by Ross Bentley | Feb 20, 2017 | Speed Secrets Story
In February of 1977, I drove my orange Fiat 124 Spider 1,224 miles from Surrey, British Columbia, to Willow Springs, California. Top down the whole way. I was going from where I lived to what would feel like home. From the time I began to dream of being a professional race driver as a five-year-old boy, I hoped that I’d have the ability to become one. I intensely hoped that I wouldn’t suck at it. And I hoped even more that I’d feel at home in a race car.
by Ross Bentley | Feb 27, 2017 | Speed Secrets Story
On the final afternoon of my three days of training with the Jim Russell Race Drivers School in 1977, I experienced something that I was familiar with from playing other sports, mostly tennis. I got into The Zone. I became one with the car. It was the most comfortable place I’d ever been, and even the seat was no longer painful. But unlike being in the zone on a tennis court, driving in the zone on the track was something so powerful that…well, I’ve spent the rest of my life trying to get back there over and over again. There’s nothing else like it.
by Ross Bentley | Mar 6, 2017 | Speed Secrets Story
Ask a race driver why he or she does it, and you’ll get as many answers as you have drivers. Some race for the thrill of driving fast, some for the intrinsic or extrinsic rewards, some for the technical challenge, some for the spectacle and beauty of the sport, and some to win. Me? I race to outwit my competitors. It’s a mental game. A chess game at a hundred-plus miles per hour. I don’t care about being the fastest; I care about being in the lead at the end of the race.
by Ross Bentley | Mar 18, 2016 | Driving Tips
The most important corner on a track is NOT necessarily the one leading onto the longest straight, despite so many people saying it is. That’s “lazy thinking,” because most tracks have a more important corner.
by Ross Bentley | Jan 6, 2022 | Podcasts
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Welcome to a new podcast series, No Dumb Questions. Jeff Braun and I sit down to answer your questions, and we promise – there are no dumb questions, maybe just some dumb answers. On this episode, we address how to get comfortable with high speed corners, how to approach a situation where a faster setup is not what makes the driver most comfortable, and what we are most looking forward to in 2022. Tune in for our new series!