Run Group Promotion - Long Version

Published: March 12, 2013

Or, more than you ever wanted to know about run groups.

Run group promotion is a tricky business. Most organizations have developed promotion checklists, and these vary quite a bit. Some of the items on these checklists are objective, others are subjective. Median skill level of all drivers participating in a given organization's track days shifts criteria up or down. Lastly, officials can make exceptions for some people and ignore other people.

We will start with skills that can be objectively checked and move to more subjective ones.

Pit In And Pit Out

Any solo driver is expected to be able to depart pits and arrive into pits safely. This means respecting the blend line, giving point bys to faster cars when entering track, displaying pit in signal and entering pits in a safe manner.

Flags

Everyone is supposed to know all flags at all times. Novice drivers generally do not know what flags other than green and yellow mean, and they can screw up the details of yellow and red flags rather easily. Instructors on the other hand not only know what each flag means and what the driver is supposed to do when they see each flag given surrounding track conditions at the time, they also actually see just about every flag displayed when they are not driving.

Blowing black flags is grounds for immediate disqualification from any promotion you were hoping for.

It takes effort to learn flags that you ordinarily do not see, especially as a novice. In well behaved groups you can go a full day without getting a passing flag or a surface flag. HPDE cars usually do not get meatball flags. I like to quiz my students on flags, doubly so if they missed a flag that was for them. Study the flags before your track day.

School Line

This is the line as it is taught for reasonably balanced cars at beginner and intermediate levels. Typically there is a single school line on any given track, although in rare cases different organizations may disagree on what the school line is through tricky corners. The school line is not car specific. It can be drawn by classroom instructor on the track map.

While the school line may be ill-suited for a particular car, all drivers are expected to 1) know what it is and 2) be able to drive it, possibly at reduced speed if their car is not "reasonably balanced".

Usually the ability to consistently drive the school line is a requirement for beginner to intermediate promotion (unless the instructor recognizes that the car is not "reasonably balanced", in which case driving a more appropriate line earns points with that instructor). For intermediate to advanced promotion, the student is expected to drive the school line at high speed, or drive a line that is better than the school line for their car, still at high speed.

Traffic Awareness

In the most basic sense, this means seeing faster cars in your rear view mirror as soon as they appear there, "as soon as" being on the order of seconds. Driving schools that teach street driving are supposed to teach checking mirrors frequently; a driver that checks mirrors in street driving mostly needs to get to the point where they spend less than 100% of their attention on keeping their car on pavement, so that they can dedicate the remaining attention to checking their mirrors.

For beginner to intermediate promotion, the driver is normally expected to point by faster cars before the instructor would mention to the driver that there is a faster car behind them.

Organizations that require instruction at intermediate level may put less emphasis on traffic awareness, and organizations that solo drivers at beginner level emphasise traffic awareness earlier (before, say, pace).

Drivers of high horsepower cars can get by without checking mirrors in lower groups, however if they are evaluated in the group they are trying to promote to rather than in the group they are trying to promote from then due to pace differences they can be caught by lower horsepower cars with better drivers. Lack of traffic awareness will then become noticeable.

More advanced sense of traffic awareness is dealing with slower cars. "Slower" at this level does not necessarily mean "Corvette vs Miata"; it may just as well be "Miata vs Miata". The faster car is expected to "set up the pass", meaning back off through a corner and accelerate earlier to get a significantly higher exit speed to pass the slower car efficiently once both cars are on a straightaway. This sort of thing is expected for intermediate to advanced promotion.

Similarly, if you have the Corvette and are coming up on a Miata there is no need to ride Miata's rear bumper. If you do this to the point where instructor becomes concerned for their safety you can even fail a solo sign off. Riding bumpers if you are in a Miata tends to be much more tolerable.

Using Entire Track Width

This is something that is typically expected at intermediate level, and is actually very objective. A car either tracks out completely or it does not, and if it does not, there is a problem.

Pace

This can be very objective or very subjective.

If you happen to be in an organization that runs time trials, and groups cars by lap time, your lap time as officially measured is your pace for the purposes of run group assignment. If you have a Miata and run lap times appropriate for the fastest run group, you are in the fastest run group. Same for the other way around.

Most HPDE events however are non-competitive, and your pace is measured by how many cars you pass, or get passed by, while the instructor is riding with you. Extreme pace differences are easily noticed, especially in packed run groups, as you barely have a corner without someone sitting on your bumper waiting for a point by. Smaller differences, especially in sparser groups, are more difficult to notice.

