Off

This past weekend I participated in my 3rd track day, and my first at Atlanta Motorsports Park. In the 4th session, I failed to maintain complete control of my car in the entry to Turn 11, resulting in a brief bit of unplanned offroading. Luckily I was able to maintain enough control to slow the car and arrive in the sand trap without injury or damage to the car. This was not guaranteed.

What should follow is some insight into how I arrived in the sand outside Turn 11. Not just that I used too much brake application while turning in over a crest, or that my brake bias was set more rearward than ideal for stability in such situations, but that I had noticed mild instability under braking in turns 1 and 6 prior and continued to push the limit. Perhaps I did not recognize that while such threshold braking was maybe 8 tenths in turn 1 (still closer to my personal limit of control than I should have been this early in my track driving career), it was dangerously close to 11 tenths in the slicker parts of the track such as 11 and 12. Though in prior sessions I had noticed that I was beginning to over-rotate on entry in 12, I didn’t consider this a serious warning of my closeness to a dangerous situation so much as a bit of naughty indulgance (hanging the rear end out is unquestionably fun when under control).

So, let’s say I go back to AMP with a more front-biased brake setup. This particular danger might be lessened, but the mindset is still, as always, the greater issue. How could I learn to more accurately gauge how close I am to the limit, and at which points on the course I am closest? Or maybe more importantly, which parts of the course are likely to have the limit appear suddenly or with dramatic results?

Post-session self-debriefs may be in order. I believe that over the course of the day prior to the incident I had gathered some key pieces of knowledge:

1. The rear brake bias (set up to get more rotation for autocross) feels just a tad sketchy
2. The transition from exit of Turn 10 to entry of Turn 11 is difficult to get right, and a weak spot for me on the course
3. Turn 11 as a whole has massive elevation and camber effects, though primarily I appreciated the positive camber at the apex and the elevation change that “catches” the car on exit.

Clearly connecting the dots here might have led me to a conclusion that I should be particularly careful in this spot. I could have asked for advice, or made a plan to figure out the corner. Something like this:

1. Give up exit speed from 10 and focus on setting up a nice line along the entrance curbing for 11
2. Try using less/no brakes when entering 11, using an early lift out of 10 to avoid carrying too much entry speed 2a. Out- and cool-down laps could be a great time to try this, but any time there’s nobody on my bumper there’s no reason not to take it a little slow and try things out. This is a “go slow to go fast” type run
3. Once the rhythm of the 10/11 transition is smooth and consistent, begin working in more entry speed, and eventually re-introduce braking IN A STRAIGHT LINE, recognizing the danger of trail braking this corner. 3a. This isn’t really a point but dude you’ve worked turn 11 and watched people get loose both here and in T12 what are you doing

To give some credit back to myself though, a short list of other things that were on my mind:

1. Brakes were fading from over-slowing, and from an early-and-soft braking habit. So at this point I’ve been, with some success, trying to brake just a bit later and harder through most turns. Worth noting that turns 1, 6, and 10 all include braking under compression which is quite confidence inspiring
2. I had a feeling that through the apex and exit of T11 I was under the limit. This may have been true, but also could have clouded my judgement regarding the entry.

And now for a recap with some take-aways. Post-session debriefs, in writing, should be mandatory moving forward. A debrief form including questions such as “Which parts of the track did you feel closest to the limit?” should be involved. Overall a greater respect for the track and the learning process is in order. And finally, laziness is not a reason to keep car setup the same between autocross and track driving.

One more thing: Since starting track driving and getting more serious about autocross I’ve found I have less to prove on the street. It’s also worth noting now that there’s nothing to be proven at a track day, except a willingness to put myself, my car, and potentially others in danger in pursuit of lap times.