Randy Pobst: How to pass when you have the slower car

delaroux said:

I have a Mustang and trust me, you will never be catching me in your Miata anywhere. 

This sounds like a challenge. We'll put Randy in a Spec Miata and you in your Dark Horse.............the video should be entertaining regardless of the result.

As for the comments about Vette and Viper drivers; there is no shortage of people in high horsepower cars parking it in corners. Beyond it being annoying I don't have an issue with it. I'd rather they do that then throw it off the road; basically screwing the whole session. 

Good point, Tom. And... some of us can swing Vipers and Corvettes through corners, too. Why not, right? :)

But, oh, hey, instead of this random guy going against Randy in a Miata vs. Dark Horse, I'd uh... you know... fall on the sword for the guy. He's new here, after all. I'll step in. Someone uh... got a Dark Horse they don't need for like 3 hours?

Thanks for the ride-along Randy!

This is a topic of perpetual consternation for instructors, both for the slow faster car and the faster slow car. It's a teachable moment either way. Most students get it, but some of those slow-faster-car pilots just don't/won't. One of my favorite terms for these types is "skinny pedal hero".

In reply to confuZion3 :

The universe is balancing out here. That post makes a nice yang to the ying of all of us in gutless cars passing 911s and Mustangs.

A decade ago or so our Lemons (or Chumpcar, I forget which) e30 team was running at VIR in a 12 or 24-hour enduro.

During my first driving stint (leading off), I spend almost the entire 2 hours battling with a Miata (in our stock-engine 325i). It was a ton of fun, with lots of passing both ways.

During my second driving stint, after my first lap I see the same Miata coming out of the pits as I pass the exit, so I'm kind of excited to have another 2 hours of fun competition. About a minute later the Miata gets right by me and makes its way through traffic and lost from sight. Well, guess that driver is somewhat faster. About 30-45 minutes later, here comes the miata passing me again. A bit annoyed now, since I'm driving well and moving up in the overall standings. 45 minutes later, here it comes AGAIN - as the article noted, deftly using traffic to make moves on faster cars.

In the end, I come off track and say to my teammate how "that Miata driver" was some kind of ringer because I don't suck at racing :)

Turns out, that driver was Randy. I guess some random team was a driver short, asked around if anyone wanted to join them, and Randy was the person who rogered up.

Anyhow , just goes to show (not that we didn't all know already), that Randy ain't blowing smoke when he writes :)