by Gary Black San Jose CA

 

My friend Doug Scranton and I decided we wanted to go vintage racing with his Healey. To learn how, we signed up for the Russell Racing School at the Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey, California. I went first because Doug couldn't make the February class. Here's what happened.

 

Day One -- A 30-minute orientation

 

I showed up at the track at BAM. I was issued a helmet and driving suit, and went to a 30-minute orientation where we introduced ourselves and were told that we would have to pay for any damage we incurred by running into barriers around the track, but not to worry because the cars were pretty inex­pensive to repair. Talk of running into barriers was not what I needed to hear.

 

Then we got into the "Formula Fords" we would be driving for the next three days. These cars are used for beginners like me. They are small open -wheel cars with excellent brakes and a four-cylinder engine derived from a Ford Pinto. (One class member joked that he hoped the gas tank wasn't in the back)

 

Then I realized we were going out on the track the first morning of instruction and I didn't know how to drive a race car. Wait a minute! I hoped the instructors wouldn't see me shaking with nervous­ness as they patiently explained the controls of the cars. But once in the car I felt a little better. The cockpit is very small and snug. The pedals are very close together to allow the heel-and - toe downshifting. The shift lever is right next to the steering wheel and needs only fingertip movement to shift. The instructors told us that we needn't manhandle the shifter. and those of us that were using too much force would develop bruises on our hands. "How ridiculous," I thought until I showed up the next day with my hand so sore I could hardly hold the shifter. Some students were even worse and had to have their shifting hands taped.

 

After we were all cinched into our seatbelts, we started the cars to head onto the track They start like a Healey -- turn on the ignition. press the start button. and then repeat several times until the engine actu­ally starts. I was feeling more confident (I found first gear without any trouble) until I let out the clutch and stalled. It turns out that we all did that. First gear is very high and much slipping of the clutch is necessary to get the cars rolling.

 

My Nemesis: Heel-and-Toe Downshifting

 

Our first exercise on the track was to practice heel-and-toe down-shifting. The cars use Hewland racing four-speed gearboxes with no synchros, and therein was one of the challenges that gave us the most trouble. Our instructors called this one of the fundamental skills of race driving. The idea of heel-­and-toe downshifting is to put on the brakes with one half of the right foot while using the other half of the right foot to rev the engine for downshifting.

 

This is done while approaching •• corner to (1) slow down to make the turn, and (2) select the proper gear for exiting the corner. The engine needs to be revved for downshifting because the gearbox has no synchros, and the gearbox and engine RPM's must be matched in order for the gears to mesh. I had no problem with the theory, but the practice was another

matter. Several times I forgot to rev the engine, I was greeted with the sound of grinding gears as I tried to force that shift lever (more hand bruises).

 

The instructors had laid out four cones in a line. We were to approach at 3200 RPM in fourth gear, brake at the first cone, down shift to third at the second cone. Down shift to second at the third cone, and downshift to first at the last cone. This sounds simple but was more than I could handle, and I wasn't alone. Over and over and over again we went through this exercise. The foot sequence became my mantra: "brake, clutch in. rev, clutch out, clutch in, rev. clutch out, clutch in, rev clutch out, brake off." Periodically, the instructors would pull each of us in and go over the sequence, point out what we were doing wrong and send us back out for more practice.

 

By lunchtime on the first day I was feeling ter­rible; I could not get the hang of the heel-and-toe downshifting. I would either forget to stay on the brake the whole time. or forget to let out the clutch, or something. In talking to my fellow students I found that I wasn't alone. I felt better but still wished I could master the technique.

 

After lunch we got back in our cars to practice something called "threshold braking." It turns out that threshold braking means jamming on the brakes as hard as you can without causing the wheels to lock All right! I thought; here was an exercise that I could handle. We all had fun with this one, which was designed to let us get the feel for just how much braking our cars could take. Over and over again we approached a cone at 3200 RPM in fourth gear and slammed on the brakes to see if we could slow to 5 MPH before the second cone without downshifting. Some students braked a bit too hard, sending telltale columns of tire smoke high into the air. They also found out that a car with locked front wheels doesn't steer too well.

