Road Racing
Right Turns Allowed
Road racing takes all the problems of going fast and adds corners pointing in both directions, elevation changes, braking zones and the occasional wall positioned exactly where enthusiasm runs out.
The machinery ranges from production-based GT cars to open-wheel machines that share almost nothing with something wearing license plates. The common denominator is that the driver has to remember where the track goes next.
The branches are just as different as the cars: production-derived GT and Trans-Am machinery, wide-open Can-Am sports racers and purpose-built Formula and Indy cars all attack the same collection of braking zones and corners from different directions.
Start Here
Braking points, apexes, passing zones, elevation changes, pit strategy and the basic geometry behind going quickly through corners.
Sports Cars & Production-Based Racing
Corvettes, Cobras, Porsches, endurance racing and the long tradition of taking something recognizable from the street and removing the compromises.
Mustangs, Camaros, Barracudas, Javelins and factory grudges carried through corners instead of quarter miles.
Purpose-Built Sports Racers
Huge engines, lightweight sports racers, wings, turbochargers and one of the shortest rulebooks ever handed to people already fond of horsepower.
Open-Wheel Racing
Purpose-built open-wheel cars, aerodynamic downforce, light weight and engineers reading every line of the rulebook for things it forgot to say.
Open-wheel machinery that refuses to fit neatly into one box, with generations spent racing both ovals and road courses at very serious speed.
Bottom Line
Road racing is where horsepower has to learn patience.
The fastest car on the straight still has to arrive at the next corner with enough brakes, tire and judgment left to turn.
↑ Back to the Top — Before Somebody Misses the Braking Point