The story of two bad wrecks and how experience teaches that managing expectations is key for track days (and even more important for wheel-to-wheel racing).
Just one week into F1's summer break, we've found ourselves rewatching some of the 2022 season's highlights. One of the most memorable moments so far has to be Willy T's podium interviews after the Miami GP.
As a young racer I found myself listening to more seasoned drivers discussing rain lines at the track with great curiosity, like they belonged to a secret club. I read and asked questions but found a myriad of answers that never worked that well for me. Ultimately, I determined that my own aggressive research was my best hope for a rain strategy that produced consistent results. I have a short attention span and sports that can’t kill me do little to keep my interest. I guess that’s why I found racing so appealing – specifically road racing.
Michael is a returning driver with a solid record of top-10 finishes in 2019 and finished 6th overall in the 2019 Spec MX-5 SimRacing Challenge season. He’s a hard-charger and is not afraid to put his elbows out and fight for a position. With a single win in the 2020 season, he’s sitting in 3rd, only 8 points behind 2nd place with one regular season event to go.
For racers and time attack/HPDE drivers in the Southwest, there are still plenty of opportunities to get on track at Southern California’s world-famous famous Buttonwillow Raceway Park. If drivers are feeling a bit rusty in regard to properly navigating this fun-yet-tricky course, particularly in its 13CW configuration, Kevin Burke of Driver Mod has you covered.
Oregon’s Jack Sanchez returns to the Spec MX-5 SimRacing Challenge for another crack at the title. In 2019, Jack finished 18th in the regular season which earned him a spot in the Grand Finale race at Road Atlanta; he also has the distinction of being one of the few driver’s that started every 2019 race and that’s what earned him an auto-invite to the 2020 season.
Rob Lebel comes to us with plenty of real-world experience. Having competed in various North American racing series for the past 10 years, he's now…
Is there anyone reading this who does not want to drive faster? Yep, just what I thought. Going faster can be seen in two ways: what can you do to drive faster, and what stops you from driving faster. It’s this second viewpoint that driver coach E. Paul Dickinson writes about this week, getting you to think about what stops you from going quicker. By doing so, you can mentally prepare for what prevents you from driving quicker.
Since there won’t really be any racing on TV this weekend, we thought we’d put together a mix of street circuit races from around 35 years to enjoy while we’re all more cooped-up than usual.
We’ve got a big soft spot for the Sauber-Mercedes C9. Its development story is fascinating, its podium ratio is quite good, and it just looks beautiful. The small, bi-turbo V8 beast was the most successful cars of the 1989 Group C racing season, winning eight races including Le Mans. They scored a 2nd place spot on the prestigious, French podium as well.
It is impossible to watch a NASCAR race without noticing the lightning-fast speeds at which the pit crews change tires on the vehicles during their pit stops. The unforgettable zipping sound of the impact wrenches they use to remove the lug nuts is just one of the highly-skilled duties these professionals use to assure a quick tire change.
This is a controversial topic, with many differing opinions. One of my objectives for Speed Secrets Weekly has always been to provide different perspectives, and that’s why we have a different guest contributor each week. To address these questions and comments, I’m going to tackle the topic in the feature article, and then have two coaches/drivers whom I respect immensely, Peter Krause and Peter Carroll, share their thoughts.
Some people would say that driving around a race track is not the smartest thing to do! In fact, you may have had your sanity questioned more than once. Perhaps you’ve had someone give you THAT look when you tell them how much you spend on your passion. Or they’ve questioned your concern for the environment, your safety, or the care for your family.
In some ways, vintage “racing” isn’t really racing. Chances are, you’ll be in a class with other cars that aren’t really like your car all that much. Vintage is different, but in that difference are some charms…
There is a justifiable concern amongst many automobile and driving enthusiasts about the way many teens (and even those in their 20’s or 30’s) have less of a passion for cars and driving than many older people. And some believe that the sport of performance and race driving may begin to suffer from fewer participants (if this hasn’t happened already) as the “older” crowd “moves on.” That’s why I appreciate Ingrid Steffensen’s article this week. As many of you know, a few years ago, Ingrid wrote a fun and interesting book, Fast Girl, that is all about how she – someone totally uninterested in driving on a track – became addicted to the sport. So, I think she’s well-qualified to talk about how we all should do what we can to get others interested – no, addicted – to our sport.
Mounting your antenna properly determines the range and clarity of your two-way radios. A bad coaxial cable or an improperly mounted antenna can restrict two-way radio range from miles to feet.
This past weekend, with fears of rain and potential snow up in the high desert at Willow Springs International Raceway, Spec Corvette ran their second round of the year in conjunction with Speed Ventures. The rain held off for the most part and racers were able to take advantage of the cool ambient temperatures, to the point of setting a new Big Willow lap record!
We saw a crash of epic proportions at Road America on Saturday in the Continental Sports Car Challenge race (as far as we know, both drivers are okay). It happens in the famous Kink, with Owen Trinkler (#46 Mercedes AMG GT) setting up a pass on Craig Lyons…
This video came across our desk recently despite being a few years old: after spinning out moments after the green flag waves, an SRF driver proceeds to fight through the a massive field from P25 to P1.
If you had to guess, how many compromises do you make in just one lap? You know, trading off speed in one part of the track to gain in another? Or compromising braking for cornering, and cornering for acceleration? Or? I don’t know, either, but reading Randy Beikmann’s (author of Physics for Gearheads) article this week got me thinking about this, and I bet you will, too, when you read this week’s feature. And Randy’s main message is one that you need to take to heart, and use (it has to do with not going slow).
This clip came across our desks recently: it’s filled with short tips from pro drivers of various series and eras, and is a sort of promo video for safeisfast.com. They’re all things we often forget about and need to be reminded of often (at least this author does).
This is a great one: we love the TTRS, so we were especially excited to see this one show up in our Apple podcasts!
One thing that most every successful business does is develop a five-year plan, some type of strategem that helps everyone, especially management, know where the company is going and how to get there.
