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Hot Lap for Lightning Raceway
The braking zone for T1 on the pit straight rises gently at the end, compressing braking and working the car's suspension well. Wait until you feel the compression on the straight before actuating the brakes.
Decisively turn in for T1 and know that the uphill entry allows more mechanical grip than you might expect. At turn in, apply 10-30% power and add steering input as the road rises, with the goal of touching the first half of the curb with your right front, getting the wheel as straight as you can as the car lightens at the crest. Make sure the car tracks all the way to the left curb and is parallel with it at the exit. Foot down!
Breathe or brush brakes and bend the car through the fast right T3 under power, touching as much of the curb as possible and allowing the car to slide out driver's left to create a straight line braking zone on a diagonal from the right to the left, setting up for the tighter right turn T4. Braking is at least as heavy here as it is for T1, so brake hard in a shorter distance rather than gentler, longer. You should not be close to the beginning of the apex curb for T4, if anything the apex is at the very end of the curb. Good place for brake-turning to make the car do more of the work.
The exit of T4 is sacrificed to position the car properly for the entry to the quicker left T5. The car should never be positioned further than one third track width from the right edge of the road in the short straight between T4 and T5.
This next left, T5, is more open than T4 and your goal is to optimize exit speed from T5 for the straight run up to the challenging uphill cresting T6. Be sure you use ALL of the road at the exit of T5 on the right for the earliest possible throttle application. Get out to the curb and drive around the gentle right sweep, touching the right hand curbing for it's full length and afterwards, progressing on a diagonal from the right side curbing to the left aiming for the curbing on the left side marking the turn-in for the entry of T6.
If you are successful getting all the way to the left on the flat and the gentle rise leading up to the curbing on the left, brake less than you think you ought to and turn in decisively deeper, towards the end of the pavement and not before, touching most of the inside right hand apex curbing for T6. As the road rises, add steering input to orient the car for a tighter exit so it may slide across the face of the crest and track out gently to the exit curb as you release steering. The track width is greater at the exit than at the entry, so USE it.
Often in T7, especially in smaller, less powerful and lighter cars, it is not necessary to track out full track left through the long right sweeper leading up to the bridge. Be careful in a big, heavy and more powerful car touching the right side inside curbing too soon as that will require more steering input longer through the sweeper and will prevent getting the car straight for the most effective braking for T8. In a smaller, lighter car, just hug the right curb and as soon as the car is straight, brake hard for the third time in the lap. Use the bridge as your permanent landmark to initiate braking before or at.
For T8, most cars drop one too many gears here. There is some superelevation (banking) present and the exit is more open than you think, so try and preserve good speed through T8. Avoid the temptation to "crab in" and under no circumstances touch the apex curbing at T8 before the middle with your left front wheel. This is the most common "early apex" of the course. T8 is a very important turn because the straight leading through the gentle left bend T9 is of significant length. Make sure you track out all the way to the last three quarters of the exit curb at T8 and bend the car to the left gently and over the crest at T9 on the left edge of the road, aiming at the left end of the soundproofing wall. You will need to shift up and back down for T10, Lightbulb.
For Lightbulb, the most important and valuable knowledge is that the track is banked as much as 15 degrees throughout this long, long "carousel" turn, with the curbing at the bottom two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through being the place to place the car closest to the bottom. It's best to enter "high" and progress from the outer three-quarters of the width of the track at the beginning to halfway slightly more than halfway through and place the right front tire against the last half of the curbing, tracking out and "releasing" the car all the way drivers left at the exit.
As the car sweeps gently to the right, make certain that you position the car far right over the last blind crest on the lap to allow any pavement change not to upset the car. Allow the car to track left as you proceed over the crest and down the pit straight, lining up on the left for another approach to T1. That's a "Hot Lap" of the new NJMP Lightning Raceway!
-Courtesy Krause & Associates LLC-
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