[here are my course design notes/analysis. hopefully it will be of value to other course designers and novice/intermediate drivers.]as i mentioned last time, i try to give each of my courses a theme. the idea is to have varying elements on the course, but have one primary aspect/skill to focus on and practice. for this course, the goal was to focus on corner entry. so i will explain how i tried to instill that characteristic.
1. the start + the opening 90-degree right hand turna course becomes more interesting to drive when the driver is presented with choices, and is thus forced to think.
i began this course with what looked like a straightforward 90-degree right turn, but i was very surprised to see even advanced drivers taking a slower line through the corner. the corner was set up such that after launching the car, you are pointed a bit towards the apex of the corner. most drivers, perhaps caught up in the excitement of accelerating really hard drove towards the first corner rather shallow. additionally, the exit chute was made really wide, to lull the driver into thinking they had lots of room on the exit to run wide. most drivers that did this got on the gas while they were in the exit chute to accelerate up the hill. the correct way to take this corner was to dive to the left immediately after the start and make the entry much wider! this made the 90-degree turn much less severe, meaning you could carry more speed, AND you could get on the gas immediately after the apex... thus carrying more speed all the way up the hill!
2. wide open entry + weird shaped outside wallthe entry of this corner provided plenty of choice for how to get in! also, the outside wall was shaped in such a way to make the entry look even more open, but narrowed significantly at the exit to form the outer limit/wall to drive along. when walking a course, it is VERY important to identify which cones matter and which ones don't.
on entry, the driver had the choice to go narrow and save distance, or start wide and carry more speed. carrying more speed around a 90-degree turn is beneficial when there is an acceleration zone following the turn to take advantage of the higher exit speed. in this particular corner, between those 2 options, it was probably more beneficial to save the distance. however, in my opinion (keep that in mind, everything i say here is just my opinion!!!), the BEST way to drive through this corner was to start a bit wide, begin turning early while still at a high speed, trail brake rather heavily after the turn has been initiated (this is VERY tricky to do right, i never did get it quite right, and i spun the car once while trying) such that you barely miss the exit wall.
3. and 4. the BIG sweeper + the kink and the end of the sweeperlots of choices for how to enter this corner! i saw drivers flying out of the slalom and entering the sweeper wide... i saw brakes at the last slalom cone to dive the nose in and enter shallow... and approaches somewhere in between. as drivers, we need to think about corner entry... in order to position the car most effectively for a good corner exit! the exit is what matters more than anything else.
in thinking about how to drive this corner, if you look at the map above and try to draw a smooth arc starting from the exit and going backwards through the corner... it would be a wide arc... suggesting that a wide line through the corner is desirable to get a good corner exit. the downside to this is that you would end up driving a LOT of extra distance around a very long sweeper! driving a shallow arc at the start of the corner would save distance, but would pinch you severely at the exit and kill your momentum coming out of the corner. i believe the fast way to drive this corner was to start on the narrow arc (i.e. dive in at the last slalom cone) and be close to the next 2 cones in the corner, then accelerate to send the car wide and end up on the wide arc in the space before the kink. that way, you enjoy the benefit of the narrow line (less distance), and the wide line (better exit).
5. fast 90-degree turn followed by a slalomanother corner where the entry was left completely to the drivers interpretation. the skill to work on here was to identify which cones mattered, and then visualize (and drive) the correct arc. the first cone was a "fake apex" sucker cone put there to lull drivers who were not looking ahead to turn in too early, ending up having to slow down more to get around the first 2 slalom cones. the correct line was to ignore the first cone entirely, and drive a gentler/wider arc that allowed the driver to apex the first slalom cone and accelerate through the slalom!
as a general rule, it helps to drive a tight (shorter) line when the corner is followed by a constant speed or even slower section... and it helps to drive a wider line when the corner is followed by a (reasonably long) acceleration section.
6. from the last slalom cone to the first offset wall...this section was designed simply to test the driver's ability to position the car. low horsepower cars might have stayed on the gas all the way through the slalom, offsets, till they had to brake for the 180... but most of the faster cars had to choose where to breathe on the throttle (or tap the brakes) to position the car on the proper line. when driving through really fast sections, it is always tempting to stay on the gas hard... and that is a worthy pursuit! but it should NEVER come at the expense of positioning the car EXACTLY on the fast line through the transitions. very often, giving up the slightest hint of speed for a fraction of a second means being able to carry MUCH more speed through the elements.
7. the deceptive 180-degree turn aroundthe entry of this corner was fairly straightforward. there wasn't any choice of line on entry... it was simply a matter of nailing the braking point. however, the deceptive part of the corner was that many (most) drivers were tricked into visualizing the second cone of the corner as the apex, and were accelerating out of the corner when they passed that cone. in actuality, the apex of the corner was "unmarked"... i.e. it was at some point between the 2 cones. with that in mind, and the fact that the gate after the corner was so wide, it meant that the driver could start accelerating out of the corner well before getting to the second cone in the corner! you will notice tremendous improvements in your performance when you are able to (controllably) start accelerating earlier in a corner.
(note: as a course designer it is also important to GIVE people the room to make mistakes. the wall on the outside of this corner was pretty far from the inside cones. i did this so that drivers who failed to brake on time wouldn't unnecessarily hit a ton of cones.)
8. 90-degree right + arcing sweeper into the finishi got inspiration for this corner on my drive to work one day, when i had to take a right turn and then drive a gently sweeping left hander. i thought it would make an interesting autocross element
the idea here was, once again, to give the driver a decision to make. carry more speed around the right hand 90-degree turn and end up on the left, and thus shallow for the arc into the finish? or give up some speed around the right hander to get a better line through the finish? frankly, in this particular case, i'm not sure which approach was faster. if there was more acceleration space before the finish i would have chosen to give up speed around the right hander to get a better drive through the acceleration zone. but given the corner the way it was... who knows!
as i mentioned above, corner entry was my focus for this event. corner entry is typically not given as much importance as corner exit... and rightfully so! exit speed is the single most important part of a corner. but picking the right entry point, the right arc, and carrying the right amount of speed are CRITICALLY important to getting the best corner exit possible.
