Q: “I always hear the speed vs distance argument at solo nationals and local autocross events, and was curious of your thoughts/experiences? There is one experience that sticks out to me, and it was at spring nationals this past year. Everyone in class, including myself was running relatively tight lines, but the winner was not, and he ended up being around one second faster than second place each day. Contrary to that, there have been elements in courses that tighter has been faster when comparing data between my co-driver and myself. I read somewhere that in autocross if there is a corner that is 180 degrees or more, tight will be faster 99% of the time. I don’t know how true that statement is, and I suppose it really depends on what comes after that corner.”

A: That’s a big topic, but can be summed up in two words: it depends. If the extra distance allows you to carry enough extra speed to make it faster than a slower, shorter distance, then it’s worth it, right? And the opposite is also true. Everything in driving is a compromise, and there’s only one way of knowing for sure the best compromise, and that’s to experiment. The best drivers will try slight variations, and sense which is best (and back that up with data, where possible). You need to find the ideal balance between speed and distance, and there’s no perfect equation that tells us that (well, multi-million-dollar simulators do, but even they often get beat by real drivers).

You’re right, it depends on what comes after it — and before it. It also depends on the car, to some extent. If I was driving a low grip/high torque car, I would tend to sacrifice corner min speed and drive as straight as I could — make the course like a series of drag strips. If I was driving a high grip/low torque car, I’d do everything I could to keep my min speed up, even if that meant driving slightly more distance.

Again, it’s all a compromise, and “it depends.” 🙂

Regarding the advice about 180-degree corners, I’ve learned that most “guidelines” that say “do this 99% of the time” are inaccurate. Sure, if it’s pure physics, then it’s 100% of the time, but we are dealing with so many variables that there are almost always exceptions to the rule.

By the way, did you know that 87.36% of all statistics are made up! 🙂