Racing Question: Improving Lap Times

[kenji]

I just posted this same exact question at our track's website forum.
After I posted it I thought that there is a lot of talent on this
newsgroup and thought I'd post it here too.

We race off road electric at an indoor high bite clay track. A lot of
sponsored drivers are in the A-Mains.

Here's the post:

My 12 year old, has been getting pretty consistent with his electric 2WD
mod buggy driving skills. Within the past three weeks and about 12 total
races he's been getting 15 laps (qualifiers, 16 in mains) at about 5 min
10 seconds. When he's running well, with only having to be marshalled
once or twice a race, he's seeing 20 seconds to 22 second laps on this
current layout.

Last night the guys above him were getting 16-17 laps in qualifiers.

What can he do to shave that extra 30-40 seconds?

He's working on trying to "make the track shorter".

Should we be trying different pinions, or should he just practice
trying to get faster in the infield turns?

Should his buggy be tuned better?

[Chris Dugan]

Kenji,

If the car is reliable, providing good grip and is stable then don't 'tune'
it just get him to practice some more and loose those couple of times he
needs a marshal. Also see if his lap times are consistent and if not see
why.. is it his lines through corners? Maybe too tight/wide on the entrance
to the infield which is putting the car on the wrong line for the next few
corners?

All out speed only helps where you can use it i.e. down the straight, you
can usualy gain more time by just concentrating on the car infield handling
and your sons driving/track positioning compared to the fastguys. Get him to
watch the lines they take and try to copy but most of all learn WHY they
take those lines then you can apply that knowledge to other tracks.

You will probably find that to get to where you are today has taken
relatively little time compared to the effort and time needed to gain those
last couple of laps!

Chris


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[Paul - xxx]

kenji posted ...

> What can he do to shave that extra 30-40 seconds?
>
> He's working on trying to "make the track shorter".
>
> Should we be trying different pinions, or should he just practice
> trying to get faster in the infield turns?
>
> Should his buggy be tuned better?

Practice. Smooth driving, practice, improving lines, practice, consistency
is better than outright speed. Nail an apex four times but crash it on the
fifth lap and you've lost any benefit from the 4 good laps. Leave more than
an inch or so until he can hit the apex every time without fail. throttle
control is power .. smooth is better than jerky. Did I mention practice ?
Track time, especially against better drivers always reaps long-term
benefits, far more than a change in overall speed.

If you have a video camera, then a good way of improving is to see which
corner he's least consistent on, set the camera up on a tripod so all you're
seeing is that corner, and tape a full race. Later, look at his lines
through the corner, and see where and how he's done wrong. One corner
entered too widely/too tightly/too fast/tooslowly, throws the line out for
the next two corners, and loses more time than is at first apparent. If
he's doing this more tha twice then someone will beat him. If he's
crashing a couple of times, then stopping crashing will radically improve
lap times, consistency wins, poor consistency loses.

Sounds like he's doing well anyway, so don't push it, make sure he still
enjoys it and try to make him understand that at the level he's at,
improvements are probably only small ones.

The jump from being very close to winning is the biggest jump of all ..


--
Paul

(8(|) Homer rocks .. ;)

[dingo]

Nice work !

like most of the guys say practice !!!!
there is no need to upgrade. Playing with the setup is an other option.
Have you tryed playing with car angles.
camber, to-in to out.
If your son is making a fault, like going to much out, or a small bit of
oversteer. Try to find out why.
Compare other cars how do they react in that corner or trac part.
if you known a better driver ask him kindly to drive his car so your son can
compare how a better car feels.

I did NOT do that with my first saloon car (TF2) and after a year i had to
find out that my setup suck. and i was thinking i was a bad driver. Wrong
the car was way to agressif and had no grip on the rear.
Maybe your setup is pretty good but you never know until you compare.






"kenji" <kenji@ameritech.net> wrote in message
news:kenji-DA8D8F.13150013032004@news.ftupet.com...
> I just posted this same exact question at our track's website forum.
> After I posted it I thought that there is a lot of talent on this
> newsgroup and thought I'd post it here too.
>
> We race off road electric at an indoor high bite clay track. A lot of
> sponsored drivers are in the A-Mains.
>
> Here's the post:
>
> My 12 year old, has been getting pretty consistent with his electric 2WD
> mod buggy driving skills. Within the past three weeks and about 12 total
> races he's been getting 15 laps (qualifiers, 16 in mains) at about 5 min
> 10 seconds. When he's running well, with only having to be marshalled
> once or twice a race, he's seeing 20 seconds to 22 second laps on this
> current layout.
>
> Last night the guys above him were getting 16-17 laps in qualifiers.
>
> What can he do to shave that extra 30-40 seconds?
>
> He's working on trying to "make the track shorter".
>
> Should we be trying different pinions, or should he just practice
> trying to get faster in the infield turns?
>
> Should his buggy be tuned better?