[z12358]

986 girl, I don't think squealing is a sign that brakes are about to give up on you. That's only a sign that there's something (dust, debris, metal particles, etc) rubbing against your rotors. One very important advice that my first instructor gave me was to minimize compressing hot pads onto hot rotors (and never keep them plastered there without ventilation) after hard driving. Did you sit on your brakes after the first red flag, and before getting out back on the track? That will boil the fluid much faster.

I use every cool-down lap religiously to cool down everything on the car -- keep the rpms well under 4k, and try not to use any brakes at all right until I park the car into my parking spot in the paddock (I strategically pick a paddock spot that would allow me to easily park without braking on the way to it -- I just glide in.) During the cool-down lap I also allow enough space between myself and the car in front so that I will avoid braking if the traffic clogs as we all get out of the track. All little things that help prolong the life of the fluid and the brakes.

One other thing to learn is to use momentum while driving. Especially in Green and Yellow you can be very fast (the fastest, even) without much use of brakes at all. I noticed that the more I learned the less I used the brakes and the faster I became.

Z.