All of our previous installments have dealt with finding and driving whichever Line will be the fastest for you in your car. This article will look at the line from a different perspective: what line to take to maximize your options in a corner. By that I mean taking a line that allows you to brake, swerve, or otherwise deal with something unexpected part way through the corner.

The Safe Line is a Late Apex Line

The essence of a safety line is a late apex. This is one of those instances where yes, it pretty much is that simple.

So now you probably want to know why it is a late apex. The reason is that when you apex late, you have done most of your turning in the beginning of the corner. This gives you much more leeway in the second part of the corner to brake, steer, or accelerate as the car is not turning nearly as much. Not turning means any weight shifts will be less likely to cause a catastrophic under or oversteer situation.

A River in the Road as an Example
Think about it this way: say you are driving through a corner and you see a stream or river of water going across the road. Even at moderate speeds, you are likely to hydroplane, or at least experience a decrease in traction from the dry part of the road. This means that as your front tires enter the water, they will lose traction, causing the car to understeer. Then, when they leave the water and hit dry pavement again, they will suddenly have much more traction. If you are turning, this means the front of your car will suddenly shift as the front tires regain traction. But of course your rear tires do not have that traction, so you may very well begin to oversteer.

So how to deal with the above situation? The safest approach is to drive STRAIGHT over the water with NEUTRAL THROTTLE. And this is where the Safety Line comes into play. Really what you are doing is placing a mini straight right in the middle of the corner - for as long as it takes both the front AND rear wheels to cross the water. You are obviously not turning when you are going in a straight line, so you need to make up that lost turning elsewhere in the corner if you are to stay on the road. Hence the need to apex late, thereby turning more in the beginning of the corner.

Why Would I Bother with a “Safe” Line?

The short answer to why you should bother with a safe line is that it will help insure that you keep your car on the pavement, away from the walls and trees. The next question of course is when should you take this approach? Realistically, the need presents itself far more often on public roadways than on the racetrack. You never know halfway around a turn whether there will be something on the road like oil, water, or a small child, all of which are best avoided for a variety of reasons. Racetracks, on the other hand, are closed, predictable circuits by design, so you really shouldn’t have any “surprises” in the middle of a corner (provided you are looking ahead enough to see other cars). But, things like water, oil, or general caution could prompt you to take a safer line until the situation has been sorted out. At Watkins Glen, for example, the sweeping right hander right after the bus stop tends to have a pretty serious river running right down the middle of it when it rains.

A Safe Line Lets You Steer and Brake DURING a Corner

The essence of a safe line is that it allows you to maneuver in the MIDDLE of a corner. As you know from our previous discussions, your ability to maneuver quickly and in unexpected ways becomes more and more limited as you get closer to the limit along the Line. The reason for that is simply that you have already used the maximum amount of track available for that turn at that speed.

If you try to steer around a problem, you will have difficulties, possibly epic. If you ease up your steering to go to the outside of the problem, this will very likely take you right off of the track and into the wall or the dirt. If you try to steer more and go to the inside, you should understeer and not be able to turn in. Or (depending on the setup and tendencies of your specific car), your front tires will grip but your rear tires will not, and you will understeer. The reason for that is that by driving along the “fast line” at or near the limit, there is no grip left to turn the car more.

How to Use the Safety Line in Practice

The idea of a Safety Line and/or late apexing should not be a revelation at this point. If you have read our previous installments on The Line, the safety line should be a natural conclusion you could reach on your own. The key is seeing when to use a safety line. Knowing WHEN to use it can be the difference between making a turn without much fanfare, or crashing violently.

It really comes down to thinking through the corner, and anticipating BEFOREHAND any possible hazards or other obstacles you might encounter. All you are doing when you drive is painting/carving a Line in the road with your car. So, look through the corner and pick a line that will let you ease off your steering if needed without leaving the road.