Elevation, banking, camber, slope......particularly on road courses....in
the braking zones.....are critical to fast laps....and good race setups. As
a driver, you don't get an appropriate "feel" for these elements from within
the***pit. This is because the normal "references" our brains
need......are mostly absent once we put on our helmets....and climb into the
***pit (including open***pits....but to a lesser extent only than closed
***pits). This is primarily due to the artificial horizon induced by the
dashboard....reference for our eyes/brains....and the restricted peripheral
vision induced by racing helmets and the race car***pits themselves. To a
very great extent.....this applies to sim racing as well as to real-world
racing. And, this may be the reason we don't seem to get the same "feel and
perspective" for the elevation changes....and track banking....in our sim
racing as we do when visiting the real-world track for the first time.
When I was running in the ESCORT Endurance Series in the late 1980's......my
first year on the tour....meant I was being introduced to new race tracks
almost at every event. I was a totally rookie in pro racing at the
time........so I figured what I needed to do was to follow the routines used
by all the veteran drivers.....to come up to race speeds when ever we began
a weekend event at a new race track. The "race teams" usually began
arriving at the track on Wednesdays....and the drivers usually showed up on
Wednesday nights or Thursday mornings. The first "practice sessions"
usually began Thursday afternoon. I noticed that you could hardly ever find
any of the drivers on Wednesday night or Thursday morning.....anywhere else
but out walking the track! And, the ones most dedicated drivers at doing
this "walking of the track...notebook in hand.....totally alone and without
distraction"......where the guys who also had the most experience at the
tracks.....they were the veteran drivers........not the ones with the least
experience, us rookies! That was a "lesson" for me......and I never forgot
this. Not oddly......those were the same drivers who first started setting
competitive lap speeds......and first dialed in their race setups.....in the
early practice sessions!
Everyone had different techniques for these "track walks"....as I learned to
call them. And, some of the veteran drivers were better at it than others.
I learned some great stuff from Peter Cunningham........a veteran driver
even back in the late 80's. Peter told me that no matter how many races
he'd done at a particular track......he always did the same "track walk"
routine......even at tracks he'd run just a few weeks prior (in a different
race series). He said (without going into great detail).....that it "reset"
his mind's eye for the current track......banking, surface texture, turn
camber and so forth....preparing his senses and hand/eye coordination for
racing on that particular track for the next several days. He would even
stop walking when ever he got into the braking zone of a turn that was at
the end of a mid to high-speed straight. He'd actually carefully feel the
track surface....with his bare hands.....crouched down sometimes in a
crawling position on his hands and knees........particularly looking for the
small stones that were uncovered from the tarmac or concrete (depending on
the track surface type)....for how much the stones were ruffed...or polished
from previous races. He'd note the stone surfaces....moving his initial
braking markers up track (earlier) for smooth stones.....and down track
(later) for rough ones....and all variations in-between. Of course, he'd
also make note of the more obvious things like any new track patches that
might have been laid since his last race at that track! It will be of no
surprise to anyone that I tell you that Peter Cunningham was almost always
the first driver....and the earliest to come up to competitive race
speeds.......and he always contended for the "pole" on Friday afternoon
qualifying runs.
Racing sims are of course....not yet produced with that kind of detail
(although I believe the day is not far off that they will be). But, there
are still "lessons" to learn in this type of thing......when visiting a new
sim track.....or preparing for a league race at a track you've not raced on
recently. A virtual "track walk" can be done by making several slow speed
(I use first gear only) laps.....from in-car, and various F-10 type
views.....just to get my mind "reset" to the particular track before I start
running race speed laps. This only takes a few minutes.....and I've found
it to be as valuable in sim racing as it became in real-world racing for me.
Some of you might think this is stupid. Well, lots of drivers thought what
Pete Cunningham did was "stupid" too! You can "take or leave the lesson"
for what its worth to you.
Regards,
Tom
