I think, many of us noticed very different feelings in different situations when racing. For example, someone may be nervous when having a lot to lose, for example leading in the end of a race, or someone may be very cautious/careless when fighting for position.

Would be interesting to read observations and solutions: what to do to do better.

To begin with,

When fighting for position(s), I start driving beyond the limits. It feels like I can do anything, and I start braking too late and missing the hairpins, flooring too early in a turn, which leads to going too wide in AWD or spinning in RWD. I noticed myself losing much time when fighting: more than just because of going in 2 lanes or crossing the racelines. Don't know what to do. Excercises?

Another thing is that sometimes I drive alone and start feeling that I can do anything, for which I drive jauntily. This can be very dangerous in rallyX: you need to make a car slide, but you do this jauntily, and it goes too wide or too narrow in a turn, slips on grass or hits the inside wall...

Instead of solutions I'll write an observation regarding concentration. I noticed this at IFRS lectures recently: when I started feeling sleepy because of monotonous speech (coffee was almost useless in this case), I could think in a special way, which made my brain concentrate, start thinking and stop wanting to sleep. Hard to describe. It is like trying to induce a feeling like something is happening, like you need to solve a task right away, like "what? what is happening, i'm missing something!"

If, and it's a big if, I happen to find myself in the lead of a race I keep an eye on the time between me andd 2nd place. If(:nod they're catching me fast I get all giddy and usually crash.

I believe it's all thing of concentration and experience. If you experience something and you see you are losing time, and if you are very focused you can do it better. I'm usuly relaxed racing on publics and sometimes pushing too hard, but when it comes to league racing, i focus up to maximum and try to drive as best as i can. I always sweat like insane then and after race shower is first thing to do. I'm very nervos in first few laps And in last sector of race if i'm first Also when someone catching you very fast i think you must be starting nervose, oh well if you are Raikkonen or Hakkinen you won't

At the beginning (in my first leagues) I used to push it to the limit nevertheless on which position I was. I even drove on the edge when I had over 10/20/etc seconds of advance.

Today I became more tactical, I just drive fast enough to fullfill my goals, when I'm in front I tray to control the race but not to do any crazy fast laptimes. I guess I'm getting old .

Well doesn't matter either way, as long as I can fullfill my goals

P.S. But I think the question should'nt be: "Does your psycological state change from race situation?" , it should be "Does you psycological state change your track behaviour?"

Quote from detail :

When fighting for position(s), I start driving beyond the limits. It feels like I can do anything, and I start braking too late and missing the hairpins, flooring too early in a turn, which leads to going too wide in AWD or spinning in RWD. I noticed myself losing much time when fighting: more than just because of going in 2 lanes or crossing the racelines. Don't know what to do. Excercises?

You're always going to loose time when fighting wheel-to-wheel, the trick is just to get past the driver in front as quickly as possible. A good tip is to practice overtaking on your own, it sounds silly I know, but practice going through corners hugging inside line, or round the outside, even practise taking a switch-back line. You'll then be faster and more in control when fighting. This is a trick I picked up back when playing N2003, when I used to lap as if I was three-wide on the outside etc.. Ah, good times.

Quote :

I always sweat like insane then and after race shower is first thing to do.

Haha, I have the same problem. It's usually pretty hot here, so I race with my AC on the entire time, but that still doesn't stop me from sweating like mad

Just glad I'm not the only one

I find that when im really close to someone for a long time, say 4-5 laps, i often tend to bottle it and crash, im too worried about taking us both out the race.

Most of the time I'm pretty careful by now, but I still push a little too hard occasionally. Usually it's in a situation where I'll only catch someone by the last lap for the lead, besides that I've just grown used to managing my pace. (Can drive anywhere from .3s/minute+ off my pb consistently, so it works out pretty well.) Usually in that situation I'll throw reason out the window and start attempting to drive beyond what I know to be the limit which is never a good idea in a race (normally I NEVER try something new during the race unless I did it accidentally the first time and it worked out).

