Keys to success: visualize your goal, see it, feel it and it will happen
What do you know, it happened! It wasn’t automatic as in the first stint, I did go off and just barely touched a wall (for real, I promise!) so I reset the session. Turns 2 and 3 were absolutely killing me.
That is not exactly what consistency looks like. 🙁
That second session though ended up being 19 laps of clean laps, several with one wheel dropping, usually on the exit of 5 and even saving some super sideways action but, the great thing is that I didn’t make any contact and I felt like these were laps that would have been deemed clean in the real world.
Next best thing: A new personal best – 1:20.110!
So what happened? I’m not exactly sure but the way I am thinking about it is that by trying to establish a new normal, the things that happen at mid and high 1:20 lap times weren’t as startling and thus, I had the mental capacity to see opportunities for gains. Here are a couple:
Turn 1: Towards the end of the stint, I knew I was going to run low on fuel which would end the session but the last 4 – 5 laps, I found significant amounts of time entering turn 1 with just the lightest of brake application, getting the car turned to the apex and getting back on throttle. At it’s best, this was giving me a .3xx second advantage over my personal best.
Turn 10a and 10b – the chicane: I also found, though not able to consistently do this, just the right amount of braking needed to not over-slow and still hit the rumble strips on the apex of 10a and the right timing of lifting and turning to get to the rumble strips (often referred to as FIA curbing) for 10b. This would allow me to be on throttle right before or on the apex and full throttle the rest of the way.
In the end, those last few laps I had several predicted lap times in the 1:19.xxx range but just couldn’t put it together.
Now we’re talking! Well, except for the still getting sideways into turn 2!
I’m incredibly happy about this because again, I want my virtual racing driving to translate well into my real world driving. So if I can’t put down more than 10 laps without crashing, that doesn’t bode well for the real world. The next few days I will be at Pacific Raceways, in Kent, WA – just outside of Seattle. With a Test and Tune on Friday, practice, qualifying and a 1 hour endurance race on Saturday and final qualifying and the main race for the PRO3 championship on Sunday.
The weather looks awesome and looking forward to seeing how the training so far translates to the real world.
Loading up Thursday night for a weekend of racing at Pacific Raceways!
So yesterday, I made some massive improvements but after taking a break to calm down and try to establish a ‘new normal’ of high 1:20.xxx and low 1:21.xxx lap times, I failed miserably. I wasn’t able to keep the car balanced through a couple key corners, as I found more speed. So my goal today was to not care about going faster but just be able to easily produce lap times in that range.
The first stint, I just loaded up the car and went on my way and in the third lap, was able to hit a 1:21.040 and then a 1:21.077 and then a 1:20.877… SWEET! I’m doing this! I forget exactly what threw me off but I got a little sideways and touched a wall so I decided to get out, take a deep breath, visualize and go at it again. When I exited, I checked the data quickly on Virtual Racing School and I realized I hadn’t loaded the same setup as the rabbit I’m chasing, which is a good amount different AND I was running on 30 gallons of fuel to start.
Lap times for the first stint – not bad!
I loaded the right setup and went off… no, literally. I went off on the out-laps. Twice and had to restart. It didn’t bother me much at the time or at least I didn’t let it get to me but I really don’t like doing that. The goal is to simulate the real world conditions as much as possible and if this were the real world, there’d be a lot of repairs to do and I’d be drowning in debt to pay for them.
Final stint – let’s put get a good run in!
With my hour winding down, I went for one last stint. Breath, look ahead, visualize balance and go for it! I strapped in and on lap 1: 1:20.310 – new personal best!
Stay calm, remember – the goal is not to go faster but rather be able to knock out 1:20.xxx lap times like it’s nothing.
Lap 1: 1:20.310
Lap 2: 1:20.964 – dirty lap but barely
Lap 3: 1:20.680 – another dirty lap but barely again
Lap 4: 1:20.170 – dang it! Barely dropped a tire somewhere but would be fine in the real world.
Lap 5: Crash… hard.
That will not buff out.
I had to call it quits here because the hour was up and my wife and son were running around asking me to be a dad, of which I love! 🙂
Lesson learned: I know what it feels like to do these lap times, just need to hard-code them into my mind and body
We’re starting to get into some pretty decent and competitive lap times and at the traction limit more and more. This is near the territory of what separates the Pro’s versus the Joe’s who play a Pro on the weekends. I need to realize that it will take time and backing off a little to be more consistent. Yes, I improved my personal best but it doesn’t mean as much if I can’t consistently get near that or drive more than 5 laps without crashing. That’s not even good enough for a 20 minute sprint race.
The goal remains the same for tomorrow, don’t worry about going faster, just be able to drive consistently and stay out of the walls.
One thing that I noticed over the first few days, even on Day 3, when clicked off a session of nearly 20 laps in a row, was that I wasn’t sweating as much as I usually do when I drive in real-life. One reason might be that usually before I get into a real race car, I get all suited up and then do light plyometric exercises, stretches and even a planned jog to and from the bathroom. 9 times out 10, before I get into the race car, I already have a healthy sweat going.
