Addiction

Confession time, Autocrossers, confession time:  I am a Type 1 junkie.  Type 1 turns, that is.

Recall from the last Solo Line that a type 1 turn is a turn leading onto a straight.  It requires a late apex, usually about two-thirds around the arc of the turn.  If I set the turn up correctly and hit the required late apex, I can apply full throttle prior to or at the apex, and I effectively increase the length of the straight.  I get a longer full throttle run than the driver who takes a different line or who charges the turn and misses the apex.  Check my logic here, but I think that if I am at full throttle from the apex of the turn to the end of the straight, I will get to the end of the straight in less time than a driver in the same car who doesn’t get to full throttle until some point past the apex of the turn; and I think that I can deduct bonus tenths if I get to full throttle before the apex.  So, I am always looking for the straights and the type 1 turns leading onto them.  Following is an example from a Solo National Course:

I hope we all see a short straight from pylon 141 to pylon 145. Everyone knows how to go fast down the straight. The challenge is to decide where and how to do the turn leading onto the straight.

Running point to point from pylon 132 to 141 would mean that I could not start the straight (go to full throttle) until somewhere around pylon 142 because I would have to slow down at 141 to keep from going off course around the wrong side of 142.

As approximated by the dashed line, I chose to begin the left turn just past pylon 132 and start the straight (go to full throttle) approximately at point A. This gave me a much longer full throttle run than the driver going point to point from 132 to 141.  Pylon 141 was the late, late apex because that pesky pylon 142 severely limited the amount of room for exiting the turn.  My straight was from point A to the braking point (approximately at point B) for the type 2 turn at the end of the straight.

Now hark back to “Slow Down to Go Fast.”  Because of the space available in the section of the course preceding pylon 132, it was very easy to come charging around the prior turn, wind up out around pylon 135, then have to make a much sharper turn at 141.  The challenge, the subtlety of the turn, was to give up speed before pylon 132 to get out on the chalk line and start the straight from point A.

But what if we have just finished our first walk-through and we are thinking, “Where’s the straights?  Chee-it!  This here sucker course is all turns, no straights. Where is that Solo Line guy? Let’s get his face on the pavement.”

If there are no immediately obvious straights, I try to make some (because I need that type 1 “fix”). Consider the following diagram from the opening segment of the same National course:

Pylons 33, 36, 37, and 40 could have been run as an offset slalom; but it appeared to me that if I slalomed from 33 to 36, I would have to slow way down to make the turns around 36 and 37. Needing my “fix,” I chose instead to start a type 1 left turn at pylon 33. This gave me a full throttle run from point A to just past pylon 40 (small steering input for pylons 36, 37, and 40 but not enough to require lifting off the throttle).  I gave up a little bit of speed around pylon 33 and “made” a fairly long “straight” from point A to pylon 40.

To get to point A, I had to start planning the line from the staging light. If I got off line anywhere from staging to pylon 33, I would miss point A and would have to brake or run at part throttle around 36 and 37. The dash line approximates my line.

Why so far left between 25 and 27 rather than run that obvious straight as a straight?  Two reasons:  (1) The distance between 25 and 27 was much shorter than the distance from Point A to pylon 40.  I gave up the short straight to get the long straight.  (2) From the start line to around pylon 28, the course ran level or slightly up hill. Somewhere around 28, there was a ridge, and the course went down hill all the way to pylon 42 or 44.  Charging too hard over that ridge would have sent me sliding clear out to pylon 34 causing the turn around pylon 36 to be a very sharp left.  I set up the wider arc to be pointed in the right direction when I crossed the ridge.  (“Carnal Knowledge” and “Location, Location”)

Now, PLEASE.  I do not suggest that this is the only way to do this course section.  I am using this only as an example of the way I chose to set up a full throttle run and avoid having to brake at 36 or 37.  If I walked that section today, I might see things differently and take a different approach.  (Or I might try to do it exactly the same, since I did have the quickest time in the class on that course on that day).

One more PLEASE:  Don’t lock in on that “apex two-thirds around the arc of the turn.”  Instead, lock in on “approximately.”  The actual apex will be determined by the turn radius (constant, decreasing, increasing) and by the amount of space available at the exit.

Also, KEEP IN MIND: On a course where sand or gravel comes out of the surface, it is very important to walk the course just before your heat starts.  Because of the gravel, Carr’s morning “Solo Line” to victory may be an afternoon slow boat to twelfth place.  After a forty car heat finishes it’s one hundred twenty runs with all but a few drivers running tight lines, there is probably a substantial amount of gravel covering parts of the “preferred” line.  When that happens (and it has happened a lot at National), I adjust to the tight line and run where the pavement is clean.  Drivers in my class have told me that their tires or cars didn’t work as well as mine; but in many cases, they were trying to drive “the line” and the line was covered with loose gravel.

Whew! Line analysis takes a whole lot of ‘splainin. And after it’s ‘splained, there is much potential debate. Is anybody still awake?

Finish Line:

I hope you understand that I very much enjoy this sport.  And I hope that you have found something here that you can use.  I have tried with these few articles to share the key lessons that I have learned in 35 years of autocross competition.  Using the techniques described in these five articles, I have won three National Championships.  I would be very excited to hear that something in my articles helped another competitor gain a second and win an event.

There are many more tips and techniques and many more methods or theories of course analysis.  There are excellent schools with instructors who have won more championships.  If you have the desire to win, and if you have the time and opportunity, definitely attend one or more of the autocross schools.  And practice what they teach you.  In autocross as in every sport, practice does make perfect.

Tagged as: apex, craig carr, type 1 turn