dtittle
Enthusiast
Hi Everyone,
While on the track this weekend I was reminded of my good friend/instructor yelling at me once while on the track and in order to keep it safe, I thought it might be a good reminder to everyone.
That day, I was toodling (no really, toodling) around Motorsports Ranch trying to learn the line of the track when, ALL OF THE SUDDEN, Bobby Archer was so far up my r&^r that it nearly scared me to death. First of all, I wasn't watching my rear view's very well (another lesson) and he was going REALLY FAST. I didn't know what to do so while attempting to be polite, I quickly jumped off of my line and nearly killed us both. I ended up sticking two wheels off and Bobby was forced to drive completely off track throwing so much dirt that he nearly sand blasted the front of my car. At that point, the only thing louder than the roar of Bobby's car tearing away was Jason yelling at me.
What was he yelling about? Well, after recieving my spanking and then thinking about the mistake, although understandable (after all I was just trying to be nice), I was embarrassed for days. That experience engrained in my head a very fundamental rule of driving on the track. Here it is:
When Passing or Being Passed
Being Passed Do's
1) Check your surroundings and offer the passer a signal of which side to pass.
2) HOLD YOUR LINE, HOLD YOUR LINE, HOLD YOUR LINE. (REMEMBER THIS)
3) Allow the passer to overtake you and then assume their line.
Being Passed Dont's
1) Not Signaling.
2) MOVING OFF OF YOUR LINE. (REMEMBER THIS)
3) Drag Racing the passer to the next turn and forcing them to enter shallow or some other goofy/dangerous move.
In summary, when someone either abruptly overtakes you or is close behind you for a while, you should put your ignorance/ego aside and allow them to pass.
First, maybe just prior to entering a turn you could give the faster guy a signal of where to pass. Then, simply hold your line and assume/allow the other driver to safely modify his line in order to pass you. IT'S PASSERS RESPONSIBILITY TO MODIFY THE LINE! Don't **** the wheel to get out of his way like I did. Although it's a nice guesture, the guy behind you is counting on you to not do something stupid or unpredictable. Simply hold your line and lift power a little as you safely exit your turn. This will allow the faster driver to have plenty of time to determine where and how to pass and to still maintain safe distance and speed. Finally, when you both exit the turn onto the straighter road, the faster car can easily over take you and then resume the proper line. Done well it all goes very smooth and nobody really loses any time. Done improperly, however, the results can be really bad possibly resulting in damaged cars or, even worse, damaged people.
This happens so often and is so unnerving that I just have to mention it. It's not like I'm trying to be an expert or something, it's just that this is just so common that everyone should repeat this as part of their track preparation.
Signal.
Hold the line.
Lift.
Resume.
Consider this. A car that weighs 3400 lbs. is approaching 30 mph faster than the slower car. Say for the sake of argument there was a problem with the passing car is he simply had too much speed and HAD TO PASS YOU ON THE OUTSIDE and you ****** the wheel directly into his path, POW!
So not to be reduntant but here it is again:
Signal.
Hold the line.
Lift.
Resume.
Regards, Tittle
While on the track this weekend I was reminded of my good friend/instructor yelling at me once while on the track and in order to keep it safe, I thought it might be a good reminder to everyone.
That day, I was toodling (no really, toodling) around Motorsports Ranch trying to learn the line of the track when, ALL OF THE SUDDEN, Bobby Archer was so far up my r&^r that it nearly scared me to death. First of all, I wasn't watching my rear view's very well (another lesson) and he was going REALLY FAST. I didn't know what to do so while attempting to be polite, I quickly jumped off of my line and nearly killed us both. I ended up sticking two wheels off and Bobby was forced to drive completely off track throwing so much dirt that he nearly sand blasted the front of my car. At that point, the only thing louder than the roar of Bobby's car tearing away was Jason yelling at me.
What was he yelling about? Well, after recieving my spanking and then thinking about the mistake, although understandable (after all I was just trying to be nice), I was embarrassed for days. That experience engrained in my head a very fundamental rule of driving on the track. Here it is:
When Passing or Being Passed
Being Passed Do's
1) Check your surroundings and offer the passer a signal of which side to pass.
2) HOLD YOUR LINE, HOLD YOUR LINE, HOLD YOUR LINE. (REMEMBER THIS)
3) Allow the passer to overtake you and then assume their line.
Being Passed Dont's
1) Not Signaling.
2) MOVING OFF OF YOUR LINE. (REMEMBER THIS)
3) Drag Racing the passer to the next turn and forcing them to enter shallow or some other goofy/dangerous move.
In summary, when someone either abruptly overtakes you or is close behind you for a while, you should put your ignorance/ego aside and allow them to pass.
First, maybe just prior to entering a turn you could give the faster guy a signal of where to pass. Then, simply hold your line and assume/allow the other driver to safely modify his line in order to pass you. IT'S PASSERS RESPONSIBILITY TO MODIFY THE LINE! Don't **** the wheel to get out of his way like I did. Although it's a nice guesture, the guy behind you is counting on you to not do something stupid or unpredictable. Simply hold your line and lift power a little as you safely exit your turn. This will allow the faster driver to have plenty of time to determine where and how to pass and to still maintain safe distance and speed. Finally, when you both exit the turn onto the straighter road, the faster car can easily over take you and then resume the proper line. Done well it all goes very smooth and nobody really loses any time. Done improperly, however, the results can be really bad possibly resulting in damaged cars or, even worse, damaged people.
This happens so often and is so unnerving that I just have to mention it. It's not like I'm trying to be an expert or something, it's just that this is just so common that everyone should repeat this as part of their track preparation.
Signal.
Hold the line.
Lift.
Resume.
Consider this. A car that weighs 3400 lbs. is approaching 30 mph faster than the slower car. Say for the sake of argument there was a problem with the passing car is he simply had too much speed and HAD TO PASS YOU ON THE OUTSIDE and you ****** the wheel directly into his path, POW!
So not to be reduntant but here it is again:
Signal.
Hold the line.
Lift.
Resume.
Regards, Tittle