Right now we live in an apartment, with people above and below us. I am doing my simulator driving between 5:30 and 6am, of which most people are still sleeping, so I haven’t been doing my warm up exercises but what I started were two things:
Meditating: This is something I’ve taken up over the past 8-10 months, using an app called Headspace. This is for a different post but I can’t be a bigger proponent of meditation and how it’s improved my overall quality of life.
Wearing a racing suit: I got a new racing suit last year and that meant I had my original racing suit just lying around, so I decided to bring it back into service by wearing a full layer of clothes underneath (to mimic the fire retardant underwear I wear in real life), the suite itself, a pair of karting gloves I got for Christmas and ideally, my original racing shoes (of which I keep forgetting to get out of my RV).
Did it work? Yes, I think but definitely did not hurt.
I think so on a couple levels, first – I was definitely warmer and built up an actual sweat. Not like the sweats I’ve built up in actual iRacing races but enough to know my body is working to stay cool. I can’t say that I felt more or less in the zone but it sure as heck didn’t hurt.
I also decided to strap on the Next Level Racing 4-point harness that came with cockpit and while I don’t love it, the other day I was moving my car on our new property with no seat belt on, and that felt weird. So I can definitely tell when I don’t have a harness on and by putting it on, that is one less variable that might crawl into my brain as I’m driving.
This year the harnesses in my BMW PRO3 car expired, and a new set of Schroth harnesses were installed, so there is a used set that I will eventually install on the rig, along with some metal mounting bars and plates so that it feels the same as in the car and I actually have an old Sparco seat, that I used before getting this cockpit. I am not a huge guy, so it feels like I am not as secure as I am in my racing seat.
Two steps forward: Another .5 second drop!
So how did the actual driving go? My goal was to keep doing the same things I learned in Day 3 and be able to hammer out regular 1:21.xxx lap times, versus the regular 1:22.xxx times I had on Day 2.
Success! Literally, on the first flying lap, I was able to get back near my personal best and then I improved it again, dropping to a 1:20.628, another almost .6 second improvement. HOLY CRAP!!
Another big improvement and only the last lap was a ‘dirty’ lap, where I crashed. 🙁
I didn’t do anything really different, I just decided to apply that technique of braking sooner, lighter and rolling more speed into the corners to all the corners. Here’s where the gains were made:
See the highlighted areas to understand the story.
Look – no brakes! The first thing is that the s-curves, I found a way to get the car pointed on the downhill section of ‘The Esses’. Huge gain there.
Less brake, the line? I am actually not sure what happened in the chicane there but I think it might be a combination of just ever so slightly less brakes, more steering input to get the car turned and going. Thoughts?
One step backward: Consistency at the limit
That’s awesome but I took a break after that stint from the excitement, recollected my thoughts and went again to try and just replicate this new 1:20.xxx lap times but it didn’t happen. I was making mistakes all over the place and the worst section was Turn 3. As I was carrying more speed out of turn 1, through 2, I wasn’t getting the car straightened before braking and that caused it to either get sideways at the top of the hill or even worse, to cut the corner too hard on turn 3, which would upset the car horribly.
Ugh… 6 of 7 laps were dirty and a crash. That’s not good or cheap. Glad I’m in the virtual world.
I tried multiple times and just felt myself getting frustrated, so I decided to call it a day as my hour was up. Tomorrow’s goal? Come in with a cool head, focused and not looking for more time, just a solid run of high 1:20.xxx and low 1:21.xxx lap times.
The corner that leads to the longest straight away. Why? Because any speed lost coming out of that corner, is magnified by the length and amount of time you spend accelerating or at top speed.
The scariest corner or section of the track. Why? It’s scary. 🙂 If it is scary, than there is a higher probability that most sane people will want to check up and give themselves some room and time to correct for mistakes (and not crash). If you can be less scared or ignore your bodies natural urges to be physically safe and/or alive, you can have an edge! Easy, right?
Sector 6 is not particularly scary and has plenty of run-off AND we’re in the virtual world, so there is less of a fear for life. This is a plain, #1 scenario – it is a long straight away, so don’t screw it up or you’ll pay.
A track map of Road Atlanta, in Braselton, GA
The approach I took
Most of my preparations for this change were mental as I didn’t drive much on Sunday. In fact, we lost track of time in the AM and missed church. 🙁 So I just realized that in my braking for Turn 6, according to the Virtual Racing School data trace, I was using near 100% of the braking force, when I actually needed to brake more like 50% and trail the braking in longer and a similar situation on Turn 7.
Look at the differences in the brake pressure used. I am the red dotted line. Good-ness!
So I visualized applying the brake more gently, and holding it longer, anticipating the rear end to come around and being able to get on the throttle. I visualized the same for Turn 7 and long behold – literally, on the very first flying lap, made it work! ON THE VERY FIRST LAP! Unfortunately it was a dirty lap because I dropped a tire elsewhere. iRacing is pretty strict in terms of clean versus dirty laps. Even dropping one tire can have a lap not count or worse, count against you in a race. I’m glad that officials in real world racing aren’t as strict.
