by Ross Bentley
ILLUSTRATION 22-1 Think of your brain as a sponge: Its job is to soak up information about the track and what the car is doing. The more information it has, the better the communication to your body will be. In other words, the more quality information your brain has, the better your performance will be. Be a sponge.
When you think about it with this in mind, you can see why some drivers make more mistakes than others, why they seem to be attracted to problems, and why they seem to make more than their fair share of bad decisions. I have personally witnessed race drivers who have 20/20 vision but whose visual input is significantly restricted.
Fortunately, visual processing is something that can be developed. How? First, by using the Lazy 8s exercise I recommended in the previous chapter. The improvement I’ve witnessed in drivers who use these exercises on a regular basis is nothing short of amazing. And second, through a short period of sensory deprivation, which can lead to an increase in sensitivity.
Consider for a moment a blind person. Despite their lack of vision, are their other senses (feel, hearing, taste, smell) usually more or less sensitive than people with sight? Better, right? Why is that? Because they have been forced to develop the senses they have.
By restricting some of your senses for a short period of time, you are forced to develop your other senses. Of course, it is not something you consciously set about doing. It is something your mind automatically does on its own. I have, at times, joked about going onto the racetrack blindfolded and how that would improve your other senses, if you survived!
The same type of thing can be used to develop the visual construction process. If you restrict the amount of information your eyes can send to your brain but ask your brain for just as much information output, it is up to your brain to make up the difference. In other words, send your brain a little bit of data and expect your brain to output a lot of information. Now, going on to a racetrack with your vision even slightly restricted is dangerous. But what if you practiced taking the same amount of data from your eyes as you usually do, but asked your brain to output more information for that little data? What you are doing, in fact, is practicing being more aware, practicing using your brain’s vision construction abilities, practicing being sensitive to visual data.
It is, in fact, something you can and should practice not only on the racetrack. It is something you should definitely practice while driving on the street, and also in all other activities in your life. For example, while driving down the highway and using your vision as you normally do, ask your brain for as much information as possible. Ask it to be aware of everything along the side of the roadway. Make note of the ground, the grass, and the trees in great detail as you pass it by. But not just the amount of them. Note the colors, the type and amount of leaves on the trees, the condition of the bark, whether the ground is made up of mostly dirt or of rocks, and the speed at which they pass by.
When doing this, though, don’t look directly at the ground, grass, and trees. Look down the road like you normally would, but allow your brain to take in more information (actually, construct more information from the data your eyes are supplying to it). Ask your brain to provide more information. There is a physical limit to how much your eyes can take in. It is practically limitless what your brain can do with that information.
What you are doing is practicing becoming more aware of everything around you, using the same amount of visual data supplied by your eyes. Practicing this in your everyday world will greatly enhance your performance on the racetrack.
While driving in traffic on the street, practice being aware of every car, truck, pedestrian, and anything else. The more you practice this, the more aware you will be of other cars around you on the track, without having to put much, if any, concentration on it. The less focus and concentration you put into noticing where your competitors are, the more you have to put into more important things like track conditions, reference points, and speed and traction sensing.
One of the more difficult visual challenges you face is seeing around corners. Often, your view through the turns is restricted. What you need to do is see around the corner.
SPEED SECRET
Practice—every day—being aware.
A number of years ago (in the early to mid-1990s), when Al Unser Jr. was at the top of his game, I noticed how his head was turned and cocked to the side on the approach to a corner when racing on street circuits. It was as if he was trying to stretch his neck to peek around the cement wall on the inside of the turn. I wasn’t sure if this was something Unser did on purpose, or whether he did it at all, but it sure looked like it. Now, I think it was something he did without realizing while trying to stretch his vision, not his head or neck, around the corners. I wonder if this is one of the reasons Unser was so dominant on street circuits for so many years.
If you consciously try to stretch your vision—try looking as far around the corner as possible, even if it means using your imagination—over and over again when practicing, eventually it will become a habit, or a mental program. Then, it will be something that you do without any conscious thought, like Al Jr. did. It is as if you are building a mental picture to fill in the holes in the visual picture.
KINESTHETIC INPUT
Feel and auditory input is similar to visual input in that most of the information is constructed in your brain. If you were to practice feeling things with your hands over and over, do they become more sensitive? Yes and no. Actually, your hands themselves do not become more sensitive, but your brain becomes better at constructing the feelings from the same amount of data sent to it. So, in the end, yes you do become more sensitive, but that’s because your brain has become more sensitive.
