Circuit Instruction

7/30/2019 Circuit Instruction

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Welcome to CircuitInstruction.com

Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in the

services provided by CircuitInstruction.com. The purpose of thisintroductory pack is to give you a brief insight into what the day will consist of,and what I hope you will gain from your days Tuition.Initially let me introduce myself.

Who am I?

My name is Howard Hunt and I have worked consistently for thirteen years asa Race Circuit Instructor. I am regularly employed by Racing Schools,

Trackday Companies, Scholarships and Car Manufacturers around the UK,Europe and America. I currently hold an A.R.D.S. Superlicence which allowsme to cover all aspects of circuit tuition. My racing profession began initially in1970 when I competed in Autocross events with the Mid-Cheshire MotorRacing Club. Following several years absence I turned to circuit racing andas I was running a successful business specialising in Minis it was the obviouscar to compete in, running in both the Rover Sponsored Mini MigliaChampionship and in the BARC North West Centre with a 1430cc modifiedMini.From 1989 to the present day I have competed in various Championshipsincluding; Rover Turbo, Ford XR3, Mighty Mini, Porsche 924 and currently, a

handful of races within the MaX 5 Championship.


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What is CircuitInstruction.com

CircuitInstruction.com is a totally new and refreshing look in the way racecraft is taught to Trackday Drivers, Potential Race Drivers, current Race

Drivers or just the average person wishing to improve their driving skills.

Some of you may have received previous instruction on Trackdays orexperience days and found the level of instruction rather disappointing.

Just ask yourself these simple questions:

Can you remember what you were told?

Were you told anything at all!

Was there an explanation given on the effects of various techniquesand actions?

Did the instructor encourage you to build up your speed progressively?

If the answer to one or all of these is NO, then CircuitInstruction.com is foryou!

CircuitInstruction.com can cater for individuals or groups of all abilities,ages and both sexes; whether you are a total novice aged 14yrs enteringvarious junior Championships or just a hobbyist wishing to improve your skillsat a Trackday.

I can also show you how improvements in vehicle dynamics can benefit the

driving experience and improve occupant safety to a generation that hasnever experienced how capable the modern motor car is.

I am an authorised signatory for persons applying for their MSA Race Licenceand can provide instruction to assist you in your Race Licence application.

So whether it is to improve your Race craft or just to go quicker on a TrackdayI am certain I can reduce your laptimes and increase your skill considerably!

All instruction will be provided in your own car or alternativelyDriverInstruction.com can provide vehicles to complete your track time in,

these include:

(1) A fully Race Prepared MX 5(2) A standard Lotus Elise Prepared and provided by BLiNK Motorsport.(3) A VTEC Lotus Elise (Honda Power) - Prepared and provided by BLiNK

Motorsport.(4) A Caterham Superlight Provided by BookaTrack.com

For all prices see appendix at rear of packWe will assume that the venue and payment for the day will be yourresponsibility but CircuitInstruction.com can tailor a package to your individual

requirements covering everything from booking the day to delivery of hiredvehicles.


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Why is instruction important?

Driving is a science and we all consider that we are better than we actually

are. For this very reason we tend to shun the idea of tuition as most peoplethink they are good enough drivers anyway or liken the tuition to what wereceived when we first took our driving licence.Circuit Driving is not a Black Art that we watch the professionals ply theirtrade on a Sunday afternoon but is achievable by a large percentage of thepopulation. We prefer to spend thousands of pounds on the latest go fasteraccessory for our cars in the hope to shave tenths of seconds off our laptimes yet, with proper instruction, you wont save tenths of seconds but morelike tens of seconds!

A driver of any level can benefit from instruction; be it a complete novice or a

seasoned pro that would benefit from a bit of lateral thinking on his racinglines or other aspect of his driving

For this reason can you afford not to at least try some instruction tomake your own assessment?


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Turning Driving into a Science as well as an Art!

During each session you will be assessed on aspects of your driving and wewill concentrate on areas requiring improvement over further sessions.Assessment will cover the following areas and will be broken down into

subsections.

(1) Ability to drive to instruction(2) Smoothness(3) Braking Techniques(4) Power Application(5) Mechanical Sympathy(6) Follow the Racing Line

Following each session on track there will be a short debrief and progress willbe fully explained, together with any further areas requiring more detailed

instruction.