 

After we finished our threshold braking exercise, we went into the classroom for two hours of instruc­tion on the theory of cornering, the racing line, and car control. We learned about under steer and over steer, both foreign concepts to me up to that point. We were taught that in order to post the best lap times, we needed to exit each corner at the highest possible speed. That would give us the advantage down the straight-aways.

 

We also learned about spins -- what causes them and what to do when you are in one. I remember the instructor saying "If you spin, both feet in." This means to jam on the brake and the clutch and then don't do anything else until the car comes to a complete stop. I had occasion to put this knowledge into practice on the third day. Then we went for a walk around the track and marked the shift points as the instructors showed us the proper way to take each corner.

I finished the first day feeling excited about the course but pessimistic about my ability to ever learn the footwork necessary to drive a race car. I practiced heel-and- toe downshifting in my street car all the way home, but I never got it right. Perhaps an automatic transmission would help.

 

Day Two -- Gary Gets It Right

 

I woke up the next morning able to do the braking and downshifting correctly. I don't know what hap­pened; maybe I dreamed about it all night. I drove to the track and could do it in my street car, and could also do it in the race car during our first practice session. Now I was having fun and came back to the pits after each practice session with a big smile on my face!

We started the day with a cornering exercise.

 

Over and over again we went through Turn 11 (the tightest corner at Laguna Seca), looped through the pits, and went through Turn 11 again. The loop provided many more opportunities to practice our heel-and-toe downshifting in addition to practicing the corner.

 

This was great fun. We would approach the corner at 3200 RPM in third gear, get pointed straight, hit the brakes at the braking cone the instructors had set for us, downshift twice to first gear, and then turn into the corner at the turn-in cone they had set for us. We would then hit the apex and accelerate out to within two feet of the wall. As we did this over and over, the instructors would periodically pull us over and tell us what we needed to improve on. This cornering business is not so easy. Our instructors

reminded us that this is what road racing is all about since anyone can drive the straight-aways, and they caught every little mistake--we let off the brakes too abruptly, we turned the wheel to abruptly, we missed the apex by 12 inches (within two inches was accept­able), we turned in too early, we turned in too late, we were looking down when we were supposed to be looking ahead. At one point I got pulled over and given a "parking ticket"--a not-too-subtle way of telling me that I was going way too slow through the corner.

 

After lunch we went out on the track for the "following car" exercise. We were divided into three groups of five cars with one instructor per group.

 

Figure 1:

The hard part of road racing is getting through the turns with the maximum speed. Figure 1 shows the basic cornering technique taught by the Russell school instructors.

 

The idea is to increase the radius of the corner so that the highest possible speed can be used. This is done by starting the turn at the edge of the pavement, hitting an apex on the other side of the pavement in the middle of the turn, and finishing the turn by drifting to the outside edge of the pavement.

 

To maintain maximum car control braking and downshifting are done in a straight line approaching the corner. At the turn-in point the brake is eased off and a steady throttle is maintained (not accelerating or decelerating) to the apex. After the apex the steering wheel is gradually unwound, and the throttle is applied. This is called "accelerating out of the turn."

 

Figure 2:

 

 

Shows what happens if the driver turns too early: At high speed the exit will happen well before the end of the corner, and according to the instruction manual "you will encounter whatever lies at track side with surprising finality." This is what caused my spin.

 

 

 

 

Figure 3:

 

shows what happens if you turn too late: A late apex means you will exit in the middle of the road. This is not really dangerous, but cuts down your lap time. The course went on to teach us how to respond to different types of corners (such as decreasing and increasing radius corners), and corners in a series. These variations ~re too lengthy to list here, but the basic cornering technique shown in

 

At high speed the exit will happen well before the end of the corner, and according to the instruction manual "you will encounter whatever lies at track side with surprising finality." This is what caused my spin. Figure 1 is a very good starting point.