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Learning Strategies for Racers

So then, we’ve finally gotten to the strategies (hopefully you’ve already looked over the Types of Knowledge and Learning Stages pages). As I’ve said before, I believe your experience contains within it, the lessons you must learn to progress. The challenge is to identify, extract, and implement those lessons in your driving. Once you do, the next lessons will be revealed… and so on it goes.

NOTE: Most of the following strategies apply to working up the learning spiral. Once at the Expert or Master level, the primary objective shifts toward getting the car to behave the way you want, and/or to adapting to maximize your performance in a problematic car.

With that in mind, this is basically the strategy/process I used to advance through the learning stages:

  1. Build as big a matrix of knowledge as you can about driving theory, car dynamics, data acquisition, etc., because this will be the framework you will use to interpret your experience. As part of that, I recommend that you read the following portions of this website:
  2. Use EVERY MEANS at your disposal (Imagery Training, Race Walking, simulators/games, on-board camera), as often as you can, to habitualize yourself to driving around the track, and to construct a full-sensory model of the track in your mind. Your track model should include as much sensory detail as you can resolve from your experience; with visual and vestibular sensations having the priority. The quicker you construct a viable track model, the sooner you will have the possibility of transitioning from analysis/intellectual processing to recognition/intuitive processing.
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    NOTE: At the early learning stages, your track model will likely be limited to your step-by-step plan for getting around the track, interspersed with some visual information. It will probably have very little, or no, vestibular sensation information because at the early learning stages you are too busy (mentally overloaded) to really ‘feel’ anything the car is doing; you’re just trying to stay ‘on plan’ and keep up with the visual information stream. However, fear not, this is just the natural progression of the learning spiral. With some time and effort, you will adapt to your current speed, which will allow you to ‘feel’ more, and then you will take that new knowledge and use it to expand your track model… and up the spiral you go.
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  3. Leverage every second of track time you get by honestly evaluating your performance after every session:
    • Immediately after each session, get a blank printout of the track map, and write down your impressions of the session including at least:
      • Overall impression of how the session felt
        (e.g. did you feel on pace, is there much work to be done, was it a train wreck)
      • For each ‘significant’ (not flat out) corner, write down what percent of ‘the limit’ you achieved in the: Braking area (if any), Turn-in, Mid-corner (apex), and Exit.
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    • Take some time to relax after the session, and then use imagery training to replay your experience so you can discover the lessons hidden within it.
      For example, if you had to add steering input at the exit of a turn to stay on track, then you should know that’s an important lesson (if you don’t then you need to learn more about the fundamentals or racing). However, it’s an incomplete lesson; it’s the effect, you need to find the cause. It could be any number of individual errors, (or a combination of errors) like:

      • You got into the turn ‘too hot’ – that’s where many driver stop
        (And they wonder why they don’t progress). You MUST figure out HOW and WHY!
        .
      • You turned in too early; Why?
        • I couldn’t see my turn-in point; Why?
          • The sun was in my eyes
          • Another car was blocking my vision
          • My marker was gone
          • There was rain on my windshield/visor…
            .
        • I was feeling rushed; Why?
          • My Sensation of Speed was elevated; Why?
            • I’m not familiar with the track and/or car and was trying to go too fast too soon.
              • Why did you try to go too fast too soon?
                (This is where you might start getting into the Psychology, Emotion, Ego stuff… the hard stuff to admit & fix.)
                .
            • I braked too late, so was feeling rushed. Why?
              • I was mad at the guy in front of me and was pushing too hard to catch him. (Another tough psychology one like above)
              • I missed my braking point; Why?
                .
            • I was distracted; how / by what?
              • Someone suddenly appeared in my mirror
                • Why didn’t I know they were there behind me?
                  .
              • I was physically uncomfortable in the car; Why:
                • Something wrong with the car?
                • Driving with an injury?
                • Out of shape for racing?
                  .
              • My crew was talking to me on the radio; Why?

