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 a circuit probably knows what I’m talking about. When you first try to practice this technique, your first thought is probably:
“Wait, there’s no way I have time to look at the tachometer anywhere but on a straight!”
Yep.
That’s exactly right.
If you want to drive with confidence and really feel in control, you shouldn’t have that kind of spare attention to begin with.
But then Kishishita-san, the driving advisor at Takasu Circuit, told me:
“That’s no good.”
Easy for you to say!
I was honestly a little annoyed.
But don’t get me wrong. I was annoyed precisely because I trusted him so much. I took what he said seriously, and I approached it with the assumption that if he said it was possible, then there had to be a way for me to do it, too.
I have a lot of respect for him, and I genuinely like him.
…Damn it! Easy for you to say! Haha.
But if you want to wait until the engine is definitely up near the rev limiter and then shift up at exactly the right moment, you have no choice but to look at the tachometer.
That’s for sure.
So, basically, the question becomes:
“How do I steer the car without looking ahead?”
The way I dealt with it may not work for everyone, but here’s what I did.
Even when I moved my eyes from the road ahead to the tachometer, I could still tell how the car was progressing using my peripheral vision.
So I kept steering based on my estimate of where I should be at that moment.
However, because I wasn’t actually looking ahead properly, there was always a slight error in where I was positioned across the width of the track.
Then, when I moved my eyes back to the road, I would correct that error.
To do this, I need to have driven the track many times.
At least for me, I can’t do it on a track I’ve never driven before.
The reason I can keep steering based on my estimate of where I should be is that, after doing lap after lap on the same track, I develop a feel for how much steering angle I should have at a particular point.
I don’t know whether other drivers can do this on a track they’ve never driven before, or whether they have a different way of dealing with it.
I wonder how professional drivers handle this.
Kishishita-san told me “That’s no good.” almost fifteen years ago now. He retired from his position as the driving advisor at Takasu Circuit a few years ago, so I can’t ask him anymore. When he was younger, he raced against Minoru Tanaka and Masahiro Matsunaga. After retiring from racing, he worked as an advisor at Takasu Circuit, so he was already an experienced veteran by the time I knew him.
He taught me a lot.
I wonder how he’s doing.
Anyway, I think it’s really important to at least try something, even when your first reaction is:
“No way! I can’t possibly do that!”
There are things you can only discover through trial and error.
That doesn’t mean everyone can learn to do everything if they just work hard enough.
But if you know there’s someone out there who can actually do it, then at the very least, it’s worth giving it a try.
Although it does get annoying when someone makes it sound so easy. Haha.