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 | Dec 11, 2018 | Ask Ross
Q: “My question to you is, how do you progress while having three different instructors in three different events. Yes, they were all helpful in their own ways, one even guided me to your books, but it is hard to track progress without any basis. My only basis to know I am progressing is becoming able to drive my car comfortably at the limit of my tires. I don’t have any information gathering devices to know track times, but I have taken videos of my events. Any advice?
by Ross Bentley | Sep 25, 2017 | Ask Ross
Q: “I am very comfortable using left-foot-braking and have found many situations where it seems to be an advantage, but other than lap times, how can I know if I’m really using left foot braking too often or too much? I switch between right and left foot, depending on the corner, and sometimes I feel that I over-slow the car when braking with my left foot.”
by Ross Bentley | Jan 28, 2019 | Ask Ross
Q: What gears should I be using on the race track? I’ve been thinking about a comment you made about “trying one gear taller.” You mention the sound of the car can make us think we are going faster than we really are. I get that but, I’m now driving a 2007 Cayman S and it is a total “momentum” car!
by Ross Bentley | Oct 28, 2019 | Ask Ross
Q: “Specifically, on the entry phase, how does one determine whether it is steering (amount of steering or rate of input) or braking input (or more generally the rate of deceleration in a linear sense) that is the cause of over/understeer while turning in? More briefly, how does one know if they have applied too much linear deceleration or tried to induce too much rotation?”
