Drivers are raving about the fresh pavement at Carolina Motorsports Park, but off track, it can be a bit rough, as ST1 driver Tim Gray learned in November. Suffering from a bit of understeer in the Carousel, Gray’s car couldn’t quite make the turn, so he did what you’re supposed to do. He took it off straight, but the terrain off track wasn’t nearly as smooth as the fresh pavement, and Gray ended up bending the left from lower control arm and tore off the front half of the left fender, ending his weekend on Saturday.
“I learned a big lesson on that. Don’t trust that the terrain in the run-off area is going to be habitable, even though it’s flat and large,” Gray said. “After seeing how rough that terrain is, I will be a lot more cautious on that turn going forward. In watching the attached video, I can see how close I came to going off track there due to the push several times during practice.”
Don’t blame that on understeer…….that’s pure driver error. Before that he was missing apexes and not tracking out all the way. He was late with the transition left to right(turning into the right apex after the left apex). The transitions are a common mistake I see in many advanced drivers. Maybe not looking far enough and thinking ahead enough.