I've been watching ski racing on TV lately. My favorite is the downhill. Today they were showing helicopter overhead shots of the racers on the Wenger course. This course reminds me of an old-time European road racing course - it flows down the terrain, along an old 4x4 track, into a chute and through a tunnel, then some turns that look like the corkscrew at Laguna Seca. It is about 2 1/2 miles long and the men get up to appx 80 mph.
As I was watching the overhead shots, I started thinking how fun it would be to drive that course if it were paved - and maybe a little less steep. That got me wondering,
What is the difference in the line you take as a (solo) auto racer, versus the line you take as a ski racer? And why the difference?
Just my impression, was that the ski racers seem to apex earlier (oops, I initially said "later") than an auto racer would.
Why? Ski racers are trying to conserve momentum, their only acceleration is gravity, and turning slows them down. Autos brake into turns and accelerate out of them, and have more braking power than acceleration power. But I am not totally clear how this influences their racing lines.
What do you think?
Here are a couple YouTube videos of the Wengen course.
YouTube - Fritz Strobl WENGEN Downhill (2003???) start at 1:00, this video has a good overhead shot
YouTube - Wengen Mens Downhill 2007c
YouTube - Didier DEFAGO the winner of Wengen World Cup downhill 2009