Search results for: Speed Secrets
Speed Secrets: This Is Easy
Do you remember your first driving experience at a track event? For most people it was, “Wow, what an eye opener.” For me it was even more. It became an identity crisis.
Speed Secrets: How I Won The War Against The Foot That Lifted For The Fast Sweeper
As someone who has studied sports psychology, brain function, learning strategies, and more for many years, I have known the power and effectiveness of using visualization for a long time.
Speed Secrets: Learning From Experience
I have been very lucky in my career to not only have a chance to drive SO many different kinds of cars (Grand-Am DP, Grand-AM GT, ALMS GTLM, ALMS PC, ALMS LMP2, Porsche Cup cars, World Challenge, Continental GS, Continental ST, NASCAR Sprint Cup, NASCAR Nationwide, NASCAR Trucks, Late Models, Midgets, Formula Atlantic, Pro Mazda, IMSA Lites, Radicals, Formula Renault, karts, etc.), but I have also been very lucky to have been raised by a professional race engineer my entire life. I guess where I am going with all of this is that I may only be 25 years old, but I feel like I have seen quite a bit and experienced a lot in my racing career. I want to talk this week about a few things I think club racers can learn that are easy to execute and will deliver results right away. These are things I have seen and continue to see over my career. I do quite a bit of driver coaching alongside my pro racing, so I have worked with drivers of all different experience levels.
Speed Secrets: The Approach to Fast Turns
The big, fast, and hairy turns are often the ones that separate the winners from the also-rans, right? Most often, it’s the fast turns where you stand to gain the most in terms of lap time.
Speed Secrets: This is Your Brain on Dopamine
True story: before I became a performance driving junkie, I was a college professor. From my perspective, driving is almost entirely a head game, and maybe this is why a nerd like me is so into it. This might also be why I give a lot of thought as to what goes on inside my head when I’m driving, and now that I’m an HPDE instructor, why I think a lot about what goes on inside the heads of my students while they’re driving and learning.
Speed Secrets: Physics For Gearheads
Randy holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, and for 30 years has been an automotive engineer at General Motors, where he is a technical specialist in noise and vibration (N&V) at their proving ground in Milford, MI. He has published numerous papers on powertrain N&V, and holds three patents. His first assignment at GM was the enviable task of developing Corvettes for minimized “rough road shake.” Randy sent this week’s feature article on a Saturday evening, right in the middle of driving his Cayman in a 2-day track event at Putnam Park. So you know that he not only knows the theory, he drives the theory.
Speed Secrets: Are You Cornering Too Slow?
If the car feels like it’s on rails, you are probably driving too slow.
Speed Secrets: Getting Your Game Face On
I think there’s so much to be learned from other sports and other athletes that can apply to performance and race driving. So when Ingrid Steffensen sent me her article about what she observed at a hockey game (and how it related to driving), I couldn’t wait to share it with you.
Speed Secrets: Managing Your Emotions Behind the Wheel
Recently a reader emailed me to ask this: “How do I best manage my emotions when racing?” To answer this question – one that I suspect many drivers would like the answer to – I decided to ask a few drivers whom I respect immensely: Johannes van Overbeek, Tom Long, David Murry, and Don Kitch.
Speed Secrets: What Prevents Quicker
Is there anyone reading this who does not want to drive faster? Yep, just what I thought. Going faster can be seen in two ways: what can you do to drive faster, and what stops you from driving faster. It’s this second viewpoint that driver coach E. Paul Dickinson writes about this week, getting you to think about what stops you from going quicker. By doing so, you can mentally prepare for what prevents you from driving quicker.
Speed Secrets: Why Do We Do What We Do?
Some people would say that driving around a race track is not the smartest thing to do! In fact, you may have had your sanity questioned more than once. Perhaps you’ve had someone give you THAT look when you tell them how much you spend on your passion. Or they’ve questioned your concern for the environment, your safety, or the care for your family.
Speed Secrets: How To Reel ‘Em In
There is a justifiable concern amongst many automobile and driving enthusiasts about the way many teens (and even those in their 20’s or 30’s) have less of a passion for cars and driving than many older people. And some believe that the sport of performance and race driving may begin to suffer from fewer participants (if this hasn’t happened already) as the “older” crowd “moves on.” That’s why I appreciate Ingrid Steffensen’s article this week. As many of you know, a few years ago, Ingrid wrote a fun and interesting book, Fast Girl, that is all about how she – someone totally uninterested in driving on a track – became addicted to the sport. So, I think she’s well-qualified to talk about how we all should do what we can to get others interested – no, addicted – to our sport.
Speed Secrets: Why Not Going Slow Is More Important Than Going Fast
If you had to guess, how many compromises do you make in just one lap? You know, trading off speed in one part of the track to gain in another? Or compromising braking for cornering, and cornering for acceleration? Or? I don’t know, either, but reading Randy Beikmann’s (author of Physics for Gearheads) article this week got me thinking about this, and I bet you will, too, when you read this week’s feature. And Randy’s main message is one that you need to take to heart, and use (it has to do with not going slow).
Speed Secrets: Developing Your Career Plan
One thing that most every successful business does is develop a five-year plan, some type of strategem that helps everyone, especially management, know where the company is going and how to get there.
Speed Secrets: Hard Lessons
As an in-car instructor, you’re in control, whether you are or not. Huh? The second you strap in next to a driver and head out on the track, your words, how you use them, and your actions will control your student more than you may even realize. If you do the right things, you get your student to do the right things; if you do little or nothing, you’re leaving the control in the hands of your student—in that case, you’re controlling the situation by doing nothing!
Speed Secrets: You’re A Weight Manager
No, I’m not trying to convince you to follow a new diet. Nor am I going to tell you how to lighten your race car. What I’m talking about is how to manage the weight transfer while driving.
Speed Secrets: When Pride Puts You In The Wall
Folks, this is written in first person, because it happened to me. I’ll try to keep it to the point, but what I’ll describe is a very close call that could have been very serious for me – the coach in the car – and the driver.
Speed Secrets: Getting Back on Track After Time Off
For those of us who love to drive, having to take time off because of work, life obligations, or necessary automotive repairs and maintenance is no fun. We inevitably spend the weeks or months in which our cars are parked dreaming about getting back to performance driving at our favorite tracks. Thoughts of driving inevitably lead us to wonder whether our driving skills will have diminished after time away from driving at speed. Will my shifting be as smooth? Will I be able to brake as late as I did on that last session months ago? Will my lap times be the same as they were when I left off?
Speed Secrets: Diversify Your Talent
While some people race for fun, there are others who want to make a living driving a car. I might be able to call myself a factory driver now thanks to Mazda’s SKYACTIV-D prototype program, but I’m still busy with a lot of coaching, too. For racers who want to work their way into a professional series or diversify by becoming a coach, there are a number of ways to get started and a lot of things to keep in mind.
Speed Secrets: The Napkin Manifesto
Driver coaches don’t know everything, far from it. The idea is not to be a know-it-all but a thoughtful ally. The constant refrain in my head is simply this: What can I say that will most help? Coaches are learning as well, if we stay awake. I learned something in a bar near Road America that I’ve used every track day since.
Speed Secrets: Pickles, Gearshifts, & Human Obsolescence – The Demise of the Manual Gear Change
What do pickles and shifting a car’s transmission have in common? I’ll leave it to this week’s contributor, Ingrid Steffensen (author of the great book, Fast Girl) to explain, but I’ll tell you right now it probably has nothing to do with what you’re thinking. -Ross
