Below you will find the fundamental lessons you must learn in order to master the art of driving on a race track.  These lessons are organized in order of what you must learn first to what you must learn last.  You will also find that the first lessons are the most important and most fundamental to being fast on track.  The later lessons are to achieve that last little bit of speed, where the gains are smaller, but enough to give you the edge.  Mastering all of these lessons is what separates the pros from the amateurs.  

• Looking ahead

  • Looking ahead is simply looking where you want to go about 8-10 car lengths ahead of where you are.

  • Looking ahead is the most important single skill you can learn while driving on track or on the street.  Period.  70% of mastering track driving is looking ahead.  Looking ahead is like looking into the future, as your eyes look to where you will be and not where you are currently.   When looking ahead, only look where you want to go because you will always go where your eyes are looking.  Emergency situations are made far less severe when looking ahead, and crashes are far less likely when looking ahead and looking where you want to go.

  • The only way to visualize the entire corner (entry, apex, and exit) is by looking ahead into and through the corner.  As you enter the corner and your eyes start looking towards the apex and exit, your brain will instinctively visualize your trajectory and allow you to adjust your inputs quickly and smoothly so that you can carry the maximum corner speed, and do it safely.  Looking ahead gives your brain time to act, not react.  Not only will you go faster, but you will be safer.  You will see hazards sooner, and have more time to react in emergency situations (like cars spinning in front of you, or oil on the track).  And you will have a greater capacity for car control when you exceed the car’s limits and the car starts to slide.  

  • Think of a pendulum, the fixed point is where your eyes are looking, and the pendulum is your car.  The farther ahead you look, the longer the pendulum, the less angle it will swing, and the slower that pendulum will swing.  This means your brain will make much smaller corrections to keep a sliding car from spinning, making it easier to stabilize the car.

• Looking ahead can be difficult to learn, it feels very unnatural and is not instinctive.  This could be the most frustrating technique you will learn, but it will also be the most valuable.  I promise you that everyone of my students who successfully trained themselves to look ahead were the fastest students on track.

• Your instructor should be constantly reminding you to look ahead and where to look.  Do not get discouraged, it can sometimes take all weekend to make it a habit.    

• To make a habit of looking ahead, you must force your eyes to look up and through turns.  Most people spend their entire lives driving only looking a few feet past the hood of the car.  Looking ahead means you are looking anywhere from 90-150 feet (30-50 yards) ahead of where you are.  To put this in context in a track environment, as you approach the turn and start to slow the car you are looking ahead to your turn in point.  Then as you reach the turn in point you are already starting to move your eyes up ahead to the apex of the turn.  As you turn in and approach the apex you are now looking ahead to the corner exit.  And finally as you approach the exit you are looking down the straight away, or if another turn immediately follows you are starting to look into that turn, and repeat.  

• Looking ahead means spending about 90% of your time looking ahead.  The other 10% is spent scanning a wider view, scanning for flag stations, scanning the peripherals of the track, and scanning even farther ahead.   Looking ahead doesn’t mean always looking exactly 100 feet in front of you, but it does mean doing this behavior almost all of the time.  

• Looking ahead will feel very foreign.  You will find yourself looking out of your driver’s side window on left turns and out the passenger side window on right turns.  You will be amazed how much you are moving your head as you are looking ahead.  You will also be amazed at how fast your competency grows and how fast you will now learn.

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• Learning the line

  • This skill should immediately follow looking ahead.  Looking ahead will naturally help guide you towards the correct line, but will still take help from your instructor.  An expert will be able to learn a new track simply by looking ahead (and evaluating available traction at all times).  The “line” is simply the fastest way around the track, and it is almost the same for any car on track.  

  • Each corner (or turn) on track has an optimal (fast) line.  There can be a theoretical fast line and a true fast line, the difference can be caused by turns or straights before or after the turn in question.  The difference can also be caused by changes in the road surface, like bumps, grip level change, elevation changes, etc.  

  • If you are not on the fast line, you are not going as fast as you can be.  Period.  

  • There are three parts to a turn: turn in, apex, and exit.  Turn in is where you start to turn into the corner.  The apex is the center of the turn, and the exit is the space from where you pass the apex until you finish (or exit) the corner. 

