How to Shift/Drive a Racecar

Hi, my name is Garrett Gross

I just started racing stock car this year and like to teach you all how to shift gears in a car that I run. I just finished out my rookie year of racing, but have been around the racing environment ever since I was young.

I am going to teach you how me and fellow racers shift gears so when you are watching them on the track you know what’s going on when they pull out on to the track and go full speed around the track going 80-90 mph into the corners.

The only supplies you will need is a complete racecar.

First is getting into the race car. walk up to the car and put the left hand on the front of the roof and the left hand on the roof panel. Then, swing right leg over the door into the car. Proceed to sit on the door and pull left leg in around the frame and have both legs in the car while sitting on the door. After, keep left hand on the front of the roof and put right hand on frame bar underneath the roof. Next pull up so body can slide down into the car and move body so it will position right into the seat.

There are two shifters in a race car. This is a Bert transmission and it has one shifter for the reverse gear and one shifter for the High and Low gears. When the shifters are side by side they are in neutral. The left shifter is for reverse. To put it in reverse it gets pushed forward and it will click into gear. Then the car will be in reverse and wont be able to be put in high or low. If the shifter gets pulled back it will be in neutral. If the right shifter gets pushed forward it will be in low gear. It will be in low gear when driving around the pits or just moving the car around and onto the race track. To get it in high gear It will have to be in low gear, moving, and will have to be around five or six thousand rpm and then let off the clutch and gas and pull all the way back past neutral and it will be in high gear. Then when coming off the race track it will be pushed all the way up into low gear until the car gets to its pit spot and then pulled back into neutral and step on brake to stop. For shifting into High gear the car will be moving but unlike an actual car it will not need the clutch to be shifted into reverse and drive.

There are three pedals on a race car. The one on the left is a clutch, the one in the middle is a brake, and the one on the right is the accelerator. Race cars are the opposite as a regular manual car. To drive one of these cars the clutch has to be pushed in. To first get moving put the car in low gear and then just push on the clutch. To get the speed up a little while pushing in the clutch all the way, also push in the accelerator and control the speed with that pedal. When shifting into high gear have the car revved up to the five or six thousand RPM's and have the speed up quite a bit and then let the clutch and the accelerator out at the same time and then pull the right shifter back and it will go into high gear. When in high gear only use the gas pedal to move unlike low gear with the clutch and accelerator. Coming off the track shifting back into low gear is just letting off the accelerator pedal and pushing the shifter forward into low gear and then using the clutch and accelerator to drive again. To drive in reverse is the same as low gear. Pushing the left shifter forward will put it in reverse and pushing in the clutch and accelerator will move the car in reverse. Never push in the clutch in high gear or else it will grind the transmission.

Turning a race car on is pretty simple. There are two switches and a button. First, turn on the ignition witch is pretty much the master power switch to the car and lets power flow to the distributer to make the car fire off the spark plugs and lets power flow throughout the whole car. Next, flip on the accessory switch and that will allow the gauges and lights to gain power. The gauges will need to be on so when the car is starting it will show if there is oil pressure or not. Finally, push in the start button and it should fire right up. Make sure to have the transmission in neutral when starting because if it is not the the car will either lunge forward or back ward if it is in reverse or high gear. Lastly, if it is not starting up it might need some fuel so just pumping the gas pedal once will give it enough fuel to fire it up. When it gets time to shut it down just flipping off the ignition switch will cut the power to the car and shut it off. And always make sure to flip the accessory off as well so the battery doesn't get drained because these cars do not have alternators and they have to be manually charged.

This is all the steps combined and me starting off just pushing in the clutch to get the car moving. I then push on the accelerator and get the car moving a little bit faster. Next, I get it going fast enough that Is shift into second gear by letting off the clutch and accelerator and drive around the block just using the gas pedal. I then get back into the parking lot and let off the accelerator and put it back into low gear. After, I just use the clutch and accelerator to move the car all the way into the shop. Finally I shift it into neutral and shut the car off.