“Everything I wish they emphasized when I took Comp School”
Scott Gress, 8Jan18
Print out the NASA CCR and put it in a binder. That binder goes with you to all events.
Go thru the CCR and read the applicable chapters. The sections that follow are particularly important. Most racers don’t understand these sections nearly as well as they think they do.
19.3. Focus on the unusual parts of this section. Everyone knows the basics.
25.0 Know this like the back of your hand.
26.0. Be able to explain "fault" in all these examples. Closely analyze examples 11 and 12. Some people believe that example 12 is wrong. Why might they believe that?
27.0 Read this carefully.
During comp school track sessions you need to show that you are reasonably comfortable with another car near you. Don't attempt to show how fast you are, instead show that you are safe and predictable. Don’t go off the track, don’t lose control, and don't hit someone else.
Rookie markings. CCR 13.2. These need to stay in place for 8 races.
Orange “R” on 3 sides of the car. 3” tall.
Orange Rookie Marking on rear of the car. >48 sq in rectangle. Easy solution is a license plate painted orange.
Flags. Be advised that, as of 2018.1, the NASA CCR has some errors in it re. resuming racing after a Yellow. This is due to the rules changing in rapid succession between Summer 2016 and Summer 2017. The bottom line is that all references to a Yellow being in effect until you “pass the incident and also PASS a manned flag station with no Yellow”, should read “past the incident and also SEE a manned flag station with no Yellow”.
Standing Yellow. This means that there is a problem, but it’s probably not on the track itself. Back off to 8/10ths until you figure out what the problem is. Resume racing once you are past the incident and can SEE a manned flag station that is not showing Yellow. Make darn sure you know which flag stations are manned and which aren’t.
If you are scheming re. making a pass and you see a flag station ahead with a Yellow flag, your pass needs to be entirely complete, that is to say, your rear bumper is ahead of the Passee’s front bumper, before you get to the Flag Station with the Yellow.
Be wary of assumptions. Even though you see no incident after the Yellow, you still might be approaching one. The standing Yellow you just passed could be warning you that the next station has waving Yellow. You might see this if Control decides that the geometry of the situation is such that more warning about an incident could be important.
Note that Yellow may be pulled after a couple laps even tho a car is still stranded. Think about that…..you could be heading for a corner and note that the flag station that had a Yellow out last lap, has no Yellow now. You decide to try a dicey high speed pass on your buddy. He gets surprised and doesn’t really give you enough room. As you two come around the corner, you’re in trouble and are probably going to go off the track. You think to yourself, “This was a bad idea. Thank god that car that was stranded beyond the turn exit is no longer there.
Then, to your horror, you see that the stranded car in the grass is still there,
and right in your probable path.
The moral of that story is that it’s not enough to be wary during a Yellow. You have to be wary even though you can clearly see there is no incident after the Yellow, and you have to be wary even after the Yellow has been pulled in. Also, you have to look for dirt and debris on the track at the incident location.
Yellow flags and no passing. Gray areas happen. Imagine that an incident happens a couple turns away and someone goes off track and their car stalls. It takes them a couple seconds to get their car going and they re-enter the track. You pass the Flag Station waving Yellow. Then the flag gets pulled in such that the guy 20yrds behind you had no Yellow. You come around the corner and see the car up 100m ahead going only ¾ your speed. With the rate of closure you will pass him in <3sec. Consider the variables…..
· You are under Yellow so you can’t pass another car until you see a Manned Station with no Yellow. You don’t yet see that station.
· Is the guy ahead of you “the incident” and he has self-recovered, or is the cause of the incident still unclear and the guy in front of you has simply slowed because of the Yellow? Maybe the incident is actually just over the next crest.
· If the guy ahead of you was the incident but he’s now back on track, can you ignore the Yellow flag that you just passed?
· To your very great surprise, the guy behind you passes you. Remember, in this example, unbeknownst to you, the Yellow was pulled in just after you passed the flag station so he was not under Yellow. Is it possible that you are under Yellow but he is not?
My point is that folks always talk as if all situations re. the rules are black and white. The reality is that devilish scenarios happen so gray areas will occur. When faced with a situation where “what do the rules require me to do?” is unclear, just be safe and predictable. Even if the result is a DQ, the beer you’ll be drinking with everyone in an hour, the laughter, hugs, high five’s, and great big smiles will all be the same. Unless you do something unsafe or destroy someone’s car.
No matter the oddball situation, if you rely on “safe and predictable” to guide your actions, you’ll be “good”, defined as the absolutely critical “retained the love and respect of your peers”. Alternately, if you do something that the rules supported but was clearly not safe, you’ll piss away some of that “love and respect” which is terribly hard to earn back. If you have to choose between winning the race and keeping the respect of your peers, keep the respect. Your class director will happily get you a winner’s mug later if your caution saved the day but lost you a podium finish.
It is common to wave at the guy behind if you are about to pass a Flag Station flying Yellow. By helping him avoid DQ by passing under Yellow, you’re looking out for your buddy.
Sometimes a Yellow flag is so faded by the sun that it looks White. Sorry, but you’re in a world of error-prone humans. If you expect perfection, you’ll only be disappointed.
Waving Yellow. This means that there is a problem on the track itself or in an off-track location perceived as particularly dangerous. Slow down to a speed such that you could stop the car at the limit of your visibility. That is to say, if you can only see 50m of track, get your speed down to the point where you could stop your car in 50m. Obviously this will be different for wet surface. Err on the side of caution because if there’s fluids on the track you may find that stopping distances are far longer than you’d thought.
