by Ross Bentley
Fear comes in many forms, good and bad, or more accurately, useful and useless. It can be the fear of physical injury resulting from a crash. That fear usually limits your speed. I prefer to look at that as self-preservation, though, which is a good thing. In fact, the only thing that deters you from going over the limit and crashing at every corner is this so-called “fear.”
Fear and desire are usually the opposite sides of the same coin. Some drivers want to achieve something but are too afraid of it not working out. They focus on the fear of failure, which is another form of fear—a result—rather than the desire of making it work. When faced with an ultra-fast sweeping turn, or a difficult career decision, they think about what may happen if they made a mistake.
If you concentrate instead on the solution or the goal and your performance, rather than the problem or the result, fear of failure disappears. If you keep a clear mental picture of what you want to achieve, your mind will find a way of making it happen.
The fear of failure produces tension, which disintegrates your brain, slows reflexes, and generally hurts your performance level. Of course, that usually produces the result you feared most.
Keep in mind how valuable feedback and awareness is to learning and improving your performance. There is no such thing as failure, only the results of doing something. And those results are simply feedback, or corrections guiding you toward your objective. Failure is just a result you didn’t want, one that you can learn from and help you improve your performance.
MOTIVATION
If you want to be fast, if you want to win, you must be motivated. No one, no matter how much talent they have, will ever be a consistent winner if they lack motivation.
If you want to win races, you have to be “hungry.” You have to want it more than anything else.
It’s important to identify for yourself why you want to race. And then, do you want to win? What is it about the sport that you enjoy? Be honest. It doesn’t matter what it is. What does matter is, once you’ve identified it, then focus on it. To be motivated, you must love what you are doing. Remember and relive what you love about racing. If that doesn’t motivate you, nothing will.
Understand, if you want to win, you will have to take some risks. You almost have to decide how much risk you’re willing to accept. If you’re not motivated, I’ll bet you’re not willing to accept much risk.
If you are not 100 percent motivated, it is doubtful you will perform consistently at 100 percent. Focus on what you truly enjoy or love about the sport. Motivation mostly comes from the love of what you’re doing. As part of your regular mental imagery sessions, see yourself enjoying the art of driving, experiencing the thrill of racing, loving every second of it.
Something most racers do not have to worry too much about because of the high costs of testing and racing, can actually help increase your motivation level: moderation. Taking a break from the sport, to the point where you miss it; that may be just what the motivation doctor ordered.
Racing can be such an all-encompassing passion that many drivers spend practically 24 hours a day, 7 days a week eating, breathing, and living the sport. If that is you, when you finally get behind the wheel of your race car some of the passion and burning desire to drive may be gone.
Keep your racing in perspective and a balance in your life. Remember why you race. Do not take yourself, your career, your racing too seriously. Have fun. After all, that is why you started racing, wasn’t it? You may have to remind yourself of that every now and then!
SPEED SECRET
Think about what you love about racing.
Having said that, it is your level of commitment and desire—your burning desire—that will determine, more than anything else, how often you win and how far you go career-wise in professional racing (if that is your goal).
Much of your motivation comes from your expectations as to how you will do. If you believe you will not do well in an event, most likely your motivation to do what is necessary to maximize your performance will not be there. Of course, this leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. You don’t expect to do well, so you don’t prepare, which leads to a poor performance, which leads to a poor result, which meets your expectations.
Again, this is why it is so important to focus on your performance and not the result. There is never any reason you cannot perform at your maximum, so there should never be any reason to become unmotivated.
Having goals or objectives prior to each session or race event can certainly affect your motivation. Positive, achievable, but challenging, performance-related goals give you something to strive for, something to go after. Conversely, unrealistic or easily achieved goals will most likely discourage and de-motivate you.
PERSEVERANCE, COMMITMENT, AND DEDICATION
Did you know that Michael Jordan was originally told he wasn’t good enough to play for his high school varsity basketball team? Of course, we all know he didn’t take that evaluation and walk away from the sport. Instead, he practiced every day until he made the team, and the rest is history. The point is, he persevered. He never gave up.
To make it to the top in motor racing takes a tremendous amount of work, sacrifice, commitment, perseverance, and dedication. Don’t ever fool yourself: No matter how much talent you have, you will never be a winner in the top levels of professional racing (F1, Indy Car, NASCAR, Sports Car, and so on) without those elements.
If I had to pick just one thing that a person requires to make a professional career in auto racing, it would be perseverance. Bobby Rahal was once quoted as saying that it takes 10 percent talent and 90 percent perseverance to make it in racing. I agree.
During a race, never give up. No matter how far behind you are, no matter how hopeless it seems, if you keep pushing there is a chance your competition will have problems. Focus your mind on that possibility. If you haven’t pushed hard, if you’ve given up, you may not be close enough to take advantage of others’ problems.
