Driver training, 16 pieces of advice

[wolfjt]

Whatsup everyone, I have been apart of the program at San Jose State for the past two years. Since Fontana 2011, I've been working full time and getting some different perspective on some things, watching our team function from afar, I have learned some things that I wanted to share with all FSAE teams to help out if I can. You're welcome to disregard any/all of my opinions, but you may want to share this info with your driver team, especially if your team is young and new.

My aim in this post is to help any FSAE team, because I love the project, it changed my life, and I love making it more successful and competitive, its good and beneficial for all of us.

For a small bit of background on myself, I am no miracle driver, I have not been lucky as some to be racing since 5 years old and such, but I had been auto crossing and driving hpde's at Laguna Seca and Thunder Hill since I was 18 and I started FSAE at 22 years old. I was very lucky to test drive and/or compete in the first three FSAE cars from SJSU since 2008/9. So I've got some experience in this but there's no denying, I am not a professional.

Driving is more important in this competition than I discovered most teams actually seem to think. But the good news is, you can use drivers training to really help your team succeed in a great number of ways!! Sound good? From my experiences, here are some good lessons for any fsae team that wants to be competitive.

1. A fast driver can make any slow FSAE car place competitively, but a slow driver will never make a fast FSAE car competitive. I don't want to speak negatively about FSAE, but Claude Rouelle is right when he says that most FSAE drivers really really suck at driving. Sad but true.

2. In most cases you'll find the most successful FSAE teams are the ones that focus on mastering simpler vehicle designs (which breeds reliability and consistency- very key) and putting only the most talented and available drivers behind the wheel. NOT necessarily the smartest or most dedicated designers... Your team needs to believe in this.

3. The payout is huge. If you take drivers training seriously, you will be amazed at how much it will benefit your team. Either take my word for it or ask the big dogs. But don't ignore it.

4. Seat time is key! (and not necessarily FSAE car seat time, drive ANYTHING as much as possible) The more seat time your drivers have, the better they will perform, and the higher your car will place, and the better your team will place, and the more attention your school will get, and the better your school will feel about your program, and it will be easier to raise money and recruit students...... see where I'm going? Move forward! Advance!

5. Invest in your younger members. Drivers training never ends, we never stop getting faster. So start on em young, invest in them. They will also become great coaches and recruiting/sponsorship tools when they are near graduating and hopefully somewhat heroic being the wheel.

6. Check your driver attitudes. Things won't work well if your drivers are hated. This thread has some super super good advice on how drivers should behave. Please read it but disregard the first post... lol. http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/t...=376106272#376106272 (http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/125607348/m/376106272?r=376106272#376106272)

7. Use your driver's energy and passion to your teams advantage. Don't be annoyed with people eager to drive. They love something very much that your team can provide them. That is positive energy that you can use if you are creative enough. They can be your most helpful team mates if you allow them to be. Give them jobs that make them feel important. If you're not creative, make team members pay money to drive if you have to. Guess what... they WILL pay! And if they don't, then you can tell how serious they were.

8. Use your networks. Also, use your networks. Don't always think about "who you know" ... think bigger. Think about who you're able to get connected to. Your local racing community will always be the easiest crowd to sell your cause to. They love racing and will volunteer TONS of time to help if you reach out. Don't straight up ask for money. That is a turn off, remember that they are always spending their last dimes on racing just like we all do. Ask for advice, even if you think they are stupid, they can help your team in unbelievable ways, plus they WILL drive your FSAE car way faster than you if you give them the chance, like it or not. You have no idea what you are missing out on, if you would shut your trap and take your networks' advice to heart. They've been around the block a few more times http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

9. Use drivers training to build the team morale and raise money all at the same time. It's the spirit of competition, we need it to stay upbeat sometimes. SJSU has attended over a dozen local auto crosses in the past year or so, and taken team donations in exchange for staffing the competitors work assignments. Its an awesome way to meet the locals, get connected, make money, learn, and your team will love it! Why the heck not? Don't we all love racing?? Get out there as often as you can. You don't even need to bring your FSAE car. But it helps.

