I’m not going to lie – I had a long night of work on Sunday night and didn’t go to bed until just past 1am PST. So when the alarm went off at 5:30am, I could barely move enough to shut the alarm down. So I did not race at all on Monday, instead deciding to be as fresh as I could for the next morning.
And it was a good trade off – I was not only able to put together another 19 lap session with no crashes but I got a new personal best, mid-way through the session for a 1:19.476 – almost .3 faster than before.
What happened?
I’ve heard the following in various places and this is exactly what happened – whoever gets on full throttle first, without lifting, wins. I slowed down just a touch more for Turn 7, was able to get and stay on full throttle, just a fraction of a second sooner. This resulted in a massive drop in lap time as we approached the back-straight chicane and then, in this section, I worked on having a wider entry into the chicane, clipping both FIA rumble strips and getting on throttle as soon as I could.
All together, these two changes resulted in that almost .3 second improvement in fastest lap time!
Faster Average Lap Times and Average Fast Lap Times
More and more, this is what I am most excited about. Not just being able to put together one flying lap, but being able to be faster, consistently. My average lap times improved by almost .1 seconds and my average fast lap times improved by just over .2 seconds! Boom!
Specifically, it’s similar reasons as to how I improved my ultimate fastest lap – better runs into the back straight, the chicane but also, being able to get the car turned, faster and carry more speed through the ‘esses’.
Preparing for the real world
I’m really jacked about the progress, especially with a big race coming this next weekend at Portland International Raceways, with the Chicane. This track, because we run it twice and has been one of my weaker tracks, is exactly why I chose to train with Road Atlanta as the test track. Getting on throttle, quick, for long straight aways and a chicane are what I need to improve on for this track and excited to see how this translates to on-track results.