The first time at the track is like the first time doing anything and there will be a big learning curve. There is very little transfer from driving a car well on the street to driving well on the track. Don’t be disappointed if learning “the line” is difficult or mysterious at first or if you don’t quite know which corner you are on and which way the next one goes. It’s not about being a good or bad driver, its all about seat time and it takes just that to get the hang of driving around a track. Some people learn quickly and some take more seat time, nobody cares how fast you learn and everyone is there to have fun!
Don’t be afraid to go slowly at first and concentrate on understanding the flags, passing rules and courtesy. Keep an eye on your rearview mirror and allow faster traffic to pass smoothly and safely, even if it means lifting off the accelerator. A good rule of thumb is if there is a car in your review view and you didn’t just pass it, then it’s faster and let it go by (even if it is a slower make car like a BMW 2002, Neon or M3). Try to keep your distance from vehicles in front of you so you can concentrate on the line instead of their bumper.
Make life easy on your instructor by driving within your limits and as smooth as possible. Learning the line is the most important, followed by corner entry and exit speed (early throttle application) and lastly braking. Save the super-hard late braking for some other time (without a passenger) as it has very little effect on lap time other then to make it worse, trash your brakes, and make your instructor puke.
Take a ride with your instructor sometime in the morning so you get a chance to see how it’s really done—pay attention to how scary fast he goes in certain parts and how surprisingly slow he goes in others. There will be slow corners on the track which have to be taken slowly or the car will fall off the track—everyone takes them slowly, even Mario Andretti. Conversely, there will be corners or kinks that can be taken at speeds that will make your hair stand up, build you speed up in these parts purposefully and incrementally. Peter Cunningham once said that beginning drivers tend to go way too fast in the slow parts and way too slow in the fast parts. It’s one of my favorite quotes.
If you’re there to have fun, learn and hang out with a bunch of car nuts and not worried about lap times and if you get passed by the chick in the Neon, then you’ll have a blast and leave wanting more!
Good luck and tell us how it goes,
DanO
Good for you!
) Im considering a trip soon.
