Setup for someone that has never driven a race car

[hardhead]

My son has dove into crate racing and has never driven a race car before. He is struggling getting the hang of it and was wondering if there is any thing you guys would suggest to help other than seat time. He has been to a small 1/4 mile track a few times and seems to be picking it up a little but the other track has sweeping turns and is usually hammered down until the feature. He is having trouble on corner entry and the car usually pushes right before the center if he doesn't enter just right. He is very inconsistent right now. The last practice it was suggested that we continue to take bite out until the car gets too loose and we tried but it didn't really seem to make much difference. Am I doing the right thing or should I just go back to a base setup and let him keep making laps till he figures it out?

[Kwoods25]

Seat time is the most important. When I first started my the best advice I got was I'm not driving the car hard enough. Slower entry and picking up the throttle hard is gonna make it push. I run a big 1/2 mile high banked hammer down track. Corner entry is alot. I always set mine up tight to make me drive it hard in the corner where I didn't get the feeling of chasing the backend. If he can tell you how the car feels. You should be able to adjust a little and make it better everytime he goes out

[Racer63]

I'm far from an expert but I know years ago when I went from hobby stocks to crate late I had the same problem sort of. Car was almost always tight from middle out. We weren't running some extreme angle on the J bar or anything but a guy next to me one night suggested we take some out of it. Went out for the feature that night and it was like a whole different car to me at that time. Made the car easier to learn to drive. Just a thought......

[rakracing]

a late model is its own animal ,there's no way around experience, latemodels work best when driven hard when your new you tend to lift early and the car will drop the left rear and rf comes up, car goes flat and they wont turn, have him work on arking it in and try to keep the lr up, car will get better the more he runs it. to free it up try moving the j-bar up at the pinion, and or move the rr back. i've helped a lot of new guys, best advise is if you can let a veteran drive the car in hot laps or practice they can tell you more in 2 laps then weeks of trying stuff, you'll now if its him or the car,

[7uptruckracer]

You can also get the LRR and LRF shocks to where it will help him from slamming it down

[hardhead]

Thanks for all the advice. Next time at the track I may try moving the J-bar. I believe his biggest issue is turning in to soon, then when he gets to the center of the turn he needs to turn more and the car just pushes. We are not running a LRF shock and he wiped out the double adjustable shock we had on the RF. I have been told we really need the double adjustable on the right front so we can turn up the rebound to keep the RF down. Will a LRF shock help him keep it on the bars? I really don't understand why some of the local guys don't run the LRF shock and some do.

[Matt49]

Thanks for all the advice. Next time at the track I may try moving the J-bar. I believe his biggest issue is turning in to soon, then when he gets to the center of the turn he needs to turn more and the car just pushes. We are not running a LRF shock and he wiped out the double adjustable shock we had on the RF. I have been told we really need the double adjustable on the right front so we can turn up the rebound to keep the RF down. Will a LRF shock help him keep it on the bars? I really don't understand why some of the local guys don't run the LRF shock and some do.

The LRF shock will help him keep it on the bars. The reason some run it and some don't is setup/driver preference. Some guys don't need this shock to keep the car attitude right. That being said, a lot of touring pros run one and I don't think they need it as a driving crutch.
Also, it can hurt forward bite coming off the corner to one run if it isn't tuned properly.

[let-r-eat]

When I'm helping young drivers/beginners the best thing you can do is get him with someone experienced and let them help him. Videoing him only does so much. They then get to thinking too much. Show him how to identify the bite in the race track and learn to maneuver the car there. You must be consistent first before you can ever be fast.

Try to get him to race the car the same every lap no matter how fast he's going. Consistency and then speed.