High Performance & Race Driving Tips

Why is smooth fast? Because a balanced car has more grip than an un-balanced one. Why? Read this Quick Tip to find out, and also how to drive smoother.

Your brain doesn’t know the difference between a real and an imagined event. If you imagine something with enough realism, using many senses, your brain thinks it’s really happening, and will respond appropriately.

Your physical fitness plays a big role in how well you drive, and the amount of enjoyment you get from it. I share a few thoughts on basic physical fitness training here.

What gear should you use to accelerate out of the corners? The lowest gear you can use, or the tallest? In this tip I talk about the benefits of using a taller gear.

How you hold and turn the steering wheel has a huge impact on how fast you’ll be able to drive. Drive and turn with your hands at the 9 & 3 o’clock position.

A driving simulator is a tool – a tool to help you learn and improve your driving. Use to learn a track, how to adapt to problems, getting up to speed quickly, getting and staying in the zone, maintaining and regaining focus, and much more.

The best drivers use their hearing better than other drivers. Your car is talking to you – sounds from the engine, tires, wind noise, and so on. How well you listen determines how fast you’ll be.

No matter how talented you are, or how successful you are, the more you improve, the better your chances of winning in the future. Make learning an objective, and you’ll win more races.

When you’re driving right at the limit, you steer the car as much with your feet as you do with the steering wheel. At the same time, the steering wheel becomes a brake.

The next time you decide to “couch-potato-it,” lay back and think about what your fellow drivers and racers are doing at this moment. Are they preparing for their next time on track? What are you doing to prepare for your next time on track?

Data acquisition systems never lie. However, they don’t always tell the whole story. Or perhaps more accurately, it’s difficult to dig deep enough into the data to reveal the whole story.

The best performance and race drivers are able to adapt their driving to minimize the negative effects of these handling problems, and maximize their speed, despite them. But how?

The key to driving faster is managing your car’s weight. And that’s why you’re a weight manager – you manage your car’s weight (and therefore its traction) with your controls.

If you decrease the radius of a turn by not using all the track, your maximum speed will be significantly reduced. There is no reason not to use all the track surface on the entry to a turn… or at the apex… or at the exit.

Should You Start Left-Foot-Braking? I often get asked about left-foot braking, so I’ll present what I see as this technique’s pros and cons.

Look, and THINK, as far ahead as possible. See, it’s one thing to look further ahead, but it’s another to think further ahead.

MI + A = G. Huh? If you’re unable to do something, you’re missing either the Mental Image (MI) of what to do, or Awareness (A) of where you in relation to your Goal (G).

The more you learn, the better you get; the better you get, the more you win. Focus on learning, and you’ll win more often.

Your footwork – how and when you release and apply your throttle and brake pedal, and how you transition between them – is at the core of great car control.

Practice how you plan to race, and then you’ll race as you practiced. That’s the key to winning more races.