Don’t slow down so abruptly that you surprise the guy behind you.
Full Course Yellow (FCY). When Control directs the flag stations to fly FCY, a pace car will normally come out. The whole field now needs to catch up to the pace car. Everyone needs to hustle. Don’t be the guy that dawdles under FCY. That doesn’t mean 10/10ths because somewhere on the track there is an incident, but it does mean that if you can see clear track ahead, hustle. Slow down when turns and elevation changes reduce your sightlines.
How to get in trouble under FCY. When the pace car is out, there will be multiple groups of cars on the track. All the groups will be hauling ass, except the pace car’s group. That group is doing probably 30mph and the slinky effect will mean that the tail of the pace car group will sometimes be stationary. Consider that…..there’s groups on the track hauling ass, but there’s also cars on the track that could be stationary. What happens is that a group of cars will come barreling around a blind corner under FCY and right into the tail end of the barely moving rear of the pace car group. So hustle under FCY, but slow the heck down at every blind turn and crest.
Passing or getting passed under Yellow or FCY. This is tricky. As a general rule if someone screws up and passes someone else under Yellow or FCY, you don’t want to fix it while still under Yellow. The reason for this is that the Flag Stations might see only the “fix” and then radio in that a pass just occurred under Yellow. The safest way to fix this is to do it when next under Green. That is to say, if you pass someone under Yellow, when you are next under Green deliberately get them by you.
Having said that, if you pass someone under FCY (or Red) and then find an opportunity to move back behind them in a very obvious and deliberate fashion, chances are the flaggers will understand that it’s you getting behind the other guy, not him trying to make an illegal pass.
Restarts after FCY. When the race is restarted, S/F will throw Green and all Flag Stations will drop FCY. This can be tricky tho. Usually Green won’t be thrown until the pace car pulls into the Pits and the pack moves towards S/F. Theoretically that means there’s a couple things you can rely on….a) Green won’t get thrown until you see the pace car come out, and b) Green is about to get thrown when the pace car pulls into the pits.
Don’t rely on a) or b). Sometimes the FCY track will go Green even tho you never saw a pace car, or you did glimpse a Pace Car up ahead and you’re sure that the leaders are nowhere near S/F. This means that you need to be prepared for the track to go Green at any second. Stay up tight with the car in front of you, don’t lag back, and watch the Flag Stations like a hawk. Be ready to hit the gas if any one of them drops FCY. This too can be tricky. Sometimes the next Flag Station is a long ways off so you can barely see it. Sometimes a flagger’s shirt is surprisingly close to yellow. Sometimes you can’t see any darn Flag Station.
It is common to get a jump on a restart because you were clever enough to watch the Flag Station behind you. Also, be aware of who might have a radio link to a Spotter. That guy might hear GREEN GREEN GREEN in his headphones before the flagger near you drops his Yellow, so if he goes, you go.
To make life more interesting, sometimes the Flagger will get tired or distracted and FCY at your only visible Flag Station will accidently lower their Yellow flag, only to lift it back up after you’ve passed 2 cars and yelled YEEHAW! Also, don’t reflexively go WOT when you hear a car accelerate because instead of the leaders accelerating up ahead, it might be a car on a dyno you hear.
Red and Yellow. Fairly rare. Stationary. Only in 1st lap of race. It means “reform for restart in 2 columns”. It can be thrown if the race director decides to “redo” the start. Passing is ok while reforming as cars are expected to get back into the original start positions as best they can.
White Flag. Standing means that there is a slow <something> in the zone after the Flag Station. Maybe it’s a race car, or maybe it’s an EV (Emergency Vehicle). Don’t confuse this with the Waving “last lap” White Flag that S/F will throw with 1 lap to go. If a situation occurs where S/F needs to warn racers about a slow vehicle, they will probably throw Yellow, or White-with-Red-Cross so that no ambiguity is created with Waving White “1 lap to go” flag.
Black Flag. This has various meanings depending on where you see it, and whether it’s furled, standing or waving. Each track has a designated “Black Flag Station”. At Road Atlanta, for example, it’s on the back stretch before the turn 10 braking zone. Sometimes the Black Flag Station will have a sign stating, cleverly, “Black Flag”. If you don’t know which flag station at the track has this role, ask in the driver’s meeting.
Standing Black Flag at Black Flag Station. This is directing you to come
into the Hot Pits and talk to an official. Might be a mechanical issue, or it
might be driver conduct. Some Black Flag Stations have a “meatball” flag that
has a round symbol in its middle. If you see that, you’re being called in for a
mechanical. Most Black Flag Stations have number boards so they may be showing a
car #. This is not advisory, you have to come in.
The Hot Pits should have a location with a sign that says “Black Flag”. That’s where you go if you get directed by a Black Flag to come in.
Furled Black Flag at Black Flag Station. This is a warning re. driver conduct. As above with the # boards. They may point at you and pantomime whacking you with it. This is “cautionary”, you don’t have to come in.
Waving Black Flag at all flag stations. This means “End of Session”. Generally you will only see this after a Red. If you are under FCY and Control decides to end the race, instead of a waving Black to end the race, you’ll probably get a simultaneous Checker and Yellow at S/F.
Red Flags. These happen more often in racing then in DEs so you’ll see one soon. Don’t surprise the people around you. Wave at the guy behind you so he’ll understand that something is going on. Slow down at a rate that won’t take the guy behind you by surprise. Pull over to the right. Note sightlines to your rear so that you don’t pull over on the other side of a crest or blind corner where someone might come flying right behind you and smack into you at 100mph.