A slow car in a fast run group tends to detract from the enjoyment of the track by other cars (really by all cars, but assuming you are in the slow car trying to move into the group, it is you who is about to make everyone else's life miserable). There are 3 general solutions to this problem:

1. Run with an organization that does not pack events as much. This lightens up the traffic, reducing everyone's frustration.
2. Become a better driver, either staying in the lower run group if you can bear it or by running with another organization per #1, or make your car faster, either option increasing your pace. Then try again.
3. Promote yourself into a run group with more liberal passing rules. If you are presently restricted to major straights, the next step up is "passing anywhere wheels are straight". Frequently this results in passing in braking zones, and sometimes in turns, if you get to know your fellow drivers and are comfortable with them as well as they are comfortable with you. The next step up is "passing anywhere" including corners. The fewer parts of the track are not usable for passing, the less time you hold up faster cars and the less they are annoyed with you. The exception is time trials, where being held up even minutely ruins people's lap time; good time trial organizations therefore group and grid by lap time, avoiding this problem.

Smoothness

This is essentially a subjectively evaluated skill. Smoothness comes mostly from experience, and instructors have much more of it than students owing to the fact that instructors have that much more track time under their belts. As a result, when instructors evaluate students for smoothness a typical range is from 0 to 1/2 on a scale where instructor places themselves at 1. The good news is finding a less smooth instructor improves your rating on their scale with you having the same skills. The bad news this does not improve your skills. Finding an instructor who can help you be smoother will do more for you in the long term.

Consistency

Technically this can be evaluated using a lap timer, at which point it will be an objective measurement. Time trialers and racers do this, and for them consistency is objective. HPDE students do not use lap timers, and even if they did their consistency would be way off the bottom of the charts from traffic alone.

This makes consistency almost entirely subjective and in fact very similar to smoothness in terms of how it is evaluated. It is probably easier to be consistent in the eyes of an instructor than it is to be smooth.

Unlike smoothness, you can improve your consistency efficiently without outside help. All you need to do is have the ability to recognize your mistakes. Not just major ones such as going off pavement, but small ones like running a little wide, getting on power a little early or a little late, turning in a little early or late, braking before or after your reference point. By eliminating these mistakes you will become a more consistent driver.

Usage Of Car

This is a measure of how much of your car's capabilities you are using on track. Generally speaking, drivers in higher run groups use more of their cars' capabilities than drivers in lower run groups, but because the evaluation of it is highly subjective "usage of car" is never a starting point. Rather it is an assessment developed over the course of a session that combines all other assessments.

One way "usage of car" assessment can work is this: if the driver makes no obvious mistakes under any of the earlier sections (pit in/out, line), demonstrates traffic awareness, is not excessively abrupt or clearly inconsistent, then pace, smoothness and consistency along with a number of other factors are fused into some notion of how close the driver is to what the car can do.

The "other factors" are widely varied, among them:

• Tire noise - are tires being overworked? underworked?
• Is the driver faster or slower than other drivers in similar or identical cars?
• Is the driver using curbs? Consistently?
• Does the driver appear to have a plan for each corner before they get to the corner? Is the driver reacting to what the car is doing or anticipating?
• Traction sensing - does the instructor feel that there is grip remaining in corners?

For a beginner to intermediate promotion a 7.5/10 is typically sufficient. 8/10 is impressive. 7/10 is questionable, pace comes into play then with higher horsepower cars tending to be promoted and lower horsepower cars not (as they would tend to be too slow in intermediate group). Overall aggression of the drivers participating with the organization comes into play, moving the scale up or down by maybe 1/2 point.

If intermediate group has high horsepower cars (Corvettes), and you are driving a low horsepower car (Miata), you will frequently need an extra 1/2 point. Part of that is due to pace, part due to perception.

For intermediate to advanced promotion, 9/10 is a good target to aim for. More aggressive organizations where most of the field runs at 9.5/10 for most of the day are likely to not welcome 8.5/10 drivers at advanced level. Less aggressive organizations where many drivers top out at 9/10 and 10/10 is administratively prohibited may consider 8.5/10 drivers advanced material, although at that point tenure may matter more than driving skill.

For a somewhat practical application of these guidelines, have a look at promotion checklist.