Tips for racing?

Question

I'm racing on Saturday night on the small oval of a 4/10 mile track. Right now, my car is under repair ( I crashed it, oops) and I got offered a ride for saturday night. I am comfident becuase of how the new car handles, it's a Honda Prelude, front wheel drive and it's a standard( I am used to driving a standard). But, I am sitll nervous about getting in a wreck. I wrecked my car last week becuase of driving it too hard in the corner and loosing control. If I was driving my car I wouldn't be as cautious, but since it's not mine, I have to be extra careful, but I still want to do well. Any tips for good and smart driving that can help me out?

BTW I am 14 years old. :P

Answer 1

good smart driving comes with experience - just keep driving...

Answer 2

just learn form your mistakes. and keep practicing.

Answer 3

Fasten your seatbelt

And stay cool.

Answer 4

The best advice is to be patient. Be aggressive enough to have a shot at winning the race, but to get too agressive and wreck your car just to get one xtra spot. I don't know if you are fimiliar with NASCAR, but a prime examples of this is Jeff Burton. He hasn't won a race this season (18races) but he still lies in the top 3 in points. Before Saturday, his lowest finishing position was in 15th out of 43 cars, and he hadn't crashed once. Know the track you are racing on well enough so you know where the best spots are to pass. Don't force things, and even if you don't finish first you will still earn the respect of other dirvers very quickly racing this way. Good Luck!

Answer 5

BY THE WAY THATS ILLEGAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 6

use ur seatbelt..

check ur airbag..

make sure u have a lucky "things"..

eat enough..

sleep well..

n hit the gas..

Answer 7

Everyone makes mistakes, expecially in racing. FWD cars a really hard to drive, i dont understand how you could get loose in a fwd because its not like you can slam on the gas and brake the rear end loose. So you should be able to push it as hard as you want as long as you stay in the groove. Pushing is another story though fwd cars have a tendency to push through the corner due to over driving. way to fix that is slowing down. Slower is faster sometimes. This new ride you got, you got for a reason, the guy likes how hard your pushing it. So dont give up, the guy is risking his car with your driving and he knows the risks, so drive your heart out.

hope this helps, racing is life you will learn from mistakes and things can only get better from here.

Good luck in the future,

Kyle Baugh 66

Answer 8

Prelude unlike the Mustang is FWD so brake deep and with a sharper turn, exit out as straight as possible. I say this because FWD accelerates and brakes when the same wheels unlike RWD so you want most of the load in the front wheels.  So turn like this >,  instead of this ) , if conditions permit.

(Disclaimer.....Average Joe will not be acountable for any bodily injuries or property damages that may ensue, these are not instructions nor are they a permission to act out irresponsible driving. )

....Now get out here kiddo, I believe in you!

Answer 9

take it for a test run

Answer 10

The first thing you need to do is to talk to the car's owner and see what their expectations are.  Obviously it's unlikely they want their car damaged, but short ovals generally involve alot of contact, and any racing will have a chance of a major shunt... but is the owner expecting you to do anything and everything for position, or are they simply looking to evaluate you or the car or something else.  Make sure you are both on the same page and then adjust your plan of attack based on this:  for example, I have raced in other people's cars when it's been all about position, and while a wreck would be bad, it was about being aggressive to get whatever position could be had... and other times when it's been about trying to give the owner feedback on the car's setup and potential.  Position here was a plus, but less important than getting the info and bringing the car back in as good of condition as possible.

The next thing to do is to make sure you understand what went wrong when you wrecked your car.  Sometimes incidents are unavoidable from anything you could have done, but often these happen due to problems we make as drivers (and even in the former, there often are still lessons to be learned to help keep ourselves from being in the same situation again).

In what went wrong, you say you were driving too hard in a corner?  Take apart the corner and understand just where it went wrong... and find each problem (ie, it can be easy to say "too much speed on entry," but the fact is that might be the first problem, but the actual incident is then caused by the fact that too much speed forced an early apex, which in turn makes it impossible to safely reach the exit of the turn).  Make sure you revisit the basics, and remember that exit speed is so much more important than entry speed.