Racing Line

Before you proceed to learn the racing line, I'd like to recommended to first start with reading the basics of racing. You should also have a fundamental understanding of the basic differences between oversteer and understeer.

What Is “The Line”?

Simply put it's the fastest route (line) to clear a corner. It’s the best way to enter the corner, clear the apex, and then exit the corner with the highest possible exit speed.

On the racetrack you can usually identify the racing line by the trail of rubber left behind by previous drivers.

The tarmac is darker on the racing line, especially in the braking and cornering zones. Typically you’ll see the racing line starting on the outside of the track, near the edge. Then the line cuts into the corner, hitting the inside point (clipping point), after which it goes towards the corner exit, again completely on the outside.

Of course each corner is different, and each corner has its own best racing line. It is up to the driver to discover and learn this line- exactly why track knowledge is just as important as car control.

Oversteer & Understeer

There’s a good chance you already know what oversteer & understeer is, but for those of you who don’t, below is a simple, but thorough explanation of the two.

Oversteer & Understeer:

The Simple Explanation

• Understeer: Front-end comes out (help!)
• Oversteer: Rear-end comes out (drifting!)

That’s the simple explanation. To better understand the concept you will need to know a little more- read along...
 

Basics Of Racing

Learn The Basics Of Racing

This is where everyone in racing starts.
Learn fundamental background information, a must-read for anyone interested in car racing.

First of all:

Dangers & Safety

Worry about the safety before getting into the car!

Controlling the riscs starts with a proper safety inspection of your vehicle, required for almost any circuit event. They probably won’t allow you on the track without it. People on the track will inspect your vehicle for any leaking fluids, the security of your battery, seatbelts, etc.

Circuits each have their own rules and policies on safety. If you don’t get proper instructions, be sure to ask about safety procedures. Also it's not a bad idea to install a fire extinguisher for just in case. Always make sure to have made a good estimation of the dangers and take the necassery precautions.

Racing is a serious sport and serious accidents are no exception.

Motorsports are getting safer nowadays due to rules and technology, but still many great racing drivers died in the event of racing.

Racing drivers such as Aryton Senna, Dale Earnhardt, or Gilles Villeneuve all crashed and suffered fatal accidents, even though they were supreme masters in the art of racing.

Racing

Master The Driving Techniques

To learn racing and its driving techniques you'll need to have a certain amount of natural talent combined with an endless amount of dedication.

If you think you have what it takes, then you should start by learning the basics of racing, the driving techniques and how cars react when they are being pushed to the limit.

You don't have to be a pro racer to start drifting, but being a better racer can help you get better at drifting, and the other way around.

Compared to drifting, racing is even harder in my opinion. In racing the cars actually also drift. It might not seem like so, but just as in drifting, they have to deal with oversteer or understeer (losing the rear or front wheels).

The thing is, both racing and drifting share the same platform (the car), but the goals of each discipline are just so totally different! In racing you usually try to minimize oversteer going for maximum speed and the fastest time, while drifting is all about taking oversteer to the extreme to perform the most beautifull, outrageous drifts as possible. Two different concepts!

Learning the racing techniques will make drifting easier.

Articles on Racing

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Basics Of Racing
Start here by learning the basics of racing! Every racing driver started out by learning the basics of racing...

Oversteer & Understeer
Oversteer Understeer is what racing is all about! Go here now if you want to know more about the limits of your tires. Both terms and more are explained in detail.

Racing Line
The ideal racing line shows you the best way through a corner. What is there to know about cornering? Read all you need to know to clear corners!

Learn How To Heel Toe
To learn how to heel toe is exciting! It is a great racing technique to acquire. Downshifting with heel toe makes your driving smoother and you will become a much better shifter!

Double Clutch
The double clutch technique is an advanced follow-up on the heel toe technique. Double clutching asks for precision shifting, and is only meant to spin-up the gearbox.

Braking Technique
A good braking technique can make of break a great lap time. Learn how to use the brakes and all the special techniques to become faster.

Racing Techniques

The objective is to cover a certain distance in the fastest possible time. On the straightaway the maximum speed depends mostly on the engine power and aerodynamics. But in the corners, it's really up to the driver and his handling abilities to carry as much speed through the corner as possible.

To minimize the cornering time and cover corners in the fastest possible way, you make use of a path through the corner called the racing line.

But that is only if you know how to control the car. It's not just steering, braking and shifting – there's more to it than that! Here are some of the racing techniques.

RACING IS NOT JUST ABOUT FLOORING THE THROTTLE

The most basic driving technique is heel toe downshifting.

It's a technique that will give you great control over your gear selection and allows you to downshift before cornering. Once you have mastered heel toe you are also able to learn to double clutch, but that's optional and nessecary.

It's probably the next best step to begin with! Once you've mastered those driving techniques you are ready to learn racing or experiment with drifting. It's really essential that you can perform heel toe downshifting without thinking. Otherwise you just can't be in proper control of the car.

