triumph5 wrote:
1. Beware the red mist. TRY to stay calm
2. Races are NEVER won on the first lap. But they are often lost.
3. All comments on situational awareness apply.
4. Concentrate on the visuals more than one car ahead of you.
5. Flag stands. Flag stands. They're there for a reason.
Don't be afraid that you'll lose your manliness by not taking the hot line, behind the hot car, on you opening laps.
You'll put your cari in the guardrail, as you are in over your head.
6. Again, visuals, visuals, visuals. Be aware of who's around you.
7. With your eyes closed can you undo the belts, window net, and hit the on-board extinguisher?
8. You're there for the competition and the FUN. And don't forget your co-drivers.
My first race was in a Formula Ford, started mid pack at Riverside. That first corner is still a blur of a memory. But,
my biggest concern was to avoid other tires, and simply make it through the first lap. (Finished 10th in a 23 car field.) After that, strategy and race-craft. But, first, get through that first lap.
Hope this helps, and have fun.
This.
Mostly it's that 'red mist' thing, also known as buck fever. Remember, it's an endurance race and you have to finish both days in order to even be counted. If you lose your mind and start racing every goober who gets in your sight, you'll lose your primary focus, which is to click off laps like clockwork.
I can't stress watching the flags enough. LeMons uses a simplified SCCA flagging system, basically it's yellow for caution and red for full course STOP. When those flags are out, DO NOT PASS. Under yellow (even a waving double yellow) you can still stay with traffic, in fact this is a REAL good time to make up some space on the car ahead of you, or if it's going to be a long term full course yellow (badly busted car or big wreck on course), it's a perfect time to do a driver change and refuel if it's already close to hand off time. Less chance of losing a bunch of laps that way, compared to a pit under green.
Then there is the dreaded 'black flag', if that one is pointed at you then you have done something really stupid and the judges are gonna get a piece of your ass. The severity of the fangs in the fanny depends in no small part on the drivers' attitude (there's that 'red mist' thing again).
Plan the stints ahead of time! We ran 90 minutes per driver, the car got good enough gas mileage that we did a refuel every second driver change. But be prepared to change your schedule to fit full course yellows, etc.
Everybody should have a job during a driver change. There must be two people refueling, one hanfdling the gas and the other waiting very nearby (like 2-3 feet) with a fire extinguisher. Keep in mind that the team members refueling the car MUST be in full Nomex and wearing a helmet. That means being prepared! We did it by having a team member in Nomex ready with the gas and the driver would exit the car and grab the extinguisher. No one can be in the car or working on it during refueling. Once the refueling is done, check the car over and finish swapping out drivers ASAP. You need to check fluids etc during a driver change, this is why I say everybody should know their task and do it quickly.
In LeMons traffic, he with the bigger car gets the right of way. If you are driving a Civic and he's driving a Crown Vic, he can punt you out of the race and will probably wonder if he ever hit you. So let him go; chances are he will overdrive the big turd, spin out or go off course, get blackflagged and then you'll be able to make up laps while he's Miming the Crime. Of course, if you are driving the bigger car, the situation is reversed and can work to your advantage- IF you use your head.
Know something about your car's handling characteristics. We autocrossed each of our cars before actually racing them, we had an idea of what the cars were capable of. The first race session is no place to be learning your car!
You mentioned gear; in addition to the MANDATORY Snell '05 full coverage helmet (no open face helmets allowed!), you will need a 3.2/5 SFI race suit, Nomex socks, SFI approved racing shoes and gloves, if you have facial hair a balaclava and a neck support of some sort. The minimum neck support is a SFI neck collar and they prefer HANS, RG3, etc.
I don't know what the temps are like at Summit Point in June, down here it would be stupid hot. Under those conditions, Cool Shirts are worth their weight in gold. We built two DIY coolers for ~$40 each with two we could swap them out quickly during driver changes. Rig up a toggle switch so you can turn the thing off. I found it worked best if I turned it on for one lap, then off for 4 or 5, then back on for one etc.