ross bentley speed secrets
Speed Secrets: Big Boy Driving Simulators
A few issues ago in Speed Secrets Weekly, Ryan Hieronymus talked about the value of iRacing and Playstation type simulators for drivers and how these affordable devices can help drivers practice and program their brains to new tracks and behaviors. What about us, the engineers? What can we use to hone our craft when we’re not at the track? Simulators, but with a twist. And a much bigger price tag.
The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Driving Instructors
Ross Bentley, the man behind Speed Secrets Weekly and Brake, Brake, BRAKE- The HPDE Instructor Manifesto along with Brian Ghidinelli, the founder and creator of MotorsportReg.com, will be conducting a free webinar on Wednesday, February 12th, offering an in-depth look at some of the finer points held within Bentley’s HPDE ebook, as well as a Q&A with the experts at the time of the event. Whether you’re an aspiring HPDE instructor or a veteran of the trade, Bentley and Ghidinelli’s considerable amount of experience in the field can offer unique insight and perspective that should help just about anyone become a safer and more effective HPDE instructor, regardless of one’s level of expertise.
Speed Secrets: “Braking” Down The Data
When we analyze data, we do it in a number of ways. One of the most popular is to compare the data from two different drivers (often using a professional driver as a baseline), to see where one person is faster. We also look at how proficient and consistent a driver is in basic skills such as braking, throttle application, and steering inputs. In fact, fellow SSW contributor Peter Krause is often heard telling people that the single biggest differentiator of drivers is the consistent and correct execution of these fundamental skills. Without a solid foundation of the basics, none of the advanced techniques will help.
Speed Secrets: Sponsorship Secrets
In this installment of Sponsorship Secrets, we’ll walk through some basic, but critical, pieces of sponsorship sales programs. This article is geared to professional racing programs in which branding and media value exists through the following: television coverage; the opportunity for at-race activation in the form of fan interaction; and corporate hospitality and entertainment. (I’ll talk about how these components can translate to more grassroots programs in an upcoming installment).
Required Reading: Brake, Brake, BRAKE: The HPDE Instructor Manifesto
Ross Bentley, the man responsible for the invaluable racing tips found in the Speed Secrets articles posted here at Winding Road and at Speed Secrets Weekly, has just released new downloadable ebook entitled Brake, Brake, BRAKE: The HPDE Instructor Manifesto – an essential handbook for would-be and current driving instructors everywhere
Speed Secrets: For The Kid In All Of Us
Never grow up! For many readers of Speed Secrets Weekly, that phrase is more than advice. It’s a lifelong theme.
Speed Secrets: Fit To Drive
How does a professional driver’s preparation relate to the gentleman driver, who is perhaps attempting to win his or her first race? We at Performance Physixx have worked with a wide variety of drivers and teams from Formula One, Indy Car to professional Sports Car Racing in the United States and worldwide. I may not be able to give readers a simple answer, but anyway, here goes!
Speed Secrets: Simulated Or Real Fun?
As a “veteran” sim racer, I can see several benefits to computer-based driving simulations that everyone can apply to real-life driving. Most people think that all a simulator can teach you is which direction a track goes; it really only helps you if you’re going to a new track, and even then, you have to hope the track you’re going to is actually modeled in a simulator to begin with! The reality is, for those who are willing to put in the time (lots of time, BTW) to really get a feel for your virtual wheels, the benefits of simulator training can outnumber those of driving in real life.
Speed Secrets: Time To Hit The Rental Kart Track
So it’s the off-season. Unfortunately. Most racing is finished up for the year, and won’t start up again until March. Most of the drivers you know will be hanging their helmets up, sitting by the fire and bench racing until springtime comes again.
Speed Secrets: Gearhead in Winter
The last track event of the season is over. The race car is packed away for the winter. The next time you get to bust her out of the garage is months away. The helmet has been Febrezed (an APB to all you track rats out there: is there anything that truly gets the stink out?). The ice chest has been wiped clean. MotorsportReg sits idle on your desktop. The cold, slow, dreary months of winter are all you have to look forward to.
