Larry Herman

One thing that you will find in the rain, besides trying to drive where there is grip, is that the car will still accelerate and brake fairly well, but will not corner worth beans. The attached friction circle visualizes this. So if you are trying to take a "wet line" you will want to maximize what the car still does well and minimize what it does poorly. Where possible, I'll drive the course inversely i.e. braking down the inside of a turn, going to the outside of the corner and turning the car hard, and accelerating back up the inside. This also keeps me off of the slippery portions of the track as much as possible.

Bryan Watts

Crazy Canuck

The track I normally drive has great wet traction.

Perhaps they are not as good on a slipprier track.

The tires are 10x grippier than RA1s/R888s etc. in the rain.

dmwhite

so you're faster in the wet on your dunlops than you would be in the dry on hoosiers/hankooks/bfgs?


i would hope so, toyos suck in the rain...

Mark in Baltimore

What?? You're going to scare all of the noobs into thinking that driving on the track in the rain is more dangerous than the dry. Think of the children!

Bryan Watts

We use Dunlop rain tires. They are GREAT GREAT rain tires, but they certainly don't produce the same grip in the wet as R-comps (even crappy R-comps like Toyo's) do in the dry as you said in your first post.

Professor Helmüt Tester

"Don't fall off the track" - Professor Helmüt Tester - at a rain race, sometime in the last decade

My and my co-drover once won wet/dry/wet/dry/rinse & repeat 12-hour race in a highly competitive class (Piñatas) simply by following the adage above.

Hint: Most race car drovers don't get smarter or better when it's damp out.

Larry Herman

Prof, you crack me up. Some day I hope to run into you at the bar. Hopefully I will not be driving at the time.

Veloce Raptor

Yup. You want to cross the dry line in corners (where the pavement is polished and there is lots of rubber) at as close to a right angle as possible, too.







Professional Racing and Driving Coach

Azikara

In general "search for grip" is what it's all about. Start here --> What I've found is that you want to move over half a car width on braking. This is beacuse you want to avoid where the typical line is as the line has rubber and oils baked into it. This combined with a wet track is slippery. If you are over half a car width on braking then you are straddling th etypical line. Then on entry drive through the normal line towards the edge of the track and typically around the outside searching for grip as you go. This is one of the safest ways to start...once you have done this a few times you will work out where there is more grip and where there is less. Each lap can be different as the track either dries or gets wetter. You need to constantly seek grip anywhere you can find it. It's fun!

d15b7

i'm with bryan; i LOVE the rain. i gleefully walk around the paddock, rubbing my hands together, smiling, as the dark clouds build and the rain starts to fall....

as was said before, i think it's rather simple -- you search for where the grip is best; you avoid the deep standing water; you maximize your straight line accel and braking, and you use your car handling skills to overcome the competition. the right frame-of-mind is important; if you find yourself dreading the situation and being frightened of the car/track during wet conditions, then you will do poorly.

a wet race really gives one the opportunity to excel, even if your car is not on par with the others in terms of horsepower/tuning/development. my car(s) are typically 'shoe string' operations, so i am always underprepped compared to most others in my class. none of that matters in the rain, though!

i hope we get heavy rain at the end of this month, for VIR, with NASA!

todd
ReidSpeed

PS the other reason i really love rain is because there is very low wear rate on consumables -- tires and brakes. i can usually squeeze 7 dry weekends from a set of tires, and maybe 4 dry weekends from a set of brakepads. if it rained every raceweekend, i bet i could go 3x that long!

Crazy Canuck

Never driven w/Hoosiers etc. Just Michelin slicks, sport cups and RA-1s.

I may have exaggerated a little but in the rain Dunlop rains are within a couple seconds of Michelin Pilot Sport Cups.

sleder

Bring on rain, just may the powers that be make the decision to rain, and remain wet. I don't like changing tires after looking at the sky, then the radar report, and changing the tire again back to drys. I love the rain!

mark kibort

There is so little grip in the rain. What I try to do is go as fast as I can on the straights and brake early and as hard as the tires allow, taking the turn, and applying power just as the back end starts to step out. I Like it, but its scary and the adrenalin strarts to flow, because you are so close to the edge. I also worry about other cars, as lockup can have a guy in your lap before you kow it. I havent tried rains yet, so all my racing in the rain has been on near slicks, which is not smart. Ive always loved driving in the snow and thats what racing in the rain reminds me of. You try and find the limit quickly and stay just under it.

I dont know if that helps at all, but its all I got on the topic. Last race, i did pretty well considering I was on slicks and most the other guys were on rains. That was Laguna. At Sears, with all the constant turns, I think the entire pack up to about half the group, passed me and I didnt see anything I could do to find it out. I think I was a little more bold at Laguna, but it was much easier to go fast in the wet there do to the track layout.

mglobe

Truth.

+juan