I had a dramatic demonstration of this while conducting an Inner Speed Secrets seminar. As part of a demonstration of the importance of sensory input, and for a little lighthearted fun, I ask two participants to compete in a race. Not a car race, though. The competition is to see who can pull on a pair of women’s pantyhose in the least amount of time, while blindfolded and wearing thick ski gloves. As you can imagine, with no visual input, and little kinesthetic input, this is a real challenge (and a few laughs for the rest of us).
I had become quite accustomed from previous seminars to how long it takes a person to complete the competition. Then, in this one particular seminar, a participant completed it in less than half the time it normally takes. It seemed as though he was pulling on the nylons without the gloves. It wasn’t until the end of our little race that the participant told us that he was a dental surgeon and worked all day long at delicate maneuvers while wearing gloves and not being able to see well. To him, even through the thick ski gloves, he had some sensitivity. That sensitivity had been developed through years of working with gloves with restricted visibility.
If you were to practice driving with thick driving gloves, and then switch to ones that allowed more sensitivity when it came time to really perform (such as in qualifying or the race), your kinesthetic sensitivity would be enhanced. Therefore, your performance would improve.
The real point is, again, that your sensory input can be improved and developed; and that the more it is developed, the more sensitivity you will have to control your race car at the limit. The key is to practice being aware. Many people go through life without really being aware of what is going on around them, what they can really see, feel, hear, smell, and taste.
AUDITORY INPUT
The same is true of your auditory sense. Try practicing while using heavy-duty earplugs, greatly restricting your auditory input. Then, go back to your regular earplugs and notice how much more auditory input you receive.
Imagine driving your race car with overly effective earplugs, ones that blocked out almost all the sound. You are driving the track, shifting up and down through the gears, the engine revving, the tires growling, the brakes grinding. But you can barely hear all this auditory activity. You strain to hear the engine, having to rely more on the tachometer than you
have in a long time to determine when to shift. There is auditory data going into your brain, just not as much as usual. You strain your hearing again to take in as much as possible.
By the end of the session you’ve got your driving rhythm back, you’ve learned to adapt to the lack of auditory input. The fact is, your brain is extremely adaptable. In that short session, it has learned to perform nearly at the same level as before you restricted your auditory input. It has learned to be more sensitive.
Now, back in the car for the next session but this time with your regular earplugs. These restrict the noise just enough to protect your hearing from damage but still allow an abundance of auditory input. In fact, you may not have even realized how much sensory input you took in through your hearing before. But now you do. You are hearing the crispness of the engine’s throttle response like never before. You had never noticed that sound from the tires before as you cross the concrete patch through the middle of the corner. What does that tell you about the tires’ grip level? It changed, didn’t it?
Wow! What a session! What a performance! You were magic in the car. It was as if things just happened; you didn’t need to try to go fast. It was easy. That’s what happens when you crank up the boost on just one of your sensory inputs.
Again, what you are doing is forcing your brain to work with restricted sensory input. Then, when it has gotten used to constructing the information with little data input, give it back all the sensory input you can when it really counts.
A word of warning here, a serious one. Driving a race car, or just hanging around the track, without adequate hearing protection is a big mistake. In just a short amount of time you can permanently damage your hearing. And you should now know just how much your driving performance will be negatively affected if your auditory input is reduced. Before you get any ideas of heading out on to the track with little or no hearing protection, don’t!
SENSORY INPUT SESSION
There is a relatively simple way of improving the quality and quantity of sensory input you take in when driving. I call it Sensory Input Sessions. Of all the “tools” I’ve used when coaching drivers, this is definitely one of, if not the, most effective. How does it work?
First, go out onto the track for a session with the sole objective of taking in more sensory input. The best way of doing this is to determine how much time you have to do this exercise, then split that up into three sessions. These sessions should be at least 10 minutes in length, but not much more than 15.
In the first session, simply focus on everything you can hear. Focus on the engine note, the sound coming from the tires, noise from the brakes, wind noise, and so on. Take in everything auditorially, whatever you can hear.
For the second session, focus on kinesthetic input, everything you can feel. You should notice all the vibrations through the steering wheel, pedals, and seat; the amount the car pitches, rolls, and squats; if the steering wheel gets lighter or heavier as the tires reach their limits; any vibration or chattering of the tires as they corner at the limit; and the g-forces working against your body.
The third session has you taking in everything visually. You should focus on what you can see, on being more visually aware of everything. Focus on discovering track surface irregularities; what you see on the horizon; to notice any vibrations and movements of the steering wheel and other parts of the car; to expand your view to take in more in your peripheral vision; and, if driving an open-wheel car, any changes in the surface of the front tires.