I have found while league racing though that I'll get completely shaken up worrying about the future consequences of my actions when I take someone off the road and it's potentially/is my fault. If I don't catch myself and put it out of my mind I'll start almost taking myself out too from loss of focus.

i am a very aggressive driver so i push hard all the way around the track unless im near lfsn00b ( niko ) i have to slow down or he crashes and says " you wreaked me you f*** noob etc "

my mental state doesn't change much between races and normal life tho i think it do's when im on this forum reading all the flame mail :S

At the start of the race I usually hold back a bit, especially on SO, where ive been racing alot lately, the start of the race is mayhem, crashes, flips that u gotta try and avoid when they happen right infront of you

I usually try and pace myself throughout the race, and save the tyres for the last push before end of the race, but under pressure I usually try and drive too fast, and ruin my tyres anyway

Well, tbh, telling you what happens to me is a bit of a disadvantage to me, isn't it? . We all get nervous from time to time, its normal, only experience will help calm the nerves down bit by bit. There was a time when I used to be really ice cool, I just knew where all the drivers were who were near me and was thinking with a really clear head on passing the guy in front, it was great.
I felt invincible .

Now, unfortunately, they've come back again. I know this sounds a bit big headed when I say this but I think its because of the fact that when I'm usually racing, I can be between 1-2 seconds faster than everyone else so I tend to pull away and drive a lone race so because of this, I've never had any real proper racing over the past few months (altho there can be the odd occassion ) so start racing in competitive leagues (OWRL, OLFSL, ESL) to make yourself practice harder to get quicker and also you'll find the competition is very tight in those leagues so theres bound to be lots of close racing.

In the start of races I try to be careful, I'm not one of those that tries to win the race in the first corner, though there is occations where I am a bit more aggressive than usual.

The past weeks I've realised that I have been to easy to pass during race, I haven't really fought for the position, I don't know if it were because I didn't have the speed, confedition or the experience. But I have changed my driving style a big the last weeks.
Become more aggressive, though I still think I'm a fair racer, its just that now I'm actually fighting to defend my position. Unless the other driver clearly is much faster and have the inside when entering a corner.


Edit: To keep on topic.
No, it doesen't, unless there is something special that happends, like a stupid accident.
It did before though, but as I have become more experienced I have been more hardened.

I dunno how some ppl can make a slow start and then make their way true grind during race, i go staraith into fight for 1st place (i never make it) and after 1 lap i usualy have highest pozicion that i will reach in the race (thx to dudes that crash and then catch me up)
And when they are behind me i usualy brake too fast or late and become some kind of TANK and that never ends up well.

I'm slow in racing when I have a car to race but even slower in quali. I just need a bit of a target (not as in wrecking ) to drive faster.

Part of the problem is hiding from yourself the dark realisation that you might not actually be a WR-holding LFS genius. So we all drive beyond the limits of the car thinking that this will magically gain us that elusive extra second per lap to keep up with the front runners, with predictable results.

Of interest, I was frustrated with my persistent mediocrity at n00bDodgers so downloaded Biernot's FZR set from 'Inferno and tried to work out how to get the thing successfully around the track. My initial experiences were that the R2 tyres would vaporise in a cataclysmic supernova of annihilating intensity within about two laps. Baffled by the almost instantaneous overheating I tried to work out how to get the thing around without resorting to R3s.

But then something weird happened - I started driving within the limits of the car, being acutely aware of any tyre scrub - over-braking on the way in, any drifting on the exit, applying the throttle too fast and too eagerly. And the result? I'm about a second a lap faster than I was before... I still am a way off the fast guys (who are low 1:41s nowadays) but I can manage a high '42 on a good run, and am running R2s all round.

So maybe the truly fast guys are using the secret of never over-driving the car, but just hold it consistently and unwaveringly exactly on the optimum limit at all times (or, perhaps, are consciously overdriving the car to get that one perfect hotlap, and chewing up the tyres and engine in the process).

And back on-topic: yes, very hard to keep your cool when you stumble out of your zone of being unconsciously skilled. You start being aware of what you're doing (consciously skilled) and start making all these daft mistakes, which get compounded as time goes on ... off the line, hot tyres, dirty tyres, poor entrance, woaahhhh .... eating the barrier ..... Kind of like in real life when you have a passenger who you know is a good driver. Easy to start driving like a learner again. Maybe the biggest lesson is just to know what you are capable of doing, accept that you might not be in the running for the top podium spot, and keep the car as safely close to the limit as you can manage, but not beyond. The normal rate of attrition in races suggests that you'll place pretty well just by actually being there at the finish line without a major "off".

Note to self: must apply this cool logic next time a hotlapping race leader is breathing white hot fire up my exhaust pipe...

Rakhsh