Trackday nausea - avoiding...?
Discussion
Folks - I know a lot of you here do trackdays. I'm hoping in the not too distant future to perhaps go to a trackday or two (haven't been in a long time) - initially in the Clio182 and then perhaps even the 993C4S in time. BUT... what's been putting me off is I've done a few in the past along with a airfield driver training day and while it was great fun, I found myself getting really bad nausea on very hard braking and particularly while spinning or hard turns on the driver training day. Does anyone else have this problem and if so, what have they done to counter it or improve things? Once it hits me, it pretty much stays with me for hours so it's difficult to enjoy the rest of the day - feels almost hangover-like...? Thoughts? Would travel sickness pills work?
My girlfriend gets terrible nausea driving go karts. We reckoned it was becasue her body wasn't well restrained enough and the side to side/front to back motion made her ill. She never has any problems when strapped into a car though. Perhaps some good, snug harnesses would sort you out, or at the very least sometheing like a CG lock. To keep your motion to a minimum.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CG-Lock-SEAT-BELT-to-RACING-HA
The could help? Other then that, I don't know. The suggestion above seems the first port of call though.
Best of luck finding something.
Sam
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CG-Lock-SEAT-BELT-to-RACING-HA
The could help? Other then that, I don't know. The suggestion above seems the first port of call though.
Best of luck finding something.
Sam
Pedant 
TBH motion sickness in race cars isn't that uncommon. I feel it a bit if I'm doing donuts and the like or if I'm a passenger with someone who's driving with gay abandon.
Stemetil helps but I think its a don't operate machinary jobby hmmmmm
You may find if you're driving on a circuit, where there's scenery to calibrate your eyes to your ears, and you're driving smoooooothly concentrating on your visual marker points, it's less of a problem and hopefully you won't spend all day spinning anyway.
Stemetil helps but I think its a don't operate machinary jobby hmmmmm
You may find if you're driving on a circuit, where there's scenery to calibrate your eyes to your ears, and you're driving smoooooothly concentrating on your visual marker points, it's less of a problem and hopefully you won't spend all day spinning anyway.
Suffering with a inner ear disorder at the moment so finding driving normally a bit of an issue at the moment, I did find motion sickness bands did help a little though so maybe you could try them, even some motion sickness tablets??? I would avoid stemetil as it can cause drowsiness.
Might be worth trying a half day to start with to see how it goes.
Might be worth trying a half day to start with to see how it goes.
Some people are just a sensitive soul! I get terrible motion sickness if I'm a passenger.
There are some general measures that can be taken to help avoid the discomfort caused by motion sickness:
-Particular exercises, such as tumbling or jumping on a trampoline, help desensitize you, or just go to more track days, roller coasters / fairground rides also works.
-Reduce anxiety and fears (go to more trackdays)
-Minimize head movements (good headrest)
-Maintain proper ventilation to decrease foul odors that may cause nausea (take a shower before!
)
-Stay occupied to distract the mind from thinking about motion sickness
-Avoid bulky, greasy meals the night before
-Eat light meals and/or snacks that are low in calories in the 24 hours before
-Avoid salty foods and/or dairy products before
-Keep eyes fixed on the horizon or visible landmark eg the next corner
Medication wise, some of the non-sedating anti-histamine can help if you take them before the track day.Ask you GP to give you some.
Hope that helps.
There are some general measures that can be taken to help avoid the discomfort caused by motion sickness:
-Particular exercises, such as tumbling or jumping on a trampoline, help desensitize you, or just go to more track days, roller coasters / fairground rides also works.
-Reduce anxiety and fears (go to more trackdays)
-Minimize head movements (good headrest)
-Maintain proper ventilation to decrease foul odors that may cause nausea (take a shower before!
) -Stay occupied to distract the mind from thinking about motion sickness
-Avoid bulky, greasy meals the night before
-Eat light meals and/or snacks that are low in calories in the 24 hours before
-Avoid salty foods and/or dairy products before
-Keep eyes fixed on the horizon or visible landmark eg the next corner
Medication wise, some of the non-sedating anti-histamine can help if you take them before the track day.Ask you GP to give you some.
Hope that helps.
Sundiver,
I'm a GP!
Just looking in my British National Formulary, there is a small section on preventing motion sickness. It says that the most effective drug is hyoscine. It can be given as a patch that you stick to your skin a few hours before travelling and this provides prolonged activity of the drug. The brand name for the patch is Scopoderm and it is available to the public to buy from their pharmacist.
The problem is, as with all the drugs for motion sickness, hyoscine (Scopoderm) can cause drowsiness. It is therefore going to be hard for me to recommend this drug for the driver, although it would obviously be fine for a passenger, I would have thought. However, it isn't guaranteed to make the patient drowsy and although I can't recommend this for medicolegal reasons, I suppose some patients may take the pragmatic view that if it doesn't make them drowsy when they test the patch at home on a day when they are not driving, then they might think it is safe to apply a patch when driving at a track day. Some people may think that this is safe, I'm not saying I do.
The same applies to the sedating antihistamines: stemetil, cyclizine and cinnarizine. They can be sedating (but not for everyone) so great care needs to be taken when deciding to drive, climb ladders or operate heavy machines etc. These are taken as tablets a good hour or so before travel. Cinnarizine is also known as Stugeron, and you can buy this without prescription.
My advice would be to do short bursts on track of 3-4 laps only. Tip your head in the direction of the bend when cornering and look into the distance. Sometimes taking gaviscon liquid or zantac tablets (both over the counter drugs these days) can settle an acid-queezy stomach.
