Analyzing your driving

Once you have a basic understanding of the line, and can consistently
drive the line at slow speeds, the real work starts. Constantly
improving your driving. While many schools and open track events will
give you the chance to have a teacher/coach in the beginning levels,
you will eventually start driving on your own. At that point, you have
to become your own coach.

In car videos can be very helpful

Even more helpful are videos taken from another car. Get a video buddy
and tape each others lines.

I should discuss ramifications of not doing all the things that I ask
about here.

Are you entering a turn all of the way from the outside edge of the
track? If not, at speed you will run out of road at the exit.

Does your speed carry you all of the way to the edge on the exit of a
turn that leads on to a straight? If not, then you are going slower
than you need to.

Do you know how far you miss an apex by?  Call out the distance you
miss reference points by, good exercise in focus and concentration. If
you don't know exactly where on the track you are, you will through
away speed by not using the whole track, or by driving off the edge of
the track.

Do you make one quick turn in, letting out on the steering as you get
on the gas? Or are on and off the steering and gas several times
during the turn? An uneven line like this uses up the cars ability
weaving back and forth rather than using it to get the car turned,
then accelerating out of the turn.

When you use the brakes are you on them at the verge of lockup (except
for specific instances where you merely want to slow down a little)?
If you aren't using your brakes at their maximum, you will spend
longer slowing down for the turn. The longer you spend slowing down,
the less time you will spend accelerating.

Where are you looking? Are you looking as far down the road as
possible? Do you look through where you want to be to where you want
to go? Looking ahead helps you drive more smoothly. The further ahead
that you see, the more warning you have of incidents or situations in
the making and the better chance you have of not becoming involved.

If you are at someplace on the track where you can see other sections
of the track, do you check for incidents, flags etc.? This can give
you vital warning about imortant events (like accidents, checkered
flags)  so that you might have more than a minute warning rather than
a few seconds.

Do you look at all of the turn workers on a turn? Do you know their
hand signals? The workers communicate via hand signals. Watching for
them, and being able to read them can give you crucial early knowledge
of important situations like oil on the track, last lap, checkered
flag out, green flag on start and so forth?

Can you sit down and describe the whole track from memory, quoting
reference points for entry, braking, turndown, apex and exit? 

Can you talk a lap of the track from memory and have that description
take about as long as really driving the track?

Do you have specific places on the track to check your guages and your
seat belts? You have to make checking these things part of your
routine, otherwise you will be too distracted by what is going on on
the track to double check them.

If someone takes pictures of you on different laps, do they look like
they could have been on the same lap? You can't do it right every time
until you can do it the same every time.

Are you smooth?

Listen to engine note, are you either on the gas, off the gas, or
accelerating out of a turn? Or do you coast into turns? Get on and off
the gas coming out turns?

If you are on "noisy tires" is the squeel an even pitch or does it
rise and fall as you dial the steering in and out?

Do you get the car turned before you accelerate out of a turn?
If you get on the gas too early, the car will just plow and miss the
apex. If you don't have to get off the gas to stay on the track in
this situation, then you weren't going as fast as you can into the
turn.