My recommendations for Reds. “What precisely to do when you see a Red Flag” gets argued a bit. The important things are to be safe and to be able to see a Flag Station once stopped. So if the guy right in front of me slammed his brakes on at the Red, I’d just go by him rather than create trouble for the guy behind me by slamming on my brakes too. If the guy in front of me stops at a location where we can’t see a Flag Station, I’d either use my bumper to slowly shove him forward, or I would just pass him and move up to where I could see a Flag Station. If the guy in front of me stopped at a location with a short sightline to the rear, I’d immediately pass him, move up a bit, then pull over. That way I don’t make the short rear sightline problem even worse. Then, as soon as the Red was lifted, I’d get back behind the guy I passed.
If the grass near the track might be especially dry, consider pulling to the right side of the track, but not into the grass. This is to keep hot car parts out of that dry grass.
Some people will explicitly tell you “no matter what, don’t move around under Red”. I’m not much into “absolutes” tho, where you are directed to ALWAYS follow the rules NO MATTER WHAT. I would say “Know the rules, but if there’s good reason to bend the rules a bit, do so. So if you end up stopped in a bad position, like you’re blocking some of the track, you ended up in dry grass, or you can’t see a flag station, I’d move a bit and clean up the situation. Just be aware that you may have some explaining to do afterwards. Make the safest and fairest decision you can.
Fluids on the track. Fluids, especially oil, on the track will get you, it’s just a matter of time. Always have a few brain cells watching for any sign that there may be fluids on the track. The challenge is to spot the problem soon enough to avoid it. Examples:
If there is a stranded car off the track up ahead, consider the possibility that it blew it’s engine and look for discoloration on the track on the likely path that the stranded car took. The orientation of the car, its location, or smoke in the air, can give you clues as to whether or not you’re looking at a blown <anything containing fluids>.
Multiple cars off the track, or cars in front of you that suddenly get squirrely could be an indication of fluids.
An incident near a known threat to oil pans….a hole (RA turn 3), an aggressive gator (CMP turn 14), or someone that might have gone airborne at the end of VIR’s back straight (2013). I’ve slipped in someone’s fluids and banged up my car 3-4x and it’s always irksome.
Flaggers can miss the obvious. Just because cars are slippy-sliding in a braking zone doesn’t mean that a flagger will figure out that someone dumped fluids in it (RA turn 1, 2011).
Flaggers can be slow and their zone is beyond them. Flaggers certainly mean well, but mistakes and commo confusion happens. Flaggers sometimes react slowly, are looking the wrong way, feel rigidly constrained to contact Control before doing anything, have confused Control into thinking a car astride the track is a non-issue, etc. There’s infinite permutations re. how humans can screw something up.
A flagger’s zone is down-track so things that happen slightly up-track might not get flagged. In 2011 a flagger at Rd Atl S/F failed to note the slow vehicle as it approached them. When I got there the slow vehicle was right under the flag stand, they still hadn’t thrown Yellow, and I darn near piled into the guy at 100mph. That same year, a Flagger at RA turn 1 failed to recognize that cars were slippy-sliding past his flag station due to oil on the track in the braking zone just before his tower. Certainly the distant Flagger before him couldn’t see it, so the problem was in a twilight zone of “Flagger that was responsible for problem couldn’t see it. Flagger that could see it perceived it accurately as “not his zone”.
Going off track.
Returning to the track after an “off.” If you go off track, take a deep breath and make sure it’s safe before re-entering the track.
Fighting to “save” the car. There is a natural tension between the driver’s desire to save a car when he’s lost control, and the need for the movement of his car to remain predictable to the drivers behind. If you fight to save your car you might succeed and avoid a barrier and/or keep the car pointed in right direction and/or stay on the track….all good outcomes. Or, due to your choice of fighting to save the car instead of getting on the brakes and letting the car slide in whatever direction it wanted to go, you make the motion of your out-of-control car unpredictable which leads to other cars getting collected.
If a driver is fighting hard to regain control and get back into the race, the car can go anywhere. You can easily slide off one side of the track, and then come right back across the track and end up on the other side, to the very great surprise of the cars that were behind you.
When you lose control of your car, your primary responsibility is to not collect other cars. So your decision re. how to respond to your loss of control must calculate the likelihood of causing problems for others. I’m not saying “don’t try to save it.” What I’m saying is be aware of the risks of trying to save it, prioritize “don’t hit your buddies”, and make the best decision you can.
If you do collect another car when you lose control, you can expect that video will be studied carefully to determine if you went “both feet in” to maximize the likelihood of your car’s motion being predictable. If you did not go both feet in, a decision will likely be reached that it was your attempts to “stay in the race” that led to your car careening across the track and collecting other cars. Consequences will be likely.
ABS can defeat “both feet in.” Remember that ABS will try to restore steering control, even if the brakes are locked up. This can have serious consequences if your intent is to just slide sideways in a predictable fashion. So even tho you have both feet in, use steering input to try to help your car move in the desired direction. Otherwise you may find that even tho you’ve locked up your brakes, your car may radically change direction, which of course, never happens in a good way.
Going into the grass to avoid an incident. Grass, especially wet grass, provides very little traction. As a result, if you decide to go into the grass to avoid an incident, you’ll have no opportunity to come up with a “new plan” should the initial plan suddenly turn bad. Certainly there are times when going into the grass to avoid an incident works just fine, but it’s very important to correctly judge the nature of what’s going on in front of you. If the chaos in front of you has settled into something predictable, then going into the grass could work. But if the chaos is still unfolding, your clear path in the grass could become be “not clear” a heartbeat after you commit to it. Being in the grass means there’s no “new plan”.
