I want to start this with a disclaimer, the opinions and suggestions stated here are strictly my own. This is how I try to interact on the race track with my close competitors and fellow racers based on what I have been taught by PCA, and three visits to two different professional racing schools, and - what some of you might find surprising,- what I have picked up from hanging out with two very serious and skillful stock car racers, Vinny Annarummo, six time track champion at Seekonk Speedway and Bugsy Stevens three time National NASCAR Modified Champion. There are very few hard and fast “rules” on this subject, based on where you are in a race (number of laps to the finish) past experience with the track or history with another driver these guidelines are subject to adjustment. The one thing that does not change however is you had better be able to justify what went on to the race steward.
Brake point to turn in position.
If a driver can get to the inside of me and put the front bumper of his car at least to the front edge of my door between the my brake point and turn in point I figure he has earned the apex of that corner. I now have two choices if I want to “race” him. One is to get slowed down and pick a real deep turn in, get most of my turning done very early (make the cross over move) and beat him back to the throttle and re-pass under him as we track out. Or I can signal my intention to stay on the outside of him to the apex and on to track out. I tend to do this by coming off the brakes early enough that he can see me making ground on his outside as I follow his turn in move. This is a very common occurrence when a good braking naturally aspirated car is in company with a turbocharged one. The fastest line for us turbo guys is a looping entry early throttle and late apex. This leaves a tempting opening. If you can get to my A-pillar you have earned a car width plus two feet at the apex, but if you don’t my definition of “racing room” is that you are going to have to put two wheels on the berm! Another guide line here is what do I feel is going to happen long term. If it is the first lap and I’m pretty sure when the tires and I am up to speed I’m going to pull away, the race is on. If you have been catching me up steadily it is time to let the guy or gal go and learn something, if the car or my driving improve we can race later.
Class Vs Overall racing
PCA racing is suppose to be all about racing with cars in you class or “finding” racers running similar times and racing against them. This can be kind of a tricky issue. One good thing about our race weekend format is we have quite a lot of practices, fun races and qualifying sessions before the “feature races”. I strongly recommend that you make yourself known to the guys around you on the time sheet, especially if you are not in their class. If you are right in the middle of two or three guys in the same class I would strongly suggest talking to them and feeling them out on the subject? They might welcome you to the party, great every man for himself; but if they start telling stories about this being the rubber match of their personal, season long duel you have some decisions to make. I had this experience at Mid-Ohio this year. I was new to the track, not driving particularly well and the weather hampered practice. Thusly I ended up with the GTC3 leader pulling away and another two very good GTC3 racers who I had out qualified on my butt. They were having a hell of a good race behind me. I had already decided that if one of them got by me I would let them both go. Further it was dawning on me; even though they were racing each other hard behind me I was not pulling out a lead. This is a big signal that I should not be holding them up. As it turned out I had a mechanical failure so the decision was made for me. Generally if you inch up on someone or they inch up on you and no one else is real close the race is on. But be aware! If you are holding a guy off for a couple of laps and another car shows up back there, it might be his class rival that he had been pulling away from. PCA may not take official notice of who crosses the finish line first overall but you can be sure that in each race group there is a race to be one of the first three people under the checkered flag. My general feeling on the subject is this. From 5th overall forward everyone has to earn that pass with a good clean overtaking move. From 3rd to 1st overall I don’t care what class you are in I will defend and you will have to out fox me.
DEFENSE – taking his line Vs blocking
During the course of a race the lap times of cars and drivers change. Guys figure out ways to go faster or tires wear out and slow people down. What it all boils down to is we all want to finish the race in front of as my other racers as possible. The generally accepted protocol is that the car in front is allowed one move per strait or corner to try to deny the car behind from passing you. As a general rule if the lead car makes a mistake in a corner leading onto a long strait and the following car is catching you big time at track out you are cooked and might just as well take you medicine. If you do make a defensive move you will probably just make it easier for the overtaking car. Your move away from “the line” will allow the overtaking car to flow by you on the outside without any scrub of speed, if however if you are going to get caught mid to late in the strait “taking his line” will be an option. I feel it is more sportsmanlike to time the closing rate and make your defensive move first BEFORE the over taker makes his “flick or pop out”. It is also safer! If you wait for the very last second of closing both drivers can make their move simultaneously and thus both arrive at the same point (impact) with no time to react. When I make a line taking move I like to make it pretty big and obvious like 1 ½ car widths. In this way if he goes to the inside he will have to do something really special in the brake zone to establish a dominate position plus he should be really pinched down and slow at the apex and with a larger radius on the outside to work with fighting him off should not be too hard. On the other hand if he goes outside you are still in a good position - to control the corner and carry exit speed- as long as you can do a good job in the braking zone. Some times you can do what works with some racers and get taken to school. This year at the Watkins Glen enduro I started up front after developing a push during the sprint. I was running a good second a lap off my earlier times. A couple of laps in Wolf Henzler crushed me under braking into the bus stop and was about 6 car lengths back through the outer loop and headed down the hill into the laces. I knew my only chance was to try to hold the lead (hoping my front tires would come to me) was to hold him off to the toe of the boot where I could pull out some breathing room climbing the long hill with more power. I made a small move to the left hoping to bait him into out braking me to the apex, and then I might hem him in and hold him along side down to the toe where I would be on the inside and able to control the turn in. WRONG he held back far enough until I committed, so that as I slowed and started to look to the apex he planted his cup car door at my right front tire. Game – Set – Match, he danced right around me on the outside! Note; any time a guy makes an outside move and establishes his turn in point with a half of a car length lead he sure has earned the pass in my book. To conclude this section, if you make a good move and have the inside and overlap at track out and your competitor is out on the berm for crying out loud give him a car width of track by the time the berm runs out!