A little too excited. Change the setup and carry on.
I’ll admit – I got a little excited and screwed some laps because of how I excited I was at the progress and then realized I hadn’t even changed the setup on the car to the same setup from the reference lap on VRS. So I took a break to collect myself and load the setup. In doing this, I realized I didn’t know how to do this. I was able to easily download the setup file (.sto) but I had no idea how to load it.
After taking a few breaths to chill out, I got back out on track and proceeded to hammer out a string of 1:21.xxx laps and one point even having a 1:20.8xx lap going. I screwed it up by over-slowing for the chicane but I felt like ‘I got it’ and there’s still room for improvement. My new fastest lap time is 1:21.382, almost one whole second faster than the day prior.
New fastest lap time! 1:21.382 and room to grow!
Tomorrow – more of the same.
My goal tomorrow and possibly the next day is to be able to make this new way of driving the norm. I am going to try to do 30 minutes or more of 1:21.xxx lap times. If I can be within .5 seconds of that fastest lap time, consistently – I will feel confident that I’ve adopted these learnings and then can transition to another segment of the track. I love data (and video)!
Well a pre-goal, was to actually drive. The changes I made (stopping OneDrive from syncing, installing the latest updates so they weren’t downloading in the background and not having a video uploading on another device) all resulted in no performance issues at all. Yay!
The real goal: Drive like I do in real life – putting down a string of consecutive and consistent laps. I’ve found in the past in iRacing that I go off A LOT more than I do in real-life, usually having multiple incidents with walls in a given practice session. That’s not what happens in real life and while I am not driving anywhere near the same car, I believe I should be able to drive in the virtual world as I do in the real world; safe, consistent and somewhat fast. 🙂
After a day more focused on setup and updates on the machine, my goal was just to put down a true initial baseline of what I can do in the Mercedes AMG GT3 and Road Atlanta. Ideally, I wanted to drive the entire 60 minutes without an issue but I was only able to make it just past 30 minutes with no crashes. The good news was that I improved my personal best AND I put down several laps within .5 of my personal best, clicking off a consistent string of 1:22.xxx lap times and while trying different things.
I wanted to use this baseline of data to be confident in what I could do when analyzing the data with Virtual Racing School data packs.
22 laps without crashing! Not bad for not driving as much as I wanted to the past 6 months.
Lessons Learned
Pareto lives! I am down 2.197 seconds from my reference lap and one segment alone accounts 0.809 seconds, almost half of the lap time. Two segments (4 and 7) account for almost half of the delta.
By default, in testing, a car starts with a full fuel load – in the Mercedes AMG GT3, it was 30 gallons. The car in the reference lap was running with about 10 gallons and 9 gallons in the lap I am using for reference. That is a ~15 gallon and 90 lbs. difference. THAT IS HUGE – though, I still have much more work to do aside from losing car weight.
The data exposes all – the major theme of comparing the two laps is clear. I am braking too hard for the most of the significant turns where I am losing time and then getting on throttle sooner and harder than my rabbit.
I need brake slightly sooner, lighter and carry more speed through the corner and this will require coming on throttle softer.
This is consistent with what I’ve seen in real-life, comparing my data with a super fast driver like Olivier.
One thing I am going to work until I can get it
Segment 6, which includes turns 6 and 7. Brake sooner, lighter, carry more speed in, know that mid-corner will be not as planted and I will have to be more gentle with throttle application on corner exit, because I’ll be carrying more speed. The goal is still to get to throttle as fast as I can but I’ll be more at the limit.
Alright, so after getting all the updates installed, it was time to drive for the first time on this 30 day challenge.
Three, two…. [FREEZE] …one, go!
Well, it didn’t get off to a great start. Almost immediately as I loaded up the Mercedes AMG GT3 and Road Atlanta, I noticed that it took a long time for the server to connect and the actual sim environment to load. Alright, no worries – it’s early for me too, maybe the internet needs some coffee.
Once I got into the car and started heading out, within the first 30 seconds of a lap, I got a freeze/stuttering experience but the car would come back and I could keep going. Ok, that sucks but let’s stay focused and keep going.
But then it happened again, and again, and again. Time for evasive actions.
Step 1: Check video quality settings
I remember at one point last month, a big Windows update wiped out my settings and driver stuff for the NVIDIA graphics card and in my attempt to fix stuff, I made a bunch of changes in the iRacing graphics settings. So I reset them all to somewhat default settings, while still allowing for three monitors.
Went back to racing and… still had issues. No perceived change. Frustration level: 4
Step 2: Check background processes and other things that could be using up the internet connection
I shut down iRacing and checked out what other processes were happening that might be using internet bandwidth:
OneDrive – it was syncing 9GB of stuff, of which I should just not sync anything on this computer since I only use it for iRacing. Sigh.