Getting out of your car after an incident. Generally this is frowned upon, but ultimately it is your choice. In most situations, staying in your car is safest. You will find folks, however, that state “never get out of your car unless it’s on fire”, in absolute terms, as if it’s inconceivable that there might be a scenario where getting out of the car might be a good idea.
What to do after an incident. If you can self-recover, do it. If something happens and your car can’t continue the race, make a judgment call re. the likelihood that your car can make it to a safer location or even back to the Paddock. Every situation is different. Sometimes you’re obviously not going anywhere, other times you can putt-putt or even coast right to a track exit. Your objective should be to avoid being a problem for the race. So if you can move your car to a location safe enough that Control might pull in the Yellow, do so. Hiding behind a Flag Station is a good solution. Know where the shortcuts are to get you off the track and back to the Paddock. Examples are Roebling turn 4 and RA turn 5.
In general terms the requirement, after an incident, is to go to the NASA trailer and fill out an Incident Report. However, if the incident seemed pretty inconsequential, I would recommend finding the other driver first. Maybe he also feels that the incident was meaningless and you can both agree to no paperwork. Where folks get into trouble is when an incident between cars results in only 1 form being filled out. In that case the other driver will get DQ’d. Different regions and classes have different amounts of sensitivity to this, so learn the culture of the group you are with.
Be sure to tell your class director of the incident. Be prepared to show video to him and Jim Pantas. Consider that you might want to see if the guy behind you has video of the incident.
If an apology is called for, be sure to apologize profusely. Most folks will forgive a lot of the other guy is contrite. Failing to apologize can start grudges.
As you come off the track annoyed over an incident, don’t assume that your take on the incident is correct. Many a time I’ve been pissed off after an incident only to realize, after viewing video, that it wasn’t really the big deal I’d thought it was.
Definitions, Incidents and consequences (27.4). It’s important to understand NASA’s definitions associated with incidents. “Contact” isn’t a little bump or a tire mark on your fender. Contact either knocks you off line or causes “Damage”.
Damage is anything that will make your car fail the 50/50 rule which means car looks bad at 50mph at 50’. That means bent sheetmetal because it excludes suspension, trim, bumper covers, splitters, and marker lights. So you could have a wheel ripped off and it still wouldn’t be “NASA Damage”.
Deviation means knocked off the racing line.
Looking at the guidance re. consequences (27.11), if you bump into someone and cause “Deviation”, at race end you’re probably going to lose a position or two. “Punt” someone and it’s a DQ. Cause a “Punt” and “Damage” and it’s a DQ and a Suspension.
Talk to your class director about the consequences. Different classes do things differently. The consequences come from Jim Pantas. Some class directors make recommendations to Jim, some don’t get involved in incident adjudication. Jim is aware that some classes traditionally go light on consequences, and some don’t. SpecE30, for example, goes hard on consequences, especially if the SpecE30 hit an out of class car.
Qualification. Stating the obvious, Qual is not a race for position, it’s an attempt to get a good lap time. Some folks tho, have problems adjusting to this. When you’re sitting on grid or in the out-lap, take a hard look at the cars around you and figure out how they might affect you getting that one good lap. Faster cars behind you are going to want to get by. It’s ok to leave slow cars in front of you, but have a plan to pass them on the straight, or back off a bit on the out-lap to create some gap. SE goes out under Green so cars are certainly free to pass each other in the out-lap in order to set themselves up for that one sweet lap.
If you back off to create gap, sometimes a slow guy behind you will then pass you and get in your gap. There’s no perfect solution. Consider, at Grid, if you have slower guys behind you, get out of your car and tell them “I’m going to back off a bit of the guy in front of me. Don’t pass me pls.”
Don’t hesitate to work together in qual. That could mean bump drafting if that’s routine in your class, or it could mean communicating to the car in front of you (via your car’s position) that you do not intend to try to take the next turn from him.
If someone is coming up behind you during Qual, wave them by so you both get a good corner. Don’t fight them for the corner and kill your speed in the next straight. It’s not a race. Get them by before turn entry so you can both have fast laps.
Scrubbing tires under Green. Since we usually go out to Qual under Green, don’t scrub your tires on the out-lap because others might be trying to pass you. Even one abrupt unnecessary turn might get called in by a Flagger and get you DQ’d for Qual.
Grid. After Qual a “Grid Sheet” will be published that organizes the grid for the race. Your race class will be assigned positions in the grid per their qualifying times. If you are grid position 24, for example, you would grid up for the race next to a rubber cone labeled 24. Usually you would position your car such that the cone is just outside the driver’s door.
See the Grid Sheet example that follows this page.
There is usually more than one Start Group. The Grid Sheet example has groups of SpecE30s, SpecMiatas, and Spec944/others, with gaps between each Start Group. The gaps allow allows racers who missed Qual to line up at the rear of their group. A SpecE30 that missed Qual, or got DQ’d in Qual, would not grid up behind the last group, they’d grid up at cone 18 behind the SpecE30s.
Those 3 groups could each have their own pace car, or there could be only a single pace car in the lead of all 3 groups. In the latter case, the SpecE30 on pole would keep station on the pace car, while the SpecMiata Pole Sitter and Spec944 Pole Sitter would set the pace for their Start Group, and also the gap forward to the next Start Group.