Commitment and perseverance alone will not guarantee success, but without them you can guarantee you won’t perform to your maximum. Sure, there have been many drivers who have made huge commitments, who have persevered, who have made the sacrifices, and who have not made it to the top. But I also know of no driver who has made it who hasn’t made the commitment, who hasn’t sacrificed and persevered.
PREPARATION
Mental preparation for racing, as in any sport, is a key element. All the skills and techniques in the world are not going to make you a winner if you are not properly prepared mentally. My experience tells me that the most successful drivers, no matter what the level, are the ones that prepare more and better than the others.
Your mental approach to driving may just have the single biggest effect on your success. What you do to mentally prepare before a practice session or race is somewhat individual. It’s difficult for me to tell you what will work for you. You have to experiment to find out for yourself what works, and what doesn’t. For some drivers, sitting alone, not talking with anyone is the trick. For others, that results in more nervousness, and possibly talking with friends or your crew will take your mind off the pressure of the next practice or qualifying session or the race.
People often talk about the “natural talent” of athletes like Michael Schumacher, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, and Tiger Woods. If there is one thing all these great athletes have in common, it is how hard they have worked, how much they have practiced, and the amount of time and effort they put into preparing for their sport.
There is a true story about Ayrton Senna that is a great example of how true natural talent mostly comes from hard work. A couple of hours after winning his first Formula One Grand Prix in Portugal in 1985, Senna was seen driving around the track in a street car. Remember now, this was after he had just totally dominated the entire race with one of his magical performances in the rain. And what was he doing driving the track in a street car? Trying to figure out how he could have performed even better. That’s co
mmitment to being the best. That’s preparation. That is what is often confused for natural talent.
Michael Jordan would often show up early prior to a game, well before his teammates arrived, and practice his three-point shot. If someone of Jordan’s abilities knows the value of practice and preparation, shouldn’t you?
Winners go way out of their way to ensure they have prepared in every way possible. That includes your diet, physical exercise program, mental training program, even planning travel to suit yourself, ensuring your clothing is appropriate for sponsor functions, proper public relations, and so on.
SPEED SECRET
Preparation is not just one thing; it’s everything.
Race driving is all about control and discipline. Most, if not all of the all-time great drivers (Senna, Schumacher, Petty, Earnhardt, Mears, Andretti) controlled their lives and everything around them. Their attention to detail was paramount. Their commitment to looking after their driving equipment was a good example. I doubt you’ll often find a world champion who doesn’t like things to be organized, controlled, disciplined, and prepared.
I strongly suggest giving yourself a few minutes immediately before each session to visually drive the track (more on this in a minute), seeing the changes and adjustments to the technique you’ve planned. In fact, prior to every session, plan out what you’re going to change. Laps around a racetrack are valuable. Make them count. Make a plan and then work on that plan.
Now, the obvious: As a race driver, your goal is to constantly strive to go faster, faster than all your competitors. That’s all it takes to win!
However, once you’ve decided you need to go faster (and who doesn’t) and how you’re going to go about it, consider everything that could then happen. The car may not turn in when entering the corner 1 mile per hour faster; it may begin to oversteer during the transition phase because of unbalance and too much speed; and so on. This enables you to be mentally prepared for the consequences. This also helps your confidence level because you have it under control. It doesn’t take you by surprise, but don’t dwell on it.
In fact, focusing on negative thoughts or ideas will most likely slow you down. Thoughts like, “If I go this much faster, I’m going to crash,” takes some concentration and attention away from the ideal, positive thought, such as, “I can enter Turn 4 a half mile per hour faster.”
To go faster, you should have an open mind about learning more, about how to improve your driving, about new techniques, about how to make the car go faster, to constantly strive to go quicker and quicker. It’s definitely one of the most enjoyable challenges in the world.
Getting advice from more experienced drivers or other knowledgeable individuals is a good practice. Many drivers will be flattered that you chose them to talk to, and respect you for making the effort to improve.
Talk to and watch successful drivers. Reading biographies of the best drivers in the world can help. Analyze what they are doing and saying. Obviously, you can’t believe everything they say, but listen. Many times they are not intentionally trying to lead you astray with wrong advice, but they may not actually know what it is that makes them successful. That’s why it’s important to watch for yourself, and really think about all the aspects that come into play. Watch how other drivers take a particular corner that may be a problem for you. They may have found the “secret” you haven’t. But be careful; they may be worse than you! Check their times and talk to some of the more experienced drivers.
When watching other drivers, notice the line they take and the “attitude” or balance of the car. Ask yourself why the car or driver is doing what it is doing. Understand the strategy and technique being used.
A word of warning: Listen to the advice, but you be the judge. Just because it works for someone else, doesn’t mean it will for you or your car.
FLOW
With experience—“seat time”—comes flow. This is when you are driving subconsciously, naturally, without trying. Often, after being passed or passing someone, it may be difficult to regain your flow. It’s important to concentrate on getting back into the flow, regaining your rhythm. A couple of laps of talking yourself around the track may help. Or better yet, using a trigger word for a performance state of mind.
