Ultimate Speed Secrets

by Ross Bentley

  As you already know, the better the quality and the more quantity of sensory information you put into you brain, the better your performance will be. As I said earlier, this is similar to but opposite of the computer slogan, GIGO—garbage in, garbage out. In this case, it is quality in, quality out.

  When should you use the Sensory Input Sessions? Often. When I’ve suggested to drivers to use these exercises, they sometimes claim that they do not have time. After all, they only have one practice session and then qualifying, and they certainly don’t want to “waste” that time just taking in sensory input. Wrong. That is exactly the time to focus on sensory input. The goal is to learn as quickly as possible, and this is one of the best ways of doing that.

  SPEED SENSING

  One of the most amazing things a race driver does is determine the speed the car needs to be traveling when entering a turn, and then slowing it to that exact speed. We all do this type of thing every time we come to a stop at a red traffic light. We look ahead and make the decision to begin braking now, with this amount of pressure, and therefore we will stop at that point up ahead. No one tells us when to begin braking; there are no brake reference points on the street that I’ve seen.

  This is even more difficult when we are not coming to a full stop; we’re slowing to a specific speed, one that only your “gut feel” can tell you is at or near the limit of traction. The great drivers do that within a fraction of a mile per hour, consistently keeping the car at the very limit. This wouldn’t be so difficult, or amazing, if the driver had the time to look at a speedometer while driving into the corners, but the driver doesn’t.

  If you used a radar gun to measure what speed a group of drivers entered one particular turn at, you might be surprised. As I said, the great drivers would consistently enter the turn at a speed that did not vary much more than a mile per hour. The not-so-greats’ entry speed would vary by as much as 5 miles per hour or more!

  Of course, I’m talking about slowing and setting the entry speed accurately and consistently so that the car is at or very near the limit. Almost anyone can consistently set the entry speed at something 10 or 20 miles per hour below the limit.

  Until you can consistently set your entry speed within a mile per hour or two, you will never be able to begin shaving the last few tenths or hundredths of a second off your lap times. So, your ability to sense speed is critical. Developing this without miles and miles of track time is not an easy thing to do; however, there are a couple of exercises you can use to fine-tune your speed-sensing abilities.

  Speed sensing, particularly as it applies to the entry phase of a corner, covers a couple of areas. First, it is having the innate ability to accurately determine the ideal speed to slow the car to when entering a turn. Now, understand this does not mean knowing the car has to be traveling at 88.3 miles per hour when you reach the turn-in point. Obviously that wouldn’t do you any good, as it is not possible to look at a speedometer when you are just about to enter a turn. That is why I say it has to be an innate sense.

  The second area is the ability to consistently adjust the car’s speed to the appropriate level for entering a turn. Just knowing deep down inside how fast you should be entering the corner doesn’t help if you cannot tell the difference between 88.3 and 82.1 miles per hour. Great race drivers can sense the difference in speed within 1 mile per hour. The superstars are far more sensitive than that. And they can consistently dial the car into that speed.

  Developing your speed-sensing abilities is not an easy thing to do without miles and miles of track time. However, there are a couple of exercises I’ve come up with that will enhance and speed up the process of developing them.

  The first is done in your street car on the street. All you are going to do is practice estimating speed, based simply on sensory input, not the speedometer. Cut out a piece of cardboard that you can easily slip in place to cover the speedometer, then go for a drive. As you are driving along at say, 55 miles per hour, slip the cardboard cover in place. Then change your speed a few times by speeding up and slowing down, and finally by trying to put the car back to 55 miles per hour again. Pull the cardboard cover off and check to see how accurate you are. Do it again and again.

  An alternative method is to simply leave the cardboard cover in place and pick a speed you want to travel at. Then, accelerate to what you feel is that speed, and pull the cover off and check how well you did.

  ILLUSTRATION 22-3 You must have an innate sense of the speed you are traveling and how much it needs to be altered in preparation for each and every corner.

  If you do these exercises over and over again, you will become very accurate, and most important, consistent at judging and establishing a specified speed. And no, it doesn’t really matter that you are not at the same speed you will be at on the racetrack. The main objective is that you can consistently get so that you can set the speed of the car the same over and over again, within 1 mile per hour or so, simply using sensory input as your guide. That is accurate and consistent speed sensing.

  Another technique to improve your speed-sensing abilities requires a radar gun, someone to operate it, and you driving your race car. Choose the most important corner on the track and have your assistant with the radar gun positioned so that he or she can check your speed just as you turn into the corner (using a pylon or pavement marking as a reference point). Take a couple of laps to warm up, and then drive 10 laps with the main goal of entering the turn at exactly the same speed. Of course, it does no good to drive slowly during this exercise; you should be within a couple of tenths of your best lap times. Have your assistant radio to you the speed you were traveling at just as you turned in to the corner.

