Post by Larry Walters on Sept 18, 2006 12:58:47 GMT -5
Yet another archived post...
Patience is more Powerful than Speed!
from the High Groove's "Accident Aviodance" by Miral Ostrow
Welcome to the world of accident avoidance, that is to say, knowing what to do when a wreck happens, knowing when to brake or gas it, to go high or low, how to avoid causing the accident and to generally get thru in one piece as often as possible. Learning this art can save you many headaches, and allow you to see many more checkered flags unscathed.
Above all else, accident avoidance is a mindset. It's always in your mind that you will be avoiding a wreck, and having the prescence of mind to know what to do when it happens. On your way to work, you rarely think of an accident happening. But in online racing it happens every few laps, so you have to anticipate this and drive like there will be a wreck in the upcoming turn, to be *mentally on the brakes* before anything happens. By "expecting" a wreck you will be able to respond to it quicker then when your mind is full on the throttle.
Accident avoidance has two parts to it. Being able to avoid a wreck up ahead, and likewise keeping from causing a wreck yourself. We'll handle each of these seperately.
Avoiding the Wreck Ahead.
When there's a wreck ahead, your one and only goal should be survival. Forget about all else, forget about the race. If your car's up on jacks its all over.
First instinct for new drivers: Big wreck ahead, all the cars are slowing, whoopy! I can easily GAIN 5 positions! Driving thru a blinding cloud of smoke is like playing russian roulette. It isn't worth it. When you see a cloud of smoke, Lock 'em up, its your only option. Smoke means stop, period. The only time you should mash the gas is if in your estimation, your only way thru it is to get thru before the hole closes on you. For instance a car wrecks, you get on the brakes, he slides up the track, and then starts coming down towards you. In that case you need to get thru before it closes up. But the first instinct should ALWAYS be to brake, then see what your options are, then react. Reaction may be continued braking, swerving hi or lo, or in the rare circumstance, squeak thru while the hole is still there.
Be able to read traffic. In heavy traffic, you must have it in your mind that an accident is going to happen at any second. When there's a pack of 4 or more cars all racing close together an accident is highly probable. Be expecting it. If its the last lap they'll be racing extremely high, almost bank on a wreck! Its of inestimable benefit to be able to see the accident before it even happens. Maybe you see a car making a pass start to wash up the track into the other car. Just by seeing how a car goes into the turn you can tell ahead of time the chance of an accident. Its kind of like chess, you need to see several moves ahead. Seeing two cars ahead going extremely hard at it lap after lap, you know that something's gonna happen so be on your toes and ready to react. If you see the car going in to deep, you can estimate that he's not gonna be able to make it stick, and watching as he washes up the track you let off the gas, even before they make contact. Just by reacting before they've even touched you've already slowed your car down and have a much greater chance of getting thru it.
Starts and restarts: With the feild all bunched back up, even 2 wide, with cold tires, this is one of the most likely times for accidents. As is said, cautions breed cautions, because it tightens the field back up. This is one of those times where you should be *mentally on the brakes* and expecting an accident in front of you. Yes, you're foot is on the accelerator, but its already got the go ahead to jam the brakes at the first sign of trouble. Likewise don't be racing too hard here until it sorts itself out.
Keeping from Causing a Wreck.
Miral saith: "Ask not who caused the accident, but what you could have done to avoid it." When 2 cars are in the hospital, its a moot point as to who caused it. Do what you have to do to stay out of it, even if you're not doing anything wrong.
Holding your line: We see it all the time, a guy goes for a pass, goes in too hot, washes up in the turn and wrecks the guy he is trying to pass, followed by a pathetic "Sorry".
Mentally, the reason why we do wash up the track in these situations is simply because we see a very wide track. Problem is that as the low car, we are allowed merely the bottom 1/8th of the track to ride in. One trick to help you hold your low line better is to percieve only the portion of the track that you will be riding in. In other words as you are approaching the turn, you don't see both the low groove, the high groove and the "marbles" out to the wall. Instead all you see is the car width worth of track on the bottom that you will be riding in. Pretend to yourself that the outer concrete wall is 1.5 car widths up from the apron, so that its impossible to go up higher. Doing so you will get on the brakes a little sooner and be sure to hold that line. From my own experiences, I used to treat the turn as being only 1 car wide, and after that the track just fell off the edge of the world: There IS no track to run on except that low groove, period. By doing this you force yourself to hold that line better, as in your mind there is no other option. Trust me, the high car will love ya to death when its over!
