Moving Up In Groups - The "Why"

Published: October 18, 2012

There are two hard factors separating run groups: instructor requirement/availability and passing rules. The one soft factor is pace. Generally speaking, novice groups require instructors, intermediate groups may or may not require instructors depending on the organization and advanced groups do not require instructors. Passing rules vary widely, but novice groups are normally always restricted to passing on longer straights, intermediate groups may pass on all straights and advanced groups may pass anywhere. The pace generally increases from novice to intermediate to advanced.

Assuming you are a student looking to get the most from your track time, the decision whether to move up to the next group is then governed by whether you need an instructor to drive the track correctly, whether you are held up by slower cars in your current group, and whether you want to use additional passing opportunities present in the higher run group.

As you gains experience, you will reach a point when you will want to drive their car by yourself to experiment. This should come after you learn "the line" as being taught by your instructor, and otherwise are able to do everything your instructor in novice group asks you to do. At this point you would want to either receive a solo sign-off or be moved up to a non-instructed group.

As you increase your pace as a novice student, you will find yourself stuck in trains. In novice groups, especially at the beginning of an event, it is unfortunately common for trains to form behind slower cars and/or drivers. A novice may want to be promoted to escape the trains. In intermediate groups trains seldom happen but there are cases of high horsepower cars holding up low horsepower cars that are nonetheless faster in corners. Intermediate students may want to move up to avoid being held up by singular drivers. Advanced group students are expected to be sufficiently mature to not hold anyone up.

As your experience and comfort level grows, you would want to pass and be passed sooner rather than waiting for the next passing zone.

The last reason for being moved up is status. Unfortunately there are some organizations that are slow to promote students in lower groups to the point of leaving students stuck in higher groups. HPDE has not managed to completely escape bureaucracy, and sometimes it gets in the way of individual advancement. The best thing to do in such cases is to find a friendly instructor, who will then request promotion from the Chief Instructor.

Now that we covered why you want to be moved up, what is your instructor's perspective on this topic?

For one particular instructor evaluating whether a student should be moved up to the next group, the primary issues are whether the student will be safe in the higher group due to additional passing going on and whether the student will annoy cars already in the higher run group by holding them up through available passing opportunities. If a student is judged to be either unsafe or annoying, the promotion will not happen. A student who is judged to be safe and not annoying can be promoted to the next run group. Whether the promotion will happen depends on two more things, both of which exist for the student's benefit: skill and pace.

To be safe, you must demonstrate awareness. This includes awareness of cars behind yourself, the most prominent indicator of such awareness being prompt point-bys. Similarly, when passing other cars you must leave adequate space between yourself and the cars being passed. Any student being promoted beyond the novice group is expected to know all flags and pay attention to corner workers at all times, which means actually seeing the flags when they are being displayed.

Part of being in the higher run group is letting faster cars pass efficiently. To evaluate this, you may be tested in the group they are trying to promote to. Generally speaking you would be expected to point by the faster cars in the first available passing zone in whichever group they are running.

Skill, very generally, refers to how much of your car's capability you is using. If the instructor feels that you can significantly improve your skill with instruction, instructor would recommend additional instruction. This frequently, but not always, necessitates that you stay in one of the instructed groups - more on this below.

For novice to intermediate promotion on the same track, you would be expected to drive "the line" consistently without serious mistakes by yourself, without assisance from your instructor. Another way of looking at it is asking yourself how much your instructor repeats the same commands, how much they talk during a session and whether their corrections are minor or major.

Drivers with few track days of experience that are signed off for intermediate group on one track are normally encouraged, and sometimes required, to start in the novice group if going to a new track. This is because you will learn "the line" and the new track's peculiarities much more effectively with an instructor, and while learning the track you will not be on pace in the intermediate group.

Intermediate-level drivers going to new tracks are encouraged to request an instructor while staying in intermediate group.

Advanced-level students going to a new track have the option to request an instructor to short-circuit the learning process. However, part of being an advanced student is figuring out "the line" on your own, and you may choose to work on this skill when going to a new to you track. Some organizations frown on students starting their first day on a new track in advanced group, but as long as you don't annoy other drivers who already know the track (meaning, prompt point-bys in all available passing zones) you usually will not receive too much harassment.

Pace refers to the average lap time of cars in a group. A slow car with a fast driver may have the same pace as a fast car with a slow driver. However, a slow car with a fast driver will not have the same pace as a fast car with a fast driver. Generally speaking, in DE there is no requirement that cars in a given run group have similar pace, as run groups are determined by experience and skill, which then affect necessity of instruction and passing confidence. However, a student may be promoted to a faster run group if they have a car that exceeds the pace of their present run group. Similarly, a student may choose to run in a lower run group than they are otherwise qualified for to avoid being passed too frequently.

Instructor availability

This may range from a non-issue to a showstopper. Instructors generally have either one or two students. Depending on how many students your instructor has, what group you want to move to, and whether there are other available instructors, your advancement may be logistically impossible. For example, suppose you want to advance from novice to intermediate but your instructor already has another intermediate student and there are no free instructors. You would have to be instructed in novice or be solo in intermediate. If your instructor feels that you need instruction, but you are the fastest car in novice and are stuck in trains, you may have no choice but to remain in novice. Solution? Work on fixing what you are doing wrong to get solo sign off for intermediate group.

If you know you will want an instructor at an event, request one ahead of time. If you only want an instructor for one or two sessions, indicate that as well. It is much easier for organizers to arrange for an instructor ahead of time than it is on event day.

Especially if you are an advanced student requesting an instructor, doing so on the day of the event creates logistical issues as instructors do not normally instruct advanced students and therefore have advanced sessions "off". Many instructors use advanced sessions to take their students out on track.