Racing Safety: A Mindset
After losing a wheel due to a snapped stub axel, John Dettinger countersteers and averts a flip, then stabilizes the car and eases off-track and away from traffic - all in a split second and on three wheels! Heads-up, safety-conscious handling of an unpredictable incident. Moral: Think, be ready, react with coolness.
By Rich Conklin | Originally published Spring 2004 in Vintage Voice Magazine |
He’d seen enough broken race cars. So when VARA President Craig Hibbard called all the drivers together for a special Sunday morning meeting at Fontana, he cut right to the quick: “How many of you,” he asked, “spent more than $20,000 to come out and go vintage racing.”
Sheepishly, hands started to rise, and you could see his point already beginning to sink in on the collective face of the assembled drivers: This sport is expensive enough. Let’s not make it even cost even more by bending fenders, mangling suspensions and putting personal health in jeopardy the very first race weekend of the season. After all, this is a form of recreation, something we do for fun.
It was a well-timed appeal for VARA racers to stop and think. Sure, everyone was anxious to get out and run after a long winter layoff. Sure, everyone wanted to get a jump on the new season’s points race, to flex new muscles, to see how the mechanical tweaks made in the off-season would make their cars quicker, faster, sharper.
The problem was that we, as a group of drivers sharing a responsibility for each other’s welfare, weren’t sharp. Our collective mindset was dulled by ego, indifference to our competitors and just plain rusty reflexes. We were thinking as individuals, out for personal gain.
And while racing is by its very nature a game of one-upmanship, the attitude being displayed during the Saturday qualifying sessions at Fontana was too much ‘up yours’ and not enough ‘we’re all in this together.’
As The Vintage Voice launches its multi-part series on Racing Safety, we begin with the issue of driver attitude, and the thought process each of us as drivers must share in for VARA races to remain a safe, fun and affordable form of recreation.
While dueling, John Beard Sr. spins his Alfa at speed on Turn 6 at Willow Springs. Sighting his opponent while skidding backwards, he applies both clutch and brakes to minimize car wander, gaining a measure of control. This allows Efrain Olivares Jr. (in his MG) to pick a quick-decision path safely around the outside of Beard. Moral: "Eyes up;" find the moving target and steer away from it.
Consider the consequences
It’s easy to dismiss the whole idea of racing safety is a contradiction in terms. Racing is predicated on probing limits, pushing a car to the edge in search of speed. To know the limit, you’ve probably had to cross it. Cross it, and there are usually consequences.
What are those consequences? Hibbard’s remarks at the Fontana driver’s meeting put the answer in monetary terms. If you’re lucky, your trip over the edge was a solo affair, and the economic impact confined to your own wallet. Maybe you overshot your braking zone and flat-spotted a set of tires. There’s $500 or so. Missed a shift, over-revved the motor and broke a rocker arm? There’s another chunk of change. Pranged a fender or crumpled your A-arms against a tire wall? Get out your checkbook. (And if you’ve done enough damage to the wall, be prepared for the track to send you sizeable repair bill.)
Collect one or more other cars in your misfortune, however, and the costs for everyone involved escalate. And it’s not just the money. It’s the time.
Ask yourself: What’s a weekend worth? A fun one, where you’ve experienced some good, clean dicing with your follow competitors and emerged intact is, as they say, priceless. A miserable one, where you’ve crashed and been sent home early is more than an economic loss. It’s an emotional loss. You and everyone else have lost out on a weekend of fun. You’ll waste days, if not weeks, putting things right again. Instead of going back to family and jobs feeling re-energized, you’re frustrated and upset.
It’s easy to dismiss a lot of contact as a ‘racing incident.’ It’s a diplomatic term that seems to absolve all parties of culpability, leaving everyone with a sense that the contact was purely accidental – the price racers inevitably pay for playing the game. But every racing incident started with a decision, and that decision was made in the context of a mindset.
Ask yourself: what is your mind set on? As a driver, it’s a question you need to ask yourself often. In fact, it’s something you should ask yourself before every season, every race weekend, every session, and every lap. Doing so will put yourself in the right mindset for racing safely.
