Tips I wish I was given to improve my practice laps

By: Scott Edwards

The following tips are just a few things that I've picked up over time, which although may be common sense to alot of people, would have been useful to have had pointed out from day 1.

 

Use a familiar setup when you try a new track

 

Even if its only a for 15 laps or so. Use a setup which you are familiar with. It will help you feel where the grip is and where the car is unsettled. I try to lap as quickly as possible with my base setup before either making my own or grabbing one from the forums. It's also good to be able to feel where someone else's set differs to yours.

 

Become consistent

 

This is vital. If your lap times aren't consistent you will find it difficult to know why you suddenly improved your PB lap by 2 tenths. You will also find it easier to learn from other drivers as you will recognise your braking/turn in markers compared to theirs. You will often hear professional drivers harping on about consistency. They harp on about it because it is important! Don’t worry about being super fast, just try to run 5-10 consecutive laps within .3-.4 of a second of each other.

 

Change 1 thing at a time

 

Once you are running consistently, you can start trying new lines, braking later or earlier etc. Just remember to only change one thing at a time, combined with running consistent laps, this will allow you to see what is actually making a difference and why.

 

Don’t just run lap after lap

 

Running lap after lap wont necessarily improve your lap times. You need to stay focused on improving the way you approach each corner. This applies to pretty much anything you do, using a pen a lot doesn’t improve your handwriting for example! Try to concentrate as you would during a race.

 

Watch videos online

 

A few of the alien drivers kindly post their laps online. A good example would be Luke McLean's videos on blip TV

 

Luke Mclean at Blip.tv

 

A quick search on YouTube and the like will usually show up some good examples. I'd recommend learning the track on your own first though, knowing where and why you are slower will help when you learn new tracks in the future.

 

Have a goal

 

Set yourself a target to work to. Perhaps improving by half a second or getting to within a certain percentage of the alien times for the track. If you lap without a goal it is easy to lose interest.

 

Run in TT to encourage clean driving

 

It is easy to stop concentrating when you are running practice laps. With no pressure from other drivers and no penalties for mistakes, you can find yourself running laps without really paying attention. Once you are consistent and know the circuit, try running TT's instead of offline practice. The threat of hurting your SR will encourage you to concentrate and it gives you a good measure of your consistency and average pace.

 

Check your last few race results, you can often see cars with fastest laps a second slower than others, yet they are on the podium. This is simply down to consistency (and not getting wrecked of course!).

 

Take a break if you get frustrated

 

Its easy to become frustrated, either from spinning or not improving your lap times. Take a break. Run some laps on a track you already know well or browse the forums for a while. Trying to learn a track whilst leaving imprints of your fingernails in the wheel can't be good for anyone.

 

Enjoy it

 

As soon as you stop enjoying it, you probably aren't going to get much quicker, jump into a race or run some laps on your favourite track.

 

I hope you found at least one of these tips helpful. Please leave your comments in the box below, I would love to know what you would like to see here on the news pages in the future.

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