A lap or two after I had my first driving dual-consciousness experience, I had my next unusual experience. In my two previous experiences, I was given a glimpse into how the ‘driving’ actually happens; what’s going on behind the scenes (and behind conscious awareness). In those glimpses it was like my consciousness (intellect) was a passenger; riding along while watching my unconscious (intuition) do the driving.
However, in this experience, while ‘he’ (intuition) was driving at full speed through Laguna Seca’s – Turn 9 (the Left-Hander after the Corkscrew), “I” (intellect) was evaluating our performance, and as a result, spontaneously and almost instantly formulated a plan for ‘him’ to carry out that would allowed ‘us’ to go through the turn flat out (which no one had ever done before in those cars).
I was running 2nd in the Festival final but was almost three second down to the leader. I knew my engine was down on power because the chief instructor had told me so (“but it’s better than the spare car.”), so I was going to have to dig deep if I wanted any chance of catching the leader. However, I felt like I was already at the limit everywhere except for turn 9.
The previous lap (well, all previous laps), when I got to mid corner, I could feel that there was still a little traction available… I should be able to go faster. However, I wasn’t because other factors with the turn (a changing camber profile at entry, and bumps at the apex) made carrying more speed into and through the apex a big challenge. While there was ample runoff room at the exit, the entrance was another matter because a tire lined earth abutment ensured an abrupt end to off course excursions that occurred early in the turn.
This was the entry to Turn 7 (now T9) at Laguna Seca Back in the Day
Photo courtesy Richard Janes Jr. via Kurt Engelmann at myf5000.com
Looking at all the factors, I felt that, although it would be very risky, it was theoretically possible to go through the turn flat out; even though it had never been done in the Russell cars. The two biggest unknowns about doing so were:
- At turn-in, would I be able to achieve a balance between understeering off (and hitting the earth bank head on), and over rotating (and hitting the earth bank backwards).
. - With the added speed from going flat out, how would the car respond when I got to the big bumps down on the very inside of the track, at the apex. The worst of these bumps had to be avoided by driving a foot or so wide of the inside edge of the track, otherwise the bumps would make the car very unstable and would tend to bounce the car out too wide at the exit of the turn. Not as dangerous as the first issue, but if it went wrong; it still would likely mean giving up 2nd place, or worse.
The camber issue arose because the exit of the Corkscrew and the next turn kind of blend together in an odd way that caused a strange two-dimensional crowning of the road as you approached the turn in point. The road was positive cambered on the left ¾ of the track and level or slightly negative cambered on the right ¼ of the track. At the same location, the track went from being relatively level longitudinally to dipping downhill into the turn. To avoid the worst of this track-related turbulence, everyone entered the turn at the far right edge of the positive camber (leaving the right ¼ of the track unused). However, shortly after the camber transition area (maybe 1/5 to ¼ of the way towards the apex), the entire track transitioned to positive camber, so to go flat out, I needed to figure out how I could use the whole track.
I formulated a plan for the entry phase of the corner, which was to enter the turn, full-throttle, straddling the camber transition. I figured that the slightly unloaded front tires (caused by accelerating at full throttle), combined with the partial negative camber of the track acting on the right front tire, would induce a slight understeer (avoiding the risk of over rotation), which would give me a relatively stable entry into the turn, and I would be traveling on a much larger arc than everyone else was driving. I also figured that as the track transitioned to positive camber, my car would naturally and smoothly ‘lean into’ that camber and the additional load begin applied to the right front tire would make the car start rotating into the turn, which would start the transition from understeer to oversteer (a push through to oversteer).
Because of the increased speed I would be carrying, I knew that I would have to let the oversteer rotate the car into a fairly large drift angle. However, I would have to manage the rotation speed and final angle ‘trajectory’ so that I was not so sideways that I scrubbed speed, but I had the back end out enough that the drive of the rear wheels would first point the car down to the apex, and then help hold the car on the track at the exit.
For the apex I figured that with the car at full throttle and at a relatively large drift angle (lots of load on the RR tire), there would be almost no weight on the inside front tire, so unlike everyone else, who had to drive 12” -18” wide of the apex to avoid upsetting the car on the bumps, I would be able to run my inside front tire right down to the apex curb and skim it over the bumps without upsetting the balance of the car.
I didn’t bother planning for the exit because if the entry and apex parts of the plan were executed properly, the exit phase of the turn would just happen; if not, I was going off anyway.
I had formulated plans for improving my performance in a turn many times before, but for something of this magnitude (and risk level) it would have normally been an ‘off-track’ think about it, visualize it, work up to it on track type of approach. In the above case, it was essentially an instantaneous, on-the-fly calculation of the ‘plan’ on one lap (while still running at full speed), followed on the next lap as I approached the turn, with a kind of “Think you can do that?” query from my ‘intellect’ to my ‘intuition’ (the actual ‘driver’) and a “I think so” confirmation from my ‘intuition.’ So we took a deep breath, pinned it through the turn, and it all played out exactly as calculated.
Extreme Temporal Shift
A lap or two after I did turn 9 flat out for the first time, I had it down like clockwork. That is when I had an extreme temporal perception shift experience. I’ve always had the perception of slow motion when I was driving well, but the experience I had in turn 9 was extreme. I felt like I could have hopped out of the car and walk along beside it, even though I was sideways, flat-out in 3rd gear. Everything, mental and physical, was so automated, I felt like I was on an amusement park ride – I wasn’t ‘doing’ anything; everything was just happening, and I was just enjoying the ride. In fact, I had so much time (I was so far ahead of the car) that one lap I spotted a fellow racer friend watching with the flaggers; as the car rotated sideways down towards the apex, I took a hand off of the wheel, and waved to him. He found me in the pits after the race, and said “Were you doing turn 9 flat?” I said “You noticed?” He just smiled, and walked away shaking his head.