Drive Fast: Focus Your Mind Where You Want to Go
So, when you hear the advice, “Look where you want to go,” apply it to your thinking as well. Think where you want to go. Focus your mind on where you want to go.
Track Walk Tips for Performance Drivers
Some very basic “rules” for track walks: Walk with no more than 2 other people, and stay focused on the track. Don’t make it a social event. Get down, get dirty. Even if it means sitting on the track surface to get the same view you’ll have behind the wheel, do it…
Enter Corners Fast Enough to Make it Do Something
What I learned was that if I entered each turn just a little faster than the grip level dictated (even just half a MPH too fast), I was ready for what the car was going to do. In fact, I made the car do what I wanted it to do. I was proactive.
Trust Your Senses to Drive Faster
Do you sense the limits by feedback through the steering wheel? Yep. Do you feel the g-forces build, and then begin to reduce as the tires slides too much? Uh-huh. Does the car communicate its limit to you through your sense of balance? Absolutely.
Use Every Tool to Improve Your Performance Driving
In-car video, data acquisition / telemetry, track maps, notes, debrief forms, other drivers and engineers, instructors and coaches, observation from a corner, stopwatch / timer, track walks, TV coverage… All of these are the tools can be used to improve your driving.
Know Your Tires
Every time you finish a session, think about how the tires behaved. Did they have good grip to begin with and then began to fade? Did they gain grip with more laps? Did they give you lots of feel for the limit, or not? Could you feel them flex; was the ride over the bumps harsh?