Getting Started in Slot Car Racing
Originally posted by Ed Bianchi (HORacePro) on the HOCOCSLOTCARRACING Yahoo group in 2016 as “T-Jets for Beginners.” This information is relevant to all scales of slot car racing.
Introduction
This article is intended to help the new or lightly experienced HO racer learn how to drive their car well, or at least better.
While control over your car is limited to one input – how far back you pull the trigger on your controller – success in racing depends on understanding the many factors that an experienced driver considers when making that very critical adjustment.
There is science in driving, and an understanding of traction, acceleration and centrifugal force is certainly helpful. But the act of driving is always at best an informed guess at where the limits are, with decisions made in split seconds under ever-changing conditions. There is little time for analysis – your performance will be largely determined by your practiced skill and ability to react correctly .
Learning to drive is never something that is finished. No one ever achieves perfection. You can only approximate it.
This article is an introduction to what may very well become a life-long journey.
Your Controller
Controllers have evolved tremendously from the simple devices they were decades ago. Yet their function has changed little – they increase or reduce the electrical voltage that is supplied to your car.
While modern controllers use electronics to provide this function, it was done just as well by the simple wire-wound variable resistors (rheostats) in the early controllers. The difference is the electronic controllers can adapt to different voltages and loads with the twist of a knob – something the old controllers couldn’t do. A very useful feature, but not one that changes the basic function of the controller.
Most controllers now provide an electrical braking function – something many early controllers did not have. Modern controllers include an adjustment knob for this braking. This is in fact an improvement over the old controllers, in which braking was either on or off. Adjustable braking can be very useful in adapting your controller to a particular car and track.
Another modern feature that affects your ability to drive is a ‘coast’ control – another knob frequently found on high-end, modern controllers. 'Coast' is sort of the opposite of brakes. Instead of stopping your car faster it stops your car slower. In fact, if you set the coast too high your car will not stop at all!
These controller adjustments are something you will learn to use by experimentation. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to set these adjustments. The correct settings are the ones that work best for you, the car you are driving and the track you are racing on. What feels right for one driver/car/track can be completely wrong for another.
Aside from these adjustments, operating the controller is very, very simple. In principle. In practice you can make mistakes.
The most common mistake in operating a controller is to continuously pump the trigger – as if the controller was a water pistol. I have been surprised at the number of racers who have this bad habit, and how difficult it is to break them of it.
Pumping the controller is equivalent to trying to drive a real, full-scale car by constantly stomping on the gas pedal. I have never seen anyone so clueless as to try to drive a real car this way – thank goodness – but somehow when it comes to scale cars this is a common failing.
Why is this bad? Well, if it isn’t obvious, the problem is that every time you pump the trigger you jerk your car from no power, to full power, to no power again. This upsets every aspect of the car’s handling. The car never gets a chance to settle into smooth operation. (As we will discuss later on, smooth operation is exactly where you want to be!)
And you never really have control of the car. Unless you are under full acceleration of heavy braking, the right setting for the trigger is somewhere between full power and no power. But if you pump the controller you are never at that right setting for more than a millisecond – passing it going up or going down.
Another bad habit – though not nearly so bad as pumping the trigger – is letting go of the trigger when you want to brake. All this does is shock the mechanism of your controller. When experienced racers are competing you won’t hear the ‘pops’ of controller triggers banging against their stops.
Your controller is your link to your car. Learn how to use it properly. Learn how to use it smoothly.
Your Head
The attitude you bring to driving is very, very important. A race has to be a good performance from beginning to end. A bad decision ANYWHERE in a race can ruin an otherwise good performance. Bad decisions often begin with an improper attitude.
What attitudes can cost you a race?
The worst attitude is thinking you must always lead a race. Constantly striving to be the fastest car on the track will almost always end badly. Why? Well one, because every track has faster and slower lanes. If you are in a ‘gutter’ lane and trying to outrun someone in a fast lane you are probably going to stuff your car into a wall. You only need to do that a few times to throw away a race, no matter how well you drive the other lanes.
