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BOBBY_RAHAL - Learning a new track can be a daunting
experience, especially since you don't want to waste
valuable practice time figuring out which way the turns go.
Fortunately, there are some things you can do to get yourself up to speed
before you even head out to the track.
PATRICK_LONG - The first thing when I'm learning a new
racetrack or helping a new student is to tell them you've
seen all these corners before, on
whatever tracks you've been to in the past,
so don't psych yourself out that you've
never been to Spa or you've never been to Daytona.
Just know that you have to do the same thing
that everybody else has to do, which is
process new corners.
JOEY_HAND - For me, it's a lot of preparedness
again, walking the track, knowing things
like is there brake markers?
If there is brake markers are they up high?
Are we at a street course? Are they high or
are they down on the ground? Are they cones? Are they
signs? Can they move?
You know, and thinking about all those things.
But the first thing I do as I like to go out and find my brake zones.
You know, I like to get out there, push the brake zones,
over-slow or
under-slow, whatever you want to call it, and then get to them quickly.
Find a very, very close brake marker
very quickly, and then
just roll through the corners. You know,
roll apex speeds as much as you can.
And the last thing, work on power-down.
You know, so for me, it's all...I work on the
beginning of the corner to the end.
For me learning a new track is about going out and
doing the old traditional walk around the track.
See the nuances, get down low, look where
the cambers are, look at curbs that you
can utilize and curbs that you can't,
because often times you just go out
there at speed and
it looks a lot different than if you're out there and
you can really study it on foot or on a bicycle.
Other than that, video-game simulation
is great to learn tracks. I'm
not one that's a big supporter of sitting all week
on the video games and racing.
You know, if I needed to learn a new
track I'll spend 20, 30, 40
minutes on a video-game simulation
but I won't sit there all week.
JUSTIN_WILSON - I mean, I like to start out, if at all
possible, I go on iRacing and look it
up on there and
and learn the track because
you know, that layout, knowing when you going
to turn left and right is critical and there's
nothing more accurate than the iRacing software,
so that's the big one for me.
If you don't know the track, if it's not on
any software anywhere, it's best just
to walk it first, look at it, go
back to your hotel that night, the next morning you
go out in the race car and (on) the first lap take it
easy and then build it up.
It's all about the sight picture and where
you've got to be looking, so you're
looking for your references
for braking, for your turn-in
and just know... you start off hitting those
marks and you can tweak it as you run on.
RYAN_DALZIEL - When I went to Le Mans for the first time, I spent
hours -- I actually flew out to Texas -- and I spent hours on a simulator
just simulating around, driving a GT car at
Le Mans and when I went there, I mean it's
unbelievable how realistic this stuff is.
SCOTT_PRUETT - And then you look at simulators nowadays,
because I use them effectively, I've used one out at
at Sears Point Raceway, and
it just magnifies that opportunity for more miles in cars,
more miles at affordable situations.
Even if you were to get off track -- if you get
off the track in a simulator,
no big deal. You get off-track in a real race car,
now there's potential for bodily harm as well as,
you know, tearing up the race car which is the
the last thing you want to do.
I learned the Paul Ricard circuit with
a Moto GP game. You know, so
I played a Moto GP game that...
It drove the same track. It was a motorcycle game but who
cares? I at least knew
at Paul Ricard that Turn One was going to go to the right
and Turn Two's going to go left or whatever it is, right?
And so even right now I'm trying to learn Le Mans for
the pre-qualifying. I'm
trying to learn Le Mans right now as we speak, so
I think it's a big thing. I just, I want to know
which way the corners go.
Simulators nowadays, video games nowadays
are so good that you can learn. You CAN learn stuff
but nothing beats the seat of the pants, being in the car, you know?
SAFEisFAST.com
DARREN_LAW - You know, safe is fast. Obviously,
you want to be safe and not make mistakes
and in this type of racing
especially when we were coming into a 24-hour race,
we have to be careful and
not have anything go wrong or we won't finish, so
safe to a certain extent but you do still have to push the limits.