QuantSPEED

Last weekend I had the great pleasure of attending a two day Speed Secrets race driving seminar given by professional racer and author Ross Bentley. I never thought I could learn so much about driving fast by sitting in a chair for 16 hours. If you have the chance to attend a seminar with Ross, do it! In the meantime, I plan to post a few times on what I found to be the key takeaways and how they impact my racing season.

Unlike some driving schools that dive right into racing lines or braking techniques, Ross spent most of the first day talking about the driver's brain. Viewed as a computer that processes incoming information - car feel, sense of speed, adjacent traffic - and returns physical performance, a brain with a slow or inaccurate processor can be as much of a problem as poor car setup or a motor down on power. Sticking with the computer analogy, a driver can improve the output of their brain by providing better input data, increasing the processing speed of the data, or upgrading the software which runs the brain.

First, we have to make sure data keeps flowing to the brain by maintaining focus on the task at hand. We've all had our racing focus interrupted with random thoughts (What's for lunch?). Ross suggests preparing a Pre-Planned Thought (PPT) and practice using it to bring your mind back to center whenever it wanders. So driving along and you wonder whether you'll change the oil between session - "FOCUS!" - your mind yells at itself and you immediately return to driving. Getting this technique to work takes practice. Second, be sure your brain is getting enough of the data it needs. Dedicate lapping sessions with a goal simply to increase awareness of sensory input. This will subsequently increase the number and type of references your brain is able to assimilate. Include a session for each sensory input: vision, feel, and auditory.

PROCESSING SPEED

The left and right hemispheres of the brain are connected by a bundle of nerves called the corpus callosum. When the nerves are "on" and the hemispheres "link" to work together, our ability to drive fast (among other things) is greatly increased. Unfortunately, a whole list of things like fear, anxiety and loss of breath can cause the sides to rapidly unlink. Encourage stronger left-right connections by practicing daily cross crawls and do a quick one before in-car sessions. Holding your breath causes an almost immediate unlinking, not to mention a eventual loss of oxygen. Practice maintaining regular breathing patterns, particularly entering heavy braking zones and other stressful areas on the track.

SOFTWARE UPGRADE

Much of our driving style is determined by our personal behavioral traits and belief system. Research into what a fast driver's personal profile looks like - more or less patient? more or less aggressive? - suggests that the flexibility to turn personality traits on or off on demand is more important than the baseline trackside state. Our belief system can easily be corrupted into thinking, "I always turn in early", "I'll never be quick in turn 3". To extinguish negative thoughts and develop on/off switches for calm and aggression, Ross encourages daily mental imagery sessions. Almost like meditation, visualize yourself in various situations responding the way that you want - aggressive passing moves in turn 1, ice cold strategic calm later in the race, confidence in your ability to learn, etc. Visualize lapping sessions in your mind as accurately as you can - many drivers can visualize a lap at exactly the same speed they actually drive it. After enough of imagery sessions, your brain will be "reprogrammed" with the responses you want on the track.

Ross didn't stop here, but you'll have to visit a seminar or read his books to get the whole story. In the past, my plan to be in the right mental state for a race centered on sleep, nutrition, hydration, and general physical fitness. No doubt those are all important and will stay on my to-do list, but I've also started doing daily eye exercises for focus, cross crawls for brain integration, and imagery sessions either sitting in the race car or while running. So far, it feels fantastic and has shaved 7 seconds off my HPR simulator time. Look for a follow up post that discusses driving techniques.

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