And two, if you are constantly watching the other cars on the track you won’t be paying enough attention to your own car. Again, you’ll be going off in the corners and throwing the race away.
Another attitude maladjustment is making a race into a personal vendetta against your competition. Hating your opponent takes your focus off the car.
Still another mistake is feeling that a screw-up early in the race condemns you to last place and for Pete’s sake give up. Remember, your competitors are fully capable of making their own mistakes, and if you stick with it and drive well you may get to capitalize on their own blunders.
Look, being obsessive is great when it comes to doing car prep and race prep. For those jobs sweating the details is the indispensable key to success. But when it comes to the actual race, obsession gets in the way. You should live all those oriental clichés of being like water and finding your center and letting your spirit flow through your controller. It should be you and your car in harmony, dancing as one upon the world-stage of the track.
Honest!
You should come to the race to have fun. To enjoy the challenge and to savor the intensity of driving your car on the limit. Most of all you should appreciate the skill of your competitors. It is their mastery of the race that will compel you to perfect your own.
Winning, if it happens, should be a bonus. If you can drive a losing race and still have a good time, then you are doing it right.
Come to the race with that attitude and you will liberate yourself to drive your best!
The Reptile in Your Brain
Folks who study brains (those squishy, knobby things inside our skulls) tell us that a human brain is made of layers. The advanced, mammalian part of our brain is wrapped around a more primitive core that looks like something you'd find inside a snake, lizard or crocodile. That 'reptilian' core performs functions that are very basic to staying alive. Among those are behaviors we have in common with them slithery reptiles.
For example. You are walking outside, using your advanced, mammalian brain to think about car prep. Suddenly a bird flies across in front of you. A few things happen:
1) Your eyes shift immediately to focus on the bird
2) Your eyes track the bird as it flies past you
3) You do NOT dive for cover, because you've instantly recognized it as a bird, and not a threat
All of this happens instinctively. It is not something you think about -- it just happens. That primitive inner core of your brain does all the work for you, and your advanced mammalian brain only catches up with the action later, if at all, because it does not have the lightning reaction time of that small, tight, core of your brain which is highly optimized for simple but critical jobs like this. The outer, mammalian layer of your brain is for deep thought. It leaves the more basic functions to the reptilian core.
This is good, because sensing motion and recognizing threats is really, really important to any animal, and instant reflexes are essential. Reptiles got good at this eons ago, because if they weren't good at it they got eaten. It is just as important to mammals, and humans, so it was worth holding onto.
So what reflexive, reptilian, reactions are you experiencing during a slot race?
Well, one, there's that 'bird' reflex. Any unexpected action in your field of vision will draw your eyes. If a car goes off and a turn marshal dives for it, your eyes will go there. Which means they will NOT be on your car. That momentary distraction could put you off the track too.
Sudden noises will also distract you. Heck, they can make you jump! (Good frog! You didn't get eaten that time!) Call it the 'bang' reflex.
There is also a 'chase' reflex. If you close on another car on the track, your instinct it to focus on that car and try to catch up with it. You need to use your mammalian brain layer to override that instinct and stay focused on driving fast, but within your limits. Otherwise, good chance, you'll go off.
There is also an 'escape' reflex. Just the opposite of the 'chase' reflex. When a car is closing on you your instinct is to speed up and get away. Need I explain why this could be bad?
Not everything the reptile does hurts your driving. It is that deep layer of your brain that learns, over time and many, many repetitions, how to react in ways that are not in-born instincts. This is why performers, athletes and fighters train endlessly -- to burn reactions into that deep brain so they happen without 'thinking'.
Driving slotcars well also comes with practice. And for the same reason. In a race most of the time you are driving by reaction. You don't have time for conscious thought. The good news is, if you have practiced enough you can leave driving to the reptile and use your mammalian brain to think about things like pit strategy.
Be aware of what you do reflexively and what you need to think about during a race. You can train out reflexes just as much as you can train them in. Train out your 'bird', 'chase', 'escape' and 'bang' reflexes. Train in your 'driving' reflexes.
Be aware!
