Racing 101: How to Handle Car in the Racetrack

Learn some tips and techniques on how you can maximize your race car and properly handle it on the track.

You probably learned how to drive on a car borrowed from your dad going in little loops at 30mph while he sits shotgun secretly thanking himself for having the car covered by insurance. All is well, and you learn how to control and maneuver on the highway. You’re now confident with your skill and want to try something more exciting like racing. You think, “hey, I can do that! I know how to drive,”. But do you really?

Driving a race car is different from driving the economy car you use every day going to and from school or work. Driving in a closed road or a racetrack is different from driving on a highway where you share the road with fellow drivers while following various road signs and reading signal lights as well as taking into consideration crossing pedestrians and even being mindful of speed limits while within various areas like a school zone. In racing, although you may have the most powerful engine, technologically advanced, or have the latest aerodynamics in your race car on the track, it will be useless if you don’t know how to handle and control your car properly.

So, here are some tips and techniques on how you can maximize your race car and properly handle it on the track:

1. Don’t follow the car in front of you

Don’t keep your eyes glue on the car before you. In a race, following another driver will put your car in a bad position. This is what they call taking a bad line. What you will end up doing is the same thing the driver ahead of you is doing. Instead, look through their windshield and as far ahead as possible. Or if there is more than one car in front of you, you may look in between their spaces.

Looking far ahead is important so that your brain can process information earlier and help you avoid any potential threats. It will give you enough time to figure out the proper response to an impending mishap, if any, and send signals to your hands and feet in order to maneuver the car properly.

2. Proper hand-eye coordination

This is a necessary attribute of a successful car racer, although they need not be as awesome and perfect. Some of the drivers have this ability innately and some are developed. Either way, the driver must be fully aware of everything going on around them. He must focus on the spot where he is going not where he thinks he should be going so that the adjustment of the hand and feet will unconsciously follow.

3. The 9 & 3 Method

The secret to fast driving is using this method – driving and turning the steering wheel with your hands at 9 and 3 o’clock position. Forget about the 10 & 2. It is downright dangerous, especially when you have an airbag.

In racing, it is believed that the less you move your hands, the smoother you’ll turn the steering wheel. By keeping your hands in one place, you can turn the steering where more smoothly and fluidly. Another advantage of using this method is that, for example, you are turning right then your left hand goes to the top while your right hand goes to the bottom, in case for a moment you lose control of the car, it is easier to gain the control back since the only thing you will be doing is bring your hand and the wheel to their resting position. Also, it makes more sense that our hands, when driving, must be horizontally opposed to each other for maximum sensitivity and control since, as we all know, a steering wheel is round.

4. Don’t steer, brake, or accelerate at the same time

Generally, in car racing, you should only do one of them at once except in a few specialized track-only techniques as it would not only damage your car but also render your movement futile. For example, if you brake too hard while turning, you may either not get the exact turn that you need or you may start spinning. It is called understeer and oversteer, respectively. It is important to remember to not try too much when you are racing. Any abrupt action from the driver, either in steering, braking, or accelerating, can easily break your traction.

5. Push tongue at the roof of the mouth

You may not believe that this is a very helpful technique, but is really is. We learned during our science class that the tongue is basically one big muscle that is densely packed with nerve endings. As such, pushing it against the roof of your mouth will activate those nerve endings and, as a result, send electric signals to that part of your brain that is generally responsible for the balance. And every car racer knows that balance is at the core of what car racing is. The driver must know and understand what the car is doing at any given moment as well as in what direction is the car moving. By having balance, that’s when the driver senses if the car is doing just fine according to what he wants.

Doing this technique, the driver will feel hypersensitivity to any movement of the car he is driving that is not according to what he has in his mind or to what he is expecting. Therefore, it will help the driver react more quickly and properly, depending on the situation.

There you have it. I hope the foregoing techniques will help you in your budding interest in the car racing field. But the main takeaway here is that whether your car just came out of its manufacturer or whether it is fully equipped with a customized powerful engine, the car is only as good as the driver. It will be nothing if you are not fully equipped with the proper skill and discipline of a successful car racer.