Anyway, you get the point; REAL improvement takes a hell of a lot more effort than just chalking a mistake up to “I got in too hot.” Just to finish this example, here are a few more high-level reasons why you might end up adding steering input at the exit of a corner:

          • You turned in too slowly
          • You didn’t get the car rotated soon enough
          • You picked the wrong apex
          • You missed the apex
            (probably the result of an error earlier in the turn or a lack of knowledge about driving)
          • You got on the gas before the car had rotated sufficiently
          • You drove over a bump in a way that unsettled the front end briefly
          • You were close behind someone and lost down force
          • And so on…

NOTE: Reviewing data and/or video can be an excellent tool to help you progress because it provides a very precise picture of what is, and is not, working. However, like theoretical knowledge, it’s only really useful if you possess the knowledge/skills to implement the needed changes. For example, an instructor keeps telling a driver “your line looks good, just pick up the pace,” but the driver keeps going the same speed. So the instructor puts the driver in a car that has ‘data logging’ and after the session, he shows him a comparison of his data and the ‘hot shoe’s’ data, which proves that “his line looks good, he just needs to pick up the pace.” The driver says “ah yes, I see now!” So, with much optimism and excitement all around, he hits the track for his next session and… DRIVES THE EXACT SAME SPEED HE HAD BEEN. This driver needs to discover the more fundamental lesson he is missing… the one that is holding him back from driving the way/pace he knows he should. HINT: In all likelihood, this driver needs to learn how to control his Sensation of Speed by using efficient sensory processing techniques and holistic concentration).

  1. Figure out what the lessons are trying to teach you. Here are a few possible examples from above:
The Experience Some lessons it may be trying to teach you:
You picked the wrong apex Study the fundamentals of racing more so you can recognize where you should apex the turn.

The corner may have some unique characteristic you didn’t notice, which causes the ‘right’ apex point to be slightly different from what you would logically expect. Research this (observe at the turn, walk the track, watch in-car video) so that you understand where the apex should be, and why it’s at a different location then you expected.
You got distracted when someone suddenly appeared in your mirror You must create an automated rhythm for checking your mirrors so that you are always aware of what’s behind you, how close it is, and its closing rate.

If the driver behind was ‘popping out’ to distract you, then you need to use imagery to habitualize that experience so that it does not draw so much of your conscious attention. That is, you program an attention filter rule… something like:

Recently arrived driver + high closing rate + aggressive pop-out = pay attention.

Driver who has been there for a while + static closing rate + half-hearted pop-out = just notice it.

Of course these ‘rules’ get modified by the circumstances… like the last lap of a race.
You caused the car to understeer wide by getting on the gas before the car had sufficiently rotated into the turn. You need to increase your sensitivity so you can feel when, how quickly, and how far the car is rotating.

You need to realize that it takes time for inputs to move energy, and energy to become loads, and loads to become traction, and traction to become the forces that move (in this case rotate) your car.

You should learn, practice, and master techniques for exerting direct control over where, when and how quickly the car does the polar rotation.
You were distracted because you were uncomfortable because you got hot and/or tired in the cockpit. You need to figure out how to reduce the temperature in the cockpit if possible (More air flow, cool suit, etc.).

You need to learn about hydration requirements and techniques and use them when conditions will be thermally challenging.

