Today begins the series of “Driving Tips” – A weekly series that will share driving tips and tricks courtesy of  Racers360

The single most common mistake the coaches at Racers360 see race car drivers make revolves around where they pick up initial throttle application.  Before drivers start to work on trail braking or trying to “always be on the throttle or brakes,” they need to focus on their lines and where to pick up the throttle.

To put it simply, in almost any corner we don’t want to touch the throttle until we can start to unwind the steering wheel.  Drivers typically pick up the throttle earlier than that for two main reasons:

1) They feel like they over slowed (at times, did)

2) They have been told: “Race car drivers need to always be either on the throttle or brakes.”

Picking up the throttle too early is not the right way to correct the first problem. In fact, it makes it harder to correctly solve the issue of over slowing. To fix this issue, we focus on the braking zone (Racers360 has a helpful article on trail braking, which we will share shortly.)

The phrase that nearly every race car driver has heard at some point in their journey, “You always need to be on the brakes or throttle,” is largely incorrect.  Professional race car drivers absolutely spend time coasting on the racetrack.

The premise behind this phrase is meant to be good and it’s meant to help drivers think about trail braking deeper into corners; however, it is often taught far too early in a driver’s journey and that makes him or her prioritize this phrase above where he or she picks up initial throttle.  Where one picks up the throttle is far more important!  Once you know where you want to, work on trail braking to ensure you don’t need to, or feel the need to, pick up throttle too early.

For More Coaching Tips: Check Out the Racers360 Driver’s Lounge (20% Discount to Mazda Racers)
To help prepare before a given event, all Mazda Team Support Program members will receive a free 7-day trial and a 20% discount to the Racers360 Driver’s Lounge. Through the Lounge, drivers can access video track breakdowns to more than 35 tracks across the U.S., recordings to all Racers360 coach webinars, exclusive partner discounts, and more – here.

About Racers360
Racers360 is an online personal coaching platform for passionate athletes of all levels.  After being founded in 2018 by professional race car driver Dion von Moltke and his co-founder Christopher Roberts, Racers360 has been able to prove that you can combine the effectiveness of in-person coaching with the accessibility and affordability of online education and combine the two to make something truly special.  Drivers using Racers360 now feel like they have their own secret weapon! Racers360 has a very intense selection process for their coaches that curates only the very best coaches on their platform. Amateur racing drivers of all levels can send in their video or data to be reviewed by these elite coaches. After reviewing the driver’s video or data the Racers360 coach films an in-depth personal coaching session for that driver using tools like slow motion, annotation, and web cameras to give actionable and specific coaching at a level never seen before.