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Smooth car control is one of the critical keys to maximize speed through corners and it comes from smooth steering control. For a car to travel on a smooth consistent arc, the steering input also should be a smooth consistent turn. This smoothness in the turn helps to maximize the traction of the tires. This could be explained better with a simple example. Place a sheet of paper on a table and place a book over it. With the book over it, pull the paper slowly across the table by increasing the speed gradually. You can note that the book stays on the table itself. Now, while dragging the paper across the table, at some point, suddenly jerk the paper. You will notice that the book loses traction ans it slides across the paper. We will discuss more about the perspective of the tire later. But for now the steering input can be compared to the dragging of the paper. Significantly, the traction of the tire is highly influence by the driver’s ability to provide smooth turning. A sudden jerk in the steering wheel is like sudden jerks on the paper in our experiment, and the result is the sliding of the tire. Thus a smoother driver will definitely have more traction and will have higher corner speeds.

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1. Steering wheel grip
2. Steering Right
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Be relaxed on the grip itself, but still be tight enough on the grip so as to maintain the control and good contact for sensory input. The arms of the driver will tire quickly with a tight grip on the steering wheel. More importantly, a tight grip on the steering wheel will significantly reduce the vibration feedback received to sense the vehicle’s control limit.

Most of the drivers show a natural tendency to grip the steering wheel more tightly while the vehicle is cornering. It should be noted that no amount of traction on the tires of the car will increase with the squeezing on the steering wheel!!! However, the driver will be aware of the increased traction with a more relaxed grip on the steering wheel. Relaxed grip on the steering wheel does not mean to loose contact with the steering wheel, so better the driver is careful on this matter. During high g-force cornering, to relax the hands is definitely a learned response. But it is very much recommended that a driver should force himself to learn it as quickly as possible. This will unquestionably increase the sensitivity of the driver to the traction limit of the car, and of course will improve the driver’s awareness of handling the car.

Another important tip for the drivers to practice, before entering a corner, to ensure that the hands, arms and the shoulders are relaxed, take a deep breath beforehand during the straight. The driver should take a deep breath; relax his muscles and then exhale. Another tip for the drivers to do while in a long enough straight, clear of other cars, is to relax one hand at a time, leaving the palm and thumb on the wheel wiggle the fingers. This technique will avoid the cramping of the muscles in the wrist, forearm and hand.

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1. Steering Right
2. Steering Wheel Control
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It is on the steering wheel that a driver’s hands spend a great deal of time. So for comfort and sensory input, the feel of the driver’s hands on the steering wheels has a quite lot of importance. The size of the steering wheel depends on the size of the driver’s hand. The style, construction and the size of the steering is up to the driver. While thinking of changing the stock steering wheel, a race driver should choose the one that is comfortably gripping the wheels with the driving gloves on.

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1. Steering Right
2. Steering wheel grip
3. Steering Wheel Control

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Why and when do you want to do this? This question is really valid because short shift almost always mean to say that you will be loosing some power and torque instantly due to being in a higher gear than it is absolutely necessary.

Tere are two main reasons for a short shift

1. The first reason is to purposefully take away torque from the wheels. Suppose it is a bump/slippery curve and it seems to be unable to utilize the full torque of the gear you would normally be in, so it might be a safer bet to be in a higher gear to reduce the likelihood of  a sudden wheel-spin, etc.
2. The second (and more common reason) is to save the time taken to change gear. May be you have a tight 2nd gear left-hand bend, followed by a long straight. You are at about 2/3 revs as you approach the apex. You can either stay in the second gear and use the extra torque to accelerate as quickly as possible or you can shift up to the 3rd gear before you need to start accelerating and sacrifice the extra acceleration for the time saving in not having to change gear.

An assessment has to be made as to analyze which would be quicker. In racing this is already tried and tested for a formula on the track you are racing on so that it can often be predecided. In rallying this is less clear, and mostly of slightly less importance.

In rallying, the main reason you would use short-shifting would be for balance rather than outright time and speed. If there is a twisty turn ahead for the next 50 yards and that you will need 1 up change in the middle of it, you can decide to get the change done before the complex twist to avoid upsetting the car mid-way through it.

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Gear shifting the rightway: A Visual Aid

Hand position while shifting

While shifting from the top of the box to the bottom, form an open cup with your palm, and place over the shift knob with the inside of your fingers and the palm of your hand making contact. Guide the lever quickly with your fingers, but don’t strong arm it. Gently push it, but don’t slam. The movement is primarily with the wrist. If you lock your wrist around the shifter like a fighter plane control stick, you will actually slow down your shift.

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Passing can be achieved successfully under three situations:

• You use your car’s greater horsepower or momentum when exiting a corner to pass on a straight.
• You  pass under braking by controlling the preferred driving line while entering a corner.
• You take advantage of your opponent’s mistakes.

Likewise, there are some rules for safe passing.

1. The responsibility lies on the shoulders of the driver initiating the pass to ensure that it is done safely. The opponent should be aware of  the manner ‘Where you pass’ and ‘How you pass’
2. It is illegal to block. Veering, whether it is 10 inches or may be 10 feet, to keep another car from getting beside yours is blocking. In most races, the organizations allow you a single move to protect your position, but repeated left right movement is considered as blocking.
3. If a driver illicitly manage to take his car beside your car, give room for the other car to carry a line thru the corner. It is not necessary to give him the optimum line, but cutting the car off that results in forcing and of course it is considered as poor racing. And if the officials notice it as deliberate, you might be fined or subjected to penalty. Racing is not a roller derby. Elimination of your competition is never and objective.