Giving room between the other car is also wise. If a person is passing you in the turn, give him some margin for error so that if he slides up the track, you won't wreck. Also take into consideration the driver who is passing you. If you've never heard of him before or you know he causes a lot of wrecks, give him a lot more room. If its someone you know you can go side by side safely with for ten laps, well, have some fun with him
Let faster cars by! If your several laps down, just let the leaders by, it loses you nothing to let them by anyways, and they won't wreck you trying to pass this way. Likewise if you're fighting for position with a guy, and he's just come from 3 seconds back onto your bumper, he's quite a bit faster so why not let him by? He'll eventually get by anyways and by not making him fight hard for it, there's less chance of wrecking. If you're riding around on 70 lap old tires and someone's just pitted for fresh ones, this one's a no brainer, let him by.
One of the best ways of practicing avoiding wrecks is in fact in open pickup races that have lots of people, as during the practice session you'll be dodging wrecks every few laps. I like joining full field pickup races at a track like Bristol during practice, where you just know there will be 2 or 3 scraps to avoid each lap. See how many I can skate safely through. The more used to avoiding these spins you become, the more alert you will be to seeing them developing, and knowing what to do *by instinct* when it happens.
I can see them spinning, but where are they going to go?!!!
Having knowledge of where a spinning car will go is important! By being able to guess correctly which way they are headed before they get there will get you thru a lot more wrecks.
If an accident happens in the entrance or middle of a turn, chances are the cars are going to slide up the track to the wall, so immediately you know to keep it low. If you are quite far behind, they may have time to slide back down, especially a high banked track like dover, and you'll have to go high. If the latter is the case you usually have enough time to see that by time you get there they'll be headed back down to the track, so if you're on the binders, you should have plenty of manueverability to get around them.
Accidents on the front stretch or off the corner are a little trickier to gage. They are usually already out by the wall, and might stay there or might come down. Usually the initial position of a car just after beginning the spin will determine where they will be spinning. An immediate sideways car pointing left is probably headed to the apron, while one that gets clipped on the right rear and points right towards the wall is probably going to scrape the wall.
Patience is more Powerful than Speed!
from the High Groove's "Accident Aviodance" by Miral Ostrow
Welcome to the world of accident avoidance, that is to say, knowing what to do when a wreck happens, knowing when to brake or gas it, to go high or low, how to avoid causing the accident and to generally get thru in one piece as often as possible. Learning this art can save you many headaches, and allow you to see many more checkered flags unscathed.
Above all else, accident avoidance is a mindset. It's always in your mind that you will be avoiding a wreck, and having the prescence of mind to know what to do when it happens. On your way to work, you rarely think of an accident happening. But in online racing it happens every few laps, so you have to anticipate this and drive like there will be a wreck in the upcoming turn, to be *mentally on the brakes* before anything happens. By "expecting" a wreck you will be able to respond to it quicker then when your mind is full on the throttle.
Accident avoidance has two parts to it. Being able to avoid a wreck up ahead, and likewise keeping from causing a wreck yourself. We'll handle each of these seperately.
Avoiding the Wreck Ahead.
When there's a wreck ahead, your one and only goal should be survival. Forget about all else, forget about the race. If your car's up on jacks its all over.
First instinct for new drivers: Big wreck ahead, all the cars are slowing, whoopy! I can easily GAIN 5 positions! Driving thru a blinding cloud of smoke is like playing russian roulette. It isn't worth it. When you see a cloud of smoke, Lock 'em up, its your only option. Smoke means stop, period. The only time you should mash the gas is if in your estimation, your only way thru it is to get thru before the hole closes on you. For instance a car wrecks, you get on the brakes, he slides up the track, and then starts coming down towards you. In that case you need to get thru before it closes up. But the first instinct should ALWAYS be to brake, then see what your options are, then react. Reaction may be continued braking, swerving hi or lo, or in the rare circumstance, squeak thru while the hole is still there.
