ScaryFast

Keep driving until it's over, but know your exit strategy ahead of time. Keep cognizant of where the best run off zone is and try to get there if things look grim...

Kneel 8250

At all times on a circuit be aware of other cars in your vicinity and their proximity to you. If you have cars close by, best to take yourself off and not involve them. If you have ample room, try and catch it. Whatever you do, never stop driving till the collision is imminent or the car stops safely out of harms way. If you give up too early you lose the opportunity to learn more.
Remember that you can still regain control of the car even if you are going backwards in the grass. Use your mirrors lots and maybe you can avoid damage or at worst minimise damage. If you dont lock up the brakes you have a much improved chance of recovery.

Stay safe and have a great time out on the track.

Kneel.

bobmoore2

Several years ago at Willow Springs. My skill level was nowhere near what it is today. I went into turn 9 a little too fast, and the car starts to spin. I couldn't catch it, and it just kept coming around. So I modulated the throttle and I was able to keep it on the track as I drove it around the last half of the turn SIDEWAYS pointed at the infield. It skidded to a stop about 50 feet past the end of the turn, and I calmly drove it off the track to the inside. (That is not a place you want to be sitting broadside to the track, because you will get T-boned very hard.)

Nobody saw my amazing driving, but the HPDE organizer gave me a hard time about going off track. I kept the whole thing to myself, because I didn't think anyone would believe it if I told them.

I probably couldn't do it again if I tried, and I'm certainly not crazy enough to try to do it again. I guess I was just "really on" for a few moments then.

The moral of this story - Don't stop driving if there's any chance you can control it at all. That doesn't mean you should always fight to keep it on track. Sometimes it's safer to drive with a little control off track or into something soft, than lose control and hit something hard.

bags142

Thanks for all the input, advise, and vids!!

grantar2

Han Solo

This is so true. I've had one bad off at Roebling Road. Left the track on the final turn and had zero control in the grass at speed. Did a 360 and came to rest in the bushes and fence. They preach on not trying to correct a spin at that area because so many have come back and hit the pit road wall so I opened the wheel and just tried to hold it straight. Guess I opened it a little to much because it spun in the opposite direction away from the track. I did try to drive out of the spin after it was clear it was coming around and I was to far from the track for it to get back on pavement but it was like driving on ice.

I backed it out of the bushes and drove up behind the timing tower where I shut the car off to wait for the end of the session. Flagger came around the tower screaming at me that I couldn't enter the track there. I thought it was obvious I had no intentions of entering back on track. I was as far from the tower as you could get and shut down a good 30 feet from entrance gate.

No way I'd go back on track for even a lap after an off like that and I was past pit road entrance.

The car checked out okay and I ran another session after but my confidence was shot so I packed it in for the weekend. Tires were just cycled out and the track was greasy by all accounts that weekend.

MySR71

More views and driver comments starting at 4:00 into the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFlSG...layer_embedded

Sidney004

The aerial view is incredible! The guy is a fantastic driver.

Gering

[QUOTE=Sidney004;1577969359]The aerial view is incredible! The guy is a fantastic driver.[/QUOTE]

TheSkunkWorks

Back in the day we had a saying which went something like this: When the weeds give way to saplings and the saplings give way to trees, it may be time to give up the throttle. (Might still be applicable at places such as Roebling.)

I've saved myself from a few crashes and lessened the severity of others by staying with it, but also had a couple of big hits likely made worse by my stubborn refusal to give in. On the whole, I say keep trying to save it until the odds of your improving the situation get pretty slim, and if a shunt becomes inevitable try to control how you go in. Of course, when something breaks you're usually just a passenger. In any event, I've learned it's a good idea to be breathing out as you hit.

Jason

mountainbiker2

I must have missed class that day. If I can't save it in the first half a second, I call it a day. In my experience in Autocross, the very few times I've tried to "save it" just got me more in trouble. The days I've lost it, and put both feet in right away, was much more safe for everyone. I'm going to stick to that plan until you guys prove me other wise. Maybe for autocross it's different.

Steve A.

TS Motorsport

+1

There are too many variables involved. Slip angle, tire pressure, tire temps, driver reaction time, etc. If the driver doesn't react within a certain time then it's all lost and you might as well try to make it out alive at that point. Some try to be hero's by saving it but they actually endanger everybody else by doing that & create a mess.

40YRW8

One tactic that I have been taught and I have used is basically a last ditch effort. Sure, drive the car but if you are too fast AND too out of control, watch where the car is wanting to go but NOT where it is necessarily pointing. This direction can swing wildly in a very short period of time. When the momentum is headed in a relatively safe direction, lock all four tires and keep them locked until the car comes to a complete stop. As soon as you lock the wheels, the car has to go ballistic and won't hardly change direction until it is stopped. What hurts a lot of guys is releasing the brakes at some point before the car is fully stopped and the tires bite and it takes of in an unexpected direction so fast that they don't have time to catch it. This is how guys can spin off the track and suddenly dart back on in front of oncomming traffic. And yes, in my deep dark past (not the Z) I have chosen to voluntarily hit a tire barrier as an alternative to taking a chance on hitting someone elses car or a corner worker who was also in possible danger.
Gary

brkntrxn

I drive it until the point of no return. If you cannot tell that point, then you need to keep practicing on the edge until you get the feel for it. IE a skid pad would be a good way to spend your afternoon.


-kevin

steponc

It is different in A-X. One loss of control mistake basically ends your run. On the track it is an endurance race with a chance to continue and improve.
Mentioned earlier was shuffle steering. This is a basic No No on the track but in A-X it keeps your hands in a better position to respond to problems by maximizing your torque points on the wheel.

brkntrxn

I politely and completely disagree with the statement that shuffle steering is a no-no on track. It entirely depends upon the car, the steering ratio, the tires, the corner, and the driver.

We may be talking semantics here, I am specifically talking about pre-positioning your hands and moving your hands on the wheel as opposed to never moving your hands and crossing your arms on tight turns.


-Kevin

SouthernSon

So many assumptions in most of the replies. Fact is, there are times to shuffle, there are times not to shuffle, there are times to take it off the track and times to try to save it and learn a new trick, there are.....etc. But the mantra of which one should always be aware; look where you want to go, never unload the rear end needlessly, and always be aware of traffic and best exit if necessary. Don't get hung up on one supposedly fast rule for best car control that is always true because there ain't one!

TheSkunkWorks

Well said.

As a case in point about target fixation, FWIW... One race weekend at IRP I decided to walk the track (never know what you might learn) at the end of the day and came upon a sizeable pothole developing right in the edge of the road at the track-out for Turn One. If you know anything about IRP, you know that One is pretty dang fast. Having made a mental note, on my first flying lap during warm up the next morning I promplty put my left front squarely in it. Yep, I had glanced at it for a split second while reciting to myself, "Don't dare hit that hole." This wasn't exactly my first time at the rodeo, so I aleady knew better and still it happen. Never, never, never loose focus on where it is that you want to go.