  • The fastest line around the track is one that allows you to carry the most speed around each corner.  The tighter the turn (radius) the slower you must go, and the wider the turn the faster you can go.  Imagine how fast you can go in a circle that is as wide as your driveway.  Now imagine how fast you can go in a circle that is as wide as an empty parking lot.  It’s that simple, and it’s the law of physics.  

  • On the street, we can’t alter the line when taking a turn because you must stay in your lane and follow the actual radius of the turn.  On the race track you can use the entire paved surface, so can make the turn as wide as possible.  Let’s visualize taking a curve that bends 90 degrees to the right.  You turn in from the outside (far left hand side) of the turn, apex at the inside (far right side) of the turn, and exit at the outside (far left side) of the turn again.  By doing this, you are making the turn much wider and effectively doubling the radius of the geometric line.  

• Early Apex – this is when you turn in early into the turn, resulting in a gentle turn in, but a sharper and slower turn exit.   This is considered fast in – slow out.  

• Late Apex – this is when you turn in late to the turn, making the initial turn sharper and slower, but giving you much more room for a safe and fast exit.  This is considered slow in – fast out. 

• Use the whole track

  • To use the whole track means to maximize the radius of the turn by using the full width of the track.

  • If you take a turn and don’t use the full width of the track at corner entry, apex, and corner exit, you are not going as fast as you could be.

  • It is typically easy to start the turn at the outside of the track, the challenge is placing the car at the inside of the track for the apex.

  • When tracking out towards the exit of the turn, there is a big difference between driving to the outside edge of the track and letting the car’s speed carry you to the outside of the track.   But “driving” to the outside edge of the track you are not carrying enough speed.  When you are carrying the maximum speed for the corner, you will be forced to drive to the outside edge of the track.  

  • If you find you are not using the whole track, next time carry slightly more speed into the corner and evaluate.

• Open the wheel

  • Opening the wheel (or straightening out the wheel) at corner exit will allow you to have more traction for acceleration 

  • By opening the wheel your car will become more stable, and less likely to loose grip

  • The sooner you can open the wheel, the sooner the car you can accelerate out of the turn

  • The more time during the lap the wheels are pointed straight the faster your lap can be

• Smooth inputs

  • By making smooth inputs to the steering, gas, and brake, you increase the maximum grip the car can produce, which means higher speed potential

  • If you are jerky with your inputs, you will upset the car when at the limit.  This not only reduces the car’s available grip, but also pushes it towards instability and possible loss of traction and loss of control

  • By making smoother steering inputs, you can slow weight transfer, and reduce the chance for losing grip at the front or rear wheels

  • By making smoother braking inputs, you reduce the risk of locking up the tires or going into the ABS.

  • By being smoother on the throttle, you can keep from spinning the tires.  Or in a low HP car, you can better manage weight transfer to maximize grip when exiting a corner.  

• Shifting

  • Most novices use the shifter far too frequently when starting out, and they always choose too low a gear.  It is better for the novice to choose the minimum number of gears and gear shifts during a lap when starting out, as gear selection is not a priority at this point.  

  • When in doubt, always choose the higher gear because it increases your speed potential, and you will no doubt be increasing your speeds shortly.

  • Shifting should be done as quickly as possible, but not in a manner as to be mechanically abusive.

• Consistency

  • As with any sport, once you are able to consistently execute the proper techniques, you can then safely and predictably work on going faster by braking later, getting on the gas sooner, and trying to carry more speed through corners.  

  • If you can’t be consistent, you can’t push your current limits.  For example, if you can’t brake at the same point each lap, how can you try to safely brake later?

• Compressing the brake zone

  • Compressing the brake zone means to spend less time and distance braking for a turn.  This also means braking later than you have before.  This can only be done once you are able to consistently brake in the same spot, so that you can make measurable changes in your brake zone that you can execute.   

  • Once you are able to reach threshold braking (the maximum braking you can do before the tires lock up) all the way to the apex of the turn, then you have compressed the braking zone enough.

• Carry more corner speed

  • Carrying more corner speed is the fundamental challenge in track driving that will never end.  Everything you will learn is in the pursuit of carrying more corner speed.

