Hold Your Line

A hot topic on many fora is etiquette as pertains to fast guys getting around slow guys. By and large the fast guys expect the slow guys to move aside and give up their line and bully them to do so. While it may be correct in some cases to cede your position,  I'll argue all day (and trust me, I have) that you should hold your line and make the fast guys find a way around you.

For the Fast Driver

Slow cars are a fact of racing. You'll always encounter a driver slower than you for whatever reason. It's up to you, the faster driver, to find a line around the slow traffic. A good driver can get around a slow car without wrecking him, without sighing heavily and furrowing his brow, and without commenting in the pits about the lack of skill at the track today.

It's important to remember that every section on a track is not a passing section. Some sections are built to deliberately encourage or discourage passing. If you find yourself closing the gap on a slower car, pace your self to reach them in a passing section. That doesn't mean ride their ass through a technical portion and encourage them to overdrive and crash out of the way. It means anticipate the up coming sections of the raceway, will you be able to get around them when you reach them? If not, you need to set your pace so you can pass cleanly sooner or later. This doesn't always mean slow down, challenge yourself. Push yourself harder to get to them before the non passing section.

For the Slow Driver

You're there to race just like anyone else, you paid your entry fee, you marshal when it's your turn, you deserve the track time as much as anyone else there. For this reason you should hold your line when a faster car is closing on you. Make them find a way around you. It makes both of you a better driver. That doesn't mean block them, or hold your position, it means hold your racing line. Don't slow way down and get rear ended, don't swerve out of your lane to let them by, just hold the line you've committed to. And grow thick skin, because you'll be hated by most of the fast guys, but that's their problem, not yours. If enough of the slow guys would start holding their line the fast guys will lighten up. Make it a point to complement a clean pass too, they'll like that.