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How to Win the Race Start

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#1
Johnny D

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Before a race, think about where you’re starting on the grid. Who is starting around you and what are they like to race with? Can you trust them to run wheel-to-wheel with you? Are they fast starters? Do they run a few fast laps, then begin to fade?

 

Analyze those factors and have a plan well before you head out for the start of the race.

 

During your first pace lap (or the first lap of a practice or qualifying session for that matter) your first priority is to get the tires and brakes up to operating temperature. Many drivers will weave back and forth across the track to heat the tires. This is great, but be careful. Often, you will end up in the "marbles" off line with cold tires. Many drivers have spun out doing this. Also, it has been known to happen where two drivers get so caught up trying to warm their tires, that they actually collide. Watch very closely for what the other drivers around you are doing. Don't be surprised by someone accelerating and then braking very hard.

 

In fact, race tires will heat up quicker from hard acceleration and braking than just weaving back and forth from side to side. Remember that.

 

On pace laps, I like to weave back and forth mostly to warm up my body (get my arms moving with the steering), while using the brakes with my left foot to heat them up. I'll also accelerate hard in a straight line (getting some wheelspin), and then brake heavily. If possible, I'll hang back a little when approaching a corner, then accelerate to take the turn quickly - even trying to work the steering wheel back and forth to scrub the front tires. At the same time, I'm taking one last good look at the track surface, in case some oil or whatever was dropped in the previous races. If it's raining, I'm really working the car around to feel how slippery it is. I want to make sure I'm comfortable with what the car is going to feel like during the opening laps.

 

At the start, look far ahead, not just at the cars around you. If possible, watch the start of other races to see where (approximately) the starter drops the green flag. And if you are using a two-way radio, have a pit crew member watch the starter and radio you as soon as he sees the flag drop.

 

Sometimes you can hang back just a little from your grid position, then begin to accelerate just slightly before you think the green flag is going to drop. If you've timed it right you will have a slight advantage on the others around you. If not, you're going to have ease off the throttle. You don't want the flag to drop just as you're backing off the gas.

 

In fact, depending on your grid position, once you have started to accelerate, don’t lift. If you do and the green flag drops, you’re going to lose positions. If you try to anticipate the green and begin accelerating, stay on it (within reason, obviously). If you do this, one of two things will occur:

 

   - the flag drops just after you begin to accelerate and you get a jump on the field; or
   - the starter doesn’t drop the green flag and there will be a second pace lap (don’t try jumping the start the second time).

 

Be careful going into the first turn on the first lap, as more crashes happen here than anywhere else. Having said that, it is very important to get a good start. If you start too conservatively, and lose contact with the lead pack of cars, you may never be able to make up for it.

 

SPEED SECRET: Races are not won in the first corner; however, they are often lost there.

 

It's usually best to run as quick as you can for the first few laps, then settle in to a comfortable, consistent pace - all the while ready to take advantage of any opportunity to pass. Never turn down an opportunity to pass - you may never get it again.

 

SPEED SECRET: Most races are decided in the last 10% of the race.

 

Being a great race starter is as much about your mindset as it is about any technique or skill. If your attitude is “I’m going to the front” or “I’m staying at the front,” the odds of you doing that are much higher that if you’re thinking “I’m going to try to protect my position.” Make a decision to be decisive and make the most of every start, and you’re likely to do that.

 

Ross Bentley

 

https://www.windingr...the-race-start/


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#2
Danica Davison

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During your first pace lap (or the first lap of a practice or qualifying session for that matter) your first priority is to get the tires and brakes up to operating temperature. Many drivers will weave back and forth across the track to heat the tires. This is great, but be careful. Often, you will end up in the "marbles" off line with cold tires. Many drivers have spun out doing this.

 
Jim Drago should have read this before race 2 @ Sebring :rotfl:

 


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#3
davew

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My only change to this would be to get pickup off the tires. Weaving seems to work better than the accelerate/brake technique for getting the tires clean. Pro racers don't have this problem as they usually take the race tires off in the pit lane and install paddock tires. Us club racers, generally drive back to our paddock area on hot sticky tires that pick up every stone, tire worm, gum wrapper etc. on the way to the paddock from the track.

 

I usually spend 25-50% of the pace lap getting the tires clean by weaving. You can hear the chunks hitting the underside of the car. Then do the accel/brake to get heat into everything.

