Cornering Vocabulary

[Spaghetti]

I heard a few corner technique expressions I'm not sure about:

 

- Entrance focused corner

- Rolling speed corner

- Drive-through corner

 

What do they mean?

[Hotfoot]

Where did you hear those phrases, were they in a book somewhere, or a class or web forum?

Just curious as the source of the info may have some bearing on the definition.

[Kevin Kane]

These sound like the terminology that they use at the Penguin School run by Eric & Jeff Wood. Their home track is New Hampshire International Speedway and they are involved in the Loudon Road Racing Series - the place where I got my Competition license.

[rchase]

Hmmm... Here's my guesses. Probably mostly wrong.

 

- Entrance focused corner - Corner where entry speed is the most critical element. "Go in HOT! "

 

- Rolling speed corner - I have heard this one myself used in a couple of different ways. The first way was to describe keeping maximum mid corner speed to maintain a lap time. The second way I have heard it was to describe the way a rider will come into a corner and use minimal maintenance throttle to just "keep it rolling" mid corner.

 

- Drive-through corner - Corner where the exit is the most critical element. Go in a bit slower than you can and focus on the maximum speed at the exit. "Slow is fast"

 

It would be interesting to see some other spins on this as well as see people translate these to CSS vocabulary where it applies.

[Hotfoot]

Robert's post above aligns with what I would assume those terms to mean, but without being able to see them in context I wouldn't know if I was defining them exactly the way they were intended - I bet they have a very specific meaning in someone's curriculum or book and I'd hate to see something get defined differently and create confusion.

[rchase]

That's actually a very important point. Can we think of some vocabulary from CSS taken completely out of context in a controversial way? Probably best to get the answer from the horse's mouth directly rather than trusting others interpretation of the terms.

 

I think CSS's program is one of the best in the industry. I do however enjoy reading other perspectives and ways of thinking about the same concepts. If someone can track down the document those terms are listed in I would not mind reading it myself. I don't always agree with everything I read but it's often quite thought provoking.

[Spaghetti]

I heard these expressions from a couple of riders in the expert group at my track days organization. Apparently Turn 2 at Thunderbolt is an entrance-focused corner, Turn 5 is a drive-through and Turn 6 is a rolling speed. I guess drive-through means sticking to the inside-kerb for longer than usual in a slow speed corner.

 

I don't understand what's the difference between an entrance-focused and a rolling-speed one though, but I find the idea of classifying corners interesting. For a start, what makes corners different? I would say radius is the main discriminant. Then camber and elevation, but radius is the most important. So one could shift the focus on different areas of each corner based on radius?

[rchase]

It sounds like they probably attended the Penguin School and that they are using the terms to describe strategy. To have a true understanding of what they are talking about you probably need to either take that school or at least read the material to fully understand.

 

Beyond understanding the specific vocabulary being used in the conversation I bet if you thumbed through some of the Superbike Schools books you could likely find a lot about the core concepts involved. I have read all of the books and I still go back and read them and get new perspectives every time.

 

Next time you see those guys go chat them up and ask them. For a long time I was too intimidated to go and talk to "the fast guys". I eventually got over that and have had some amazing and enlightening conversations. Most of them are SUPER friendly and love an opportunity to help out. One word of caution though. Keep in mind their level of understanding and skill in relation to your own. I have been given advice that at the time did not work for my skill set or understanding. I have also had concepts explained to me that I never knew existed because of speed differences. Listen but also decide for yourself what works for you at the moment. File some of the information away for future reference.