Practice on Your Own
So, now we practice!
Again, I'm not going to say anything about car prep. That is covered elsewhere in the literature.
There are two aspects to practice. One is repetition. The other is change-up.
The purpose of endless repetition was covered in the section above -- training the reptile to the point where you can drive without thinking. This is very, very important to the newbie driver. The ability to drive a slotcar is not something you are born with. It is something you have to learn. Something you have to PRACTICE!
And it is VERY important that you practice good habits from the start.
The most important thing to practice is STAYING ON THE TRACK!
Do you have a lap counter? If so, great! Try turning twenty-five laps without coming off. Don't worry about how fast you are running. Stay on the track! Keep at it until you can do it consistently. Then maybe stretch to fifty laps. Or a hundred.
No lap counter? So time yourself. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes.
You're going to have to take this on faith. As you get better at staying on the track your lap times WILL drop! It just happens.
Okay, that's good repetition. The reptile is getting on board. Now we throw it a curve. Change up!
Because you are a newbie you've been doing all of your practice on your favorite lane. Right? Time to shift to another lane. And oh boy does that mess you up! You are going to struggle to get back to the point where you can stay on the track as well as you did previously. Okay, then struggle! Don't give up until you are driving just as well as you did before. The reptile needs repetition to learn.
After you've driven all the lanes, you can screw with the reptile some more by driving another car. Yes, it is not your favorite car. You feel awkward driving it. You are coming off too much. Your lap times are lousy.
Go with it. It's like exercising with wrist and ankle weights. The very fact it is hard makes the training that much more worthwhile.
I've been assuming you have a home track, and that is where you've been doing all your practicing. The next way to change up is to practice on different tracks.
Are there other tracks you can practice on? If so, great! Again, many, many laps without coming off, all the lanes, different cars.
PRACTICE!
Stay On The Track!
A few hints about staying on the track...
Tracks gather dust. Dust sticks to tires. The stickier the tires are, the more dust they pick up. Dusty tires have lousy traction.
Before you practice, clean your track. Also learn how to clean dust off your car's rear tires. Rolling them across the sticky side of masking or duct tape works. But you do need to roll them on FRESH adhesive. You'll need to keep exposing new tape. Once the adhesive has picked up a layer of dust it is not going to remove any more.
You'll also need to learn when your car needs its tires cleaned. You will notice your car sliding more as the tires get dusty. Your lap times will suffer. Taking a moment to clean your tires will help you stay competitive.
'Nother and more basic hint. Watch your car!
Better yet, look ahead of your car. You want to be looking ahead to the next curve so you can judge when to brake. You might also notice that someone has come off in that corner and is blocking your lane. A fraction of a second warning might save you from ramming that car and being charged with an 'off'.
Part of watching your car is NOT looking at the other cars. If you are watching someone else's car you aren't driving your own.
There is only one time you should be watching someone else's car, and that is when you are trying to get past them without being 'nerfed' off. (More on that later.)
A more advanced hint. Pick braking points...
If your car's performance remains constant, where you need to start braking going into each corner should too. If there are features on the track that are at or near where those braking points are, you can use them as markers, so you can begin braking at the same point every lap. If the track has scenery this can be a great help. Some tracks will actually have markers specifically to be used as braking points. (This is a feature of many real-life racing tracks!)
Of course during a race the performance of your car will probably change, if for no other reason than because the rear tires get dusty. Just the same, using braking point markers can be a great help in achieving and maintaining competitive lap times without going off.
A final hint. Limit your wheelspin.
Mashing the trigger on your controller at every opportunity is not necessarily helpful. There are two reasons for this:
1) When your rear wheels spin they no longer influence your car's direction. A rolling wheel has a preferred direction. A spinning wheel can go any which way.
2) Spinning wheels have reduced traction. This is why anti-lock brakes on full-scale cars work to keep the tires rolling rather than locking up. Also number 1, above.
A car that is floored and swerving side-to-side is not accelerating as fast as it could, is not really under control, and has a good chance of coming off. (Again, you are violating the 'smooth' directive. More about this to follow.)