Be able to read traffic. In heavy traffic, you must have it in your mind that an accident is going to happen at any second. When there's a pack of 4 or more cars all racing close together an accident is highly probable. Be expecting it. If its the last lap they'll be racing extremely high, almost bank on a wreck! Its of inestimable benefit to be able to see the accident before it even happens. Maybe you see a car making a pass start to wash up the track into the other car. Just by seeing how a car goes into the turn you can tell ahead of time the chance of an accident. Its kind of like chess, you need to see several moves ahead. Seeing two cars ahead going extremely hard at it lap after lap, you know that something's gonna happen so be on your toes and ready to react. If you see the car going in to deep, you can estimate that he's not gonna be able to make it stick, and watching as he washes up the track you let off the gas, even before they make contact. Just by reacting before they've even touched you've already slowed your car down and have a much greater chance of getting thru it.
Starts and restarts: With the feild all bunched back up, even 2 wide, with cold tires, this is one of the most likely times for accidents. As is said, cautions breed cautions, because it tightens the field back up. This is one of those times where you should be *mentally on the brakes* and expecting an accident in front of you. Yes, you're foot is on the accelerator, but its already got the go ahead to jam the brakes at the first sign of trouble. Likewise don't be racing too hard here until it sorts itself out.
Keeping from Causing a Wreck.
Miral saith: "Ask not who caused the accident, but what you could have done to avoid it." When 2 cars are in the hospital, its a moot point as to who caused it. Do what you have to do to stay out of it, even if you're not doing anything wrong.
Holding your line: We see it all the time, a guy goes for a pass, goes in too hot, washes up in the turn and wrecks the guy he is trying to pass, followed by a pathetic "Sorry".
Mentally, the reason why we do wash up the track in these situations is simply because we see a very wide track. Problem is that as the low car, we are allowed merely the bottom 1/8th of the track to ride in. One trick to help you hold your low line better is to percieve only the portion of the track that you will be riding in. In other words as you are approaching the turn, you don't see both the low groove, the high groove and the "marbles" out to the wall. Instead all you see is the car width worth of track on the bottom that you will be riding in. Pretend to yourself that the outer concrete wall is 1.5 car widths up from the apron, so that its impossible to go up higher. Doing so you will get on the brakes a little sooner and be sure to hold that line. From my own experiences, I used to treat the turn as being only 1 car wide, and after that the track just fell off the edge of the world: There IS no track to run on except that low groove, period. By doing this you force yourself to hold that line better, as in your mind there is no other option. Trust me, the high car will love ya to death when its over!
Giving room between the other car is also wise. If a person is passing you in the turn, give him some margin for error so that if he slides up the track, you won't wreck. Also take into consideration the driver who is passing you. If you've never heard of him before or you know he causes a lot of wrecks, give him a lot more room. If its someone you know you can go side by side safely with for ten laps, well, have some fun with him
Let faster cars by! If your several laps down, just let the leaders by, it loses you nothing to let them by anyways, and they won't wreck you trying to pass this way. Likewise if you're fighting for position with a guy, and he's just come from 3 seconds back onto your bumper, he's quite a bit faster so why not let him by? He'll eventually get by anyways and by not making him fight hard for it, there's less chance of wrecking. If you're riding around on 70 lap old tires and someone's just pitted for fresh ones, this one's a no brainer, let him by.
One of the best ways of practicing avoiding wrecks is in fact in open pickup races that have lots of people, as during the practice session you'll be dodging wrecks every few laps. I like joining full field pickup races at a track like Bristol during practice, where you just know there will be 2 or 3 scraps to avoid each lap. See how many I can skate safely through. The more used to avoiding these spins you become, the more alert you will be to seeing them developing, and knowing what to do *by instinct* when it happens.
I can see them spinning, but where are they going to go?!!!
Having knowledge of where a spinning car will go is important! By being able to guess correctly which way they are headed before they get there will get you thru a lot more wrecks.
If an accident happens in the entrance or middle of a turn, chances are the cars are going to slide up the track to the wall, so immediately you know to keep it low. If you are quite far behind, they may have time to slide back down, especially a high banked track like dover, and you'll have to go high. If the latter is the case you usually have enough time to see that by time you get there they'll be headed back down to the track, so if you're on the binders, you should have plenty of manueverability to get around them.
Accidents on the front stretch or off the corner are a little trickier to gage. They are usually already out by the wall, and might stay there or might come down. Usually the initial position of a car just after beginning the spin will determine where they will be spinning. An immediate sideways car pointing left is probably headed to the apron, while one that gets clipped on the right rear and points right towards the wall is probably going to scrape the wall.
