Feature: Driving rFactor
A Fast Lap at Orchard Lake Grand Prix

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Hurtling down off the banking and across the transition pavement, you’ll be looking for a change in pavement color that looks a bit lighter (not darker). If all goes well, you’ll start to gradually turn the car into the corner before you’re done braking. This is a good thing if you can do it, because the braking is adding weight and pressure to the front tires, increasing their grip and aiding in turn in. It may also help you swing the rear end out a bit and get the chassis into a better slip angle that will also aid in turn-in.

You might have placed the car firmly on the infield pavement, but you’re not out of the woods yet. There's a second transition, a sharp-edged rise in the pavement "conveniently" located in the middle of the braking zone for Turn 1.  If you watch the replays you'll see a step in the pavement where the pavement changes color. Under maximum braking it can cause the car to become unsettled, locking up any or all of the tires as they momentarily become unstuck from the pavement. If you happen to have even the slightest steering input in when this happens, the car will violently snap into a spin and you'll be off to do some lawn mowing in the infield. Just as the car settles onto the infield, you’ll be applying full braking at the threshold of a skid. You’ll have to if you hope to whoa the car down from triple digit speeds in order to make it through the tight apex of Turn 1. While you’re braking, it’s important to listen very very carefully to the tires here, because if you feel or hear any of them locking up, you need to modulate your braking to get things back under control. During this time you’ll also be downshifting, but don’t get down through the gears too quickly, as engine braking may cause you to lock up a rear wheel, which as we’ve established would be very bad indeed.

Forewarned is fore-armed, so now that you know about the two pavement transitions make it a point to modulate the brakes and try to anticipate these sharp bumps in the road. Braking is the biggest challenge to Turn 1, not only because you're going extremely fast, but also because of those two pavement transitions in the braking zone. All I can say here is that practice, close attention and some anticipation is what's required to keep the act of braking into a wild spin into the infield. If you are too firm and unyielding on the brakes, you're going to have a hard time with Turn 1.

 After the “slide for life” down off the Tri-Oval banking, and conquering the difficult braking zone, the actual negotiation of the first turn is a bit of an anti-climax. As you approach the entry to Turn 1, keep the car far to the right and start looking inward towards the apex kerbing on the left. You have to imagine following a curved, arcing entry to the turn that takes you smoothly to the apex. And on top of that your curving approach will have a decreasing radius as the car slows and turns more readily. As usual your goal is to clip the inside kerbing’s apex with the left front tire. Gradually ease off the brakes as you start arcing into the turn, and the car should rotate nicely towards the apex. Once at the apex, get on the gas hard and aim for the right side kerbing as you extend down the track towards Turn 2.

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