So sometimes it pays to pull the trigger back a bit slower. You'll need to experiment, and you'll need to practice!
Introduction
This article is intended to help the new or lightly experienced HO racer learn how to drive their car well, or at least better.
While control over your car is limited to one input – how far back you pull the trigger on your controller – success in racing depends on understanding the many factors that an experienced driver considers when making that very critical adjustment.
There is science in driving, and an understanding of traction, acceleration and centrifugal force is certainly helpful. But the act of driving is always at best an informed guess at where the limits are, with decisions made in split seconds under ever-changing conditions. There is little time for analysis – your performance will be largely determined by your practiced skill and ability to react correctly .
Learning to drive is never something that is finished. No one ever achieves perfection. You can only approximate it.
This article is an introduction to what may very well become a life-long journey.
Your Controller
Controllers have evolved tremendously from the simple devices they were decades ago. Yet their function has changed little – they increase or reduce the electrical voltage that is supplied to your car.
While modern controllers use electronics to provide this function, it was done just as well by the simple wire-wound variable resistors (rheostats) in the early controllers. The difference is the electronic controllers can adapt to different voltages and loads with the twist of a knob – something the old controllers couldn’t do. A very useful feature, but not one that changes the basic function of the controller.
Most controllers now provide an electrical braking function – something many early controllers did not have. Modern controllers include an adjustment knob for this braking. This is in fact an improvement over the old controllers, in which braking was either on or off. Adjustable braking can be very useful in adapting your controller to a particular car and track.
Another modern feature that affects your ability to drive is a ‘coast’ control – another knob frequently found on high-end, modern controllers. 'Coast' is sort of the opposite of brakes. Instead of stopping your car faster it stops your car slower. In fact, if you set the coast too high your car will not stop at all!
These controller adjustments are something you will learn to use by experimentation. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to set these adjustments. The correct settings are the ones that work best for you, the car you are driving and the track you are racing on. What feels right for one driver/car/track can be completely wrong for another.
Aside from these adjustments, operating the controller is very, very simple. In principle. In practice you can make mistakes.
The most common mistake in operating a controller is to continuously pump the trigger – as if the controller was a water pistol. I have been surprised at the number of racers who have this bad habit, and how difficult it is to break them of it.
Pumping the controller is equivalent to trying to drive a real, full-scale car by constantly stomping on the gas pedal. I have never seen anyone so clueless as to try to drive a real car this way – thank goodness – but somehow when it comes to scale cars this is a common failing.
Why is this bad? Well, if it isn’t obvious, the problem is that every time you pump the trigger you jerk your car from no power, to full power, to no power again. This upsets every aspect of the car’s handling. The car never gets a chance to settle into smooth operation. (As we will discuss later on, smooth operation is exactly where you want to be!)
And you never really have control of the car. Unless you are under full acceleration of heavy braking, the right setting for the trigger is somewhere between full power and no power. But if you pump the controller you are never at that right setting for more than a millisecond – passing it going up or going down.
Another bad habit – though not nearly so bad as pumping the trigger – is letting go of the trigger when you want to brake. All this does is shock the mechanism of your controller. When experienced racers are competing you won’t hear the ‘pops’ of controller triggers banging against their stops.
Your controller is your link to your car. Learn how to use it properly. Learn how to use it smoothly.
Your Head
The attitude you bring to driving is very, very important. A race has to be a good performance from beginning to end. A bad decision ANYWHERE in a race can ruin an otherwise good performance. Bad decisions often begin with an improper attitude.
What attitudes can cost you a race?
The worst attitude is thinking you must always lead a race. Constantly striving to be the fastest car on the track will almost always end badly. Why? Well one, because every track has faster and slower lanes. If you are in a ‘gutter’ lane and trying to outrun someone in a fast lane you are probably going to stuff your car into a wall. You only need to do that a few times to throw away a race, no matter how well you drive the other lanes.
And two, if you are constantly watching the other cars on the track you won’t be paying enough attention to your own car. Again, you’ll be going off in the corners and throwing the race away.