In the racers meeting you will be told if each group is going to get their own Green flag, or if a couple groups will share a Green. This is important guidance because it is not unusual for someone to go WOT at the forward group’s Green. Because this error is inevitably committed right in front of everyone, you never live it down.
Green flag scenarios based on the Grid Sheet on the next page.
Scenario: The SpecMiatas are getting their own Green. In this case the SpecMiata pole sitter will allow a fair gap, say 75-100m in between the Miatas and the SpecE30s in front. That help will ensure that the Miatas are far enough behind the E30s that they won’t be tempted by the E30’s Green Flag.
Scenario: The SpecMiatas are sharing a Green with the SpecE30s. In this case the SpecMiata pole sitter will close up tighter, say 25-35m, with the rear of the SpecE30s in order to help ensure that all of the Miatas interpret the SpecE30 Green as applying to them also.
The pace of a Start Group and any gap between it and the leading group is not a cooperative effort between the 2 racers in the front row. The Pole Sitter is in control. Everyone positions themselves off of the Pole Sitter.
Note that Rookies grid up in the rear of their class in their first race.
Lucky Bump Forward. What to do when someone, that qualed better than you, is missing. In the SE we always move forward. That is to say, if you qualed 15th and 13 doesn’t show up, once you get out on the track, you’d end up moving forward a position. But there’s no moving laterally nor diagonally because of a missing person.
The reason for the “Lucky Bump Forward” rule is that in a big start group, the relative locations of the cars towards the rear don’t always get sorted out before the Green. If you’re 30 cars back and the guy in front of you seems to move forward in the seconds before the Green, maybe because someone up there is missing, it’s easy to move forward with him, which is the charm of Lucky Bump Forward. But if a space seems to open up diagonally, you’ll really have no idea why that space opened up and attempting to take it could punk someone.
Note that “lucky bump forward” is a SE rule. Other regions and national events are free to do it their own way.
Starts
As you approach the Green, stay roughly in column. I’d define “roughly” as no more than 1/3rd of a car width out of column. Be careful to leave a gap not just in front of you, but also to your sides. If you are near a wall, stay a car width away from it to allow an escape route for the guy behind you. If the guy beside you is near a wall, don’t move towards him such that he starts losing the gap between him and the wall. Once the Green flies, you’re welcome to move laterally, just be wary of doing it so abruptly that you surprise someone and cause a crisis.
Just because you hear car engines go WOT, doesn’t mean your Green is waving. Sometimes it’s the Green for the group ahead of you, sometimes it’s the dyno, sometimes you’ll never find out what it was.
Once the Green flies, keep your eyes up. Deliberately force your eyes to concentrate as far into the race field as there is useful information. Look over, around, and thru every car around you. When a car, many rows in front of you, gets into trouble, there will usually be subtle visual clues that can be spotted well back from the problem. Your challenge is to be so aware of what is visible by looking both past and through the cars in front of you, that you can spot movement that “doesn’t make sense” in time to back off the bumper ahead of you and prepare for evasion.
Don’t keep your attention on the cars right next to you. Your peripheral vision will sense immediately and warn you if something nearby needs attention “right now”.
Eventually you are going to be in an incident in the first turns of a race. When you later study your video, you will see that there were clues of early warning that you missed.
Don’t be too aggressive at the start. Keep it dialed back a bit until the cars spread out. If you are right on someone’s bumper when the problem occurs up ahead, you’re screwed.
Be especially cautious when starting on a wet track. It’s more than just a matter of the wet track being slippery. When it’s wet, your ability to both spot and evade incidents is significantly reduced. Water spray from the cars in front of you can cause complete gray-out where you can see nothing but brake lights. Wet grass might as well be ice.
Rolling Starts. As you approach the Green, don’t get too close to the guy in front of you. I would stay back at least a car length. This gives you room to dodge if he has a problem at the start.
Standing Starts. Be even more conservative than the rolling start because problems are more likely. I’d do a spacing of 2 car lengths. The CCR requirement is a car spacing of at least 1 car length. Note that it’s really easy to screw this up. In the seconds before the field comes to a stop you get too close to someone’s rear, expecting them to move forward. But then they don’t move forward. Suddenly your planned 2 car lengths of gap is a half car length.
You can’t always see the Green Flag, especially if you are towards the rear of a big start group. Sometimes that just can’t be helped. If you’re going to move a little laterally to try to see the flag, do it before you come to a stop. If you move after stopping, it might get interpreted as jumping the start.
At the green, take a heartbeat to get your car moving a little bit before you go WOT. Otherwise instead of accelerating, you’ll just spin your tires. Much to the delight of everyone that passes you.
Driver Conduct.
Refer closely to the CCR when reading this section.
Passer is responsible for a Safe Pass. This is made clear in 25.4.1, but that doesn’t make it ok for the Passee to do something crazy that causes an incident. Of course, the idea of “something crazy” remains in the eye of the beholder.
Defending your position by squeezing. Lets say that you and I are on a long stretch. I am beside you, slightly faster, and I have my wheel at your door so I’ve earned “Right to be there”. I will probably be 10secs before I’ve completed the pass. Defensive squeezing would be you moving laterally such that I’m forced to put 2 wheels in the grass. You are using “squeezing” as a defensive tactic to prevent my pass.
Historically the NASA rules have been generally interpreted as to allow defensive squeezing, but this was always a controversial issue because the language in the CCR was not clear. Para 25.4.2 introduces the idea of the Passee giving the Passer “Racing Room” and defining it as “in most cases” ¾ car width. A Passer “earns” Racing Room when their front wheel is up to the driver. 25.4.3 says that the Passee has the "Right To The Line”, and therefore is free to be anywhere on the track that he wants, until the Passer has earned Racing Room.
