Hey everyone! One of the most common questions I get is from drivers/riders asking how they can practice dealing with low-grip situations. Usually, it's very focused specifically on learning to make saves in oversteer moments.
I've found 4 core ways to practice this and listed them in order of effectiveness. I'm sure this list is not exhaustive, so if you have other ideas please reply to this email so I can start putting together a list!
- Driving on old tires: One of the best things you can do (and cheapest) is to simply drive on really old tires. As the tires go away, the vehicle should start to slide more and we'll need to adjust our driving. Learning to maximize lap times on old tires is a great way to practice our control of the vehicle during oversteer and understeer moments.
- Good tires on the front and old tires on the rear: What causes oversteer? When the front has more grip relative to the rear. Having stickier tires on the front vs. the rear is a great way to ensure you will get oversteer. Go out on a test day, turn off your lap timer, and just practice learning to control the oversteer.
- Rally School: Okay, this one is on here because it sounds like just a ton of fun! But, I think it genuinely will help as well. Rally is a low-grip form of racing and the vehicle will slide underneath you more. You'll have a ton of opportunities to practice car control in a really fun environment. Sure, not all the techniques you will learn will translate to the race track, but car control wise I think it will.
- Skid Pad: The skid pad is at the bottom of my list for one major reason: on the skid pad we are purposely inducing the slide and expecting it. We never have that on the race track. So, I don't think it's a perfect tool. That being said, it's still a great practice tool for learning how to react once you get the slide and getting more comfortable and confident in your ability to control it.
The big takeaway is if you race, drive, or ride learning to control the vehicle in low grip situations is 100% a learnable skill. Like any learnable skill, there is a simple formula that if we follow will lead to results:
practice + focus + consistent coaching = performance gains
Give it some time and you will see improvements in yourself! Another great way to learn is if you have had a recent spin, send that video to your Blayze coach!
Let them analyze what led to the spin and if we could have improved anything we did as we lost control - I've always been surprised at how helpful these coaching sessions are and the impact they can make the next time you find yourself in that situation.
If you're looking for more help on the techniques of how to deal with oversteer or setup on how to reduce oversteer then check out our oversteer masterclass article here!
