Bryan Sellers Instructs You Through the TUDOR Championship’s Best Corners

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Like a utility player in other sports, racetracks must have “utility corners”. These aren’t the flashy turns that attract the big crowds or carry internationally recognized nicknames. These are the places that get you from oneplace to another. But, get them wrong and the lap is lost.

The 4.048-mile Road America circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin has its share of famous corners like “The Carousel” [Turns 9-10] or “Canada Corner [Turn 12] but it is the challenge of “utility” turns like Turn Five that Bryan Sellers puts the emphasis on. Of the 14-left and rights that the Braselton, Georgia-resident and teammate Wolf Henzler (Germany) will have to get right every lap in the No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR on August 9, it is Turn Five that Sellers looks to first. Get it correct and the former open-wheel standout and 24 Hours of Le Mans starter might just be standing on the top-step of the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class podium for the second time this year at the conclusion of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s Road Race Showcase at Road America.

 

Drive-Through Road America’s Turn-Five with Bryan Sellers: “Turn Five at Road America is possibly one of the most understated and underrated corners not only at Road America but also in the country. It’s not high speed, it’s not flashy and it doesn’t look like anything special. However, it does take a special commitment and technique to get it correct. The brake zone is very difficult and it is very important to the overall sector time of the corner. It’s a high-speed approach to the corner and a low apex speed which means heavy braking. The difficult part is that it is not a straight or flat braking zone. The approach is curved and downhill. You have to really focus on getting the car as straight as possible so you can brake as late and hard as possible. When you start braking you are heading downhill significantly which means you can’t hit the brake pedal hard at first but the further into the brake zone you get the more pressure you can apply. Once you have gotten to that point, the next challenge is beginning to release the brake so you don’t overflow the corner. Also, because it is downhill, your car placement is particularly important. If you are off a little bit you will find that you are too slow at the apex. Now, to cap it off, putting the power down out of the second gear corner is very difficult yet extremely important. You have to find the right balance of enough power and too much throttle. Otherwise, you will produce too much oversteer and sacrifice the exit. If you surrender the exit, you lose speed and momentum up the straight to Turn Six. If you can get Turn Five right, you really feel like you have accomplished something.”

 

Want to learn more about the “behind the scenes” world of professional sports car racing? Be sure to check out Bryan’s blog at www.FlatSixes.com. The regular feature of the longtime Falken Tire factory driver shows various aspects of what it takes to succeed in endurance GT racing. The most current blog gives a detailed breakdown of the steering wheel used in the Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR. http://flatsixes.com/porsche-motorsports/heres-what-all-the-buttons-on-the-porsche-911-rsr-control/ .

 

The two-hour, 40-minute, Road Race Showcase At Road America will be televised live at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), Sunday, August 9 on FOX Sports 1. IMSA.com will provide audio coverage of every on-track lap, including practice and qualifying while video streaming of qualifying will be available on the IMSA web site beginning at 4:35 p.m., Saturday, August 8. The weekend’s activities can be followed on Twitter with the hash tag #CTRRS.

Adam Sinclair
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