10. Where to run the car besides auto crosses? Can't find a parking lot? Ask your school! They want to help. And if they don't, get some help in being as professional as possible and talk to their boss. Go higher up, get to the top of the food chain. You'll get what you need if you ask in the right way. And if you don't, change schools...... seriously. Unless you are from Stuttgart... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif If you are not familiar with the battle that team has faced with their school, ask around and find out. Incredible story of success. I'm sure there are many others as well.

11. Run anything you can, even if its each others' street cars. Seat time is seat time. Reading a cone course is vital and takes time to do well. And remember that auto crossing is always some of the best training. One of my favorite quotes, "Drag racing is for fast cars. Auto crossing is for fast drivers."

12. Whats the best vehicle to put your driver team in? My opinion: a racing kart. No kidding. Race karts are usually plentiful and much cheaper and simpler than an FSAE car to operate, maintain, tune, transport.. repair... replace... etc. And FSAE cars are usually not operational, if you think about it. They spend most of the year in pieces or they just break down, admit it. There is a reason why reliability (endurance) gives the most points.... PLUS, if you've ever driven any kind of shifter or single speed kart of any kind, then you know they can all easily outperform an FSAE car. Try taking "Fastest Time of the Day" away from a well driven shifter kart at a local autocross in an FSAE car. I dare you. It's just the facts of life, all great drivers uniformly acknowledge how important it is to drive karts for training. The reaction times required are unparalleled. Look for onboard footage online of kart races if you don't believe me.

13. Can't afford a kart, and don't want to distract from building your FSAE car? Of course. Include it in your sponsorship packet. Because it is a very legitimate investment. Make it a "rental" kart and take money from your drivers and even new recruits. Going fast is a drug, they won't resist. You don't need a top of the line kart either. You can use a $100 harbor freight four stroke 8 horse motor. Use your marbles and keep it simple.

14. Also, don't forget that there is NEVER any harm in your team getting experience in loading a truck/trailer, taking inventory of competition gear, maintaining a race vehicle, organizing testing days, instructing drivers, inviting sponsors, friends, families, and faculty out to events to see the team do cool stuff, etc. It is truly a bummer when its time to hit the road and travel, and nobody knows how to do it. Also, FSAE people tend to spend WAY too much time indoors.... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif its good to get out into the sun and fresh air, travel, clear your mind, meet people, get better perspective on life.

15. Don't know how to start training? Couple quick tips that seemed to work, start with basic drills. Run different kinds of slaloms and keep all the drivers into teaching each other and learning together. Figure eight based courses are an efficient use of cones that also incorporate left and right hand turns. Seat time is valuable and rare, and the simpler your courses are, the more repetition and focus your drivers can get on specific things.

16. Slightly off topic, but never underestimate the power of http://students.sae.org/compet...series/resources.htm (http://students.sae.org/competitions/formulaseries/resources.htm)
Read everything here!!!!!

Hopefully you find this helpful. If you do, spread it around please! I am happy to help if I can, you can email me at wolfjt at g-mail dot com and follow my racing endeavors on my blog here: http://johnwolfracing.blogspot.com/

Happy Hunting!

[Kirk Feldkamp]

I want to be the first one to say "excellent post!" I've actually been drafting a big post along these lines, but now that you've started it, I can toss most of it out! I'll add my 2 cents in as soon as I get a chance.

[Adambomb]

Excellent post indeed!

I'm a strong advocate of getting the car out and autocrossing it. It's the best way to get the right people "hooked" early. We like to hit as many SCCA autocrosses as we can, and take along as many people as we can. Some just come to watch and help out, some bring their own cars and race them.

And it is true, the regulars at SCCA events are probably better drivers than anyone on your team. We let one of the younger "pretty fast" H-Stock (ie mostly stock Ford Focus) drivers give our car a spin at an extended test and tune event with camping (also highly recommended if you get the chance), and on his first time sitting in the car matched our best driver's time...and again we race a lot too. I'm sure any of the better Mod drivers would shave off another couple seconds in their first sit.