No more ambiguity. Defensive squeezing is unacceptable. Starting in CCR 2017.13 new language was added to 25.4.3 (Right to the Line) that makes it clear that the “3/4 rule cannot be used to justify defensive squeezing. This was an important change because the ambiguous ¾ rule had been used repeatedly to justify defensive squeezing and that had destroyed cars.
See also the very important 26.0 Notes. It contains the following sentences: The main purpose of the “3/4 rule” is to alert the mind of the driver that is contemplating a pass that he/she may be “forced” to go two (2) wheels off-course to avoid a collision. Basically, this means that the overtaking driver must be certain that he/she can attempt the pass with room to spare, and must be prepared to take evasive action if necessary.
When there is a side-by-side incident, you will often hear the ¾ car width rule invoked so it’s very important to a) to understand the rule, and b) be prepared for others to cite the old ¾ car width language that many were interpreting incorrectly. Pull out your copy of the CCR and show them because the language is a lot more clear now then it used to be.
If your class tends to race aggressively, you might also raise this issue with your class director because your whole class may have the wrong idea on the ¾ car width rule and defensive squeezing.
Related issue. If you’re planning a pass and that pass includes a scenario where you have to go 2 wheels off, don’t forget that with 2 wheels in the grass your braking will be seriously compromised.
Note that regional and class rules can supersede NASA rules. Per the NASA-SE Supps, for all SE Lightning racers, Racing Room is defined as a Full Car Width. As an example of Class Rules, Spec944 (nationwide) racing room is defined as full car width + 6”.
No defensive squeezing and passing in the turns. The idea that the Passee is not allowed to defensively squeeze is easily imagined in the slowly developing pass on a straight. But it’s not so clear in a turn when a Passer, to some extent, “surprises” the Passee with a dart to the inside. Consider that by the time the Passee realized that there was another car in between him and the apex, he might be totally committed and not have enough time to try to work out a “new plan”.
In a pass attempt that unfolds rapidly, the Passer cannot assume that the Passee will see him in time to give the Passer as much room as he would like. So that scenario wasn’t “Passee deliberately squeezes”. It was “Passer made an aggressive pass. Should have been prepared to go 2 wheels off to make it work”.
Right to the Line. This subject is poorly understood by many drivers. Consider a slowly developing pass where you are passing me. As the Passee, I have the right to the line (25.4.3), so I can go wherever I want. Once you have “Right to be there” because your wheel is up to my door, then the CCR requires that I give you “Racing Room”, which is generally defined as ¾ car width, as long as I don’t attempt to use that to deliberately squeeze you off of the track. This means that I no longer have the Right to the Line because I am no longer allowed to go wherever I want. You and I now have to find a way to coexist, with neither of us having the Right to the Line.
That “requirement to coexist” does not end until you have
completed the pass. Once your rear bumper has cleared my front bumper, you
(Passer) now have the Right to the Line. If I manage to move up and regain a
foot of overlap, it is still you that has the Right to the Line because you
completed the pass.
If , on the other hand, while we were still side-by-side, if you (Passer), fell
back a couple feet and lost the Right to be there, then I regain the Right to
the Line. With no “Right to be there”, the CCR allows me to squeeze you out.
Legal, but not something I’d ever do to you because that’s not how friends treat
each other.
Defending your position by blocking. You get one free move to defend your line. An argument could be made that you also get a 2nd move if your 2nd move is to set up to take the school line into a turn. That 2nd move wouldn’t be to block but instead would be “setting up for the turn.”
Personally, I do not defend very hard. Unless it’s the last couple laps of the race, if you get a run on me, I figure you’ve earned it and I’ll give it to you. Doing a lot of blocking isn’t really buddy-like behavior, so I would avoid over-doing it so as to not get a reputation for being obsessed with beating the other guy.
The incident was who’s fault? Experienced people can look at the same video over and over again and reach different conclusions. Welcome to human nature. This is especially true when an incident unfolds quickly and the arm-chair judges imagine that the Passee saw the Passer initiate the move. The arm-chair judge says “Passee turned in on Passer to squeeze him out”, when in reality the Passee was busy trying to drive his car and had no idea that the Passer suddenly lunged for the inside of the turn.
When evaluating fault, keep in mind that the guy in the rear had 100% visibility of the guy in front, whereas the guy in the front had only occasional snapshots of the guy in the rear. If the cars spend time side-by-side, look to see who had lots of track width they could have used to create more gap between them. Look very carefully at the movement of each car relative to the track edge. Don’t get stuck watching, in the video, the relative gap between the two cars because that can easily fool you. Instead, to judge “who moved towards whom”, study the changing distance between the cars and the sides of the track.
Race craft.
Racing is like Chess at 100mph. Your conscious brain is playing Chess against the other drivers around you. Therefore your track skills need to be strong enough that you are pretty fast w/o really having to think about it much. That is to say, your “reptile brain” needs to be trained up to the point where it can do fast laps unaided. Much of your conscious brain is going to be busy playing chess against your buddies that surround you.
Things to think about:
The driver in front of you is inevitably stronger than you in some places on the track and weaker than you in others. How can you mitigate his strengths and exploit his weaknesses? For example, if the driver in front of you has more hp, you have to try very hard to start straightaways right on his bumper so you’ll be in his draft. “Try very hard” means “if you’re not scared, you’re not trying”. If you spot that the guy in front of you is a little weak in a certain turn, that means he’s not just slow there, he’s also anxious there. So on the next lap try especially hard to be right on his bumper as you approach that turn so you’ll be in a position to exploit that weakness and dive in to take the turn. The other driver’s scared, he won’t fight hard for it.