You need to learn about driver conditioning, create an appropriate exercise program, and stick to it.
  1. Prepare to make changes based on the lessons you’ve identified.
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    • Identify the lesson-driven changes you intend to make
      .
    • Formulate an improvement plan for each change you want to make.
      For actual driving changes – as opposed to mental process changes –, take the experience that provided the lesson and combine it with your theoretical knowledge to create a virtual-realization of the change.
      .
      (NOTE: If you are intending to make a large or potentially dangerous, change, then you may want approach it incrementally; for example, define virtual-realizations for each step you will take to accomplish the final goal, and implement them one at a time…which may be done in one session or over multiple sessions.)
      .
    • Create variations of the virtual-realization that account for a range of deviations from what you expect to happen when you make the change.
      .
    • Create a ‘recovery’ plan (or plans) to fall back on if things go seriously wrong.
  1. Use imagery training (and/or Race Walking) to repeatedly rehearse everything from Step #4 until you have habitualized it; it should feel like something you already do, not something that’s new.
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  2. Implement the change in the next session.
    (NEVER go out on the track without specific goals for improvement and a rehearsed plan.)
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  3. Cherish your mistakes; no matter how small a mistake may be, NEVER ignore it or brush it off with some cliché excuse. Why? Because there are NO SMALL MISTAKES. That may seem overly dramatic, but dismissing a mistake without extracting the lessons from it can have serious consequences. For example, you drop a wheel… eh, no big deal; “I just got a little wide.” You make the same mistake, but next time it’s just a ‘minor’ spin; “I just over cooked it.” Next time you might be hanging in your harness in what used to be your car… Don’t end up hanging in your harness in what used to be your car; learn from ALL of your mistakes.
    .
    In my experience, when I lose control, it’s usually the result of ‘cascading errors’ (an initial error, followed by one or more missed opportunities to ‘save it’), so when dissecting a mistake, it’s critical that you look for the initial error (which for me is often a mental or attitude error), AND ALL of the missed opportunities to recover. Once you uncover the opportunities you had to recover, explore why you didn’t recognize them and/or take advantage of them at the time. By the way, when I say my initial error is often mental or attitude, I mean refusing to accept what is; like pushing too hard to stay in front of someone with better tires (wadded up my car at Sears Point’s Turn 10 on that one $$). That said, we are racers, so some times we push the limits, and the limits push back. In that case, you still want to bank as much knowledge about the things you felt (how the loads and forces built) just before going over the limit and explore how you might have saved it after the fact and/or minimized the consequences. This type of information is invaluable for creating virtual-realizations, especially for those that try to predict possible alternate outcomes to a change you are planning to make.
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  4. Look for the good; have fun and enjoy the learning process. There is a big difference between honestly, and deeply evaluating your performance to find where you can improve, and mentally beating yourself up or berating yourself for making a mistake, or for not making some arbitrary performance level that you’ve decided you should have achieved. If you set a goal of taking 0.4 off your previous best, but you only manage an 0.2 improvement it’s still an improvement, so focus on that, and ‘work the strategy’ to find the rest next session. Maybe you didn’t improve your time at all, but look at the whole picture; maybe conditions changed so the same time is actually an improvement, or maybe you felt more comfortable, and were more consistent doing the same time, which is both an improvement and an excellent foundation for future progress.
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  5. Beware the ‘rules’; if it’s well thought out, try bending or breaking them; here’s what I mean:.
    • I was racing a Spec RX7 at Laguna Seca, and my car was OK everywhere, except for turn 5, where it just felt ‘bound up’ and very slow when I got down to the apex. That was killing my exit speed and my speed down the following straight. There is quite a bit of banking in that turn, so I decided to try ‘missing’ the apex by ½ a car width. BINGO, it rolled smooth and fast through mid turn, caused no problems at exit, and that one tweak of the ‘use the whole track rule’ got me a 0.5 second drop in lap time… plus the win.
      .
    • I was racing a Spec Formula Ford at a Laguna Seca Double Regional. I won the Saturday race, but I really wanted to win on Sunday because one of my parent’s best friends, and long-time corner worker, was coming to the track for the first time since losing his wife to brain cancer. I really wanted to give him a checkered flag from our family as a gesture of support, but I’d had some issues in qualifying and ended up 7th in class (12th overall, so in the outside row for turn 2). I figured I had to make some big moves early if I wanted any chance to win, and I knew that on the start everyone tries to get down to the inside for turn 2, so on the pace lap I tested the traction on the FAR outside of the track. It was good, so on the start, as I got to turn 2, I broke WAY late and rolled around the far outside. As usual, everyone was bunched up at the apex, and I flew past 10 cars; emerging from the turn in 2nd overall and 1st in class. I got the flag and dropped it off at turn 3 where our friend was working.
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    • I was on a racing mailing list years ago, and a new driver who was having pretty good success working his way up the learning spiral, posted a question about reference points because he was concerned that he was using them less and less as he progressed… but you’re ‘supposed’ to use reference points… right? I equate most reference points to training wheels. They are valuable for the initial learning stages, but the more you drive with recognition and holistic concentration, the less ‘points’ you’ll use; instead you’ll drive by feel and/or by using specific ‘frames’ out of the full-sensory information stream to time your driving.
  1. Drive different vehicles if you can.
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    • When I went from driving the Jim Russell/British School of Motor Racing Van Diemens on their hard Dunlop rubber to driving a Formula Ford in SCCA races on soft Goodyear tires, the transition was a complete non-issue for me. However, when I went back to race the Dunlop tired cars again; it felt so easy I couldn’t belief it. Taking a step up in speed and traction, (even an incremental step since I couldn’t afford new Goodyear tires) made what I used to thing was the ragged edge on the Dunlops feel like a walk in the park.
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    • At one point in the middle of my ‘career’ I couldn’t afford to race, so I got a motorcycle to supply my speed fix. I eventually did a couple of Keith Code’s California Superbike Schools at Laguna Seca (once on the original track and the other on the neutered version). I was quickest both times, but was nowhere near ‘real’ racing pace. Anyway, the experience on the bikes provided me with a quantum leap forward in terms of my resolution of feel for traction.

So, that’s the process (in excruciating detail) that I used to navigate the learning spiral. However, I will say that by the time I was able to drive at the expert level, much of this process, just like much of my driving, had become essentially automated. For example, for the most part, I could observe, evaluate and adjust my performance on-the-fly, while driving. However, if circumstances were challenging, like learning a new track or making an adjustment in a dangerous turn, I would use the methods as detailed above.

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