Another attitude maladjustment is making a race into a personal vendetta against your competition. Hating your opponent takes your focus off the car.
Still another mistake is feeling that a screw-up early in the race condemns you to last place and for Pete’s sake give up. Remember, your competitors are fully capable of making their own mistakes, and if you stick with it and drive well you may get to capitalize on their own blunders.
Look, being obsessive is great when it comes to doing car prep and race prep. For those jobs sweating the details is the indispensable key to success. But when it comes to the actual race, obsession gets in the way. You should live all those oriental clichés of being like water and finding your center and letting your spirit flow through your controller. It should be you and your car in harmony, dancing as one upon the world-stage of the track.
Honest!
You should come to the race to have fun. To enjoy the challenge and to savor the intensity of driving your car on the limit. Most of all you should appreciate the skill of your competitors. It is their mastery of the race that will compel you to perfect your own.
Winning, if it happens, should be a bonus. If you can drive a losing race and still have a good time, then you are doing it right.
Come to the race with that attitude and you will liberate yourself to drive your best!
The Reptile in Your Brain
Folks who study brains (those squishy, knobby things inside our skulls) tell us that a human brain is made of layers. The advanced, mammalian part of our brain is wrapped around a more primitive core that looks like something you'd find inside a snake, lizard or crocodile. That 'reptilian' core performs functions that are very basic to staying alive. Among those are behaviors we have in common with them slithery reptiles.
For example. You are walking outside, using your advanced, mammalian brain to think about car prep. Suddenly a bird flies across in front of you. A few things happen:
1) Your eyes shift immediately to focus on the bird
2) Your eyes track the bird as it flies past you
3) You do NOT dive for cover, because you've instantly recognized it as a bird, and not a threat
All of this happens instinctively. It is not something you think about -- it just happens. That primitive inner core of your brain does all the work for you, and your advanced mammalian brain only catches up with the action later, if at all, because it does not have the lightning reaction time of that small, tight, core of your brain which is highly optimized for simple but critical jobs like this. The outer, mammalian layer of your brain is for deep thought. It leaves the more basic functions to the reptilian core.
This is good, because sensing motion and recognizing threats is really, really important to any animal, and instant reflexes are essential. Reptiles got good at this eons ago, because if they weren't good at it they got eaten. It is just as important to mammals, and humans, so it was worth holding onto.
So what reflexive, reptilian, reactions are you experiencing during a slot race?
Well, one, there's that 'bird' reflex. Any unexpected action in your field of vision will draw your eyes. If a car goes off and a turn marshal dives for it, your eyes will go there. Which means they will NOT be on your car. That momentary distraction could put you off the track too.
Sudden noises will also distract you. Heck, they can make you jump! (Good frog! You didn't get eaten that time!) Call it the 'bang' reflex.
There is also a 'chase' reflex. If you close on another car on the track, your instinct it to focus on that car and try to catch up with it. You need to use your mammalian brain layer to override that instinct and stay focused on driving fast, but within your limits. Otherwise, good chance, you'll go off.
There is also an 'escape' reflex. Just the opposite of the 'chase' reflex. When a car is closing on you your instinct is to speed up and get away. Need I explain why this could be bad?
Not everything the reptile does hurts your driving. It is that deep layer of your brain that learns, over time and many, many repetitions, how to react in ways that are not in-born instincts. This is why performers, athletes and fighters train endlessly -- to burn reactions into that deep brain so they happen without 'thinking'.
Driving slotcars well also comes with practice. And for the same reason. In a race most of the time you are driving by reaction. You don't have time for conscious thought. The good news is, if you have practiced enough you can leave driving to the reptile and use your mammalian brain to think about things like pit strategy.
Be aware of what you do reflexively and what you need to think about during a race. You can train out reflexes just as much as you can train them in. Train out your 'bird', 'chase', 'escape' and 'bang' reflexes. Train in your 'driving' reflexes.
Be aware!
Practice on Your Own
So, now we practice!
Again, I'm not going to say anything about car prep. That is covered elsewhere in the literature.