Other browser windows – there were a couple other browser windows, like Virtual Racing School, so I closed those down.
Steam console – it was connected and I tried to close it but it kept popping back up. 🙁
Result? A somewhat perceivable difference so I decided to keep going and just get as much seat time in as I had already burned through 40 minutes of my hour.
Result: Limited quality track time
This was really frustrating. I got about 6 or 7 clean laps and most were ruined by the stuttering. My son was awake and I decided to figure it out later and at least see if my data was being logged by the Virtual Racing School system and while the lap times sucked, at least that worked.
Aha! Found the culprit!
Just as I was about to get out of the sim rig, I decided to search on the web for other people who have had this issue. Pages were loading slowly but loading and then suddenly, everything stopped loading. WTF? Did my internet go down? Checked networked status and no, packets are still being sent and received. I was about to get up to reset the router and modem when I looked over and saw my phone that I had used to record the part 1 of this day 1 video blog and it was uploading the HD video to YouTube.
I paused the upload, turned off the WiFi on the phone and looked at the PC. Suddenly, the pages were loading again. Then literally a few seconds later, I see a pop up from Windows that it was getting ready to install the Windows 10 Creators Update. Great. So two big upload and downloads were essentially eating up the internet connection.
Lesson learned? Make sure your internet connection is clear and prioritized for your iRacing. Having someone else uploading something, streaming a movie, having a Skype video chat, will not do you any favors.
I’ve seen several articles on taking on a new thing by doing that thing for 30 days in a row, such as running a marathon (30 marathons in 30 days), stretching 10 minutes a day for thirty days, meditating, doing 15 burpees per day for thirty days and so on.
Why?
Usually it’s help start a new habit, kick a habit or accelerate development in something. No difference here, I’m doing this to get faster and have fun!
The goal: 1 hour of racing per day, everyday, for 30 days.
While I wish I could race a real, physical race car each day, I don’t have that kind of scratch or logistics setup but I do have a pretty sweet sim racing setup and iRacing.
So everyday, usually in the early AM’s, I’m going to practice and/or race on iRacing. Through the next 30 days, I’ll also have at least 2 full race weekends where I’ll be racing in the real world. So for those days, I won’t be on the simulator but instead on a race track, in my race car! Yeah!
What do I expect to happen?
I’m not exactly sure but I am at least hoping to get noticeably faster in the virtual world, hammer out details on my sim setup and be better at learning to get fast.
To stay focused and reduce variables, I am going to focus on just one car and one track. The Mercedes AMG GT3 and Road Atlanta. Why? Having a rabbit to chase. I’m a huge believer and advocate in the power of data + video.
Literally thousands of virtual laps of this track but have yet to actually drive it.
Here is a good review of the car, right before it was released by the crew at Inside Sim Racing.
There is a new service that recently launched, Virtual Racing School, and while I’m new to it also, I am in love with the premise and potential of what they are doing. With a simple download and activation, VRS logs all of your iRacing data and video and saves it to your profile. No downloading, uploading or anything to deal with. Just install, activate, drive and you’re all set.
As part of the service, they also have data packs for certain cars and track combinations and even setups, that you can automatically use as a reference point to work towards. This is massive! Having someone else who is much faster than you, in the same car, same track and similar conditions is one of the best ways to learn and learn fast.
Getting ready
So I decided to start the journey, one day ahead and get my day 1 as smooth as possible. I booted up my computer, installed updates to Windows, iRacing and NVIDIA. My goal was to be able to simply wake up the next morning, do my morning routine and be up and running, in a race car within 15 minutes of getting out of bed.
I’ll create a post later on with the details on my current sim setup, so you all can get the full details then but at a high level, here is the setup:
Custom built PC – my first.
About a decent level up from minimum specs to be able to handle Oculus virtual reality.
Intel i5 processor (can’t remember the exact model)
Logitech 5.1 surround system but I can only get 2.1 to work. 🙁
3 AOC 24″ Monitors – got them on Best Buy on sale. They’re pretty good but the back sucks for mounting them to a triple monitor stand. More on that in a separate post.
So, while I technically have a motion simulator and I have an Oculus and have used them for iRacing, I will most likely not use them very often over these 30 days. Main reason: we live in a tiny apartment and I’ll be doing most of my daily racing in the early AM, while my wife and 2 year are asleep, 15 and 40 feet away, respectively. The motion simulator isn’t super loud but it makes noise and my wife has complained about it before.
The Oculus is AWESOME but I sweat easily and have found that when I’ve worn it for 20 minutes plus of intense driving, I sweat pretty bad and the lenses start fogging up. So I’ll be using the triple monitors and headphones, without motion.
What: The decade long story of me trying to build a track car
If I knew then, what I know now: I would do the same damn thing
Product to check out: Strait jacket. No seriously, like for the crazies. But try to get a fire-resistant one so you can wear it on the track!
