Race Note Taking - Noteworthy

It's more than 100 degrees in the pits just before your A-main is scheduled to start. You have changed so many springs throughout the day that you've become an expert in the quickest way of doing it. But with less than 10 minutes before the feature you decide to change another spring. But what spring did you start with? Have you already tried the 350 or was that the 375? Was it tried on the left front or right front?

By taking good notes and keeping a setup book with you, you can easily do away with these situations.

The elite teams of any type of racing understand the importance of writing down on paper the setups that they put under their cars. Things are constantly changing from track to track. Then, factor in the many races teams will enter during the year, and it becomes impossible to rely on memory to recall a setup you may have run three months ago.

If you haven't been in the habit of taking notes and have been relying on your memory in the past, it will seem very difficult to take notes. But remember it all starts in the shop. When you are setting up the racecar, take an extra moment after you set the camber or left-side weight and write down the numbers.

This article includes a setup sheet on page 78 that is pretty basic. To record this information, I suggest using a three-ring binder (preferably one that can take a beating) and include dividers that can be labeled. Then, each time you have a setup finished, write down exactly what you put underneath the car, and put it in the divider labeled for that particular track. Once you return from a weekend of racing put the car back on the scales (if it is still in one piece) and write down everything relevant. Of course, you will need to set air pressures where they were when you went on the track. But this will show you what your setup was post-race, and you can see how all the changes you made at the track changed all of your weights and you can compare the two setup sheets.

This way you can look back on exactly what setup you had before and after. You are able to see after all the changes you made at the race track exactly where your car is before you start setting it up again for the next race. Whether you travel to different tracks each week or run weekly at one track is irrelevant, since either way you need a reference to look back on. This is the only way that you will improve every time you go to the racetrack.

Things can get very hectic at the track, especially for local drivers. Typically, with only 15-30 minutes of practice, time is of the essence. For purposes of better note taking, have a crew member write down any information he or she can, but make sure to record four important pieces of information on each run. Those four items include any changes you made before you went out on the track, tire temperatures, tire pressures, and lap times. It would also be ideal to record any other information, such as the line you are running around the track, the lap times of your opponents, and weather conditions.