What can you learn from another driver’s mistakes? A lot! Lockton Motorsports is sharing Motorsports Mishaps to help everyone have better days at the track.
How 3 Tricky Turns at VIR Ended in the Grass
This Mishap comes to us from Adam, featuring three short clips of some very common types of turn incidents.
Fortunately, Adam avoided damage to his car in all three incidents. This triple feature takes place at one of our favorite tracks — VIR. Check it out!
Video courtesy of Adam (karstgeo 72). The video content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only.
3 Lessons to Learn From This Mishap
When Lockton Motorsports’ Ryan Staub isn’t leading our HPDE Insurance program, he’s at the track, where he is a veteran HPDE instructor. Ryan shares these pointers on Adam’s three incidents:
- Adam says the first clip happened on a first lap, when he was driving on cold tires, cold brakes, and likely a cold brain. First laps are one of the most common variables we see at Lockton Motorsports contributing to crashes (and claims). Make sure when it’s your first lap, you give your car — and yourself — time to warm up before you begin pushing too hard.
- Next up, we see what can happen with a more aggressive approach to apex and exit curbing while carrying a bit too much speed into a turn like “Hogpen.” Adam says he was thankful his stability control intervened to assist. We like that he also seemed to recognize the issue early, remained calm and avoided aggressive inputs to try to correct the car. Many incidents are made worse by an overcorrection to a mistake, so this is a great example of a calm reaction that keeps the car composed and out of trouble.
- Third clip: Same turn, different conditions. This time Adam carried a bit too much speed into “Hogpen” in the wet. But he handled it well, with a lazy slide through the grass and no damage. A typical reaction in this situation is to add more steering input, causing additional problems. Instead, identify the mistake early, accept it and find a way out. Usually, this involves reducing load on the outside tires by unwinding the steering. Without much side load and little to no brake or throttle input, you may be able to have a brief offtrack excursion and then gently drive the car back on track when it’s safe to do so (always check your mirrors).
How to Prevent Your Own Motorsports Mishap
Worried about having your own Motorsports Mishap? Make sure your car is protected at your next HPDE or track day event with HPDE Insurance from Lockton Motorsports.