  The goal, of course, is to consistently be at the same speed as you turn in to the corner. If your corner-entry speed varies more than a mile per hour, you really need to practice this more. Ultimately, you should be able to enter every corner on a racetrack at the same speed for at least 10 laps in a row, within 1 mile per hour.

  Your assistant should then ask you to increase your corner-entry speed by 2 miles per hour. See if you know what that small increase feels like. Try 1 mile per hour less. How does that feel? The objective is to calibrate your speed sensing with reality. If you determine that increasing your Turn 3 corner-entry speed by 1 mile per hour is desirable, now you will have a better idea of what that feels like. You will have a better chance of going and doing that, not increasing your entry speed by 4 miles per hour, but by the 1 mile per hour you wanted.

  Of course, this can also be done with a data-acquisition system, although the feedback is delayed. The lack of instant feedback is certainly a drawback. With instant feedback, your mind learns more quickly. The real-time feedback from an assistant is more effective.

  TRACTION SENSING

  Traction-sensing skills are one of the key differences between a truly great driver and all the rest.

  To be able to drive at the limit, and to use every bit, but not any more, of the tires’ traction, you must be able to feel or sense how much traction the tires have. I know that sounds pretty obvious, but that is what traction sensing is: the ability to sense at any and all points around the racetrack exactly how much traction the car has. Put another way, it is the ability to sense if and when the car is at the limit, the traction limit.

  The one question I’m asked more than just about any other by new and relatively new race drivers is, “How can I tell exactly when I’m driving at the limit?” It is perhaps the most difficult question to answer, for knowing precisely when you are driving at the limit is, besides being the key to driving at the limit, an innate feel that one develops. I don’t believe it is something that a person is either born with or not. Yes, some drivers seem to have a more natural feel or instinct for it, but with any driver, it can and must be developed.

  Where does this ability to sense how much traction the tires have come from? Primarily from your senses, and specifically your senses of feel, vision, and hearing.<
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  By simply being aware of the tires’ traction all the time, including when you are driving on the street, your traction-sensing skills will improve. In addition, there are a few specific exercises you can use to develop your traction-sensing skills.

  Perhaps the best all-around exercise for developing your raw traction-sensing skills is still a skid pad. For all the money that drivers and teams spend on practicing and testing, it seems ridiculous that little, if any, is spent on something as simple and effective as skid pad training.

  As part of my development program for a Formula Atlantic driver I worked with one year, we did a skid-pad session. Although it was rather short, it was one of the most beneficial bits of training we did. The driver’s understanding of how to control understeer and oversteer was really enhanced, as was his traction-sensing sensitivity. You may be thinking that you fully understand how to control understeer and oversteer already, and that may be true. So did this driver. But, it is not until you physically practice over and over adjusting the throttle and steering input that you truly understand it. Overall, I would estimate that his car-control skills improved by at least 50 percent after that one skid-pad session.

  You do not need a full-blown skid pad to do this type of training. As I did with the Atlantic driver, all you need is a large, smooth, paved parking lot, some way of wetting it down (we hired a water tank truck to intermittently spray the area), and some cones. Set the cones up to form a circle at least 50 feet across. Then, drive your race car around the circle faster and faster until either the front or rear tires begin to lose traction. On a skid pad like this, you should be able to hold the car in a steady-state understeer or oversteer slide for at least three or four laps of the circle. In other words, you should be able to keep the car in an oversteer drift, with the tail hanging out and you controlling it with throttle and steering lap after lap. The same is true with understeer.

  To make this exercise most effective, it may be necessary to fiddle with the car a bit. I’ve gone as far as running rain tires on the front and slicks on the rear, and vice versa. Usually though, just adjusting or disconnecting anti-roll bars are enough. Your objective is to be able to exaggerate the car’s ability to understeer and oversteer.

  I am a big believer in using street driving to develop your race driving skills. And, you don’t need to be driving at anywhere near racetrack speeds to do this. In fact, driving fast often defeats the purpose of what you are trying to accomplish. Unless you are driving at speed, at the limit, the correlation between street and track is not there. And only an idiot would drive that fast on the street. What you are trying to do is program specific skills and techniques in a relaxed, unhurried atmosphere. That way, when you are on the track, these skills and techniques come naturally, without any conscious thought whatsoever.

  SPEED SECRET

  Use your street driving to make you a better track driver.

  One of the first things you can do while driving on the street to enhance your traction-sensing skills is simply to make note of the tires’ traction. Do this by paying attention to the noise coming from them and by the feeling through the steering wheel. Notice how both these factors change when going from a straight line to cornering. Yes, on the street, the noise and feel will be minute, subtle things. But if you can read the tire traction at this level, sensing it at racetrack speeds will be easy.

  I’d like you to try an experiment for me. While driving on the street, try holding the steering wheel with a tight grip, with your whole hands wrapping around the wheel rim so that your palm is in contact with the wheel. Notice the vibrations back through the wheel. Next, hold the steering wheel with just your fingers, with a light, relaxed touch. Now notice the vibrations through the wheel. Which provides the most feedback? In which way do you feel the most vibrations? With the light touch of the fingers on the wheel, right?

