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Old 11-11-2013
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Re: Lapping Session or Lead Follow

Both good questions:

At this stage all seat time is good seat time. Your progress is going to be gradual either way as you sort out managing a car near it's limits on track with other cars. There's a lot going on for anyone at this stage. The feedback you get from instructors observing on corners will help you understand what you need to work on at specific corners, while the feedback and commentary from a lead follow instructor will be more personal and specific to you during the entire lap, but you will pay more for that attention. If you can afford the lead follow I'd say do it, as it will accelerate your learning curve and give you more specific things to focus on going forward. However, the more seat time you have before doing a lead follow, the more benefit you'll get as you'll be more comfortable with yourself in the car and able to process suggestions more easily. The lead follow feedback is more detailed because the instructor observes only you on-track for two full sessions and can give you more detailed observation than any instructor on a single corner can.

A lapping day is two full tanks of gas or roughly an hour of seat time. A lead follow day is the same amount of seat time at roughly twice the cost to cover the expense of the other car and instructor. It may also be possible to do a single lead follow session to sample the experience and reduce your cost.

Quote:
Originally Posted by emd645e6 View Post
I'm looking at getting more seat time before I decide to run a race in the series. Which would all of my experienced skippy brothers and sisters rather do? Lapping Session or Lead Follow Session? Is the feedback better in one vs the other? How many runs are in a typical Lapping Day and Lead Follow Day?
Depends on your goal. If you know you'll do most of your racing at one local track then you'll get the most value out of doing it at that track. If you're going to a new track for the first time and want to get up to speed as quickly as possible, then do the lead-follow there as a way of accelerating the learning curve to being competitive at a new track. It all depends on your goal.

Quote:
Originally Posted by phantomjock View Post
I'd like to add the follow up question to this important question just asked.

DO you think it would be better to do either the Lead-Follow/Lapping at a track you are "familiar with" or, broaden horizons at the same time?
As you have time - Please answer emd645e6's questions first (it's Mike - right?) and, mine if you have time.


Cheers - Jim
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