There are two aspects to practice. One is repetition. The other is change-up.
The purpose of endless repetition was covered in the section above -- training the reptile to the point where you can drive without thinking. This is very, very important to the newbie driver. The ability to drive a slotcar is not something you are born with. It is something you have to learn. Something you have to PRACTICE!
And it is VERY important that you practice good habits from the start.
The most important thing to practice is STAYING ON THE TRACK!
Do you have a lap counter? If so, great! Try turning twenty-five laps without coming off. Don't worry about how fast you are running. Stay on the track! Keep at it until you can do it consistently. Then maybe stretch to fifty laps. Or a hundred.
No lap counter? So time yourself. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes.
You're going to have to take this on faith. As you get better at staying on the track your lap times WILL drop! It just happens.
Okay, that's good repetition. The reptile is getting on board. Now we throw it a curve. Change up!
Because you are a newbie you've been doing all of your practice on your favorite lane. Right? Time to shift to another lane. And oh boy does that mess you up! You are going to struggle to get back to the point where you can stay on the track as well as you did previously. Okay, then struggle! Don't give up until you are driving just as well as you did before. The reptile needs repetition to learn.
After you've driven all the lanes, you can screw with the reptile some more by driving another car. Yes, it is not your favorite car. You feel awkward driving it. You are coming off too much. Your lap times are lousy.
Go with it. It's like exercising with wrist and ankle weights. The very fact it is hard makes the training that much more worthwhile.
I've been assuming you have a home track, and that is where you've been doing all your practicing. The next way to change up is to practice on different tracks.
Are there other tracks you can practice on? If so, great! Again, many, many laps without coming off, all the lanes, different cars.
PRACTICE!
Stay On The Track!
A few hints about staying on the track...
Tracks gather dust. Dust sticks to tires. The stickier the tires are, the more dust they pick up. Dusty tires have lousy traction.
Before you practice, clean your track. Also learn how to clean dust off your car's rear tires. Rolling them across the sticky side of masking or duct tape works. But you do need to roll them on FRESH adhesive. You'll need to keep exposing new tape. Once the adhesive has picked up a layer of dust it is not going to remove any more.
You'll also need to learn when your car needs its tires cleaned. You will notice your car sliding more as the tires get dusty. Your lap times will suffer. Taking a moment to clean your tires will help you stay competitive.
'Nother and more basic hint. Watch your car!
Better yet, look ahead of your car. You want to be looking ahead to the next curve so you can judge when to brake. You might also notice that someone has come off in that corner and is blocking your lane. A fraction of a second warning might save you from ramming that car and being charged with an 'off'.
Part of watching your car is NOT looking at the other cars. If you are watching someone else's car you aren't driving your own.
There is only one time you should be watching someone else's car, and that is when you are trying to get past them without being 'nerfed' off. (More on that later.)
A more advanced hint. Pick braking points...
If your car's performance remains constant, where you need to start braking going into each corner should too. If there are features on the track that are at or near where those braking points are, you can use them as markers, so you can begin braking at the same point every lap. If the track has scenery this can be a great help. Some tracks will actually have markers specifically to be used as braking points. (This is a feature of many real-life racing tracks!)
Of course during a race the performance of your car will probably change, if for no other reason than because the rear tires get dusty. Just the same, using braking point markers can be a great help in achieving and maintaining competitive lap times without going off.
A final hint. Limit your wheelspin.
Mashing the trigger on your controller at every opportunity is not necessarily helpful. There are two reasons for this:
1) When your rear wheels spin they no longer influence your car's direction. A rolling wheel has a preferred direction. A spinning wheel can go any which way.
2) Spinning wheels have reduced traction. This is why anti-lock brakes on full-scale cars work to keep the tires rolling rather than locking up. Also number 1, above.
A car that is floored and swerving side-to-side is not accelerating as fast as it could, is not really under control, and has a good chance of coming off. (Again, you are violating the 'smooth' directive. More about this to follow.)
So sometimes it pays to pull the trigger back a bit slower. You'll need to experiment, and you'll need to practice!