glowing brake pads on a race car

Inspecting Racing Brake Pads

For all the talk about speed in car racing, safety and controllability should come first. That means you need to be hyper-aware of the depth of your track pads. That’s the friction material you need to stop.

For example, if you are a closed circuit racer, lapping sessions are the norm. Since you start with a minimum pad depth, you are likely to use nearly all of your friction material in a single session. Generally speaking, pads wear faster as the friction material depth gets thinner (more about pad depth).

This means you need to replace your brake pads at the track. If you inspect and replace your pads at the start of a circuit evolution, your experience will be more trouble-free.

If you are an autocross or time-trial racer, start-to-finish sessions are much shorter than a typical circuit lap. This means that heat buildup will be significantly higher due to reduced levels of dynamic cooling. Consequently, the rate of pad wear will be greater. If you started with a minimum pad depth and you don’t change your pads, you may see performance failure.

Again all of this depends on the event, car, driver habits, and overall quality of maintenance, but hopefully, you get the idea.  Remember, when you’re looking at how your pad situation applies to your own needs, contact the help team at BuyBrakes.com for a consultation before you make a move.

Summary
Inspecting Racing Brake Pads
Article Name
Inspecting Racing Brake Pads
Description
While the process of inspecting brake pads in a racing environment is similar to any other consumer maintenance experience, there are some refinements involved.
Author
Publisher Name
Buy Brakes
Publisher Logo