My first cool car – 1993 BMW 325i
One of the things we would like to share are some of the projects that we are working on during our own free time. I will share the tale of my track car that I am building. It starts many years ago, and actually involves several cars at this point. The story goes! In 2004, I bought a 1993 325i from a nice couple and started driving it. I was always a car guy, and was one year graduated from high school and really wanted a “cool” car. This is what I ended up with. I loved that car and drove it everywhere I could!
Cool car… ENGAGED!
As the years go past, I became more of a race participant, than a fan. I started working at the track on the weekends helping people with their race cars and stuff. At the same time, I also started getting into driving as a sport more. My BMW was the perfect delivery device for an entrance into motor sports. It was a good solid car, had good power, great brakes and handling. I started to modify it for auto-cross, then eventually took the next step and started to prep it for track days. I did a few track school days and got really hooked. From then on, I was building a race car!
Transitioning from a ‘street’ car to a ‘race’ car
I stripped most of the interior out of the car to save the weight, also removing the sound deadening at the same time (which was a BIG job!). I got a fixed back racing seat, and a roll bar, some harnesses. I made it loud. Put a performance clutch and flywheel in it. Installed a shorter differential, got bigger brakes for it. And was still driving the car everyday. It was fun, but loud and uncomfortable. I loved it. I drove over 100k miles in that car while I had it, but ultimately had to sell the car just short of it being a full race car due to a crash I had while driving a fellow racers car (that will be a story for a different day!).
I made it loud. Put a performance clutch and flywheel in it. Installed a shorter differential, got bigger brakes for it. And was still driving the car everyday. It was fun, but loud and uncomfortable. I loved it.
We had gotten into Chump Car racing and had helped some people on a few events and as a result, had earned a chance to drive the car for a 36 hour race in Spokane in 2013. I had never driven at Spokane before, and was a little nervous, but was feeling OK because we were racing the same car that I drive all of the time, an E36. I was racing hard with the front runners during the race when I lost track of my internal map, and made a poor move to pass that landed me on the dirt. I lost it, and the car was wrecked. Then I had to pay for it.
Going racing always carries risk
I ended up selling my beloved 325 to a very close friend of mine. He was a fellow racer, and had been looking for a chassis to do his own build on. My car was a prime choice for him to use, and we struck a deal. I was able to recover and pay for the car I crashed by selling my race car. That was a hard lesson, but a very valuable one! I learned that your track car, can be gone in 2 seconds and there may be very little you can do about it! It took a little bit of time for me to start thinking about my 325 after selling it. But as time past, I missed it more and more.
Three years after the crash, I was able to get back into a race car again, and felt very good when doing it. I then went on the hunt for a new track car. I found a 1994 325 that had some decent prep done by a nice couple that was going to turn it into a rally car. I found it on Craigslist after they just ended up going out and finding themselves a finished Volvo rallycar to use. I bought the car, and it felt like home! I Started getting it ready to track with and found a couple of good deals online for some good used race bits. The game was on.
Getting goldie all hooked up!
There were a few things it had been prepped better and that I had not done yet on my previous 325, but was not nearly as far a long in other areas. I started to chip away at a to-do list and now it is starting to shape up nicely! This is where the story starts to get interesting. In an attempted to get the new 325 spec’d out like the old one. I struck up conversation with my friend who had bought mine before. He had not really done much with the chassis, and was maybe thinking about getting rid of the car to do something else. We talked about it a few times over the next couple of months, and eventually came to a deal for me to buy the car back from him! The idea is to get a lot of the cool or good stuff I had before swapped over to this new car since it was much more complete at this time.
The new car sitting all nice and clean!
Two become one
As of today, I have the two cars in the shop currently becoming one! It has been a very long process, but I am very excited to have gone full circle and have a car to use for track days and racing that I will be proud of. I like the idea of building one over buying a car. You have the chance to spend way more money doing so, but by building the car yourself, it is bespoke, and custom fit for YOU. That is what I find so great about it. The car is my version of what I think is a good way to hit the track! There is no right or wrong way, but the more miles you log, the more you will know what you want to do and do not want when you are out there! I will share more as further stages of build happen! I would say that this car is my “baby” but it will never be treated like a baby. It will be used, hard, but well cared for. This is my racing appliance! Thanks for letting me share some about my track car build, and always remember to have fun!
What: First sprint race weekend of the year, shaking down the car with new upgrades, testing and experiencing the highs and lows of racing.
If I knew then, what I know now:
Make no assumptions on communication! Make sure everyone on your team knows exactly what is happening and when. We lost a day to shake down the car and found an obscure issue with the new transmission resulting in more lost track time on Saturday.
Make sure you know what kind of qualifying is happening, open session or pressure style and adjust tire pressures accordingly.
Plan where you want to be on pre-grid for open session qualifying wisely so that you can benefit from drafting other cars in class and even faster cars.