  Does this tell you something about how you should hold the steering wheel? I hope so. If you practice holding the steering wheel in your street car with your fingers, with a light touch, that will become a habit, a program. Yes, I know that some race cars require more of a grip of the wheel than what just your fingers can apply. But if you make a light touch a habit, you will apply the lightest touch possible on your race car steering wheel. And that will lead to increased sensitivity and increased traction-sensing abilities.

  In all the coaching I’ve done, there is one exercise that has made the single biggest improvement with the drivers I work with: Traction Sensing Sessions. All you do with this exercise is dedicate part or all of a practice or test session to simply focusing on sensing the tires’ traction. While driving on the racetrack, make note of the vibrations and feedback through the steering wheel. Does the steering get lighter or heavier as the tires slide more? Make note of the sound coming from the tires. Do they make more or less noise as they slide more? Overall, how does the car feel as the tires begin to slide more and more? How much warning do the tires give before they start to slide too much? Forgetting practically everything else—and especially lap times—practice reading how much traction the tires have around every inch of the track.

  ILLUSTRATION 22-4 You can set up a makeshift skid pad in a large paved parking lot to develop your traction-sensing and car-control skills. Use eight or more cones to describe a circle at least 50 feet in diameter, then add water, and go out and play; I mean practice.

  You may even want to put a 1 to 10 rating scale on it, with 10 being the limit of traction just before the tires start to let go, and 1 being the grip they have while going down a straightaway. Then, as you drive around the track, you can actually call out to yourself the amount of traction the tires have.

  SPEED SECRET

  Regularly use Traction Sensing Sessions to improve your ability to drive at the limit.

  If you use these techniques on regularly, I guarantee your traction-sensing abilities will improve, and that will lead to your ability to drive more consistently at the limit.

  Everything you do while driving is a result of either the mental programming you have, or a lack of mental programming to do something. The same can be said of everything we do in our lives.

  An example is throwing a ball. At an early age, you observed someone throwing a ball; then, maybe one of your parents tossed a ball to you and asked you to throw it back. Rather crudely and without coordination, you managed to toss the ball in some direction. At that point, a neural pathway formed in your brain, representing the physical act of throwing. You threw the ball again and the pathway became a little stronger; you threw again and the pathway grew stronger yet again, and so on.

  The first few times you threw the ball, you had to consciously think about how to do it. At some point, when the neural programming became strong enough, you no longer had to think about it. You just automatically, subconsciously, ran the mental program and threw the ball.

  The same is true of the techniques required to drive a race car. At first, while you are learning or programming the technique, you are consciously thinking about how to do it. Then, with repetition, your brain forms neural pathways or programs, allowing you to head out on the track and simply execute the appropriate program at the appropriate time.

  Think of it this way. Imagine taking a cup of water and pouring it on top of a big mound of dirt, letting the water run down the hill. The first time you do this, the water will try to follow the path of least resistance and begin to make a shallow pathway. This is much like the neural pathway in your brain after doing something for the first time. It’s there but not well established. The second time you pour a cup of water on top of the hill, it may follow the same path, or it may find an easier, even more natural pathway. If it follows the same path, that pathway will become deeper and more ingrained, just like the neural pathway in your brain after doing something twice. If it takes another path, then it begins the path-building process all over again.

  Now, imagine pouring that same cup of water on the top of the hill a few thousand times
a year, for more than 20 years. The pathway would be extremely well routed. It would almost be impossible for the water to follow any other pathway. This is what my own personal neural pathways were like for the mental program that operated my right foot when upshifting through the gears. After more than a quarter of a million repetitions of quickly lifting and then planting my foot back down on the throttle to make the upshift, I had to change that program when I first drove a race car with a “no lift shift” electronic engine-management system. Instead of briefly easing off the throttle to make the shift, as I’d always done before, I had to keep my foot flat to the floor and just pull back on the sequential shift lever.

  Needless to say, I found it difficult to not lift my foot at first, and for good reason, right? After all, with that amount of repetition, that strong a mental program, that deep a neural pathway, it was almost as natural a movement as breathing.

  The good news is that for years that program was so well developed that I never had to give it even a fraction of a second of conscious thought. That left my conscious mind open to being used for more important things, like considering what a change in my cornering line might do, how a shock absorber adjustment might help the car’s handling, or where my competitors were in relationship to me. That is why it is so critical for the basic driving techniques to become habit or mental programs, to allow your mind to concentrate on far more important things.

  SPEED SECRET

  Drive in your mind before driving on the track.

  Now, the bad news. Any technique that has been programmed into your brain can be difficult to change, as I discovered when having to learn to upshift without lifting off the throttle. Do race cars change? Do track conditions change, requiring different techniques? Do all race cars react the same and require the same driving technique? The answers to these questions are, of course, yes, yes, and no, meaning you have to be able to change or alter your mental programs quickly and efficiently.