57 replies to this topic

[Colin MacLean]

If there was a set formula for success we'd all be using it Here's what made a world of difference to me.

You need to understand both mentally and PHYSICALLY what your car is capable of. This means first of all putting a hot shoe in your car with data acquisition. They will be a lot faster. So now, mentally, you know what you are doing differently (by looking at the data). Now strap a passenger seat in your car and run a few laps shotgun. Now your brain no longer says "OK I know he goes through here 5mph faster but that's impossible" it says "oh no we're going to die, oh hey look he did it." Don't under-estimate the power of that. Your body and mind both need to be in sync. You can't force yourself to go fast it has to happen naturally. If you think you're going to die you are tense and cannot perform properly so you will not be able to go as fast as the relaxed guy.

And as far as the "scare yourself" part that's substituting bravado for brains/skill. That gets you hurt and in the wall. In all my years racing I have only been scared twice. You should never, ever take such a big bite into the unknown that the consequences are in the tires or crashing. When you are attempting to go faster in the turn it should be 1mph here, 3 feet later braking there. If you do that the consequence will be simply that you have to brake for longer, can't get to the gas early enough, you lose 1mph exit speed etc. You don't want to go flying off into the weeds just to prove that you can't go that fast into the corner. That doesn't teach anything other than how to crap your pants in a hurry.

[Motor City Hamilton]

Great post about riding along with someone experienced so that you can see and feel the speed.

I did an oval school for the Hooters Pro Cup just as I was geting into road racing. That greatly helped my road racing corner speed. I was having trouble overcoming the speed needed to carry through the corners at Lakeland (same shape as Martinsville - the paperclip). The instructors helped me to break my fear by helping me to focus on one thing at a time (as I mentioned in my previous posts for road racing). I wasn't allowed to use brakes in the lead follow sessions. We had communication so the instructor could talk to me during the run. At first, he said to lift at the flag stand and coast into the corner. We did this for 5 or so laps and if I could keep the car down on the line, he would then have me move further down the straight with no brakes. If I could hold the inside line for 5 laps or so, he moved it down a little further. Before that run, I just could not visualize how the fast cars were getting through there so quickly. After that session and only slowing from 110 mph to to like 70 something, I was really getting a feel for what the car could do and what that speed felt like. I ended the weekend with the second fastest times, but liked road racing better, so here I am.

[Qik Nip]

Great post about riding along with someone experienced so that you can see and feel the speed.

I did an oval school for the Hooters Pro Cup just as I was geting into road racing. That greatly helped my road racing corner speed. I was having trouble overcoming the speed needed to carry through the corners at Lakeland (same shape as Martinsville - the paperclip). I ended the weekend with the second fastest times, but liked road racing better, so here I am.

Keith is speaking the truth here. Last year I was instructing a new racer and she was clearly reluctant to take the car anywhere near it's cornering limit. After three sessions, I realized she had no basis for judging where the line was. I then took her out in her car during an instructor session and ran laps at 9/10 (versus her ~7/10ths cycles).

The result in the next session was astonishing. She reduced her laps time by more than five seconds right out of the box! Sometimes you just have to learn what the car can do.
Rick

[Keith Novak]

You can definately learn without data and know what's faster and what's not. Even with a data recorder and the dash with blinky lights, when on the track you're learning from relative speeds, lap times and shift points. You KNOW when the rev limiter suprises you because you normally hit it much farther down the track, you did something better there.

The first thing it showed me, is that the car with me driving it was capable of hitting some pretty impressive G-forces, so despite having a heavier car, it wasn't the car's capability that was the reason some people could tear ass around me in corners. My peak G's were high but I was only near the limit for little bits of the corners so if I could figure out how to drive the corner and spend more time near the limit, it would definately be faster.

The second thing it showed me, is that differences I'm making actually each add up to much more time than I thought. You're going to be experimenting and even when you learn something that's faster, you won't do it right every time. You look at the time differential for segments of the course and you realize there's a lot of time scattered all over the course. Some corners more than others but in the learning phase, if you say that on average there's a 10th to be gained or lost on each corner, then multiply by 12 corners, there's a lot of time just in little things here and there. You see really fast peoples' data and see that they are far more consistent over the whole course and their little mistakes are much less than 10ths.

This, for the beginning driver is actually a bonus. You know that you are 100% capable of driving at your own limits and set times much faster than you've ever driven. You also know you don't drive around the course the fastest way possible and still have plenty of room to learn to drive faster. You don't need data for that, but it puts it right in your face.

You can look at it as, "Look at all the screw ups I make on the track that slow me down!" Or...you can look at it as, "If I dial this in a bit, I have something to work with here and I'll be racing with a group of people a bit closer to the front."

[Elliott Skeer]

1 thing to remember, its all about exit speed onto straights... but if that doesnt do it... grab some more curb and straightline the corner (that might be the karter inside of me)

[Ron Alan]

Quick question to those guys who are consistently in the top 5 were ever you may call home. How many of you utilize left foot braking when possible?? Whether you do or don't can you elaborate on why or why not this is a good or bad idea...or maybe it's neither but just a preference?

Would learning this be considered a "driver improvement" in your opinion? Thanks!

[Elliott Skeer]

Quick question to those guys who are consistently in the top 5 were ever you may call home. How many of you utilize left foot braking when possible?? Whether you do or don't can you elaborate on why or why not this is a good or bad idea...or maybe it's neither but just a preference?

Would learning this be considered a "driver improvement" in your opinion? Thanks!

Totally, I do it whenever I can, but I think that a background in karts has really developed my left foot. To me, I think that it does have maybe 1-2/10ths a lap, but I just have confidence with my left foot when going deep like for a pass or something like that. And you can be faster on and off the gas/brake. But thats just my 2cents.

