[dradernh]

Originally Posted by ggggbmw

I've noticed that when I get tired I start shuffling the wheel and moving my hands around a lot. Not necessarily bad, but it usually means I'm getting sloppier. The camera on the seat will also show if I'm really turning my head to look at the tighter corners. Another casualty when I'm getting tired/sloppy. I also start leaning my head over, as if tilting my helmet will affect how the car corners.

Be careful; lots of HPDE drivers have wrecked when pushing while tired. Ask me how I know.

I learned to get off the track as soon as I was no longer hitting my marks and later to get off the track at the slightest sign that my sharpness was diminishing. I eventually found that five laps or so was the longest I could sustain maximum focus. I think part of that was age (I was in my late 60s). As I was chasing lap times, staying on the track while getting slower served no useful purpose.

At tracks I was still learning well, I'd occasionally switch to running at a reduced pace so I could resume hitting my marks while continuing to build visual and muscle memory. At a new track, it generally took me four to six sessions to get those well-established and feeling "automatic". That was after I'd been driving and running in time trials for a few years.

For a number of good reasons, most drivers will want to maximize track time. One reason that having an instructor in the car is useful is he or she is frequently the one to first notice that the driver is no longer functioning at the level they were just a lap or two before. It's the instructor's job at that point to determine if slowing down to re-acquire focus (assuming that's possible) or cutting the session short is the appropriate response.