As I mentioned the 6 Hours on the Ridge post, I primarily race with ICSCC, which is a sprint race focused sanctioning body. Aside from the endurance races that bookend the start and end of the season, each race weekend is made up of the following elements (for the most part):
Friday test and tune – usually for race cars only but sometimes includes High Performance Driver Education (HPDE drivers).
Saturday – Practice, qualifying, non-points races and a 1 hour endurance race.
Sunday – Final qualifying and points races
Here is a picture of the announcement for the race weekend of which if you do a couple of groups, that is plenty of track time. This weekend and for the full year, I did Group 1 (the main group for the PRO3 annual championship) and the Mini-Enduro.
The schedule for the first sprint race of the season. I’m in Group 1.
Shaking down a refreshed car
Initially I was supposed to get the #209 Track Attack PRO3 car back from Advanced Auto Fabrications at the 6 hour race but when they were doing final checks on it, they found that the newly rebuilt transmission wouldn’t go into third gear. So we decided to have that fixed and bring it down for this weekend, where I would shake the car down and ‘take delivery’ from all the repairs and upgrades they did.
What I did not make explicitly clear was that I expected AAF and crew to be there on Friday, which they would do more often than not, but not always. I even checked in the Monday prior to make sure all was on schedule but I did not explicitly ask about Friday.
Big mistake because when we drove down on Thursday night, so we could be all unloaded and ready to drive on Friday AM, the gigantic black AAF hauler was nowhere to be seen. AAF and crew decided to skip the test and tune due to the limited amount of track time and forecasted rain in the morning. They’re not scared of rain, just that if it isn’t supposed to rain on Saturday or Sunday, the risk of damage is higher than the benefit.
Regardless, we made the most of the day by working on odds and ends in the RV, spend some quality time with the family, caught up on work and chatted with folks up and down the paddock. The AAF crew showed up on Friday evening and by Saturday AM, was all set for the first on-track session.
As I got going in the morning practice run, it took me a few laps to get into the groove of things, remember the course and get up to speed. Initially letting several cars pass me but then quickly catching and passing them again. Lap times were solid, with nearly a .8 second improvement from the year prior. SWEET!
When we came off the track, a fellow PRO3 driver mentioned that they saw smoke coming out of the back of my car, a light smoke but consistent. We checked the car and sure enough, the rear and under body was coated with transmission oil. We were leaking somewhere from this newly rebuilt transmission that aside from this, seemed to be running great.
That is transmission oil – note that it is everywhere.
Over the next several hours, we went step by step, replacing the main rear transfer seal and then the shifter seal. We thought we had it addressed but after the non-points race, still had oil.
Long story short, it turns out that when the transmission was sent for a rebuild, they took my old transmission in as a core and sent back a different transmission, from an older model of the E30, which had a different kind of shift mount assembly. This assembly had two bolts that mounted to the top of the transmission, which served the purpose of securing the assembly and sealing two bolt holes into the transmission itself.
We don’t run the OEM shifter assembly, opting instead for the incredibly awesome CAE shifter assembly, which meant those holes were completely exposed and the source of the leak. This obscure situation had never come up with this crew of people who have been racing E30’s for over 10 years and built and rebuilt dozens of PRO3 cars.
We didn’t figure this out until Saturday early evening, after we opted to not run the 1 hour endurance race, to save the transmission (if it kept leaking) for the Group 1 qualifying and racing on Sunday. We felt the risk was too high to run low on transmission oil in the 1 hour and potentially damage the transmission itself.
In conclusion, lack of communication and shaking down the car resulted in a completely lost Friday of running and 1 hour of endurance racing. Sigh.
Qualifying
For the weekend, we had two qualifying sessions, one for the 1 hour endurance race and qualifying times for the Group 1 race.
1 Hour endurance race pressure qualy
Something unique to the Cascade Sports Car Club, which I love is pressure qualifying. One out lap, one flying lap and one in lap. Unfortunately, we did not realize this until we got to grid and didn’t adjust the tire pressures accordingly to compensate for the much fewer laps we’d run. At least everyone else was in the same boat. I love this type of qualifying because it eliminates the ‘draft’ variable – this is all on you as a driver, to make a fast lap happen there and then. Not relying on getting a draft from a faster car or following and learning from a faster driver. At a track like PIR, especially with no chicane on the front straight, a draft can make a HUGE difference, in the order of .25 seconds or more if you can get the right draft on the front and back straights.
Here is the video of my ME2 qualifying lap, which put me on pole for ME2 class but was a solid one second slower than my fastest laps in a regular qualifying session.
Group 1 qualy
Qualifying for Group 1 was spread across the fastest lap times in the Saturday non-points race and Sunday AM qualifying. The fastest time across those two sessions would count towards the final grid placement.