You know when you’re in the flow, and when you’re not. It feels great when you are. Often, when you’re not, it’s because you’re trying. You can’t try to get in the flow. It comes naturally. Just let yourself feel like you’re part of the car; become one with the car. Everything you do becomes automatic. The shifting, braking, and turning all becomes subconscious.
I think everyone has experienced being “in the flow” at some time in their life. It may have been while doing a job, playing a sport or musical instrument, or just going about a normal day. It’s that time when everything just seems to go right, everything you do works perfectly, almost without thinking about it. Unfortunately, everyone has probably experienced the opposite, when no matter how hard you try, it just doesn’t seem to work. And often that’s the problem, trying too hard.
I bet that every time you’ve ever been in the flow or zone in the past there were two factors at play: You felt challenged, and you had confidence in your ability to handle the challenge. In fact, a combination of challenge and belief in yourself will do more for triggering flow than just about anything else.
SPEED SECRET
Challenge + belief = flow
If you’re not feeling challenged, you’ll almost feel bored. You’re unlikely to have the intensity it takes to get into the flow and perform at your peak. Of course, if the challenge seems to daunting, it’s also unlikely you’ll perform at your best. You’ll feel overwhelmed, and likely not have the inner belief that you can handle the challenge. But if you feel challenged by what you’re doing, and you feel confident that you can overcome the challenge, you’re more likely to perform in the flow.
Framing racing as a tough challenge, but one you can handle, will help you perform better. Sometimes it’s a matter of doing just that, framing it: looking at it as not easy, but something not beyond your capabilities, something that you can handle. With that mindset, you’re more likely to get into the flow, the zone, that magical state where you perform almost effortlessly, totally focused, where time seems to slow down, and where you just enjoy being in the moment.
WINNING
I talked a lot in this chapter about removing the emphasis or focus from winning and placing it strictly on the act of driving, on your performance, and how, by doing this, you will increase your chances of winning. So, does this mean that winning is not important? Of course it is! It matters very much. That is what racing is all about.
The objective of racing is to win, but the purpose of racing is to race. Winning races is the objective of the sport, but it should not be the focus. Winning is the ultimate result of a great performance. A losing but great performance has a more deep and long-lasting personal satisfaction level than a winning but crummy performance. Use the strategies presented throughout this book to ensure you have great performances, rather than crummy ones. Do that and winning will look after itself.
Of all the drivers I have worked with through the years, it is the ones who have the absolute burning desire—a need—to win, who seem to have the knack of performing at their best consistently. They are the ones who would do whatever it took to win. They spent the time preparing, physically and mentally. And they did win, more often than anyone else. But their focus always seemed to be on improving their own performance; the winning just looked after itself.
Some of the drivers I have worked with did not take losing very well, to put it mildly. Unfortunately, this attitude often led to more poor performances and more losses. When discussing how upset they became after a loss, they would all claim it was because they were so competitive; they hated to lose. I don’t know of anyone in racing who enjoys losing. But the drivers who look at a loss as something to learn from—and no, not something to enjoy or be satisfie
d with—are the ones who most often came back to win next time out.
Competitive people—people who want or need to win—are the ones who most need to learn from their losses. Every race you compete in will have more losers than winners; it’s the nature of the sport. If you become overly upset and focused on a loss and never learn from it, you are bound to lose again and again.
Sometimes a driver has to learn how to win. Often, it takes a win, whether it be a total fluke or a deserved win, for a driver (and team) to learn that they can win, for them to really believe they can win. Once that happens, a driver often gets on a roll, and the victories just seem to happen.
I don’t know how many times I’ve seen it happen where a driver and team has everything it takes to win but just can’t seem to do it. Then, after almost fluking out a win, watch out. All of sudden, you can’t stop them. They start winning everything in sight.
That’s why I feel it’s important for a driver to race where he can win. If you’re racing in a competitive series where you can’t seem to pull off a win, don’t be afraid to go back and do a race or two in a lesser or easier series just to practice winning. Then take that winning attitude back to your main focus.
One of my favorite quotes is by Henry Ford. He said, “If you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re probably right.” You must have total confidence in yourself and the people on your team to be a winner.
STRATEGIES
In all your mental imagery, see yourself in and out of the race car relaxed and calm. See yourself focused on performing at your maximum, not particularly concerned with your competition. See yourself completely comfortable in your surroundings out of the car and with the speed in the car. See yourself confident in your ability to perform and that you belong at the front of the field. No matter what, you are “going to the front.” See your ideal level of “upness,” not too psyched, intense, or energized, but not too laid back either. See yourself as assertive and making “smart” racing decisions. See yourself racing for the pure love of it, fully motivated to do whatever it takes to perform well. See yourself fully prepared; you’ve eaten well, you’ve physically and mentally trained; you’re ready. See yourself facing some adversity, but overcoming it by persevering, demonstrating your commitment to yourself and others. See yourself dealing with pressure placed on you by others by focusing on your performance and letting that take care of the results.
