Speed Secrets: How to Be a Better Driver

Identifying the opportunities is the key to improvement.

Here’s a dumb question: Have you ever known that you could improve something in your driving, but weren’t really able to identify it?

I say that’s a dumb question because I’ve never met a driver who hasn’t had a moment (or many!) like this.

That leads to the big question: How do I identify what I should be working on to improve my driving?

So, let’s pretend you’ve just come off the track after a practice session, you’re sitting down with a bottle of water and a track map (you have one of those, right?), and you’re reflecting on how you did. If you’re like most drivers, the first thing you do is look at your lap times, especially the fastest one, because that’s such an easy metric to use to rate how well you’ve done.

However, whether you’re a novice in HPDE or a seasoned race driver, lap times are just one tiny bit of the equation that tells us how well you performed. But if lap times are not the only metric to rate and dissect your driving, what else is there?

• Consistency of lap times

• How quickly you got to the fast lap times

• Data

• Video

• Observations from experts and non-experts

• Self-reflection ratings

Oh, how about heart rate? During a track session, if you were to match your best lap time, you were consistent, and your average heart rate throughout the session was lower, wouldn’t that indicate a better performance? Being as consistently fast as your best laps, but able to do that with less effort is a strong indicator that you’re a better driver. And it means that you’re ready to take another step up in your outright speed, as well as providing a glimpse into your mental bandwidth.

Yes, heart rate is an indicator of how hard you’re having to work to function at the level at which you’re performing. I once coached a driver who was wearing a heart rate monitor, with telemetry sending the numbers back to the pits where I was sitting. The squiggly lines on the screen in front of me were speed, throttle position, brake pressure, steering angle, gear, and heart rate. Within a session, the driver had trained me to focus as much, or more, on heart rate than anything else. It got to the point where I could predict whether the lap was going to be fast, faster or fastest simply by where his heart rate was. Too low and it would not be a fast lap; too high and it would not be a fast lap; but right in the middle of the window I recognized as being ideal for this driver and it was going to be his best lap.

Of course, the ideal heart rate is not the same for all drivers, but it sure has given me a great insight into a driver’s performance and capabilities.

Let me go back to the last indication on the list (self-reflection ratings) because these can be powerful ways of identifying areas where you can find opportunities for improvement. A simple 1 to 10 rating scale with the following is where I’d start:

• How focused did I stay throughout the session?

• How quickly did I regain my focus when needed?

• How appropriate was my initial braking application?

• How appropriate was the timing and rate of release of brakes?

• How smooth was my steering?

• How were my cornering lines?

• How well did I use all the track?

• How appropriate was my throttle application?

• How well did I use my vision?

• How close to the limits of my car and tires did I drive (for this session’s conditions)?

• How aware was I of other cars on track?

• How was my “passcraft” / racecraft (passcraft is similar to racecraft in wheel-to-wheel racing, but in a non-competitive track driving situation)—passing and being passed?

• How did I feel—how was my performance state of mind?

Ask yourself each of these questions, and write down a number between 1 and 10 that reflects how well you did—on average—throughout the track session you just finished.

This self-reflection process does two things:

1. First, it helps your awareness of what is important. Knowing that you’re going to rate yourself results in you actually performing in each of these areas better. It primes your mind, and then sits in the back of it, helping you to focus on what you need to focus on.

2. Second, when you look at your ratings, it points toward the areas where the best opportunities for improvement are.

If you keep a regular log of these ratings, over time you’re likely to see some trends, especially if you add notes about the weather and track conditions; how your car handled; the amount of sleep you had leading up to the event; what you ate throughout the day; and a general check-in on your state of mind coming into the event.

Almost magically, you will begin to focus in on what areas of your driving will lead to the most improvement. Of course, it’s not magic! It’s a process that will help you dissect your driving, and prime your mind for change and improvement.

Now that you’ve identified what to focus your improvement on, the next step is to use the best practice methods and approaches to make the improvements as efficiently as possible.

All of what I’ve shared here is a glimpse into a small part of what I’m going to cover in The Breakthrough Masterclass.