The two phases of the slide are not nessecarily apart on the time scale, and neither is the correction. The difference goes much deeper. The bottom line is that the first and most important thing to do is to remove the cause of the slide and any corrections to the direction of travel are at most secondary.

Furthermore, if you correct early enough with the power, you hardly need to correct the trajectory of your car, I.E. You do not need to countersteer. In FWD cars and many AWD cars, countersteering means correcting too late or too much. Many rear-wheel drive cars can also be handled without countersteering, it’s slowing you down.

Let’s think: We shift weight forward by braking. The rear is rendered light. What do we do to get it to grip? Shift the weight back to the rear. If we countersteer, how exactly do we do that?

Yes, if speeds are not too high, lifting off of the brakes can often resolve the slide. Additionally, it is possible for the steering angle of the front to compensate for the slip angles of the rear, but this is only enough to balance the slide, not terminate it. What you are basically doing is to wait for the car to lose speed, eventually regaining grip.

What you have experienced in cars is probably one of the two cases above. For something to work in several occasions does not qualify it to be a proper technique. In every high-class racing school, rallying school or skidpan in Europe that I know of, the consensus leans to my explaination rather than yours.

In several demonstrations I attended at the driving schools of Drive-Art in Israel, On Yaakobson (Competetor at Formula Mazda), Danny G (competetor at Formula Vauxhaul) and Lior Levi (Competetor at JMC racing) they showed lift-off oversteer and it’s correction:

Attempt one: Car makes a full 180 degrees spin in spite of an instant application of full opposite lock.

Attempt two: Driver countersteers and also tries to get on the gas. When he gets on the power, weight shifts backwards and the car immediatly stops sliding but the wheel is turned against the slide, so the car spins the other way.

Attempt three: The instructor gets on the gas to stop the slide and straightens the steering witout countersteering and the car straightens up.

So yes, they could have made it in other ways, but the correct technique is the one applied in the third attempt.

Oh, and it’s interseting how when Jason Plato (WTCC) was knocked completly sideways in a FWD Chevrolet, the pulled it back straight and later than “The first and most important thing you do is to get hard on the gas”!

First, your assertion that the only way for the rear tires to regain traction is via application of the throttle is flat out wrong. I have been in numerous cars, in numerous spins, with numerous people in the driver’s seat, and in many of those spins which were recovered, the only correction done was to turn into the spin. Indeed, sometimes the driver even lifted COMPLETELY off the throttle, yet still recovered. You are correct that a slight application of the throttle will oftentimes shift weight back to the rear wheels and thus help them regain grip. But your conclusion that failure to do always will result in the rear continuing to slide is wrong.

Second, your assertion about “removing lock”. I’m not really sure what you mean by “the correct recovery involves getting back on the power while taking some of the lock off, and only than countersteer as nessecary (sic).” This could be interpreted as 1) counter steering and then steering away from the spin, or 2) just steering away from the spin. Fortunately we need not flesh out which interpretation you intended because both are wrong. It is an axiom of performance driving that you turn into a spin. Yes, there may be some circumstance or instance somewhere, sometime, when actively turning away from the spin nonetheless leads to recovery, but I have yet to see or hear of such an occurrence. Further, even if there was such a situation, that does not mean that turning away from a spin would be be a viable technique as applied generally.

Third, your complaints about the timing of recovery techniques. As noted above, you assert that only throttle application will lead to regained rear wheel traction. And as noted above, that assertion is false. Your timing sequence, however, is based upon this false premise - that only throttle application will allow the rear wheels to regain grip. As I note above, in my experience the one technique that is most likely to save you in a spin is to countersteer, hence my positioning it as your first action. Mind you there nothing precluding you from BOTH countersteering and applying slight throttle simultaneously, and indeed that is generally the best technique. But if you are to think in terms of concrete, discrete steps, then I still conclude that countersteering should be done FIRST as it is most effective.

Finally, your assertion that there are two phases of a spin: 1) the failure to not prevent a spin flowing back to your actions on the straight, and 2) the actual spin. This analysis is wrong because you assert that every spin inherently must have both of these phases. This is incorrect. Not every single spin can accurately be predicted from the straight. For example, if you are following a car that suddenly dumps some slippery fluid right in front of you, you may well begin to spin. And precisely because this situation was completely non-existant and non-predictable while on the straight, none of your actions or inactions on the straight have any bearing whatsoever to the spin and the recovery thereof.