Another value to having a truly experienced driver drive the car is that they can give you much better feedback than most FSAE students, who will more often than not tell you things like "the brakes don't work right" and "it doesn't corner good." An experienced driver, who knows how to read the car, will be able to at least tell you things like you need less front brake, you need more front bar, or the differential is just plain bipolar, when most student drivers are content to say the car is just too fast to handle without god-like skills. (which one or two students will then claim to have, in having the ability to only spin the car once or twice in a lap).

Now, to the one-two whammy you addressed in having a reliable car that you can get test time and also get new members interested, I say a kart is a great idea. I've heard of European teams buying one for the team to get seat time. It gives all the fast-driving experience, while requiring orders of magnitude less maintenance (especially when newer drivers do bad things). It's also less intimidating, which I would say is important when most people are visibly shaking like a leaf the first time they sit in a running FSAE car. Although there are some caveats that we have learned the hard way from implementing a similar strategy ourselves. Now for a tale of two go-karts:

From about '03-'05 one of the team members (Jim Jarvis) had an old go-kart, one of the 5 HP industrial engine varieties. Being a home-made kart, its best attribute was that it was "old." Now that may sound counter-intuitive, but as anyone who has worked in "real" racing knows, it takes time to get a chassis dialed in. This go-kart stood the test of time, and was sorted out to the point that everything worked pretty well, and had all the reliability you'd expect from something closer to a riding mower than a race car. We used it to beat it around after spending too much time indoors (as suggested in #14; good suggestion!), and even to run parts and tools to/from the dyno room. Then Jim graduated and took it with him.

In '06-'07, after missing Jim's go-kart, and recognizing a need for a "real" sub-project to get new members interested and experienced, we decided to just buy a $100 Harbor Freight motor, and have a go-kart team which was mostly comprised of new members with one more experienced member to act as "team captain." It didn't turn out well at all. There was a decent enough model in CAD, and the better share of parts were made correctly, but it was all put together wrong. The details were not sorted out at all, either. And the "team captain" was too busy also working on getting the REAL car done to give proper oversight. So then basically over the course of one all-nighter, a half dozen experienced members decided to just put it together and get it running. There was very much a "just get it done" attitude. With time we probably could have gotten it sorted out, but it would have subtracted from the real effort of getting the car done. The car had a whole host of "features" that I described in the aftermath, which is laid out pretty well here:

Nothing that was a good idea went into this car (http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8356059423/m/97210059141?r=97210059141#97210059141)

Some more caveats to that: it was sort of a different team at the time. We did some pretty dumb things, like for example the "shop spear" (which, to my absolute astonishment, I witnessed getting thrown, inside the shop, through a wall). Again, my example of what not to do. So my suggestion would be to buy a kart. If someone has the ability to build a decent enough one, their skills are put to better use on the "real" car!

But the team at that time wasn't stupid. I can't say too much myself, as even while I complained about what a terrible car it was, shortly after that rollover video I slid it into a curb at about 30 mph. Why? Simple. The thing was fun. It was unstable, unsafe, but if anyone here was offered to drive it they probably would. The root problem was we just underestimated the possible consequences of driving it. It was "just a go-kart." We would have never driven the Formula car with brakes that didn't work. Funny enough thing, I watched Baja do the same thing when they were in a rush to get their car drivable for a parade. Baja cars are notorious for being absolute pigs performance-wise, so they also fall into the realm of "no big deal if the brakes don't work." This resulted in them rushing to get the car done without working brakes, a working kill switch, or a reliable throttle. It stuck open. They stopped the car by t-boning our dually. Fortunately that happened before they drove it in the parade.

So again, buying or otherwise obtaining an already functional go-kart is good. What we do these days instead to get new members active is have them work on the old cars. They can start right off on a project that requires a "no B.S." attitude, and get real experience with a real FSAE car. And of course the team leaders are forced to keep a keen eye on the work too, because it's "not just a go-kart." Then the end result is we have something to drive at autocrosses too. We may very well be taking 3 cars to the FSAE Challenge in Salina, KS next March.

[Sam. B.]

Thanks that's all I have to say!

Very nice post!

[theTTshark]

In regards to number 12....I can think of a few teams that probably do almost every autocross. haha