To make this most effective, come into the pits after each session and debrief. Ideally, describe to someone what you heard, what you felt, and what you took in visually. Prod yourself for as much information and feedback as possible by asking yourself questions. If you do not have the time to come in to debrief after each session, use some form of communication to know when to change from auditory, to kinesthetic, and to visual. This can be done either by use of a radio, or by a signal from a lap board. Either way, sit and write down what you heard, felt, and saw at the end of the sessions.
ILLUSTRATION 22-2 Sensory Input Sessions are one of the best tools you can use to improve your ability to sense the limit, and therefore, drive at the limit. During these short sessions, you have one simple objective: to soak up as much sensory input as possible. Break it down into three sessions: one for visual information, a kinesthetic session, and one for soaking up more auditory information.
This is not a one-time deal. This should be done often, especially after switching to a new car or setup. It should definitely be a part of your routine for learning a new track. The ultimate goal is to become more sensitive to all the sensory inputs. This will help you learn a new track quicker and become better at sensing when you’re driving at the limit, and it will provide you with much more feedback for developing the car’s setup.
Ultimately, there are three main benefits for Sensory Input Sessions.
First, as I mentioned earlier, the better the quality and the greater the quantity of sensory information, the better the quality of your performance. Any time you focus on one specific sensory input, the more sensitive you will become. It is much like a person who loses his sight. By focusing on and isolating the other senses, they become much more sensitive.
The second benefit of Sensory Input Sessions is that they stop you from trying to drive fast and from thinking too much. Trying to go fast never works. Race cars are way too fast to drive at the conscious, trying level. They must be driven at the subconscious level, with the conscious mind observing and being aware.
Often, what you may need is a way to “distract” your conscious mind from trying to drive fast. And what better distraction than having the conscious mind focused on providing the brain with more quality sensory input?
I was once coaching a driver on an oval track who was running lap times in practice that were about four-tenths of a second off where he had been the day before. Worse, this was after making a number of changes to the car to make it better. With the engineer on the radio telling him how many tenths off the quickest car he was, and the team owner telling him to carry more speed into turn three, the driver was trying hard to go fast. But he wasn’t. Finally, as he came out of turn two, I got on the radio and asked him to simply focus on what the car felt like for the next four laps. Within two laps he was back down to the times he had done the previous day and was providing great feedback on the car that the engineer could really use to develop it.
I probably could have asked the driver to tell me what he ate last night, and it would have had much the same effect. No, it would not have provided his brain with more quality sensory input, but it would have gotten his conscious mind focused on something other than trying to drive fast. If you can learn to recognize when your driver is trying too hard, and all drivers do at some time, you can use this technique to great effect (though I do recommend asking your drivers to focus on sensory input, not on what they ate last night!).
Third, Sensory Input Sessions reduce the number and the extent of errors, both short-term and long-term. How?
Can you think of a driver who has a reputation for making “bad decisions” in the car? Often, the reason a driver makes poor decisions is because he lacks the information on which to base the decision. It’s like trying to make the decision to invest in a stock without having any past financial statements or annual reports.
If you dive down the inside of two other cars on the entry to a turn, with no hope in you-know-where of making it (and crashing), you and others may say you made a bad decision. You may wonder, “What was I thinking?”
If you really want to know why you crashed, you have to dig to the core of the problem. You may think the core is that you just made a poor decision. But the reason, the cause, of the poor decision may be a lack of good information, a lack of quality sensory input.
In this example, what you saw as a large enough gap to make the pass was not. You didn’t have all the information. With more quality sensory input,
your decision making will improve, whether you currently make good decisions or not.
Sensory Input Sessions can also minimize the effects of errors. Do you think experienced, champion race drivers make any fewer errors than inexperienced drivers do? I don’t think so. The only difference is the experienced driver is better at minimizing the effects of them. I have definitely witnessed and experienced this myself.
When the experienced driver makes an error, such as turning into a corner too soon, he or she recognizes it immediately, makes a small subtle correction, and makes the best of the situation. When a less-experienced driver makes the same error, the driver may not recognize it until he or she is passing by the apex. At that point the correction is going to have to be much bigger, sometimes causing a further problem, or at least having a drastic negative effect on the lap time.
So how does the experienced driver minimize the effects sooner? By recognizing the error sooner. How? By having more reference points. Most drivers have three reference points for each corner: turn-in, apex, and exit. Great race drivers, whether they are conscious of it or not, have dozens of reference points between each of those three. To become a great driver, you need to practice sucking up more information about the track, so that you see much more than just three reference points for each turn. You need an almost continual path of reference points. And these need to be in your mind at the subconscious level. That way, if you turn in too late for a corner, you recognize this just a foot or so later, at the subconscious level, rather than when you are all the way to the apex. The sooner you recognize it, the more subtle and effective the correction will be, and the less negative impact it will have. At that level, many drivers are not even aware that they made an error.