Any relevant information will be included on assessment sheets which will beyours to keep at the end of the day (example at rear of pack). There is littlepoint having some technique explained to you for you to go away and forget itor why it is beneficial this is easy to do when you have just finished asession outon a track and the adrenalin is still flowing!

All on track instruction can be given via a high quality intercom whererequired. I can therefore guarantee you will be able to hear me whether weare out in a modern saloon, convertible or race car and you will gain maximumbenefit from good, clear communication.

At certain venues andwhere fitment in thevehicle allows all tracktime you receive will bebacked up by informationfrom the latest state of theart GPS Data Loggers toshow you what

improvements have beenmade throughout the dayand what different linesaround a circuit or differenttechniques mean inrelation to vehicleperformance. We can provide a CD containing all the logged Data andSoftware to analyse it at your leisure. (A basic printout will be provided on theday of logged data see prices in appendix for CD with software.)

Please Note: Many Trackday companies do not allow the use of timing equipment;

ANY INFORMATION GIVEN IS SUBJECT TO COPYRIGHT AND IS NOTFOR POSTING ON PUBLIC FORUMS but for PERSONAL USE ONLY.


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BASICS

There are a number of things that are always talked about on atrackday; oversteer, understeer and lines. These terms can sometimes

become a foreign language to the Novice, and this section will bringsome of the terms to an understandable level.For a car to go quickly there are several points that should berecognised by the driver so they can capitalise on a cars dynamicability.First of all, I will introduce you to the fundamental's that are the key tofast circuit driving. Throttle Balance, Braking, looking and planningahead, Hand Position, Weight Transfer and Vehicle Balance.

Understeer and Oversteer

These are basically the technical terms for front and rear-wheel skids,respectively. A tyre loses adhesion when forces acting on the vehicleexceed the coefficient of friction between the tyre and the roadsurface. Many things can cause this, such as excessive speed for theroad conditions, sudden braking, overly fierce acceleration and harshor excessive steering inputs. A car's condition can also play aninfluential role, particularly if the tyres or brakes are worn.

What is understeer

Skids don't just happen. They are a product of poor concentration andfailure to take road conditions into account. If you tackle a corner toofast, for example, the front tyres might nothave enough grip to cope with what you areasking them to do, and the car will tend toplough straight on (a car without anti-lock

brakes will also slide straight on, irrespectiveof any steering input, if you lock up thewheels under emergency braking). This isundersteer, so called because the car isliterally turning less than you want it to.To recover an understeering car, you mustease off the power and/or reduce thesteering input until the front tyres regainsufficient grip to negotiate the corner.


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What is Oversteer?

Oversteer is slightly more complicated,because front-wheel drive and rear-wheel

drive cars handle differently. In a FWD car,lifting off the power too sharply in mid-corner will cause a transfer of weighttowards the front of the vehicle; the backend will go light and the rear tyres will losegrip. The same thing applies to a rear-wheel drive car (the tail-heavy Porsche 911is a classic example), but with RWD youcan also break the adhesion of the reartyres by applying too much power whilecornering. Either way, the back end will

slide wide or the car might start to spin.This is known as oversteer (morespecifically "lift-off" and "power" oversteer)because the car is turning more than youwant it to.

It is harder to contain an oversteering car, particularly if you areinexperienced. You can apply "opposite lock" by turning "into" the skid(in the same direction the tail is moving - turn left to counter oversteerin a right-hand bend, and vice versa). Because you are effectivelypointing the front wheels in the direction you want to go, this is a morenatural reaction than it sounds, but many drivers do it too aggressively.If that happens, the car might start to oversteer in the opposite directionwhen the tyres bite, and you are likely to find yourself "fish-tailing"down the road.

In a FWD car, more power might help to pull the car out of oversteer. Ina RWD car, you must counteract the cause of the skid; more power willexacerbate power oversteer, but lifting off will cause a weight transferto the front and further reduce grip at the rear. Only a highly skilleddriver who knows exactly what he is doing in a RWD car should try todrive his way out of oversteer by keeping the power on; this involvesthe maintenance of a tricky dynamic balance between power, grip andopposite-lock steering.


