the straightaway until you got to the braking point of the next corner, racing and autocrossing would be a lot easier—and probably not nearly so much fun—as it is.

In fact, most race courses and nearly all autocross courses have only two or three places where you are simply driving straight down the course while accelerating and up-shifting. Instead, most corners come in groups. No sooner are you out of one corner than you have to prepare for the next one. In fact, in many situations you may find that you need to begin preparing for a corner before you’ve had the chance to complete the last turn.

It’s in these combinations of corners that less powerful cars can often overtake more powerful cars, and where the better drivers can improve on their lap times and overtake the less-skillful drivers. What’s necessary is to be able to think of the entire series of corners together. Your choice of entrance line into the first corner should be determined by where you want to be when you come out of the last corner, and each of the in-between transitions in speed and direction should be made as smoothly as possible.

Two-Corner Combinations

We can start with the most obvious situation first, where a right-hand corner is followed immediately by a left-hand corner, or where the opposite is true. To drive this two-corner sequence effectively, two principles need to be kept in mind. First, you should “use all the track” as your instructor no doubt will remind you. Second, you will need to make your weight transition—from leaning in one direction to leaing in the other direction—as smooth as possible.
When discussing how to go around a corner in the previous chapter, we stressed going to the very outside of the track before beginning the turn, and then touching the inside curb on the curve, and finally going to the very outside of the track on the exit. Generally, this principle will continue to be true on most right-left and left-right sequences.

Thinking in terms of the right-left sequence, the additional factor in this situation is that, as nearly as possible, the exit point for the first corner should be the entrance point for the second corner. Since you can maintain more speed on a larger-radius curve, you want to go out to the outside to begin the first corner, then go all the way across the track and stay on that side until you’re ready to make your turn-in into the second corner.

If you just drive down the center of the track around both corners, both turns will have to be sharper. If you don’t take advantage of all the track on the entry to your first corner, you will be entering more slowly than necessary into the second corner.

Even worse, if you start to make your turn into the second corner too soon, you’ll find that you’re carrying too much speed to make the corner cleanly. Instead of going around cleanly and smoothly, you’ll find yourself scrubbing off speed, or even going off the track on the outside, as you attempt to get around the second corner.

In the situation where two right hand corners, or two left-hand corners, are taken in a row, the same rules apply. As usual, you go as wide as possible before making your turn-in, generally waiting until you can see your apex before turning. Then you complete the turn by going as wide to the outside as possible and stay on the outside of the track until you are ready to make your turn-in towards the second apex.

The second factor in a combination turn is the weight balance of the car. Essentially, the principle here is that you want the car to be upright and moving in a straight line after completing the first turn and before beginning the second turn.

In the right-left and left-right sequence, the car must first tilt in one direction and then tilt in the opposite direction. If you attempt to begin the second turn before the car has finished its first turn, and before the car is again balanced at the center, it can be very easy to upset the car’s equilibrium, causing it to push or spin.

Instead, try to be conscious of how the car’s center of gravity first moves to the outside of the car as you begin the turn, then moves back over the center of the car as you unwind the steering wheel after passing the apex of the turn.
As soon as the car’s center of gravity is back over the wheels you can begin making your second turn. Done properly, the movement of the center of gravity will be smooth, and the momentum of the shift in balance will simply continue across the car until the car is leaning in the opposite direction going into the second corner.

In the instance where two turns in the same direction follow one another, you still need to be aware of how the car’s center of gravity is shifting. The car will progressively tilt away from the turn as you turn the wheel into the turn. Then as you gradually unwind the steering wheel coming out of the turn, the car will come back into balance, just as it did on the left-right and right-left sequence.

However, in this case, you need to avoid allowing the momentum of the weight transfer to cause the car to tilt too far in the opposite direction before you begin your second turn. By carefully controlling your acceleration out of the turn and the speed with which you allow the steering wheel to unwind you can begin the second turn just at the instant that the car is balanced, thus avoiding the problem of understeering and losing speed by plowing into the second curve.


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