Chasing the Win

While many movies have been made to try and capture the essence and thoughts of a race car driver. These films highlight some aspects of racing that are true but they will never be able to capture the relationship between driver and machine and the ultimate marriage to become one entity driven by forces not know by man but at a higher level.

Various events in our lives teach us who we are and who we want to be. My event is auto racing. Many times I have been asked what it's like to drive a racecar. This is difficult to explain because it is such a personal aspect of a driver's life. The only way that I can tell the story is to try to put you in a driver head. Hearing his thoughts and conversations he has with his car. During this story the driver will be and me and the car, we'll call her number "12". The setting for the story is Sears Point in Sonoma, California.

It's a brisk clear morning with a hint of fog draped over the vineyards of Sonoma. There is a sense of calmness in the air. Tranquility is the word for today. The track is quiet and cold but soon to be steaming with car and driver trying to find the balance between nature and the laws of physics, pushing each other to find the ultimate relationship.

Drivers are lined up waiting for their qualifying sessions to begin. Some drivers like to talk more than other and some just like to be quiet and begin developing the frame of mind required to push themselves and their car to the limit of adhesion. Knowing that the right balance requires you to become one with your machine and being able to stretch the tires to their ultimate slip angle just before traction is lost. We are always in control, demonstration of this control is when the car is sliding on all fours wheel, which we call a four-wheel drift. This is the balance between nature and the laws of physics.

It's time. There she sits, quiet but with a sense of being and confidence. We meet for the first time. The relationship starts but trust will need to be gained. She welcomes me in. I position my seat and make sure I'm comfortable with my feet, arms, and shifting position. Everything seems perfect. With seat belts fastened I put on my balclava, helmet, neck collar, arms restraints and gloves. You've now entered into my private racing world. I'm ready and she's ready. She needs to be warmed up. I turn on the fuel pump and then flip up the ignition switch. Clutch is in, gears transitioning to neutral and brake on. With a blip of the throttle I push the start button. Everything fires up. All pedals are now released and we sit to let her warm up a bit. We're both relaxed and ready to go. Suddenly we're waved onto the track. Here we go.

I put her in first and begin up the access road. Her tires are cold so we need to be careful. It's like driving with blocks of ice instead of rubber. We transition each turn with care giving the tires and brakes time to warm up which takes about four laps. We still haven't established the trust factor. It's now lap five and we begin to pickup speed. I reassure her that by the end of the sessions she'll have gained my trust and me hers. I reassure her that I'll be guiding her and not driving her. She seems to like that. Coming around turn eleven for the first hot lap out of a total of twelve qualifying laps. We've now made a commitment to each other and trust is building. I tell her to look forward and to tell me where she wants to go. I tell her that by the end of the session I will know where she wants to go but for now help me out a lot is going on. We have our eyes focused on turn one. It's a high speed left hand up hill sweeper. We exit turn twelve. Her tires are screaming on the exit. I haven't let her run out and drift. I'm pinching her down out of turn 1 and she doesn't like that. As a result our entry into turn two is affected. Can't setup properly because we don't have the right entry point and speed to carry us through. We push through and run out of room on the exit. On the way to turn three we move over to the right side of the track to prepare for a downhill left hander with a quick transition to turn 3A which is a right hander with a bit of elevation change. On the exit of 3A her back end gets light but I must resist lifting off the throttle otherwise we'll spin. She slips her back wheels, we're now in a two wheel drift which is not good. With a slight correction to her wheel I bring her back end back into position. Saved it!

Now we're headed downhill for turn four. I brake her lightly before the turn in point and back on the throttle at the turn in point looking ahead and giving her a slight rotation (slide) into the corner. Could have been closer to the curb. Exiting turn four I let her unwind. Not pinching her coming out of the corner. She transitions well out of the turn and allows me to maintain speed through a small turn five right hander with full throttle. The car is now drifting out on the exit of five so much that I don't think a can get her back to the right to set up for turn six, the carousel. I brake her with my left foot to balance her. Can't let off the gas otherwise we'll go off and hit the mountain. She settles in and allows me to get over and setup for six. I resist keeping her in fifth gear because I still can't trust her at maximum speed through six so I downshift to fourth gear. Giving her gas gradually the car is now in a rotation through turn sixes downhill negative camber left hand turn. She grips perfectly and we're full throttle at the apex. We're now drifting on four wheels on the exit. Seems like we have more room on the exit. We must have entered six a little late which gave us more room on her exit. Speed is good as we drift out. We have momentum to quickly step up to fifth gear. We're now at maximum RPM?s on the straight between turn six and seven. We cross under the bridge and setup for turn seven. I brake her hard a little late. She jumps around and gets a little unbalanced. She obviously didn't like my braking point for turn seven. Next time I'll brake earlier but lighter.

Our exit from seven sets us up for the esses, turn 8 and 8a. I have her in fourth gear going through a transition from seven and then into and through 8a. On the exit of turn 8a I aim for a flagger's station, this is where I should be able to shift up to fifth gear. The car is drifting through the esses and I'm beginning to trust her ability to hold the road. We're up to fifth gear into and out of turn 9, which is a left hand sweeper. Quickly approaching is the chicane. A quick left and right hand transition simply to slow us down. We're coming into the chicane at about 110-mph. I start braking her down to about sixty and then back on the gas through the entry of the chicane. The right wheel brushes the right hand curbing. Her backend comes out but the gas is still on. She corrects and exits nicely and we're now headed for turn 11, which is an increasing radius right hander. I brake hard to and then skip shift to 2nd from 4th. Need to focus on a set of tires at the apex. Need to ratchet the wheel in otherwise we'll run out of room on the exit and hit the wall. She handles the turn nicely and responds to input without complaint.

We're now on the straight headed for turn twelve and then to turn one. We continue for a few more laps getting to know each other and what we like and don't like. We adapt and compromise. It's now about half way through the session and can now pursue our ultimate goal. Everything is working right. Our entry points are perfect. We're able to drift with ease and we're now looking ahead together to where we want to end up. We both feel as one. It feels like a ballet. Effortlessly negotiating each turn. Sliding and drifting. All of a sudden there is calmness in our driving. While we are going very fast we are doing things in the cockpit slowly and calculated. Our eyes and mind are now one and we see everything ahead of us. Everything just seems connected and natural. We've found the balance!

The session is over and we are told that we have secured pole position. I was a bit surprised because I thought we could have gone faster given more time. We have gained a mutual trust and respect for each other and anxiously await our next meeting. I walk away from the crowd to gather my thoughts. I'll be the first to say that in a very competitive sport such as motor racing you loose more than you win and the non-winners are working very hard out there. Nobody will ever know unless they experience the dynamics of auto racing first hand.

The Race

The race was uneventful really. We were able to maintain first position and win the race. However, during the race her clutch started to slip. I never really learned what to do in this case while racing but I did remember something my Dad taught me years ago regarding clutch slippage. I've you're in a high gear especially going up hill the clutch is most likely to slip if it's going bad. I really started to notice her clutch slipping out of turn 12 and feared that I wouldn't have the necessary momentum to carry us through turn one. I was able to extended the gears carefully without slippage to maintain momentum up through turn one but had to feather the throttle to save the clutch from slipping. I was instructed by the officials to slow down because if this condition but I couldn't slow down much otherwise I would be passed. Fortunately we held together.