You are correct in that many/most spins can be traced back to a poor corner setup. Indeed the biggest indicator of driving skill to me is how early a driver is able to recognize ANY problematic situation, be it a possible spin, early apex, etc. But as I note above, this analysis is not applicable to every spin, and thus it cannot be a distinct “phase” of a spin. Really, it isn’t a “phase” at all, but simply the situation that led up to the actual spin itself. In terms of actively preventing a spin from happening, or anticipating and mitigating the severity of the spin, obviously measures can be taken before the actual spin. But this analysis and the inputs required is distinctly different from what should be done when you have actually begun to spin.

First, the skid itself, which is the balance matters you described, resulting in one, two or three wheels losing adhesion and one axle becoming “loose”. This occurs down the straight and is felt through the seat and steering, rather than seen. It is a result of weight transfers and bad utilization of tractive force or, in other words, a bad synchornization between the hands and feet, with the strees being on the pedals and not the steering.

The second stage occurs when the driver turns the wheel into a corner/lane, which (due to the imbalance) results in an unexpected response from the car (the car too much or too little of what the driver asks it to do), resulting in the car not following the intended line.

Where many drivers (on the track or otherwise) go wrong is not to pay attention to the first stage by not paying attention to feedback from the car. They view the skid as a mere change in the direction of the car and correct it simply by pointing the steering wheel back towards the right direction.

The problem is, that the slide happened eariler. Therefore, the corrective input applied by the driver will be performed later into the skid, and will be wrong and normally only increase the force acting on the car or simply not being efficient.

The correct solution is to the feel the slide early in the first stage and than correct it by removing the cause of the slide and decreasing the cornering demands, and only than making further adjustments to the direction of travel. This means using the pedals to do just the opposite of what got you into the slide, while straightening out the steering, and only than steer where you want to go.

In the particular event of lift-off/braking oversteer, this means feeling the slide according to the sensation of the loose back-end and tight steering, rather than leave it to the point where the car attempts a spin. Additionally, getting back on the power to shift weight backwards and remove the cause of the slide, is far more important than countersteering and will come eariler!

The only thing that can readhense the rear wheels in the throttle. By not getting on it, we multiply our steering input by zero! This means one of the following:
1. You spin even though you input full opposite lock.
2. You spin even more harshly the other way.
3. If your speed is not high (which is almost never the case on the track) and your steering correction is quick, your steering input counteracts the slip-angles of the rear-tires, but still cannot remove the cause of the slide. The result is for the driver to countersteer untill he runs out of lock, and than wait for the car to lose speed and hope you do not run out of road before you run out of speed.

If you steer before getting back on the power, you might exceed the point of no return and spin or cause the car to suddenly re-grip as you get on the power, with the wheel sharply turned the other way, resulting in a violent slide the other way.

Therefore, the correct recovery involves getting back on the power while taking some of the lock off, and only than countersteer as nessecary. How much power (and therefore how much steering) depands on many factors: Road incline, corner severity, speed, traction, cause of the slide, drivetrain, degree of sliding.

One example: Say I found myself completly sideways after being ticked. I need to get the weight back to the rear of the car, but I also need to steer the car back on the right direction. Therefore, I need to keep constanst throttle to get the rear to grip, while still keeping the front gripping to get the car turned back on the right line.

Now, say my car is a WRC rally car and that the speed in relatively low. In this case, I can keep full throttle, because the central differential is going to detect the situation and transfer all of the power to the front. Since the car is light, the engine is strong, and grip is not maximized, this would result in the front wheels spinning and sliding back towards the right line.

A third example, say my rear tires blew up, or that I’m driving on ice/skimming on water (aquaplaning). In this case, there is little advantage to be gained from weight shifts and therefore you press down on the clutch to regain natural tire rolling action. See, it’s far more complex than it appears.

If we expand the disscussion even more, we see that there are other causes of sliding:
1. Power oversteer: The driver has to do the exact same thing, just reduce the power application rather than increase it. The power is still more important than the steering, though!
2. Roll-oversteer: The driver keeps constant power and corrects with steering.

As far as application goes, you are correct in that it is an indispensable tool. Major steering inputs are obviously done with the steering wheel, but any fine-tuning is all done with the throttle. In that sense, it is not only not a bad habit, but an integral part of smooth, high performance driving. That said, make LITTLE inputs with the throttle. Too sudden of a lift will take you into lift-throttle oversteer very fast, and then you’re in trouble.