It needs a lot of planning while passing under braking or on a straight close to a corner, than a simple pass on in the middle of a long straight.  The objective of passing in the braking zone is to control the inside line to the upcoming corner. To keep your driving line through the corner when placing you car between the other car and the corner apex, the other car must yield to give you room. The preferred line into the corner can be essentially “controlled” in this manner. The potential drawback of this method is that your car will not be keeping the car in the optimum line thru the turn.  Even if you control the corner entry, but if you have to slow down too much in between, or make an apex too early, the car which you have just passed may speed up or get a better exit line, and pass your car right when exiting out of the corner.

Practice sessions might be forcing you not only to practice the optimum racing line for fast laps when the track is clear of traffic, but you also will want to practice some passing lines. Move to the inside from the edge of the track normally you would be driving, brake a little farther and then turn in a little later. Practice taking a line that will put your car in the middle of the track while coming out of the corner, or a least far enough over from the edge so as not to leave enough room to be passed for other cars on the exit. (Hogging the road so that there is not enough room to pass, but still avoiding veering/swerving, is not considered as blocking).  To reduce the chance of causing an accident when attempting a pass during the race, you should practice the passing lines and be familiar with the passing lines.

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Cornering the rightway: A visual aid

Approaching a corner

Maximize the potential radius by approaching the corner on the edge of the track. You can see that the turn in point for this corner is about one full car length pass the brake marker in front of the car.  At this point, you should almost complete the braking and should be easing smoothly off the brakes.

Midway of cornering

Midway between the turn in and the apex. at this point the driver needs to maintain a constant speed. Using a late apex line, the driver will begin to accelerate in about another two car lengths into the turn from this image.

Apex of a corner

Like most simple corners on the track, the apex of this corner is slightly late. The apex is said to be the point at which the car reaches the inside most position of the turn. At this point, the driver is almost full on the gas. (Make a note that the second car is very wide, and is not likely to touch the curb marker without slowing down significantly).

Coming off the apex

Coming off the apex, the car is now headed to the opposite side of the track. At this point the driver should be at full throttle.

Exiting a corner

The corner exit should be taken as wide as possible. The driver can use the corner markers as part of the track, if the corner markers are flat enough, and not excessively slippery. However, the driver needs to be careful with tall curbs as they can suck the car up very quickly.

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1. Gear shifting the rightway: A Visual Aid
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Braking and accelerating into and out of a typical corner. Note the pedal pressure variation  during the course of cornering.

To get familiar with the terminology first, every corner is made of three parts. They can be termed as the entry, the apex and the exit.

The entry is the point at which a turning begins. The apex can be defined as the point where the car reaches the furthest point on the inside of the turn. It is at the exit where the car completes the turn and start to drive straight. While driving through a corner or a series of corners, the main objective is to have the maximum possible speed at the exit of corner, or at the last corner of a series. It is not necessary to have the maximum speed

The objective in driving through a corner, or a series of corners, is to have the fastest possible speed at the exit of corner, or the last corner of a series. It is not necessarily to have the fastest speed going into the corner, nor even the fastest speed in the middle of the corner. The last corner exit before a straight is the most important segment. The speed of the exit determines the speed during and at the end of the straight. If you can increase the average speed of an entire straight, that will have greater impact that a faster average over the shorter distance of the entry to the turn, or through the turn itself. The path, or “line” you drive through a corner will determine the exit speed. In general, the fastest line through a corner is the one that allows the greatest radius, or straightest path. As a car can go faster around a large corner than it can around a tight corner, the shortest path around a corner is rarely the fastest. To illustrate these concepts so far, the classic teaching aid is to look at a 90-degree bend. In the illustration below, the dotted line follows the path of the road. The solid line indicates a path that maximizes the radius of the turn, or attempts to make the turn as straight as possible. As you can see there is significant difference in the tightness of the turn that follows even the outside of the road compared to the one that utilizes the whole width of the road surface.

Cornering

As mentioned, the objective in any corner is to have the highest exit speed. Taking a line that allows the earliest possible point to get back into the throttle is also involved apart from increasing the corner radius. In order to do this, the car should straighten  back out on the corner exit path at the earliest. The above corner line can be modified further to allow this. In the image below, the previously mentioned large radius path is illustrated by the dotted line. The solid colored line indicates a path known as the “late apex”. This path moves forward to the point at which the car reaches the corner apex. The exit path of the car gets straightened by the late apex, and therefore allows the driver to accelerate earlier. This helps to increase the exit speed, and it in effect helps to lengthen the straight, that allows to achieve higher speed at the end of the straight.

Ideal Line

There is still a faster technique for most of the corners, while the geometric racing line is faster than the natural line of the road. The theory behind the technique is using the late apex. The car can aim to apex later than the geometric apex point, by delaying the turn in point, and beginning the turn with a slightly sharper bend. This helps to straighten out the second part of the turn, and thus allows the driver to throttle early. Even though the car will have to slow down more at the turn in phase, the exit speed will be higher. This exit speed helps the driver to achieve that much more speed on the straight, which will bring down the overall lap times.

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1. Cornering the rightway: A visual aid
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