Over the last months, I have started iRacing and with it comes my first exposure to oval racing. What I found out is that it has helped me with trail braking and smooth acceleration. Not to mention the fact that steering has to be absolutely precise. So, especially short track oval might be the best smoothness trainer.
Have You Tried Short Track Oval Yet?
Here’s the thing about driving short track ovals: you have two almost identical corners connected by two short straights. The two very similar corners are usually referred to as two separate corners, one for entry and one for exit. So, on a normal short track oval you will have 4 corners.
Splitting up the circuit into 4 corners really helps understanding the parts of the corners well, by the way. Generally speaking, turns 1 and 3 are where you are likely to brake. Turns 2 and 4 are where you generally start accelerating.
Of course, this all depends on which car you use. Let’s assume faster cars like the Superstar Racing Experience, or SRX for short. The power delivery on those is quite high, so being on acceleration you have to be careful. Additionally, the power delivery means that corner entry speed will be high enough to have to brake on many short track ovals.
On the 23rd of June, 2024 one of the faster SRX regulars on iRacing and fellow tracc.eu staff member Reska Kyoso streamed an SRX race on Southern National.
By looking at his inputs, we may see only little breaking but we can still see a little bit of trailing the brakes into the corner. There is no need to stomp on the brakes. You’d spin out anyways because of a lack of ABS. Similarly, you want to apply the accelerator pedal more gradually. Inputs show a bit of a plateau at 70% acceleration before going all out on the straight.
How Can This Help In Other Disciplines, Though?
You can apply this to the world of circuit racing as well. Oftentimes, you may hear tips like “you should do more trail braking into that corner” and may be stumped as to what that means. Well, it means gradually reducing the brakes as you turn in and approach the apex.
A bit of a more in-depth write-up can be found on our article on trail braking.
What I have found over my, admittedly short, time of racing ovals on iRacing is that it helped me improve the trailing. After learning how to manage my inputs on short tracks, I was able to apply the technique, albeit slightly adapted, to road courses as well.
Additionally, dirt racing may have helped a bit too, but that’s a talk for another day. For now, rest assured that if you figure out how to be quick in an oval, it may help you everywhere else.
The skill needed in oval racing is, above all, precision. Precision in doing the pretty much exact thing over and over again for hundreds of times. If you think about it, road course racing is the same, but with more variation. However, the basics is where a person should start learning.
So, Let’s Start at the Basics!
Former US-American basketball player Larry Bird is credited with saying:
First master the fundamentals.
Basketball is not the same as racing, but it’s another sport. A basic truth of sport is that if you don’t know the basics, you better learn them if you want to succeed.
If you want to give short track oval racing a try yourself, there are mods out there for Assetto Corsa and rFactor 2. However, iRacing can undoubtedly deliver the best online experience. For single player, you can also look at getting SRX: The Game or NASCAR Heat 5, the currently last good NASCAR game.
If you race on iRacing, getting Coach Dave Delta might help you make up a bit more time through comparing your data to the pros. Get your subscription here (affiliate link).