What are your goals for the season?
It should go without saying that every driver’s goal is to prepare his or her car to the highest safety standards. Again, it’s about attitude. Do you truly put safety first? Is your roll cage built to the meet the most recent standards, or is it merely ‘good enough’?
Are your seatbelts on the long side of their lifespan? And what about you seat? Advances in materials technology have created a new generation of racing seats that offer a far greater degree of crashworthiness than seats of just a couple of years ago. Are they expensive? When you seriously consider what you’re protecting, the answer should be obvious.
Is your motor ready for another season? Are you building a motor for durability, or are you pushing the envelope, risking an engine failure that not only takes you out, but potentially exposes others to the oil and engine debris that you leave in your wake.
Assuming your car is truly sorted, what are your goals as a driver? If it’s to win a class championship, more power to you. But are you mentally prepared for the effort? One of the keys to mental preparation is managing your time in the months, weeks and days before a race weekend.
In the weeks before a given event, have you practiced? Have you gone to an ‘open test day’ and honed your skills in a relatively low-consequences environment? Both Buttonwillow and Willow Springs have open testing, virtually every Friday. That’s dozens of chances to practice different lines, explore deeper braking, and generally develop a heightened awareness of the nuances of the track, your car and your own abilities.
Also, are you taking full advantage of the learning opportunities while you’re at a VARA race? Watching the other race groups, for example going up to the Budweiser Balcony to observe what line other front-running drivers take into Turns 1 and 2, or through the Hill Complex of Turns 3, 4 and 5, can give you valuable insight into how to set up and execute a safe pass.
What are you goals for the next race weekend?
You should start thinking about your goals very soon after your last race. Is the next event at a track you’ve raced on before? If so, how long has it been? Tracks do get resurfaced, as was the case with Buttonwillow last year, and the effect on your racing lines and passing strategies can be critical. Again, take advantage of the opportunity to test your race car during an Open Test session. The cost is very modest when you consider the expense of learning the hard way, on the opening lap of a qualifying session.
As a full field of cars transitions from California Speedway's high-speed banked Turn 2 into a "funnel" 90-degree slow-speed turn, a bunch-up occurs and is scattered by a driver charging from mid-pack. Going inside and hot, he passes several cars but overshoots the turn. A domino collision occurs, and 6-7 drivers go off-track to avert contact. Moral: Don't let traffic overtake your adrenalin, and don't lose orientation of yourself and your car on the track.
What are your goals for the each session?
While it’s easy to jump right out on a Saturday morning practice session and start racing, it may not be a mindset that ensures a safe start to the weekend. Your goal for Saturday morning, and the Sunday morning warm-up, should be to get into the right mindset for safe racing. Know your car. Know the track. Know yourself. Know your competition. Then set your strategy for the afternoon race.
A word about Sunday’s warm-up. It’s just that, a chance to warm up the brain, get the synapses firing again, sharpen the reflexes for what comes later in the day. Contact between race cars during Sunday warm-ups is totally unacceptable. You should be driving at 7/10ths, leaving plenty of margin for surprises. Remember, a fellow driver may be nursing an ill-tempered car, or worse, around the track at 9 a.m. Sunday. Tread lightly.
What is your race strategy?
Have you mentally projected how you’re going to run your race? What is your attitude going into to Turn One? For too many drivers, that attitude may be to ‘take-no-prisoners” – to be the last driver to lift, to go the deepest into the braking zone before slowing. If so, that’s your decision. Just make sure it’s a decision based on experience. Be sure you’ve practiced that move, and that you can pull it off. Think about it in advance, or spend the next 13 months thinking about it in hindsight, maybe from the sidelines.
That’s the crux of what Craig Hibbard was saying: You’ve spent too much money, and too much time, to get sidelined by the 13/13 rule. Vintage racing is a non-contact sport. It says so right in the rule book. And if you choose to believe otherwise, you can take a well-deserved vacation from VARA in which to reconsider that view.