Speed Secrets: Data For Everyone!
I’ve not met a club racer or gentleman driver who isn’t motivated by the sheer thrill and excitement that racing brings. Similarly, I haven’t met one who isn’t also driven by the fact that racing has tangible gauges of success. Racing is measurable. Races have results. Racers have performance indicators and input. Whether it’s time, effort and/or money, results are more often than not measurable against these indicators. Said another way, the more you put into racing, the more you get out of it. Hire a coach: find a second. Learn about setup: develop a better handling car. Purchase a data acquisition system: see your areas of development. Right?
Blog: What Makes Vettel So Fast?
If Sebastian Vettel cares whether he’s considered one of the all-time greats of Formula One, he needs to drive, and win, for another team. One of the things that established Michael Schumacher as a great, and perhaps the greatest, is that he won for two different teams. Even more importantly, Schumacher made these teams winners. Before he joined Benetton and then Ferrari, neither team was World Championship-winning caliber.
Speed Secrets: The Eyes Have It
No matter your experience level, you’ve likely heard—and heard again—one major theme in all types of driving: “Look up!” Every instructor and coach has those words etched in their memory just as much as their students and clients have.
Speed Secrets: MI + A = G
If you have a very clear and strong Mental Image (MI) of what you want to do, and an Awareness (A) of how close you are to doing that, your brain will make you achieve that Goal (G).
Speed Secrets: The Big 2 Questions
In my opinion, the race engineer’s primary job is to get the car to do exactly what the driver wants it to do. Some good engineers disagree with me; they only focus on the simulations and what the fastest set up is from a theory standpoint, then expect the driver to get the most from it. I figure if the car is to the driver’s liking, he can show me what he has… he has no excuses.
Speed Secrets: Four Wheels With & Without A Motor—An Interview With Bucky Lasek
Bucky has adapted to rallycross much faster than most people will ever know. When you consider that he typically gets fewer than a dozen laps of practice before his couple of qualifying laps—and then it’s right into the races—it’s amazing that he’s battling with guys like Ken Block, Tanner Foust and Travis Pastrana (all of whom seem to live in a car!). From my perspective, it’s what he brings from skateboarding that allows him to just jump in, mix it up, and adapt so quickly.
Speed Secrets: A Starter’s Perspective
Dennis Paul has been the official Starter for the American Le Mans Series for the past 15 years (the only Starter the series has ever had). When I raced in the IMSA/ALMS series I always felt I had an advantage over my competitors at the start because I could “read” Dennis. He’d been the Starter at my local road racing circuit, Westwood Motorsport Park, early in my career (the early ’80s). In some ways, we both moved up the ranks of pro racing together, and more than one driver I know has said he’s the best Starter, period.
Speed Secrets: Data Acquisition Basics
I’m sure everyone reading this knows about data systems. We’ve all seen it in other people’s cars, maybe we have one, and have watched the cool traces on TV in all the racing series showing a driver’s throttle or brake application and speed. If you are a fan of F1, ALMS, Grand Am, or one of the other big race series, you’ve seen the pit boxes full of computers, monitors, and a myriad of race engineers.
Speed Secrets: Sponsorship For Amateur Racers
It’s ironic that there are so many amateur racers who are bringing in a larger percentage of their annual racing budget from sponsorship than many “pros” are.
Speed Secrets: Driving The Setup
Passing through 4th gear, the shift lights are indicating I’d better shift to 5th gear quickly. With 5th gear engaged I tell my right foot to stay on the floor through the left hand kink that is looming ahead. As I turn-in the rear gets light which is quickly followed by counter-steering and telling myself, “We need to make that better.”
Why All That Weaving Around On The Way To The Grid?
At the start of a race or track session we see drivers weaving back and forth across the track. Ask a driver why all the swerving and you’ll hear, “I’m getting the tires up to temperature.” Well, I don’t think that’s what’s happening. Most of the tread surface is cooling, not heating. And, since rubber is a poor conductor of heat, very little of the frictional heating on the tread surface gets into the bulk of the tire.
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