Use throttle to generally increase speed

Increasing overall speed improves lap times, but with the 911 RSR, pressing the accelerator too much tends to cause understeer.

You need to press the accelerator only after the car’s direction has changed properly; otherwise, you get understeer immediately. But if you slow down too much, that’s also bad.
So, try to drive by gently pressing the accelerator enough to neither slow down too much nor accelerate hard, which helps maintain speed.

Throttle and brake are not just on or off

It’s often said that accelerator and brake aren’t just “0 or 100.” According to Sugawara-san:

For the accelerator, think of at least five levels: “0, 25, 50, 75, 100,” and for the brake, “0, 50, 100.” Full throttle tends to cause understeer, so focus on rolling on the throttle. It’s important to press just enough to avoid understeer.
For some corners, gently applying about half brake while gradually slowing down is also important. Slamming the brakes causes too much speed loss, so for corners where you don’t need to slow down that much, gently braking is key.

Pause briefly on corner exits

Instead of rushing to accelerate out of a corner, it’s important to pause briefly.

If you rush on the throttle at corner exit, you get understeer and might twist the steering wheel awkwardly. So, after turning the corner and once the car’s direction has changed, pause briefly before accelerating. That pause lets you build speed quickly.

Got it!!

Confirm and reproduce your best driving

Instead of driving frantically to get a fast time, relax and drive with some margin, then identify “what didn’t work well” and gradually fix it on the next lap. This process of finding your best driving is important.

Don’t drive desperately; embed your best driving into your body and see if you can reproduce it repeatedly. To do this, you need to drive calmly with some margin and make subtle adjustments each lap. I used to push too hard, crash at the first corner, retry, and couldn’t even complete a lap properly. So, I think it’s best not to try too hard or get too desperate (laughs).

Sugawara-san is now a champion, but it’s clear he built his skills through steady effort.

GTSport is deep

My husband’s best Suzuka time in the 911 RSR was 2:05.150 initially, but after Sugawara-san’s advice, it improved to 2:03.518—almost two seconds faster. It’s amazing how much a few tips from a top player can improve your time.

By the way, when Sugawara-san casually said, “I’ll try driving properly now,” his time was 1:58 (lol).

Whoa (ﾟдﾟ)!

To be that fast while driving so casually is incredible. I wonder how fast he’d be if he drove seriously. He also drove at Fuji Speedway and Nürburgring Nordschleife, and was unbelievably fast (Nürburgring Nordschleife in a Porsche 962 was 5 minutes 30 seconds).

My husband used to say, “I thought fast drivers must be using different cars,” but after seeing Sugawara-san’s driving, he realized that’s not the case (laughs). Also, the world’s top players aren’t just skilled and knowledgeable—they’re wonderful people.

Despite being only 22, Sugawara-san is mature and an outstanding person.

By the way, Rico-san also drove. She’s been practicing GTSport with Sugawara-san’s coaching and is faster than my husband, but this time the wheel setup didn’t suit her, so she couldn’t show her true skill… Next time, we’ll definitely have a match (laughs)!

Thank you very much, Sugawara-san and Rico Otsuka!