der Bayerische July/August 2021 - 24

P R E P A R I N G F O R Y O U R A D V A N C E D G R O U P T R A C K D A Y
Get up on the wheel! Slide the car
around that corner!), sometimes without
braking at all.
Note: if the car experiences
significant understeer or oversteer
when you turn the wheel, then you
were probably still traveling too fast
when you turned in, or you were
braking too hard at turn-in, either
overloading the front tires or taking
too much weight off the rear.
Try braking earlier, so you can ease off
the brakes as you turn in.
NEXT - ANALYZE YOUR DATA
USING A DATA ACQUISITION
SYSTEM (OR APP)
I'll presume that you're already
(Above) Time for the noon train to arrive, photo by Fraser Dachille.
you're used to, but make this change
incrementally), start easing off the
brake as you begin turning. That
residual, light braking as you're turning
will keep the car's weight on the
front tires, helping to rotate the car.
When the nose of the car is pointed
at the apex of the turn, finish lifting
off the brakes and smoothly squeeze
the accelerator. (BRAKE, LIFT &
TURN, GO!)
Why brake less than you're used
to? Because you're going to remain
(gently) on the brake longer than
you're accustomed to, as you make
your turn. (Note that this doesn't
negate the adage to do your heaviest
braking while still in a straight line.)
Trail braking will feel counter-intuitive
at first, but it will enable you to maintain
a much higher average speed,
maintaining momentum around the
corners, leading to lower times.
A note to participants in time
trials and other competition drivers:
Remember that ALL CARS ARE
MOMENTUM CARS. Every mile per
hour that you throw away unnecessarily
is a mile per hour that you have
to work to get back. Every tenth of a
second that you lose by overbraking,
from a corner's braking zone, through
corner entry and turn-in, is a tenth of
a second that is gone forever. The
driver who doesn't overbrake will
have the time and speed advantage at
the corner's exit. Note that I am NOT
telling you to overdrive the car. What
I'm saying is, don't overslowthe car.
A note to all drivers, whether
novice or advanced: only brake when
you need to, just as much as you
need to, to make that corner. You'll be
surprised how fast you can take some
corners (Lean into the suspension!
(Below) Tommy Ivic leads the action with Steve Flanagan hot on his heels, photo by Fraser Dachille.
recording and reviewing in-car video
of your sessions. If not, then see
" Preparing For Your Intermediate
Group Track Day " in the May-June
2021 issue of dB.
Since the most important mod
you can make is tuning the driver (not
the car), pick a data acquisition
system that focuses on how the car is
responding to your inputs. In my
opinion, those factors include the
following: acceleration / deceleration,
lateral G forces, precise location,
speed, direction.
The onboard data acquisition
system or app should also have the
following characteristics: overlays
video and data together in the
same display, so you can see what
was happening and when during your
session; includes a course map,
so you can see what was happening
and where; integrates the data
into the course map itself, to
make it easy to see what was happening
and where; uses a high-speed
GPS receiver so as to record location
data several times per second; uses
an accelerometer (to determine acceleration,
deceleration, and lateral G
forces; believe it or not, most modern
smartphones contain an accelerometer);
is compatible with your
smartphone so you can review and
analyze the data on the spot, not later
that evening; is easy to use and easy
to interpret, so you can quickly figure
out what to do differently in your next
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der Bayerische July/August 2021

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