Braking is another facet of racing that takes a lot of time to master. After having learned the basics and the beginner techniques it's time to head out for the circuits and practice at getting faster.

The hardest part in racing is of course cornering. Slowing down for corners isn't simply just slamming on the brakes. Using the correct braking technique is required if you want to make the most out of each situation.

Dirt Drop Drifting Technique

Ditch The Rear!

The dirt drop drifting technique is not a technique for beginners. You are supposed to place your car in such a position so that when you flick the car sideways the rear wheels hit the dirt. Hence the name dirt drop.

Surface is usually gras, mud or slick, so the traction is lower on this surface. Drifters use this surfaces to gain more angle while keeping their speed up. Mind you though, not every surface is as slippery as it seems and it's quite a dangerous technique.

It's not applicable on the street and is only possible on some circuits. On some circuits it's even banned. It requires a great deal of practice and can easily go wrong, usually with devastating results.

Jump Drifting Technique

Drift The Kerb

The jump drifting technique is another expert drifting technique that, unless you know the other techniques really well, shouldn’t be tried.

In essence this technique is almost similar to the dirt drop drifting technique, but they’re not completely the same.

For this technique you use the rumble strip on the inside of the turn to shift the weight and to upset the car’s balance.

Usually in the short time the rear inside tire is airborne it starts spinning faster than the available traction. When it regains contact with the surface you should lose traction. In case it doesn't the abrupt weight shift will definitely cause the tires to lose traction.

Jump Drifting Technique
How To:

• Coming from the straight towards a corner


• Remain on the throttle and steer into the corner. Aim to drive your inside tires over the rumble strip


• While driving over the rumble strip remain on the throttle. In the short moment your rear wheels are from the ground they should start to spin, causing them to lose grip. And if that’s not the case the sudden change in weight distribution will cause them to lose grip anyway


• The rest of the drift is the same as the previous drifting techniques. Feel the tires lose traction and start to countersteer


• Wait until you see that the car is facing the direction of the corner exit. Then gently give it a little power to pick up the drift. Control the throttle throughout the drift towards the exit.

Basically you can drift because when the inside tires fly over the rumble strip they break loose and regain contact with the surface. This causes an abrupt weight shift that makes the car lose balance. Catching the drift would then be the hardest part, hence why it’s a medium speed drifting technique. High speed would just be too unpredictable and dangerous.

Feint Drifting Technique

The feint drifting technique (also called inertia drift) involves using the momentum (or inertia) of the car to get the car drifting.

Before turning-in the corner, if you quickly give the steering wheel a little tug into the opposite direction, you can transfer most of the weight to the inside wheels.

Now because you released more weight from the outside wheels then you normally would, when you quickly steer back into the corner again the car will allow more weight to be transferred back again onto the outside wheels.

This results in an increased momentum and thus will cause the car to drift much easier or at a much bigger angle. Simply said, you briefly steer away from the corner before turning in. By increasing the weight transfer you can increase the centrifugal force.

The feint drifting technique is especially useful if you find it difficult to make the weight transition just by braking. For more experienced drivers it’s a very good technique to deal with tight corners, where an aggressive angle is your only option to be quick.

Feint Drifting Technique
How To:

• Coming from the straight towards a corner


• Start to brake in a straight line


• Enter the corner not from the normal racing line, but place your car a little more towards the inside of the corner (not on the inside!). Basically you should move a little away from the normal racing line, so that you can steer back onto it upon initiating the drift.


• When you completed braking move back to the racing line by quickly giving the steering wheel a little tug to the opposite direction of the corner.


• Now when you steer into the corner you’ll have much greater weight transfer. Using this weight (the inertia) you can get the car to slide. If you brake during change of direction the momentum will become even stronger.


• Because of the extra weight transfer that occurs you need to catch the big swing of the car using your steering and throttle. As soon as the car flicks the other way give it some throttle and start to countersteer. The harder the car swings back, the less you need to steer and throttle.


• Control the throttle and countersteer throughout the drift towards the exit.

By steering away from the corner and then turning in again, the car steers into the corner at a much sharper angle than it would normally. Sometimes drivers even apply some braking when shifting the car’s direction. This increases front grip, decreases rear grip and creates an even bigger change of direction.

The feint drifting technique is said to be one of the hardest drifting techniques to learn, as it is really hard not to swing the car too hard and spin-out. It's really fun practicing with the weight transfer. The more you are able to let the physics do their job, the faster you'll become.

It’s a very aggressive drifting technique that can greatly influence how the car is being setup for the corner. It’s no wonder then that the feint drifting technique has originated from rally racing. How else can rally cars race through corners with such low traction surfaces?

Since you cannot rely much on tire grip you’re more or less forced to use the weight of the car to turn fast through the corners. The front tires would instantly understeer if you wouldn’t be using this technique.

In the world of rally racing however, it is not called the feint drifting technique nor is it called the inertia drift. Rally drivers refer to it as the Scandinavian Flick and it’s usually combined with left-foot braking.