Hand soreness after autocross
 

Pretty much a day or 2 after every autocross session, my thumb muscle gets sore as hell. I'm relatively new to motorsports and not sure if i'm doing it wrong or if its normal.

Am i gripping the steering wheel too tight? anyone else experienced this before? Is there a fix for it?

thanks guys!

Yes you are probably gripping it way too tight. Your grip needs to be relaxed, so that you can feel the input the car is giving you back thru the steering wheel. Of course its easier said than done, but try to have a ligther grip on it. Use gloves if your hands get sweaty and you cant hold the wheel properly without gripping it tight.

Do you gorilla-grip the wheel? Try driving with your thumb on the rim of the wheel, and using firm, but not white-knuckle inputs.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...psworichsm.png

If you find yourself sliding around in the seat, you may be unwittingly bracing yourself using the steering wheel, too. Our seats are decent, but on another car I greatly reduced soreness after the event by adding a harness. CG-Lock or additional lap belt might help, too.

I do wear driving gloves. Some feedbacks from the veterans are me going through a slalom like 'W' instead of "S", i guess i need to relax a bit and smooth out my input. correct me if i'm wrong, but i feel like those are related somehow.

Yah i guess i'm gorilla-griping the wheel. i tend to seat myself in pretty tight using the 'slide back, pull seatbelt and lock and slide forward' trick. i'll look into harness tho. thanks!

Definitely gripping too hard. Never had pain in my hands after autox or track driving. Your hands (and arms) should always be relaxed in order to be smooth anyway.

For slaloms, try to get behind each cone early rather than crossing between the cones at the middle or towards the end. I always try to remember "backside early."

http://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.corv...cb3024bf37.jpg

I do try to backside the cones, but my steering input is too abrupt, resulting in sliding more(losing speed). Instead of having a smooth arch, im driving straight, point to point from what was explained to me. here is a video of yesterday's autocross.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgSZAwBu6sw"]3rd Run - YouTube[/ame]

pardon the obvious over cook on one of the section resulted in oversteer :bonk:

I'd suggest mounting a gopro/camera inside the car so you can see what your hands are doing. I mount mine to my helmet.

From yesterday's autox.
https://www.facebook.com/mark.shriva...27013640410709

i usually do. was not driving my car at the time. a buddy's frs cuz mine is in the shop.

A good alternative to the CG-Lock would be a torso harness like this: http://www.gforce.com/products/netsanres/4290.php

I got mine from Amazon after a fellow autocrosser told me he used his torso harness for a decade with no issues.

I offered my gloves to you yesterday dude! :P

My hands haven't had any soreness since I bought it few months back.

hm maybe i need to get a pair of racing gloves at some point, but my driving gloves didn't help.

If your hand hurts from autox, you are either doing it wrong or really going the extra mile to remove cone penalties. And really in both applications you are supposed to use a light but firm touch, death grips cause injuries...

One of the things I tell students is, no matter what your skill or experience level, driving at the limit (the car's and yours) should be just a little difficult the whole time.

If it feels easy, you are probably going too slow.

If it feels like pulling teeth, you are probably trying to go too fast.


The limiting factor for new autocrossers is usually the eyes. Figuring out where the next element is AND what you intend to do when you get there will make your right foot wait longer than it wants too, but it will also make the sport a LOT easier. (And death grip moments more rare)As you get comfortable speaking "cone" the delay will get shorter and shorter.

Let the car do the work. Just tell it what you want and try to be reasonable with your demands.

The steering wheel will talk to you and tell you a lot about what the car's doing and what the surface is like. If your grip is light enough, you'll be able to listen.