[Cnj]

I can't answer this as a consistent top 5 finisher - an erratic top 5 finisher better describes my level.

Regardless of driver preference for left foot braking (karters grew up with it so feel good with it while most of us had to learn), in my view the reasons for it are:

1. Speed from brake to gas. There are typically only a few corners that reward/demand truncation of this transition and some corners may actualy benefit from a pause between braking and throttle.
2. Ability to seamlessly modulate from braking to acceleration. This, when done well, can ensure no sudden dynamic shifts in tire load, thus the ability to run closer to maximum adhesion. I love to watch in car footage of Jenson Button drive as he is absolutely magical in this regard. To a large extent seamless modulation can be done with good right foot technique but can never theoretically match left foot braking.
3. Ability to adjust car attitude mid corner by overlapping interplay of brake and throttle. This is arguably the most important reason to use left foot braking and only certain corners require or reward this technique. The back stretch of Heartland has a kink which rewards this - Foss used it to good effect in 2008 Runnoffs. I just spent yesterday racing Legends cars at a road course and pretty much the only way to competitively race these overpowered short wheel based cars around the corner without spinning is to modulate brakes and throttle using left foot braking.

The difficulties of left foot braking are numerous, including (1) getting confused in the pressure of a race and missing the brake pedal - always interesting, (2) developing the muscle sensitivity of left foot to properly modulate - I remember Heartland 2008 when I slightly misjudged pressure and the car instantly rotated and I slid backward past the corner station at 70mph as they applauded and I wondered where the wall was, (3) remembering which corners are left foot corners, ie. No gear change, in the heat of the race. But then these may be simply reflections of my inadequacies that other consistent top 5 finishers never experience.... Nevertheless I use left foot braking when the corner demands.

My advice to anyone learning to left foot brake is to practice on your daily driver (assuming you have an automatic) until you can be really smooth, drive that way without concious thought and not over brake. Don't learn in heavy traffic unless you want to test your insurance coverage. Took me about 6 months of daily driving and I am still not natural at it.

Craig J

[dstevens]

Why would you use any other foot than the left to brake?...

It seems that karters and formula car guys learn the technique. It takes getting used to.

[Randy Thieme]

I raced in a rental kart league a little while and left-foot braking was all we had. Have not attempted in my SM yet and still quite a ways from doing so skills-wise. But as suggested I have practiced a little in my daily-driver. Oddly enough, after learning it fairly quickly in a kart applying it in a car is tough for me because of the ergonomics. Having my left foot right next to my right foot throws me off (as opposed to the rental karts where the pedals where on opposite sides.) If I could just put a second brake pedal where the dead-pedal goes I'd be in business.

[Cnj]

Why would you use any other foot than the left to brake?...

It seems that karters and formula car guys learn the technique. It takes getting used to.

Easy to always left foot brake with sequential gearing - but left foot braking while heel and toe downshifting a stick shift presumably requires growing a 3rd leg or some technique I have not yet discovered. Please do tell...

Craig J

[Ron Alan]

Craig and others...thanks for the feedback! I'm hoping some others chime in but I'm pretty sure the answers will be along the same line. I remember watching a Nascar(of all things) race awhile back at Infineon in which they had cameras on the feet of 2 different drivers. One definitely only used right foot while the other was left foot brakeing(M Ambrose I believe?). It was very interesting to watch as the left foot was used in all the same gear corners and mid-corner after down shifts.

I guess depending on your background this will be natural or take a lot of practice. I'll never forget years ago when my buddies grandfather drove us around in his automatic Delta 88...he never understood why people were always honking at him...he was a left foot braker who's foot never came of the pedal! He went through several sets of brake light bulbs

[Motor City Hamilton]

I was told that of the typical top 20 at the runoffs, only one is not a left foot braker. Was also told that you would just need Drago power to overcome it.

[William Bonsell]

I think left foot braking has a place in maintaining speed and maximum slip angle in some types of gentle corners, but I would think very few racers do any left foot braking if threshold braking is required. If all you need to do is lightly apply brake pressure to maintain optimum front grip, then I think left footing can be very beneficial. It will also allow optimal use of the throttle as well. I am thinking specifically of the 4-5-6 turns at Portland and maybe the entry to 5 at Pacific? great comments all!!

[dstevens]

Easy to always left foot brake with sequential gearing - but left foot braking while heel and toe downshifting a stick shift presumably requires growing a 3rd leg or some technique I have not yet discovered. Please do tell..

It requires practice. The next time there is a stock car road race on TV, Cup or NNWS watch the foot cams. Said is the master as is Ambrose, Fellows and the other road racers. It's a dance and you don't do it every time, only when necessary. Sometimes heel/toe, sometimes left foot.

What I'm doing in this car is arranging the pedal pads to better accommodate left foot and heel toe. The brake pad is like a tee, reaching closer to the throttle and more off the left of the pedal for when left foot is more appropriate. The clutch pad is moved so it hangs all the way off to the left, allowing a couple more inches clearance to get the left foot in. When I remount the pedal assemblies I'll post some shots on the blog.

[Andrew Charbonneau]

My Favorite was Pizza delivery. bset was to drive fast and make money

[suck fumes]

Clear your brain of all distractions and the "what did I forget to do on the car" stuff during on track sessions and just DRIVE! haha, most people screw themselves by overthinking.

[Keith Novak]

I did hear in a radio interview that Tanner Faust learned to drift while working at Vail driving the shuttle bus from the parking lot to the base area. Apparently he didn't keep that job long but I guess if you can drift a bus, you can drift just about anything.