In the Saturday AM race, I qualified 4th with a mid-1:22 lap time and finished the race in 3rd. It was an excellent race, where I got a great start and was running in 2nd before turn 2 of the first lap. I tried to hitch myself to Brian Bercovitz, the eventual race winner but he got away and was stuck battling with Corey Peters for 2nd place. I ran in 2nd for about half of the race but I ended up going too hot into turn 1, went wide and that was enough of a mistake for Corey to capitalize. That meant Kyle Byers in the #55 PRO3 car was on my tail. We ended up battling pretty hard, exchanging some bumper paint but nothing serious – just good, solid, respectful, hard racing. He ended up getting a little sideways on the second bump he gave me and that was enough for me to pull away and finish in third, with a lap time of 1:22.274 and a new personal best.
Sprint non-points race results and qualifying 1 times
I would normally post the video here but I forgot to hit ‘record’ – I’ll try to get the videos from Corey and Kyle to share.
Sunday AM qualy brought out excellent conditions; dry, sunny and a cool breeze in the low 60’s. I got on the grid early and was the lead PRO3 car on track but after a few laps, I realized I was reproducing low 1:22 lap times while everyone else was running in a pack and getting help with drafts. So I came into the hot pits, checked tire pressures and waited for the right pack to come by and tail them.
I eventually got behind the pack with Corey Peters coming off of the back straight but he quickly picked up on my game and pulled off on the main straight away. No issues, there was still another couple of cars to get behind. On a decent flyer though, another driver, who I used for a draft and got by on turn 1 decided it was time to race and dove in to overtake in turn 7. Why?!?!?! What makes this more frustrating is that he then pulled off and slowed down that same lap, in the following straight away. I can’t confirm but I think he also picked up on what I was planning and decided to ruin my lap.
No issues again and finally, I saw Brian Bercovitz and got behind him for one last final flying lap. All looked good, with the predictive lap timer showing a 1:21.8xx for the first part of the lap but then I missed a downshift to third on the only left hand turn on the course. This ended up still producing a solid lap time but I ended up qualifying in 5th place, where as if I would have executed, I would have qualified third and possibly 2nd in class.
The Main Race
The goal was simple: get a solid start, make up a couple positions in the traffic and be in the top three by the end of lap 1. This would give me a fighting chance to get near the front and try to stick with Brian, who was on pole for our class. I found during qualifying that if I could get behind him, I was able to keep the gap nearly the same.
Below is the race video and note, it has no data overlay. The reason? I didn’t complete a single lap. I got a solid start and wedged myself in a position to go after 2nd, 3rd and possibly first by turn 7. Unfortunately, up ahead, a Spec E46 car went off to the left and tried to get themselves back on the track without waiting for the pack to go by (my opinion). When his front tires, who were turned to the right, hooked up on the track surface, they gripped and shot him across the track and into the on-coming pack of angry PRO3 cars.
I saw it happening, moved to the right but still got a glancing blow on the rear quarter panel. Initially I thought all was well because it didn’t really knock me anywhere but as soon as we hit turn 7 (right hand turn leading to the back straight), I saw and heard heavy tire rub and then the cabin was engulfed in tire smoke. I went into the hot pits, got checked for fire but the damage was too much. We could have swapped tires and rolled the fender in the hot-pit but we would have gone a couple laps down and I didn’t think it was worth it and called it a day.
Conclusion
It was a tough way to start the sprint season but when you sign up to go racing, this is a potential outcome that can happen any weekend. I take 100% accountability for what happened and don’t blame the Spec E46 driver in any way. All things considered, had a great time with friends and family, personal best lap times, fixed teething issues on the car and was still able to take it home, running and with some cosmetic repairs needed before the next race. There were three other cars involved in the incident and they would take my place in an instant as their cars did not fair as well.
Damaged driver side quarter panel and hard rubbing on tire.The guys using a jack bar to roll the fender so the tire could clear.
What: Motorsports is exactly that, a sport that revolves around motors. It is a sport, thus health and fitness is important. Road racing works your heart (and lungs) like if you were running a marathon. A healthy heart is critical!
If I knew then, what I know now: Have a healthy mix of aerobic, anaerobic and strength training to your work out program. Too much of anything is not good. I’ll cover this in a separate post.
Bodyglide Anti-Chafe Balm – nipple chafing and bleeding is real and no joke. Depending on the shirt I am wearing, if I am running more than 4 miles, it’s required.
Foundational truths
Before we dive into what should be done, let’s all get on the same page about what happens when you’re driving and especially when you’re competing.
Your heart is important: This is not a question or an opinion. It is important for you to not only live but to handle stressful situations. While most of us enjoy putting a car, motorcycle, kart or boat through it’s paces, the fact that your heart rate goes up, means that it is a stressful situation, where your body and heart (and lungs) specifically, work harder.
Oh yeah, the lungs: The lungs are the things that bring oxygen into the bloodstream, of which then the heart pumps all that good, nutrient and oxygen rich goodness all over the body. Then the various body parts use that goodness to power themselves, such as the brain, eyes, muscles, literally everything in your body.
Maximum Heart Rate (MHR)
Per above, as we get older, this goes down. See below and find your age.
Find your age and see what the estimated ranges are for you.
