Quote:
Originally Posted by Sirref
That actually does raise a good point, I do tend to focus on exits a lot more than the actual apexes.
Having not read this post until after my race weekend at summit point (last sat-today(mon)) I actually discovered this a little bit on my own with T1 at Summit Point. T1 is a very difficult corner after a long fast straight. It is tight, bumpy, and blind. My issue going in was braking far too early because I couldn't see the exit. After doing a track walk I learned a lot about the corner and found that I could use the apex as a focal point to help determine my closing speeds and turn in point. After the 15min practice session I had improved my entry to T1 dramatically and was finally hitting the line I wanted to without ever even looking at my exit point (it continues to curve right so looking farther out left wasn't ideal to begin with)
Across the next day (monday) I found myself passing people into T1 that I previously was passed by into the very same corner. I was able to brake far later and hold my line while maintaining the amount of momentum I wanted to through the corner. I even passed Brandon Paasch on the exit of T1 at one point in practice. He ended up going freakishly fast (3 seconds faster/lap) in the race though hahahahaha
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EXCELLENT!!!! When we talk about reference points we talk about having a minimum of three for each corner, turn in, apex and exit. If you try to look to the exit before you have pinpointed the apex, or before you know that you will arrive at the apex then you end up feeling lost and uncertain about where you are going.
Coming up to a corner and spotting the apex gives you a clear location of where you want to end up, helps improve consistency of your line and also helps maintain your entry speed (as you learned) because you are looking where you want to go. Great discovery!
Do you have a solid reference point for where you want to begin applying the brakes?