The driver behind you has strengths and weaknesses too. Remain aware of where the car in your mirror is falling back and where it is gaining on you. Identify the places on the track where your relative skills are critical. If he’s catching up on a long straight, you have to figure out how do enter that straight at an advantage or he’s going to get you. If there’s a series of turns that he’s weak in, really crush those turns in your next lap and you might be able to break contact with him permanently. Seek advantage where you can. Seek to cover your weaknesses where you must.
Reading minds. Each person is positioning their car in a certain place for a reason. The movement of their car will tell you what they are thinking about. Unless, of course, they’re being intentionally deceptive.
Let’s say you and I are heading into a classic passing zone prior to a right turn. Say CMP turn 8. I am in the rear. I might choose to attempt to take the turn from you by heading inside. But if I do this we will both be slow in the turn which means a slow back stretch. If you are a pretty fast guy, I might want to work with you to catch the folks up ahead. In that case my desire for a fast turn 8 outweighs my desire to pass you. There’s also an issue of personal history between us. You will have buddies that often choose to work with you, and buddies that will, good naturedly of course, pass your ass given any opportunity.
So as you head towards the braking zone, snatch a couple glances in your rear view mirror and make a guess re. my intent. That will determine whether or not you take the (fast) school line thru the corner, or take a defensive line.
If I’m keeping my car slightly left of yours, I’m probably telling you that I intend to work with you for this turn. Or I’m being intentionally deceptive.
If I move my car a little right, maybe I’m looking to take the turn from you so you need to move your car inboard a bit to a more defensive line, or maybe I’m trying to fool you into taking a defensive line, when in reality I’m going to dart outboard, take the faster school line, and come out with an mph extra that I’ll use to pass you on the straight.
The communication goes both ways. Be cognizant of what your car’s position is telling the cars around you. You can certainly use your car’s position to attempt to fool the car behind you, just be certain that you’ve thought it thru. If, as we approach CMP turn 8, my car is a little right and you don’t react to that, you’re telling me “go ahead and take this turn from me if you can”. But if, after I’ve committed, you “close the door” by swooping in to the apex, we’re likely to crash because we’ll be overlapped and I’ll be surprised and perhaps unable to get out of your way. From my perspective I’ll be thinking “you were giving me the turn. Then you changed your mind?”
Entering a turn behind a cluster of cars. Work hard to protect your turn exit speed. Sometimes that means backing off prior to a turn. Read the group in front of you and make an estimate of how fast they will make it thru the turn. Chances are, the fact that they bunched up is going to impact several of them. Optimize your turn exit speed by backing off a car length so your turn exit speed isn’t impacted by the crowding.
If the track section that follows isn’t much of a straight, then worry less about turn exit speed and more about the possibility of gaining position in the cluster. For example if there are 2 guys in front of you entering a turn, make a call as to who is going to win that turn and get on that guy’s butt. You might create a 2 car train and both of you could get by the other guy.
When there are 2 cars side-by-side in front of you, get on the superior driver’s rear bumper. Even if his position doesn’t look all that tenable, he might surprise you. If you stay glued to his butt, he might pull off the pass and take you with him. With you glued to the Passer’s rear bumper, the Passee will have a hard time slipping in between you two, and will therefore have to cede 2 positions.
Traffic. There will usually be other classes on the track with you. Some will be faster and some slower. The relative speed differences would seem to be predictable except that driver skill varies wildly. Expect the leaders of the slower classes to pass you. Expect the turtles of the faster classes to fall back behind you.
When a low hp car catches up to you, expect them to be very fast in the turns. If, however, after letting them by in a turn, you catch up to them on the next straight, consider backing off and giving them the turn. You know they’re faster…they will get away from you, just give them another turn to do it.
When you catch up to a higher hp car, expect them to not only throw out an anchor at turn entry, but also expect them to be timid.
Why timidity is an issue. It’s easy to get a high hp guy past you if he has good skills. All you have to do is position your car, as you approach turn entry, such that you’re offering him the turn on a platter. He’ll recognize what you are doing and he’ll swoop in and take the turn.
A timid high hp guy is a problem tho. When you offer the timid high hp guy the turn on a platter, he might get anxious and hesitant. He is used to using his hp to pass cars on the straight. He is not as used to close quarters in braking zones nor turns. After you open the door for him, by the time he asks himself “what do I do, what do I do, what do I do?” , you’ll be in the turn on a slow outside line yelling at him for failing to dart in and enter the turn first as you had intended.
Don’t be reluctant to wave high hp folks by if they seem tentative. The wave will help communicate your intent to them which will help them make decisions.
When a faster, out of class, car comes up behind you, don’t send them ambiguous signals. Use the position of your car to clearly tell them, “pass me” or “don’t pass me just yet, wait a second.” Make the message crystal clear.
Don’t bumpdraft out of class cars unless they clearly signal you to do so. Consider that instead of signaling “bump me dude!”, he might have been signaling “go ahead and pass me”.
Try to stay out of other people’s races. You can usually detect if the cars that are passing you are the race leaders for their class. If, for example, they are the first from that class you’ve seen come up behind you, they are likely the race leaders. They will be quite grateful if you get them by quickly. Don’t let your race for 10th seem as important as their race for 1st. Those are your NASA racing buddies in those other cars, treat them as such.
