Ask Ross



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Got questions? I’ve got answers. This is where I post answers to the many questions I receive. You may find the answer to a question you have here (you can use the “Search” tool), but if not, you have two options:

  1. If you want the answer immediately, sign up for my SpeedSecrets.ai app (think of it as “Google on steroids, focused solely on performance/race driving,” or “ChatGPT trained to only pull from the 5 million+ words and content I’ve personally created”)
  2. If you can wait until I get to your question, email it to me.

Q: How can a driver learn to correct slides and spins better?

Q: “I’m coaching a driver, and from his videos he is very slow to correct oversteer, and even slower to release the correction. This is leading to him spinning almost every time he gets oversteer. He has limited experience and is in a car with slicks, so maybe not surprising. He is a budget-limited guy (like all of us), and I don’t know if I could get him on a skid pad. Any ideas on how to address his slow hands during a practice session at the track? Traction sensing session focusing on oversteer/understeer to get him at least recognizing the onset of oversteer earlier? I just don’t know of a good way without going and sliding a car around somewhere. Have him buy a cheap Miata and go autocrossing? Suggestions?”

Q: Is turning into a corner aggressively so that the inside-rear tire lifts off the track a good thing? Should I be doing that?

Q: “I compete in a very grassroots series, predominantly filled with 900kg 1.5L Korean hatchbacks running cheap but soft street tires. One thing I’ve noticed some of my competitors doing on entry to a second gear hairpin is they turn in really aggressively. So much so that the inside rear tire lifts momentarily. Do you think there is an advantage to doing this? My thought is that it unnecessarily loads the front tires on corner entry, but maybe it also generates a touch more heat for more bite? They don’t seem to be getting a better corner exit than I do, but my eyeballs aren’t the most accurate data gathering system.”

Q: How important is going to new & different tracks to improve my driving?

Q: “Some drivers plateau and I often find that they are going to the same track over and over and over again. What are the benefits you’ve seen for those drivers that get out of their comfort zone and go to a completely new track? Why is this good or bad? Should this occur as part of every track season or once every few years for a bucket list track/road trip?”

Q: How can I avoid abusing my tires, and save them when driving fast?

Q: “There is one thing that I have wanted to know, but I never found anyone whom I thought would be able to answer my question correctly – until now. How do you save tires? How do you abuse tires on the track? Oops, that’s two questions. The second question may seem obvious, but drivers do many things with their cars that we are not aware of, or assume to be the right thing to do.”

Q: How can I better transition from sim racing to my real car?

Q: “Now that sim racing has become more popular and I’ve done quite a lot of it during lockdown, I find myself with some bad habits. Braking and brake feel for instance is much different on my sim rig compared to real life. It can take me hours in real life to find the right amount of trail braking after doing it on the sim one way for so long. Also, I have the problem of thinking I’m going faster the more g’s I pull which isn’t always true now that I can feel g-forces again. How do I quickly adjust from sim racing to real life racing?”

Got Questions?

Get Immediate Answers



Skills









Types








Subscriptions



Got questions? I’ve got answers. This is where I post answers to the many questions I’ve received. You may find the answer to a question you have here, but if not, you have two options: If you want the answer immediately, sign up for my SpeedSecrets.ai app (think of it as “Google on steroids, focused solely on performance/race driving”), or email it to me.

Q: How can a driver learn to correct slides and spins better?

Q: “I’m coaching a driver, and from his videos he is very slow to correct oversteer, and even slower to release the correction. This is leading to him spinning almost every time he gets oversteer. He has limited experience and is in a car with slicks, so maybe not surprising. He is a budget-limited guy (like all of us), and I don’t know if I could get him on a skid pad. Any ideas on how to address his slow hands during a practice session at the track? Traction sensing session focusing on oversteer/understeer to get him at least recognizing the onset of oversteer earlier? I just don’t know of a good way without going and sliding a car around somewhere. Have him buy a cheap Miata and go autocrossing? Suggestions?”

Q: Is turning into a corner aggressively so that the inside-rear tire lifts off the track a good thing? Should I be doing that?

Q: “I compete in a very grassroots series, predominantly filled with 900kg 1.5L Korean hatchbacks running cheap but soft street tires. One thing I’ve noticed some of my competitors doing on entry to a second gear hairpin is they turn in really aggressively. So much so that the inside rear tire lifts momentarily. Do you think there is an advantage to doing this? My thought is that it unnecessarily loads the front tires on corner entry, but maybe it also generates a touch more heat for more bite? They don’t seem to be getting a better corner exit than I do, but my eyeballs aren’t the most accurate data gathering system.”

Q: How important is going to new & different tracks to improve my driving?

Q: “Some drivers plateau and I often find that they are going to the same track over and over and over again. What are the benefits you’ve seen for those drivers that get out of their comfort zone and go to a completely new track? Why is this good or bad? Should this occur as part of every track season or once every few years for a bucket list track/road trip?”

Q: How can I avoid abusing my tires, and save them when driving fast?

Q: “There is one thing that I have wanted to know, but I never found anyone whom I thought would be able to answer my question correctly – until now. How do you save tires? How do you abuse tires on the track? Oops, that’s two questions. The second question may seem obvious, but drivers do many things with their cars that we are not aware of, or assume to be the right thing to do.”

Q: How can I better transition from sim racing to my real car?

Q: “Now that sim racing has become more popular and I’ve done quite a lot of it during lockdown, I find myself with some bad habits. Braking and brake feel for instance is much different on my sim rig compared to real life. It can take me hours in real life to find the right amount of trail braking after doing it on the sim one way for so long. Also, I have the problem of thinking I’m going faster the more g’s I pull which isn’t always true now that I can feel g-forces again. How do I quickly adjust from sim racing to real life racing?”

Got Questions?

Get Immediate Answers