More good comments from everyone... way to go. :-)
Mark, yours triggered a few more for me...
1) Review your run. I find that this helps me a bunch.
Let's say you just ran a 50-second course. Get back to your grid spot, then
take another 50 seconds to mentally review your run from start to finish.
Don't just jump out of the car to talk to all your pals. Spend a minute to
review, then jump out. At least my feeble brain works better this way. :-)
When going over it, think about things like "I was fighting to get to that
apex," or "was the car sliding here, or not?" Once you've broken the timing
lights "again," think about how you can correct any mistakes, modify your
line, or how you could carry more/less speed into a certain section. You
might find two corners stand out, or 10... but it will help.
I find this helps me separate the car's idiosyncracies and my own... ie:
does the car not want to turn in here, or is it me hacking at the wheel?
2) The "look-ahead" thing cannot be stressed enough. Mark hit on it really
well, but I find that is something I need to work on relentlessly... I
develop bad habits on the street when not "thinking" about proper driving
technique.
3) When your car tells you it doesn't like something, listen to it.
This basically goes along with overdriving, but, for example, if your car
pushes/oversteers severely in certain situations with regularity, back off a
tad to keep this from killing you. I learned this after many, many runs in
my Fiero... on corner exit, it would plow like a pig because the rear got so
great a bite. I wasn't putting in huge slip angles of understeer, but I was
still pushing on the exits of corners. Once I got it through my thick skull
to stop doing that, I started going a bunch faster. There was still
understeer, but just a hint of it... made a big difference.
Well, those are some of the things I found worthwhile... hope it helps
someone.
--Dave
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