Angling & Chopping
It is an acceptable tactic when it is necessary to cross from on side of the track to the other to set up for the next corner to take as slight an angle as possible assuming you get to your turn in point. Naturally this takes more time and track and makes it hard for the overtaking car to judge what side to try you on. This can be very effective in combinations of corners. But remember once you set up your angle you can not reverse back across the track. That is blocking. My rule of thumb is that if I get overlap with a car and he is angling squeezing me I have to give ground until one of two things occurred. 1, I get up to his A-pillar/front edge of his door 2, my wheels are on the edge of the road. At ether of those two points I hold my ground. Chopping, that is a very last minute violent move in front of an overtaking car. On a strait it usually happens when an overtaking car pulls out to pass in a relaxed manner do to his belief the closing rate makes this an obvious situation. Waiting for an overtaking car with a significant speed advantage to get very close and then jerking you car in his path is a good way to get sent on a wild ride with lots of loud noises! Unfortunately do to the 13/13 rule some misguided racers think they can use the back of their car as a weapon. I have had this happen repeatedly with the same car, I took my video to the stewards and the situation was resolved. The other kind of chop is when someone does not quite establish his correct position between the brake point to the turn in point. Figuring that the over taker might be on his limit to get where he is (off your rear quarter) is not a bad idea. Yes he should be trying to back out of the situation but I would not recommend trying to put your inside wheels on the apex berm. Yes squeeze him and hem him in coming off the corner so you get a better launch. But blindly hoping that he will be gone is a real bad idea. I recently misjudged an opening while trying to follow a fellow I was racing through lap traffic. I was half way up the door of the lap car and starting to turn in and pick up the throttle when I saw out of the corner of my eye a big hand movement that said, he is coming all the way down!! No where to go but to put all four tires over the high berm and grab some grass with the left side. I came back on the track right behind him thinking “that was pretty #@@$%% unfriendly” I made sure I was fully along side at the next corner and gee, there are the marbles, I guess I can turn in now. One hand washes the other out there. One thing that really gets my goat is to establish a position with my nose some were between the A-pillar and fully along side a car between brake point and turn in and then have him let off the brakes and surge forward to an un-godly late turn in and chop me. It is one thing to stay along side and race two wide through the corner. But to surge out into no mans land and then use the tail of your car as weapon show a total lack of respect and sportsmanship for a person that made a “good move”.
Brake Checking and Gamesmanship
I define a brake check as when you have a person squarely behind you and you go to total threshold braking 20-30 yards early. It is wrong and a good way to get your self wrecked. As I told a guy not too long ago, “I dam near had you. If I had hit you I probably would have hit you good enough that you would have gone of sideways into that gravel trap. I might get 13 months of probation but you probably would have rolled you car” Obviously nobody wins or has a fun weekend if a scenario like this comes to pass. What I believe is acceptable gamesmanship is as a car is catching you up; you can show him a slightly early brake point in the corners where he has the advantage for a couple of laps, then about the time he is ready to make his move start using your max deep brake point. In other words ten to twenty feet one way or the other is screwing with the guys head. Twenty yards is using the back bumper as a weapon. Another ‘fair one” in my opinion is if your competitor is following you through (learning you) and you know his power band is not good off a corner adjust your turn in speed. That is he is committed to braking behind you so you brake at the normal point but trail off the brakes a little later over slowing say 3-5 MPH so he is between gears. In conclusion here is a quote from my pal Bugsy Steven’s book (3 times NASCAR Modified Div. Nation Champion) about leaving a guy racing room and giving him room to save his car. “Because see, when the race was over, we were all gong to go out in the parking lot and relax. Somebody was going to cook up some lobsters and clams and we were going to drink some beers together”
