The racing gods are fickle beasts. One moment, they smile on you and you pass three cars in one corner. Moments later, their smile turns to a frown and you lose all those spots you picked up, plus one more.
NASA Arizona Spec Miata racer Graham Davies shared this video with Speed News, and it’s something you will watch, and then think to yourself, “Oh, yeah, been there, done that.” Tough break, but one we’ve all probably experienced.
Image courtesy of Elevated Trackside
He got oversteer and made some fundamental mistakes in catching it:
1. He needlessly shuffled his hands from the 9/3. You lose your orientation, leverage and control that way.
2. He held the counter too long and it did a mini tank slapper on him and pointed the car right off the track.
Catching oversteer like that is a skill of its own. You have to lead the car/wheel back to center right before the rear tires grip up to prevent a tank slapper. It doesn’t seem like that car is that hard to get it back in, so work on the technique. You rarely lose by going back to center early. You can always counter right back again. Keep just a little power in when you’re correcting to keep the dynamic weight transfer on the rear. I think he may have overdid it on that one as well.
Thanks for the feedback and I’ll take it. My 2nd SM race and half my problem was driving in the mirrors. I was looking in the rearview for the 3 cars to be all all over me (and they weren’t) braked late and into the marbles and then went from understeer to the oversteer you described. Tight/narrow right hander has no room to miss.
-Graham