A short couple of weeks ago I was talking about a recent race I did at a track that was new to me, Eagle’s Canyon Raceway just outside Dallas, Texas. Not only was I there for the first time, but I would be racing that weekend while also coaching for the team I’m driving with for select World Racing League (WRL) events this season.
It was a lot to juggle: I had to come to grips with a new track while also providing value in helping the team develop the car’s setup for the event and coaching my teammates. This is a very traditional type of role for a driver coach, but having to learn the circuit in the process was a fun new challenge for me.
As I mentioned in my original post about the race at Eagle’s Canyon, the track has its fair share of elevation changes and blind corners, which is something I definitely didn’t expect for Texas, and it really demanded the right approach to learn the track quickly and efficiently while optimizing performance.
My approach started with focusing on the most important corners first, which were the ones that led onto the longest straightaways. Next, since this track has many corners that lead into the next corner (corner complexes), making sure car placement was correct was paramount to ensure we had the most efficient line through each complex. This ended up resulting in the biggest time gains, as it was the most efficient run through each particular sector of the track.
Finally, we optimized entry speeds and minimum speeds in the rest of the corners. Those details were the final part of putting it all together.
Ironically, I found that the corner that led onto the longest straightaway ended up being the hardest corner for me to consistently get right throughout the event, which was really humbling. It was sometimes a case of do as I say, not as I do!
In the end, by the afternoon of the first day, it was fun to not only be comparing notes with my teammates about the track but also adding value back to them in terms of areas to focus on so that we could all go faster as a team. We ended up with tremendous results, with a pair of second-place finishes to start out their racing season.