Around The Track: Taking the esses

Ricky Rudd, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft Racing Ford Taurus, has two victories at the road course in Sonoma, Calif. He went to the winner's circle there last year for the second time in his career; he also won the inaugural NASCAR Winston Cup event there in 1989. He has started from the pole a track-record four times, and, in addition to the two victories, has nine top-fives and 10 top-10s in 14 career starts at the 1.99-mile track.

At the beginning of your qualifying lap, by the time you hit the start-finish line, you are already up to speed. When you get there, you grab fourth gear. You run under the walkover bridge and get off the throttle before you enter the sharp bend.

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You've got to be careful keeping your car on the left side of the racetrack. The car has a tendency to drift to the right as you climb the hill. What happens is you get in the middle of the track and if you let it drift over, you will be off in the dirt on the right side. The track is somewhat off-camber right there. So keep your wheels on the left side of the track, almost on the speed bumps along the dirt on the left side as you're climbing the hill.

Turn 2, you are in fourth gear climbing the hill before you drop it into third and then second. Sometimes you'll skip the third gear shift and just come across the gate and drop straight into second; heel-toe downshift, matching your revs. Have your shifting done before you turn into the right-hand turn. You put your right side tires almost halfway up on the speed bumps and use up every inch of racetrack on the exit, accelerating hard. On new tires you can run pretty much full throttle. Later on during the race it gets greasy there so you can only run about 60 or 70 percent throttle until you get the car aimed straight before getting back on the throttle.

You're in second and grab third. On the exit of Turn 2, you build up as much acceleration as you can. You make a shift somewhere around 8,500 rpm and make the shift to third. You get into that little short chute and you either gear down or leave it in third, depending on the situation. It takes care of the motor a little if you leave it in third.

In Turn 3, which is a left-hander, you usually get a lot of body roll there because the car is primarily set to turn right, so it is almost like driving down into a hole. When you get to the bottom of the little short chute, you are turning and braking and it gets really busy. You want to be careful not to use up a lot of the racetrack because you want to be on the left side as you exit Turn 3. That way you get a good entry into 3A, which is that uphill right-hander. You don't want to put your tires up on that speed bump too much because if you do, it'll make your car get airborne. You'll pick the right-side tires up about two foot off the ground. It looks pretty for the photographers, but it causes you a little bit of trouble on the exit of that corner since it slows the exit speed up when you do that.

Approaching Turn 4, you can't drive as deep as you think. It's downhill, so you are accelerating really hard. You're still in second or third gear. Generally, I make the shift back into three and run second gear through the entrance of 3A and into the entrance of Turn 4. You accelerate hard into that little backstretch, leaving it in second gear, turning about 9,000 rpm as you approach Turn 5.

You slow down as you hit Turn 5, but you want to get all the speed you can. There is a lot of passing that goes on the entrance to Turn 5 and usually there is a lot of action because the guys try to make a pass and if you don't have your car under control, it will wheel hop. If you are trying to pass somebody on the inside, you are going to take him and yourself off the track altogether -- a common occurence.

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You're in second gear as you enter Turn 5, but before you make the right-hander into five, you grab first gear. You make the turn and stand wide open on the gas as you exit. Even though there is a series of little small curves there, it really drives like a straightaway. The first corner you really get to is a sharp left-hander that starts the esses.

As soon as you accelerate out of Turn 5, you are in first gear and you grab second. Right before the esses, you take third. There are several different ways you can go through the turns. You can get aggressive with entrance to them and you can make time there, but when you exit, you pay the price. I like to approach them fairly slowly so that when you exit you can make a longer straightaway as you are approaching the pit area. Eight is the last right-hander out of the esses. You are in third gear and accelerating hard. You grab fourth as you are going left. It says it is Turn 9, but it is actually one big sweeping corner. It's wide open through that section and you grab fourth gear. You feel like you are driving downhill.

You are approaching Turn 10 and a lot of time can be made and lost here. The biggest thing about Turn 10 during the race is that as you make that right-hander you are downshifting from fourth to third. As you make the right-hander, the car tends to use up every inch of the racetrack. Sometimes you see guys get off on the left, and that is not a good area to be. If you get off at the exit of 10, usually the car whips around and crosses back over the racetrack and tears the race car to pieces. So you don't want to be too hot entering Turn 10. I've done better by floating into 10 and then accelerating hard out of it and into Turn 11.

Ninety percent of the passing goes on as you enter Turn 11. You're in third gear and you drop into first before bending to the right. The cars don't tend to handle well there because it's so slow and very tight. You steer into the corner, but end up sliding it off at the exit of the corner. You see a lot of cars get out of shape there because you are using all that acceleration during the race and you tend to spin the tires aggressively if you're not careful. The biggest thing you want to do is have the car accelerate without spinning the tires. If you overheat your rear tires, you'll pay the price later on in the race during that tire run.

You accelerate out of Turn 11 in first gear, grab second gear and then take third. As you are rounding the little curve approaching the start-finish line, you shift to fourth. You are accelerating hard until you make the left-hander, the bend before you come under the footbridge. You climb the hill and you're back at Turn 2.

Ricky Rudd drives the No. 21 Motorcraft Racing Ford Taurus owned by Wood Brothers Racing.