Consider scenarios where a group of low hp cars are coming up behind you. Fast drivers in low hp classes are often very skilled and might have different ideas re. “risky pass” than you. If you are in a dicey section of the track, say Road Atlanta S curves, consider the merits of just moving over and spending 10secs being exceedingly predictable.
Watch out for 2 car trains coming up behind you. In your mirror it can be easy to mistake 2 cars, bumper to bumper, as only a single overtaking car because the trailing car can be hidden behind the leader. Then, if you let the leader by and try to dart behind him to get a bit of draft, you’ll slam into the guy that was behind.
There’s an infinite # of ways to use traffic, both faster and slower, to make life harder on the competition in front of or behind you. What follows are SpecE30 example, but they apply to all classes.
Faster car coming up behind. SpecE30 in front of you. Use your car’s position to communicate to the approaching faster car. This could give you a couple seconds worth of control re. the timing of you getting passed and therefore the timing of the faster car getting on the tail of the SpecE30 in front of you. Maybe faster car will be tempted to go 2-wide thru the next turn with the SpecE30 giving you a chance to get better exit speed. Or the SpecE30 in front of you might be forced into a defensive line, going into the turn, to tell the faster class car “don’t pass me yet, wait pls”.
Faster car coming up behind. SpecE30 to your rear. You could potentially orchestrate the next turn such that the faster car complicates the turn for the SpecE30 on your butt. It doesn’t have to be perfect. They don’t need to go thru the turn 2-wide. If the faster car just makes it look like he’s thinking about taking the turn 2-wide with your buddy behind, that will add to buddy’s problems and may well impact his turn exit speed.
Slower car coming back to you, SpecE30 ahead. The guy ahead of you will try to use the slower traffic against you. Get right on the bumper of the SpecE30 ahead and go past the slower guy in a solid train that gives slow guy zero opportunity to get in between you two.
Slower car coming back to you. SpecE30 behind. See if you can’t pass the slower guy just before a turn. The SpecE30 behind you will either have to do the turn 2-wide or he’ll back off a couple car lengths andtry to salvage what he can with a school line on the turn.
Videos
Learning points:
1) We are friends first and competitors 2nd. Never put a buddy in an impossible situation. Always always give him room to survive. He is your buddy...treat him like it.
2) Note the several times that I lose situational awareness (SA) of a nearby car. In each case, I give them room to survive, even tho I’m not quite sure where they are. That other person is my friend. I will not put him/her into a crisis.
3) Note the incident in 10A with Davis Aikens. Consider the incident within the context of reading the minds of the competitors around you. I had a hunch re. what he was going to try. I could have squeezed left at last minute to defend which would have put him in a crisis in the braking zone. But instead, I let him go ahead and try to make it work if he could. Then, a little wary that maybe he’d not be able to shed enough speed to make the turn, I added a bit of caution and delayed my turn-in by just a heartbeat.
In big friendly classes you will routinely see competitors cheering each other on. That is to say, one person passes another and the passee waves him a big thumbs up for the nice pass. Then, after the race there will be lots of sweaty guys/gals jumping up and down, hollering, high-fiving, and hugging. That's the mindset you are joining. Sometimes we get a newby that is thinking “I’m here to win”, and as a result, puts others in difficult situations on the track. Getting squeezed into the grass at >100mph is not happy. It's a pita to have to reset the outlook of the over-competitive newby before they start causing trouble. Join your race class with the frame of mind that you’re here to have a great time with your buddies. You’re not here to crush the competition. You might indeed crush your competition, but if you do so while leaving a path of bent sheetmetal in your wake as your pursue your coffee mug of glory, you’ll probably be asked to find another organization to race with
Don’t let all these crash videos freak you out. I’ve intentionally picked vids of evil because they contain good teaching points.
Learning points. Once you hit oil, it’s unlikely that you will retain control of the car. It’s incredibly slippery and it takes a couple seconds for the stuff to scrape off the tires. By the time you’ve got some traction back, you’re a 2700lb juggernaut going whatever direction lady luck chose. Every time something happens in front of you, consider the possibility that it was caused by fluids, or the incident has resulted in fluids on the track.
If, after an incident, there is a likelihood of someone else hitting your car, immediately try to move your car to a safer location.
Learning points. Be risk averse during wet starts because visibility is awful. Normally, during a start, you can see quite a ways forward thru everyone else’s windshield, but this doesn’t work in the rain. Don’t hug the guy in front of you until the pack spreads out a bit so you can see.
Be wary of going into wet grass to avoid an incident. It’s terribly slippery so once you’re in the wet grass, no matter how slow you’re going there is absolutely zero ability to change your plan.
Editor’s note. With class sizes as large as 35cars, SE SpecE30 made it 19months after the above incident w/o losing a single solitary car.
Learning point. Don’t get closer to someone than necessary when you pass them. When you’re side-by-side, keep a 3’ cushion. There’s been multiple incidents where 2 cars were side-by-side only inches apart even tho one of them had lots of track width they could have used to open up some space between the cars. Then there was some little innocuous no-account bump and to everyone’s horror someone went careening into a wall. It doesn’t take much of a bump on to a front tire to send a car hooking left or right.
Learning points. Even when the grass is dry, be cautious about using it to avoid an incident. The avoidance move might go fine, but only if the initial plan works. There’s no “execute a new plan” in dry grass if your speed is >35mph. I thought that I was safe going to the left because I got a long-range glimpse of Sandro Espinosa going right. It would have been better if I had stayed on track and simply slowed down a lot.
If you’re smart, the first couple turns are about protecting your car, not about gaining places.