Hey Racers welcome to the Blayze racing newsletter where every week you will get an answer to a racing question you ponder about after every session, a video will make your jaw drop, and one article that will change your racing life in one simple email.
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1: Question of the week: How to improve your feel on the race track
We often speak about the visual reference points we have on track and the timing for when we should be looking at them. What is less talked about is what Ken Hill calls, "feel references".
Imagine you could suddenly be tapped on the shoulder and gain the knowledge that a pro driver or rider has in terms of feeling the bike or car at the limit. You would immediately be faster right?
This week we'll dive more into a process for improving your feel. It's important to separate our feel references into two categories:
- The rider or driver feel references
- The vehicle feel references
This week we're going to focus on the first category. During a lap we should be feeling specific things and specific moments around the lap. The first thing we want to focus on is what a good exit should feel like.
If you have worked with a Blayze coach you know that every professional racecar driver & motorcycle rider will work a corner backward and focus on exits first.
Before reading any further we are going to speak about our 5 reference points heavily. If you're unfamiliar with those I recommend you watch this video.
The area of the corner we focus on here starts where we start the initial throttle application (at the corner apex) and it ends at our exit apex. How I would describe what a good exit feels like is the following:
- Smooth initial throttle just past the slow point of the corner. Smooth enough to where the vehicle is not sliding.
- Being able to progressively, but quickly commit back to full throttle. No moment of hesitation or a need to reduce the throttle at any point.
- Unwind of the steering wheel (or reduction of lean angle) starts at the same moment I commit to throttle and the unwind continues at a similar rate to the rate of throttle pick up.
- My throttle takes me out to my exit apex reference point. Meaning, I'm not sliding out to that point struggling to pick up full throttle. I also don't immediately get back to full throttle at the apex. Ideally, in most corners, we're getting back to full throttle about 1 car length or so before my exit apex.
From there we then focus on our next reference point, the slow point of the corner (remember we are working backward here). What does it feel like when you nail the slow point of the corner?
Well... it feels like you're actually going too slow! When we are approaching the slow point of the corner that typically means we have just released off the brakes.
When we get it right as we come off the brakes and if we don't immediately pick up the throttle our vehicle should continue turning down to the apex. We're not sliding wide of the apex and the vehicle isn't turning too well which makes us apex earlier than we want to.
If we were to pick up the throttle right away as we release off the brakes the vehicle should start to understeer. If the car starts to understeer, we know we're at the limit because an incorrect weight transfer moment of early throttle will negatively affect our direction. If we are under the limit the vehicle won't be nearly as affected by incorrect inputs
We come off the brakes, wait a car length to get our direction, so we can then execute on what we want our exit feel reference to be.
As we continue to work on our feel references we keep working on earlier and earlier parts of the corner. In addition, to utilizing our references around the race track we can also utilize our bodies to help develop more feel. How often do you think about what your body is doing on track? If you're like most of us, nowhere near enough!
It is vital to have good core engagement while driving and core engagement really needs to start at corner entry. By engaging our core, we can lighten how much weight is on our arm.
The more load we put into our arms, the more we need muscle engagement there, and the less we feel. Notice how when you squeeze or death grip the steering wheel your ability to feel the car is reduced?
Here is a small drill to experiment with off the race track:
Sit in your car and turn the steering wheel like you normally would. Notice what muscles engage as you go to turn?
Do you feel your lats engage on the arm that drops down? Or are you doing all the work in the shoulder of the arm that goes up and over? Do you feel your abs tighten at all?
We want the arm pulling down to actually do more work than the arm going up and over. That way our lats (part of our core) and our abs work together which gives us more control and helps us feel the feedback from the steering wheel more.
Want to hear more details about this week's topic? Make sure you scroll down to the bottom and click on the video of the week, which is a full-length podcast from Ken Hill breaking this down.
2: Article of the week: Finding Your Driving Style
This week's article of the week comes from the one and only, Ricky Taylor! In this webinar, he discusses how to find your driving style by understanding what your vehicle needs from you.
It's packed with actionable ways to adapt to different situations you may be feeling on the track.
Click here to view the article of the week!
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3. Video of the Week: Feel References - Ken Hill Podcast