Article title:   Driving Tips First posted:   Wed 26 Oct 2005 Description:   Tips to help keep you on your wheels and facing the right direction. Article text: Rule #1 First and foremost, let's keep our hobby in perspective. After all, we are a bunch of older kids or mostly adults playing with little cars and trucks Don't take things too serious, nothing we do at the races is going to cure cancer, feed the hungry or house the homeless. Tips for Practice. 1. For on-road cars, find an empty parking lot, bring some cones or markers and set up a road coarse. For off-road, go to a local baseball diamond, they are great for basic practice. Make some jump ramps as shown on this site. Practice your driving and try to make it difficult. 2. Practice braking into your turns by using a chalk mark that shows you where you should start braking, usually about 5 to 10 ft before a sharp turn. 3. Set up a straightaway and practice going down it without getting off course. 5. Practice your cornering techniques, slow down and drive the tightest turn possible. 6. If you have a local RC track to practice at, that is the best place to go. Practice driving a "racer's line". The object is to make the track as straight as possible by driving as close to inside corners as you can. 7. During practice, try to go as many laps as you can without crashing, even if this means driving slower that you think you should. A slower lap without a crash is usually faster than a fast lap with a crash. Tips for the Races. 1. Don't change your setup if you qualified well. Good driving will always beat a "good setup". 2. Please be courteous both during the race and in the pits, when in doubt, refer to rule #1. 3. Don't run the track at top speed speed unless you can go 5 or so laps without crashing. 4. When entering a turn, brake before the turn, not during it. Braking during a turn will only cause you to spin out with a 2wd car or with a 4wd car it will make your car push. 5. Always slow down and drive the tightest corners possible rather that drive fast around the 'long" outer curve of the corner. 6. At the start of a race, try to either get out in front or stay back to avoid the "first turn pileup" 7. If a faster driver is trying to pass you, don't block him, this is just good courteous driving and will keep both of you from crashing. Don't forget, paybacks are much worse than the original offense. 8. Don't be distracted by the other cars on the track, drive your own race. Try to pretend you are the only car out there, even if you're in last place. In other words, don't drive any faster than you are able to. 9. Once the race is over, remove your car from the track, turn off your radio, return your transponder if you use the track's transponder and marshal the next heat. Portions submitted by Brent Russell This article was originally published on: Site: Nitromonkey.com URL: http://www.nitromonkey.com/xoops/modules/articles/article.php?id=9