by Ross Bentley | Jul 12, 2021 | Ask Ross
Q: “While I feel I have a good awareness of cars around me, I’m struggling with wheel-to-wheel racing. The problem is, I’m new to the type of car I’m racing – touring cars. I feel totally blind when I’m competing with other cars. I used to race open-wheel cars, and I could sense where other cars were around me, and then confirming it with very good convex mirrors. With the touring cars, every time someone dives inside me in the brake zone, I have no idea if I should turn in on the corner or not because I have no idea where the other car is. I don’t want to turn in if they’re already there, so I just get passed easily. I feel intimidated. I want to get better at racecraft. Any suggestions?”
by Ross Bentley | Apr 19, 2021 | Ask Ross
Q: “I have been working on improving my braking and corner entry skills for the last few months. I can definitely see improvements in my lap times. One challenge I have as I’m chasing the last tenths of seconds is that I’m not consistent at threshold braking and trail braking. Mental fatigue, physical fatigue, as well as tires and brakes going off, cause errors. I can do well for a few laps, then the errors cause more lost time than pushing the limits. Luckily most errors are correctable, so very few spins and offs. Any thoughts on the risk versus reward and how to decide when to push the limits?”
by Ross Bentley | Apr 5, 2022 | Ask Ross
Q: “I seem to be pushing the limits NOT OF THE CAR, but my driving abilities lately as I try to improve my lap times. Where do I go from here to improve and not be frustrated with my driving? My lap times have improved with later, harder braking and carrying more speed through the corners.”
by Ross Bentley | Dec 7, 2020 | Ask Ross
Q: “I’ve been experimenting with different techniques, different lines, trail braking, rotating, controlled-over or understeer where needed, and on and on, and my lap times are no longer improving. How do I know if I’ve reached the limit of the vehicle, or my skill limit? Is it safe to say that some cars will never achieve “insert-super-fast-lap-time-here,” no matter what you do to them, within reason? I can only go so wide of a tire, or reduce weight so much, or tune suspension so much, before there isn’t much left to tinker on the car. I see cars with half the power, similar weight, running similar or faster lap times than I do.”
by Ross Bentley | Jul 5, 2021 | Ask Ross
Q: “I wanted to tell you this. I went out after being off the track for 9 months, but while I was held up in the house I took your webinar on braking (Improve Your Braking & Corner Entry), and the one thing I remember you telling us is pay more attention to where you finish your braking then where you apply the brakes. OMG, this was much more important than I thought! I like comparing my lap and a pro driver’s time in my car. I am a visual person and I like to see at a glance where we are on the throttle and brakes. I did figure out that the reason I was losing time at Thunderhill was not braking too early. In fact, the pro and I were consistent on where we started braking, but I held the brakes on just a little longer. Obviously, this would consistently slow me down. So, without Data Acquisition is there another way to learn when it’s the perfect moment to get off the brakes?”
by Ross Bentley | Aug 22, 2023 | Ask Ross
Q: “With a mid-engine GT car, how do you decide when to give more brake bias to the front versus the rear?”