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Understeer and Oversteer summary:

If the worsthappens and you

should spin, forwhatever reason,the quickest wayto regain control isto apply thebrakes as hard asyou can anddepress theclutch. Rememberthat a car is muchmore likely to spin

out of control indamp, wet or icyconditions, but never forget that you could encounter an unexpectedhazard - such as slippery fuel/oil spillage, mud, sand, loose gravel orfallen leaves - on an apparently dry surface.More than 90 per cent of all accidents involve a skid of some sort. Stayalert and you might have no need to worry about such things, but Imaintain that it brings a huge safety benefit for all drivers to invest acouple of hours in some form of skid control training, just in case. Noamount of theory will help you in a sudden emergency, when thenatural human reaction is to panic and freeze. But with skid controltuition and practice in a safe environment, you can gain an instinctiveunderstanding of how to stay out of trouble.

Hand positions?

The correct hand position on the steering wheel will help you achieveyour lines more smoothly and precisely. The old "driving school"

technique is not quick enough, nor accurate enough fortrack/performance driving. Hands spaced out at ten to two or quarterto three will give the driver the greatest leverage and precision whilesteering. Only moving one hand to change gear when necessary, theother hand should stay fixed in the reference position.By keeping your reference point on the steering wheel, it allows you tocatch oversteer quicker, turn into corners more accurately and have abetter feel for the car and the levels of grip provided by the front tyres.


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Throttle Balance\Power Balance\Constant Throttle

Through a corner a car needs to be as smooth as possible, any jerkymovements with the throttle can cause a loss of grip when cornering on thelimit due to a shift of weight distribution. Therefore a jerky throttle can induce a

spin if the driver isn't ready for it. Always aim to turn in to a corner on abalanced throttle, therefore stabalising the chassis and allowing it to work atits maximum potential. Power should applied smoothly and not until you arecertain you will not have to lift-off and the wheels are pointing at the chosenexit point.

Braking - what does it do?

You may think this a strange question? However, braking does more than justslow the car. Braking hard or on the limit shifts the cars weight to the front, thiscan then be fine tuned to help turn in by giving more grip to the front. This is

not a technique for beginners as it induces oversteer when done incorrectly.Aim to keep your car in a straight line while applying the brakes so that theweight transfer is evenly spread across the front axle line (not more on the leftthan right etc.). Once this technique is mastered then you will be ready toexperiment. You will start with braking in a straight line and going through thebasics. Once you are competent at this, we will then explain braking in itsmore complex form.

What is this Balance thing about?

This is a commonly used phrase, not just in circuit driving but all aspects ofdriving. It refers to the balance of the car, generally through a corner. As wediscussed earlier, the car shifts its weight while cornering. Everything you dowith the steering and throttle affects the overall car balance. By keepingeverything smooth, you can maintain more of a balance and therefore...grip. Ifyou are aggressive with the controls the balance is maintained for a very shorttime, if you are travelling at the tyres limit of grip, it will break away very easily.Turn in precisely and smoothly and apply power progressively at the apex andout of the corner. This will maintain ultimate balance.

What is an Apex?

An Apex is the geometric centre of a radius. On acircuit with an equal geometric radius corner, it's

easy to work out the apex. However, most cornerson circuits aren't geometrically equal; therefore you

can't refer technically to the term "Apex". It iscorrectly known as the "Clipping point". This is seen

as the point of a corner that the car passes by onthe inside. On a lot of circuits during a trackday the

organisers or track staff will set up the track withcoloured cones to mark out the turn in point and

clipping points to help you work out the lines arounda circuit.


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Tell me about the racing line?

The "Line of least resistance" or "racing line": This is the line through a corner orcombination of corners that enables the car to travel through at its safest, fastestspeed. Primarily it's the straightest geometric line through a corner. Somecorners lead onto straights and some into other corners of various radiuses.Placing the car in the right place before a corner is vital. Start from the outside ofthe corner, come to the inside (apex) and move to the outside, using the fullwidth of the circuit.Sometimes the line is altered from the geometric so as to capitaliseon the exit of a corner and actually lose a little on the entry. This isknown as "compromising the racing line ". On a track where one corner leadsinto another it is sometimes necessary to compromise the first in order to exit the

second corner correctly.


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OVERSTEER / UNDERSTEER CORRECTIONS

Understeer Corrections Oversteer Corrections.

Push, ploughing, front tyres slide out first. Loose, rear tyres slide out first.

