Every racer's worst enemy? A lack of awareness.

I’ve just returned from the SCCA Runoffs at Road America, and I am horrified. I saw three enormous incidents, all for the same exact reason, one witnessed with my own eye, another by my very capable coaching client Patrick Utt, and two of which sent drivers to the hospital and gorgeous, expensive GT2-class race cars to the scrap heap.

And all of the above was immensely avoidable.

Drivers, everything you do with your car sends messages to the drivers around you. Street and track. This is a fundamental understanding we must all emphasize to others, newbie and experienced. Cars in front, beside and, most dangerously of all, behind and bearing down on you are affected by what you do and make decisions based on those moves or non-moves.

Let me tell the crash stories: Patrick was in his TA2 Camaro, a powerful, rear-drive Trans Am car, and I was watching from Canada Corner, looking up the bending “straight” that follows the incredible high-speed Kink. I put quotes around straight because it is flat out in every car ever, but it has a gentle bend the whole way.

I know he’s coming soon, when suddenly there is a nuclear holocaust of exploding car parts. An aging but highly experienced champion has just slammed the wall as he came into view. I shout, “Crash! Crash! Track blocked!” over the radio, and Patrick slows and picks his way through.

Next day, Patrick himself is coming out of the Kink–exact same place–catching a much slower car. Later I watch the in-car video and see the slower car coming over and wrapping itself around the nose of Pat’s Camaro. By a pure miracle from the racing gods, the other car immediately locks the brakes when sideways and no one hits the wall.

Next day–same exact spot, same exact reason–an old friend and competitor from my World Challenge days tangles with a slower car and slams the wall. Again, the faster driver is hospitalized, and his car utterly destroyed. That makes three times in two days.

Here’s what happened: Each time, a much faster driver caught a much slower driver through the Kink. And each time, the faster car slowed a bit, wisely, waiting to see what the slower car was going to do after the Kink. 

Now, the following “straight” gently bends right, then even more gently curves back to the left, all the way to the brake zone for the next real turn, Canada Corner. Each time, the much slower car tracked out to left, logically, out of the Kink. Each time, the slower car then moved all the way across the track to the right–which, by the way, is not the correct line. The curve to the left is so gentle that it doesn’t need to be set up to the right.

Well, to all three faster drivers, it appeared the slow car ahead was moving over to let them pass, so all three quite logically accelerated and stayed left on the normal racing line to pass. All’s well till the next moment.

And in that awful moment, in all three cases, the slower driver moved left with authority, aiming for an unnecessary apex, right into the path of the faster car, and mayhem ensued. Oh, the humanity! 

It is likely in all three cases that the slower drivers never realized the faster ones were coming. Or worse, they may have been told that dangerous, common driver-school half-truth: “Hold your line.”

I know it can be very distracting to be learning a new course, but one must always check mirrors frequently to create that Envelope of Awareness. Always know what’s going on around you, especially if you’re slow, and further, know when you’re slow and be extra sure of what’s behind you. It could be approaching like a hungry bear after a wounded fawn! You are always part of a flow on track. Flow with it.

The damage done in this three-peat of lack of awareness was enormous–financially and, even worse, physically. The fact that it was repeated in a carbon copy indicates that we are not doing a good enough job of expressing the importance of awareness. If you instruct, coach or just talk in the paddock with friends, please do move this issue up your priority list, especially with newbies.

And if I may expound on my rant about “Hold your line”: It means do not attempt to pull out of the way of faster traffic, but rather, be predictable. 

There’s also a critical corollary that I have never heard in driver schools: Hold your line does not mean pull INTO THE WAY of much faster cars! When you’ve looked back and you know a much quicker car is coming hard, just stay a little wide around the turn and leave them a lane of racing room. We are all in this together. 

Leaving a lane inside–or even outside if it works out that way–lowers your risk a lot and will generate undying gratitude from the faster drivers. Perhaps you’ll get a friendly wave rather than a shaking fist or worse. 

The Envelope of Awareness: What are you catching and when? What is coming up from behind and when? It’s much more important on hilly tracks like Sonoma, Road Atlanta and Mid-Ohio, because faster cars can appear suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere.

And in Patrick’s case, the frustration was even greater because he had complained about this same driver’s lack of awareness or cooperation earlier in the weekend. Then, on the last lap of his race, a car being lapped, who had just been passed by the leader (Hello?), turned down on pursuing the pack, taking out the first two! Guess who?

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