There isn't likely to be anything wrong with you as such. A visit to the GP or even an ENT (ear/nose/throat) consultant is unlikely to reveal any abnormality in you.
I'm a GP!
Just looking in my British National Formulary, there is a small section on preventing motion sickness. It says that the most effective drug is hyoscine. It can be given as a patch that you stick to your skin a few hours before travelling and this provides prolonged activity of the drug. The brand name for the patch is Scopoderm and it is available to the public to buy from their pharmacist.
The problem is, as with all the drugs for motion sickness, hyoscine (Scopoderm) can cause drowsiness. It is therefore going to be hard for me to recommend this drug for the driver, although it would obviously be fine for a passenger, I would have thought. However, it isn't guaranteed to make the patient drowsy and although I can't recommend this for medicolegal reasons, I suppose some patients may take the pragmatic view that if it doesn't make them drowsy when they test the patch at home on a day when they are not driving, then they might think it is safe to apply a patch when driving at a track day. Some people may think that this is safe, I'm not saying I do.
The same applies to the sedating antihistamines: stemetil, cyclizine and cinnarizine. They can be sedating (but not for everyone) so great care needs to be taken when deciding to drive, climb ladders or operate heavy machines etc. These are taken as tablets a good hour or so before travel. Cinnarizine is also known as Stugeron, and you can buy this without prescription.
My advice would be to do short bursts on track of 3-4 laps only. Tip your head in the direction of the bend when cornering and look into the distance. Sometimes taking gaviscon liquid or zantac tablets (both over the counter drugs these days) can settle an acid-queezy stomach.
There isn't likely to be anything wrong with you as such. A visit to the GP or even an ENT (ear/nose/throat) consultant is unlikely to reveal any abnormality in you.
Thanks folks - good advice. I might just go visit the GP anyway for a check since I never used to be like this, say ten years ago although I'll admit I was always sick in cars when a kid. Better safe than sorry to check it out I guess. I'm in my thirties now and my other major hobby is snowboarding - I can happily jump and spin/land on a snowboard all day with absolutely no unpleasant feelings - just something about cars does it. It's really very annoying though since it usually happens just as I'm beginning to enjoy things! Thanks again...
A
A
keep your eyes on a fixed point on the horizon. butzi said:
Some people are just a sensitive soul! I get terrible motion sickness if I'm a passenger.
There are some general measures that can be taken to help avoid the discomfort caused by motion sickness:
-Particular exercises, such as tumbling or jumping on a trampoline, help desensitize you, or just go to more track days, roller coasters / fairground rides also works.
-Reduce anxiety and fears (go to more trackdays)
-Minimize head movements (good headrest)
-Maintain proper ventilation to decrease foul odors that may cause nausea (take a shower before!
-Stay occupied to distract the mind from thinking about motion sickness
-Avoid bulky, greasy meals the night before
-Eat light meals and/or snacks that are low in calories in the 24 hours before
-Avoid salty foods and/or dairy products before
-Keep eyes fixed on the horizon or visible landmark eg the next corner
Medication wise, some of the non-sedating anti-histamine can help if you take them before the track day.Ask you GP to give you some.
Hope that helps.
Agree with the above.
I used to get a slight motion sickness when I used to do trackdays and early types of flying. I think its was a case of desensitising in my case but as Butzi said the above certainly will help.
Keeping focused is vital and fixing points/views etc all helps. Some of the longer bends on track days can induce a small gforce which if sustained and your not used to it wont help your head feel any better as can some of the compressions. Try and tence your stomach/abdomon just before the bends/compressions and fast(ish) breaths ie like a woman in labour to help tence your lower body.
Drink lots of water.
>> Edited by superlightr on Thursday 1st December 09:46
I'm sure as you get older you become more sensitive. When I was a young lad (a long time ago) I used to fly planes as well as jumping out of them ( with parachute!), and I didn't have problem with motion sickness even on the most horrendous fairground rides.
Now if I walk down the stairs too fast I'll feel sick!
Now if I walk down the stairs too fast I'll feel sick!
I often get bad travel sickness on trackdays, I'd recommend:
Never go out as a passenger.
Keep eating small snacks through the day
Keep your sessions reasonably short
And most importantly, don't spend too much time looking in your mirrors. I always found I got really sick on a new track, or when I was one of the slower drivers out there because I spent half my time looking in the mirrors trying to make sure I wasn't in anyone's way. Not looking where you are going is guaranteed to make you sick. And try to look as far ahead as possible towards the horizon rather than right in front of you. This will benefit your driving as well.
Travel sickness pills are OK, I use them as a last resort, they just make me feel sick in a different but less severe way that tends to last for a good few hours after I stop driving.
But the most important thing is looking as far ahead as possible.
Never go out as a passenger.
Keep eating small snacks through the day
Keep your sessions reasonably short
And most importantly, don't spend too much time looking in your mirrors. I always found I got really sick on a new track, or when I was one of the slower drivers out there because I spent half my time looking in the mirrors trying to make sure I wasn't in anyone's way. Not looking where you are going is guaranteed to make you sick. And try to look as far ahead as possible towards the horizon rather than right in front of you. This will benefit your driving as well.
Travel sickness pills are OK, I use them as a last resort, they just make me feel sick in a different but less severe way that tends to last for a good few hours after I stop driving.
But the most important thing is looking as far ahead as possible.
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