Usually slight understeer is safer. Oversteer can be dangerous, especially at high speeds.

Raise front tyre pressure. Lower front tyre pressure.

Lower rear tyre pressure. Raise rear tyre pressure.Soften front shocks. Stiffen Bump. Stiffen front shocks.

Stiffen rear shocks. Soften rear shocks.Lower front end. Raise front end.

Raise rear end. Lower rear end.Widen front track. Reduce rear track.

Fit shorter front tyres. Fit taller front tyres.Fit taller rear tyres. Fit shorter rear tyres.

Fit wider front tyres. Fit narrower front tyres.

Fit narrower rear tyres. Fit wider rear tyres.

Soften front anti roll bar. Stiffen front anti roll bar.Stiffen rear anti roll bar. Soften rear anti roll bar.

Increase front wheel toe out. Increase front wheel toe in.Reduce rear toe in slightly. Increase rear toe in.

Increase front negative camber. Reduce front negative camber.Increase positive castor. Reduce positive castor.

Soften front springs. Stiffen front springs.

Stiffen rear springs. Soften rear springs.

Increase front suspension travel. Increase rear suspension travel.

Fit wider front wheels. Fit wider rear wheels.

Use softer front compound if possible. Use harder front compound if possible.Use harder rear compound if possible. Use softer rear compound if possible.

Remove weight from front of vehicle. Add weight to front of vehicle.Add weight to rear of vehicle. Remove weight from rear of vehicle.

Drive a different line. (Avoid early turn in) Driver may be going in too deep.Use weight transfer to your advantage. Driver may be getting on the throttle to early.

High Speed. Increase front wing downforce. High Speed. Increase rear wing downforce.

Vehicle is TWITCHY at limit and hard to keep Vehicle slides and is easy to drive at limit but

ahead of in the steering department. does not corner to full potential.

Lower front and rear tyre pressures slightly. Raise front and rear tyre pressures slightly.

Suspension may be too stiff. Suspension may be too soft.Shocks may be set too firm. Shocks may be too soft.

Tyres may be old or hard. Roll centres may be too high.Vehicle may not have enough suspension travel. Lower vehicle.

Vehicle may have an alignment problem front or rear. Tyres may be too hard.

Increase negative camber front and rear if possible. Widen track front & rear.


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Looking Through a corner is Vital to performance driving on the Track

as displayed by Howard during one of his races!!

Please See Howards Ways on next Page!


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Howards Ways:

1. When approaching a corner lookahead and assess its shape/speed.

2. Smooth/positive application ofbrakes.

3. Constant brake pressurethroughout braking area.

4. Gear Downchange middle 1/3of braking area.

5. 2/3 of the way through brakingarea look into clipping point.

6. At turn in point, turn in smoothlyand positively to clipping point.

7. At the same time as you turn in,release brake pressure andbalance throttle.

8. 10 metres prior to clipping pointlook to exit.

9. When exit can be seen andsteering input starts to decrease

progressively accelerate to exit.

10.The amount of steering input isproportional to the amount of

power applied.


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Apendix:

All prices quoted for vehicle hire are subject to a 1500 surcharge in the event of

damage being caused.

Prices DO NOT include the booking of a Trackday/test day.

Prices (correct as of 01/01/07)

Tuition:

Full day tuition with Howard Hunt 250

Half Days Tuition 160

Car Club or Group Booking (full day

spent solely with Club)

300

Corporate Days P.O.A.

CD containing Data Logged Files &

Software

20/copy

Vehicle Hire: Prices all include hire of Vehicle and

Instructor

Mazda MX 5 Race Car 450

Caterham Superlight (Provided by

BookaTrack.com)

550

Lotus Elise (Standard) BLiNK

Motorsport

650

Lotus Elise (Honda VTEC Power)BLiNK Motorsport

700

CircuitInstruction.com can cater for

all types of events and we are willing to

tailor packages to suit just give me a

call or send an email to

[email protected]

P.O.A.


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Circuit Instruction.com

Driver Analysis

Date Name of Driver

Car Weather conditions

Instructor .. Session No.

Steering CommentsHand Position /10

Application /10

Control /10

CorneringApproach /10

Braking /10

Speed /10

Line /10

Throttle Balance /10

GearsGear Change Technique /10

Clutch control /10

Total /100

InstructorsSummary

Documents

Circuit Instruction