  • Carrying maximum corner speed is achieved by looking ahead, using all the track, being smooth and consistent, and balancing the car by weight transfer.  

• Rev matching

  • Rev matching is not an urgent skill to learn as a novice, and should be practiced once the fundamentals are in practice.

  • Rev matching is part of a downshifting technique that minimizes the shock of the drivetrain engagement so that the balance and tire loading of the car is minimally affected.

  • Rev matching is performed towards the end of the braking event, once the car is close to its minimum speed.  At this moment, while continuing to brake, the gas pedal is blipped enough to increase the engine rpms to closely match the speed of the drivetrain once the clutch is released.  This allows for a smooth, almost seamless transition of power from the engine to the drive train, which has little to no effect on the balance of the car.   

• Trail Braking

  • Trail Braking is a braking technique that allows you to rotate the car into the turn between the turn in point and the apex.

  • Trail Braking allows you to enter the corner fast.  Once you learn to be slow in fast out, trail braking allows you to be fast IN fast out. 

  • Mastering the art of trail braking is what separates the pros from the amateurs.  

  • Trail Braking starts after you complete your initial heavy/threshold braking for the turn, and you start to release brake pressure enough to where you are maximizing the front tire grip as you start to turn in towards the apex.  This is a very delicate braking technique that requires precise brake pedal pressure to achieve the correct amount of front tire loading that will maximize front tire grip and minimize rear tire grip.  

  • Proper trail braking technique allows the driver to rotate the car under the second part of the braking event in order to complete the turn in less time and less distance.  This is also usually coupled with an early apex approach to achieve a fast in fast out result.  

  • Improper trail braking technique can be dangerous.  When attempting to trail brake, too much brake pressure can cause the car to lose front grip and wash out, or too much brake pressure when not needed can cause the car to rotate too much and want to spin.  Trail Braking without enough pressure can also mean you will not make the turn and force you to drive off the outside of the track.  

  • Trail Braking is usually reserved for very advanced drivers and above.

• Balancing the car

  • Balancing the car is the fundamental goal when mastering the art of driving.  By being able to balance the car you are able to shift the load to the appropriate tires so as to achieve maximum grip where you need it.   

  • If you are able to perfectly balance the car at all times, you will be using the full traction circle available to you, which is the maximum amount of grip the car can achieve under any circumstance. 

  • When entering a turn, you must balance the transition from steady state acceleration to threshold braking so that you maximize front grip for pure braking without locking up the front tires or under braking. 

  • Once you transition to trail braking into a turn, you must balance the weight transfer from fully loading the front tires for maximum braking grip smoothly to a maximum lateral grip, and during this transition you are also rotating the car by sliding the rear end around to help you turn.

  • Once you reach the apex of your turn, you transition from full lateral grip smoothly to feed in rear traction to allow you to accelerate out of the corner.  

Situational Awareness

• Situational Awareness / Flags

  • Situational awareness is a skill that will slowly build as early as your first time on track.  However, it is not something you attempt to master right away, as other fundamental skills take priority.  

  • It is typically the instructors responsibility for situational awareness and watching flag stations for a brand new novice track driver.  Only after the novice has started to learn, comprehend, and execute the basic fundamentals of looking ahead, learning the line, and can safely manage his/her way around the track without constant instruction can they start to take on the responsibility of situational awareness and watching flag stations.  This may come towards the end of the weekend if necessary. 

  • Situational awareness is being aware of everything around you, and anticipating possible outcomes.  Being aware of other cars and drivers around you, your own car’s limitations (brake fade for example), flag stations, animals or other possible hazards off track, run off areas, track conditions, etc.  

  • Maximum situational awareness means not only being aware of all conditions around you at the present time, but also being able to constantly predict a potential imminent emergency situation to where you will need to take action.   For example, you are following two cars into a corner and the lead car starts to slide.  You must anticipate this car may lose control, and that the car in front of you will take emergency action and may also lose control.  You will then be forced into emergency action to avoid one or more out of control cars.   Proper situational awareness in this case will allow you to act with enough time to avoid a loss of control yourself or even a collision.