 

As Ross says , it is very difficult to win the race in turn 1, especially from P25. But it very easy to loose the race


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#4
Jim Drago

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Jim Drago should have read this before race 2 @ Sebring :rotfl:

 

 

I had a sneak preview and put too much emphasis on this :)

Ironically, did you notice the dam thing didn't spin as easy when I tried to spin it intentionally back the other way :(


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#5
lillyweld

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Ironically, did you notice the dam thing didn't spin as easy when I tried to spin it intentionally back the other way :(

 

Because the tires had warmed up by then!


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#6
Richard Astacio

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Jim Drago should have read this before race 2 @ Sebring :rotfl:

 

 

LMFAO!!!! I wish I had logged on earlier I would of been all over it. Just for the record....that is my recording that I sent to Jim. 


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#7
Bench Racer

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To bad all the observers behind TWO TIME don't post. :bigsquaregrin: That would really be some SMACK. :rotfl:


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#8
SaulSpeedwell

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I had a sneak preview and put too much emphasis on this :)

Ironically, did you notice the dam thing didn't spin as easy when I tried to spin it intentionally back the other way :(

 

Let me guess .... #LeftSideWeight ...? :)


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#9
Jim Drago

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To bad all the observers behind TWO TIME don't post. :bigsquaregrin: That would really be some SMACK. :rotfl:

i'm not really a good sport... but figured would be best to take it on the chin myself and get ahead of it :)


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#10
Bench Racer

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I had a sneak preview and put too much emphasis on this :)

Ironically, did you notice the dam thing didn't spin as easy when I tried to spin it intentionally back the other way :(

Because your a good sport, by rule.

2. A car that fails to start with the pace lap or falls out of position during a pace lap relinquishes its grid position and may rejoin only at the back of the field.  Why spin the thing around (got your tires dirty again),stay on the racing surface, let the field pass by, turn slightly right and take your DFL position. :bigsquaregrin:   It's easy to be an armchair quarterback way after the fact. :soapbox:


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#11
B(Kuch)Kucera45

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Im sorry I jinxed you,I wanted you to do a donut in the pits not on the warm up lap ! :)
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#12
Jim Drago

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Because your a good sport, by rule.

2. A car that fails to start with the pace lap or falls out of position during a pace lap relinquishes its grid position and may rejoin only at the back of the field.  Why spin the thing around (got your tires dirty again),stay on the racing surface, let the field pass by, turn slightly right and take your DFL position. :bigsquaregrin:   It's easy to be an armchair quarterback way after the fact.  :soapbox:

I didn't know that was the rule, however MANY have since informed me. :) I feel pretty safe in saying I don't think I will ever need to know it again :)


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#13
Danica Davison

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I didn't know that was the rule, however MANY have since informed me. :) I feel pretty safe in saying I don't think I will ever need to know it again :)

 

Jim ... Maybe if you were in the drivers' meeting instead of standing outside, you would have heard that rule, as it was discussed :P


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#14
Danica Davison

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So technically, you should have been penalized three cars for every position ... so even though I broke 2 laps in .. I still beat you :)


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#15
Jonathan Goring

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LOL something like this happens to all of us once in a while. 

 

One time at NHMS I was starting on pole and didn't realize (didn't read the supps) that on the pace lap they use NASCAR 3/4 instead of the normal infield which we were racing on. At about the split between these two options, I looked down at my gauges. The pace car and the rest of the field meanwhile peeled off onto the banking while I continued onto the infield. When I looked up from my gauges I saw no pace car in front and no one in my mirrors. WHERE DID EVERYONE GO!? lol


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#16
Jeff Wasilko

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LOL something like this happens to all of us once in a while. 

 

One time at NHMS I was starting on pole and didn't realize (didn't read the supps) that on the pace lap they use NASCAR 3/4 instead of the normal infield which we were racing on. At about the split between these two options, I looked down at my gauges. The pace car and the rest of the field meanwhile peeled off onto the banking while I continued onto the infield. When I looked up from my gauges I saw no pace car in front and no one in my mirrors. WHERE DID EVERYONE GO!? lol

 

That's certainly an easy way to lose it on the start :-)

 

Starting on the nascar oval is certainly weird but really no other way to do it.


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#17
SaulSpeedwell

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I didn't know that was the rule, however MANY have since informed me. :) I feel pretty safe in saying I don't think I will ever need to know it again :)

 

Would you rather be Lance Armstrong or David Dewhurst?  I could argue it either way.  DD would argue it both ways, because Dewhurst.


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#18
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#19
Jeff Wasilko

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Classic!






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