Learn the difference between early, traditional, and late apexes

Getting the most from autocross or track day events requires a basic know-how of hitting every corner's apex.

A video from Team O'Neil Rally School shares everything on three schools to apexing a corner: early, traditional, and late apexes. While early apexes don't have any major benefits in the situations described here, there are times and places for both traditional and late apexes.

It's important to know what an early apex is, however. This is likely how novices may take their first corners on a track. The driver keeps the car in the middle of the track and hits the apex of the corner early. The problem here is that this doesn't give much time for a driver to finish turning the car in. Thus, the car is on a path to going off of the road. Although it seems like getting to the apex early is the best option, it's not the quickest or more efficient.

Traditional apexes are the "standard" racing line, and the video does a great job of showing what that looks like on a whiteboard. The driver positions the car as far out from the corner as possible and then creates a tidy arc through the corner that places them on the furthest portion of the road when they exit the corner. It helps keep momentum through a corner as long as the driver knows how fast they can take the corner. If not, he or she will end up braking and turning at the same time—and it's never good to tell tires to do more than one thing at once, especially at high speeds.

That brings us to late apexing. The situation is very similar to a traditional apex, but the driver keeps the car on the outside of the track longer and doesn't quite create that smooth arc. At the end of the corner, the driver should have their car pointed straight ahead and on the inside of the corner. It's a good approach to set up a car for a series of turns, of which the final few are more critical to keep speed heading into a long straight.

Of course, the best way to become a better driver is to practice in a safe environment. Grab some background knowledge on the topic in the meantime up above.