By this point, I’d gotten pretty comfortable with driving on track, and I’d started getting a little full of myself. “Hey, maybe I’m actually getting pretty good at this.” Then one day, I got the chance to have BJ drive my Roadster, which gave me a chance to see just how much of a difference … Read more

I kept practicing so I could put in consistent lap times. Eventually, I noticed something. More and more often, my fastest lap of the day came on my final attack lap. I’d spend the day pushing a little too hard, then being a little too cautious, gradually dialing things in. Then on the final lap, … Read more

Whenever you’re braking into a corner, you usually need to downshift. This gave me a lot of trouble when I was starting out. Because, of all things, there were corners where I had to downshift while trail braking. Three of them, in fact! Trail braking means gradually releasing the brake while turning the steering wheel, … Read more

After making mistake after mistake, I had finally reached the point where I could put in reasonably consistent lap times. My lap times were usually within about ±0.2 seconds of what I expected. But every now and then, I’d end up more than 0.5 seconds off my predicted time. I’d think, “What? I didn’t even … Read more

This isn’t exactly an aside, but I wanted to add something about the line in Part 10: “kept practicing until I finally figured it out.” I’ve actually had experienced drivers ask me from time to time, “How did you learn to do that?” So I thought I’d explain it here. Anyone who actually drives on … Read more

After learning that, in a rear-wheel-drive car, the timing of a downshift can sometimes affect your stopping distance, I made a point of practicing my shifts so I could do them as quickly as possible. From then on, I thought my corner entry speeds were always perfectly consistent. I was sure I was hitting every … Read more

After making mistake after mistake, I was slowly getting faster. “Now it’s time to start fine-tuning the little things!” I thought, full of enthusiasm. My braking and cornering had both become more consistent, and I was working hard to find even more time. But once again, I started noticing that my corner entry speeds weren’t … Read more

After learning how important trail braking is, I started using it everywhere. The extra heat meant I had to do more cool-down laps, otherwise my tires and brakes wouldn’t hold up. But there wasn’t much I could do about that, so I just made sure to cool everything down properly and kept driving. But there … Read more

Cornering is where you really get to show off your driving skills, right? Fast drivers look cool, and corners are where there’s usually the most time left to find! As a beginner who was gradually getting more familiar with the track, I was obsessed with increasing my cornering speed. I knew that carrying too much … Read more

Motorsports are complicated, but basically, if you can take the right line and use all the available grip from the tires, you can go fast. When you think about it, going fast is easy! Right? Easy-peasy! All you have to do is use all the grip! Around the time I finally started driving without getting … Read more