Tricky corners, how to know when to stay in 3rd and when to go into 2nd

[thstone]

Originally Posted by The Radium King

...not having enough torque on the exit.

This.

Even if you can roll 3rd gear through a corner, you may not be carrying sufficient speed to accelerate out of the corner very quickly because of lower torque at lower RPM's.

Thus, going thru the corner in 2nd, even though the cornering speed might be slightly slower, can result in a faster overall lap time because you will be at very high rpm on corner exit and get a great jump out of the corner and carry that speed all of the way down the next straight.

I experience this issue at Buttonwillow raceway in the Star Mazda turn in the counter-clockwise direction. I have found that going to 2nd and then hammering out of the turn results in a better lap time than rolling through in 3rd and waiting for the torque to come on as I exit the turn.

Of course, the best answer is to get good enough to go through in 3rd fast enough that the rpm's are high on corner exit!