I am currently 33 (less than a month from 34) and what this says is that my maximum heart rate is around 185 Beats Per Minute (bpm). If I were to get my heart going above that OR near that level for too long, I’d probably end up in a hospital unless I explicitly trained my heart for those situations.
It’s been documented in several articles, studies and my own personal data collection (below) that for a racing car driver, the heart rate can range from 120 – 160bpm, throughout a race.
Below is an example from a race, in August this past summer as I was wearing an Apple Watch and collected heart rate data (note – I did not start a workout session and thus why it didn’t collect data every 1 second). Note that you can see when I started doing warm up exercises before getting into the car and my heart rate picking up as we got into the thick of the race. If I remember correctly, the race started ~4:35pm and was a 1-hour race.
Heart Rate data from my Apple Watch during a 1-hour endurance race.
Update: When I was originally writing this post, I looked everywhere for this screenshot below. This was taken using a Fitbit Surge, during a day of three races and near 100 degree heat. That is some serious heat, sweat and elevated heart rate. Racing is no joke!
Heart rate logs from one day of intense racing in nearly 100F.
Now, here is a screenshot from a 4+ mile run I did recently as well at a ~9:00 minute mile pace. Not super fast but not a slouch by most measures.
August 2017 ~6 mile run using Endomondo and a Polar Heart Rate monitor
What does this tell us? Driving at even 7/10’s in a track day or racing session for ~20 minutes is the equivalent, cardiovascularly, as going for a relatively intense run. So you are sitting in a hot race car, covered head to toe with fire-resistant material and your heart and lungs are working like if you were running a half-marathon.
Ok, healthy heart and lungs are important, but why again?
Like everything else on this site, it’s about helping you be a better driver. A driver who makes good decisions, usually, ends up being a faster and more consistent driver than someone who doesn’t make good decisions. Several things can lead to someone making bad decisions behind the wheel (on-track that is):
Being nervous or confused (which usually elevates the heart rate)
Being scared (which usually elevates the heart rate)
Being angry aka the red mist! (also elevates the heart rate)
Being tired (I won’t repeat again)
It gets more difficult to make good decisions, quickly, when you are tired, sweaty and out of breath. So the goal here is to condition your heart and lungs in a way, that you’re comfortable being in the stamina & endurance zones, and can make good decisions.
I personally felt like my overall athletic and aerobic endurance was and is a competitive advantage in most races, as I felt just as fresh at the start of a race, as I did at the beginning. Start strong and finish just as strong! This was even more pronounced on the 1 hour or longer races and especially when it was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
What should you do?
Disclaimer: We are not doctors, nor play them on TV. Consider consulting your doctor before taking on a new exercise program.
We will cover other types of exercise for different benefits in future posts but for here, we will focus on cardio health. The goal is to do exercises, that have you for the most part, in the stamina & endurance zones. It’s ok to peak every once in a while into the conditioning zone or drop momentarily into the weigh loss zone.
Most of my driving sessions are 20 or 30 minutes and sometimes 60 minutes long. So I target conditioning myself to be able to easily handle 30 minutes by exercising for 45-60 minutes and having regular (about every other week) 60-75 minute workout sessions, usually 6+ mile runs. This is grounded in a theory from playing football and Taekwondo. Practice should be harder than the actual competition (most of the time) so that at least from a conditioning standpoint, the competition will be a relative breeze or you at least have plenty of reserves to go harder.
Here are some top exercises and plans to consider:
Running: It’s pretty much free. I found it the best to sign up for a race that forces you to build up to a goal, set a schedule and stick to it. Better yet, do a race with a friend or two, so you have support and accountability for when you’re too lazy to run in the rain.
Highly suggest downloading an app like Endomondo, Nike Run Club or MyRunKeeper. They all have some kind of functionality where you can state your goal (like run a 10k), the pace you want to have and when your race will be held. They come up with a personalized training program to build up your performance, you just run! Sometimes these are in premium memberships but you can easily find training plans online and just track them manually.
Here is the training plan I am using to run a half-marathon in September.
I’ve also used running on days while I am at the track to do track walks, after the track has gone cold for the day.
Cycling: One downside to running is the repetitive joint impact throughout the body, especially toes, ankles, knees, hips and back. Cycling is a great alternative to running for cardiovascular performance. I personally bought a used Bianchi road bike and over the past few years have used it off and on as an alternative to running.
Same plan though – whatever time you were planning to run, get on a bike in the gym or on a trail and cycle up a storm.
Swimming: Admittedly, I am the least experienced here as I rarely get in a pool but I know it is great for aerobic exercise, working the body overall, core development and joint relief. If you have access to a pool, get on it!
Conclusion
Cardiovascular health and performance are not just important to live but they can give you a significant performance edge in driving. There is a reason you see several top professional drivers all over the world, also spend significant amounts of time doing the exercises above and in examples like Jenson Button, competing in Iron Man and Triathlon competitions.
Consider regular cardiovascular exercise to be part of keeping yourself healthier and it has a big potential upside to your driving.
