Mental Focus
 

I have too many things going on in my head out there on the track, I hold my breath in corners, pant like a dog on the straights, and I'm a general cluster of circles.

What do you do to get your head right before you go on the track and how do you focus and maintain a relaxed state of mind on the track?

drugz

For me, it's all about the beginning. Before you go out to the hot track, close your eyes, and breathe out slowly. You know what to do, and how to do it. So just do it.

I'm not familiar with what track you run, but if it has any straights, use them to you advantage. Keep the pedal down, and try to organize yourself. Check the gauges, adjust your junk, and get ready for the next section.

Music and deep breathing exercises, not kidding. Forget about the competition, take a good friend/gf/bf/m4m CL swinger to the track and just have fun with it. In school people tend to be good at the things they like, if you stop enjoying racing then you will not be as good at it. I'd also take a brake from it for a while and relax. Stresses off the track are also probably contributing to your woes.

Just relax and dont worry, Im not kidding when I say that Ive fallen asleep before on grid. shows you how relaxed one can get.

There was a day, years ago, when driving the car was relaxing and offered a chance to "check out" for a little while. I want to get back there. I managed to get within 5 seconds of SM record back when I had 185mm Azenis, 84whp, and GC/Bilsteins. I didn't look at the gauges mid-corner, didn't worry about the wheels falling off, it was bliss. I need to figure out how I'm going to get back there. Every time I've looked at that water temp gauge, oil temp gauge, AFR gauge, oil pressure gauge, and whatever else, everything has been fine. Time to stop pretending it won't be.

Daily the green supercar, sell other miata, buy super cheap NA6, cut ---- off to make it lighter, add stuff to make it stronger, cage it, make it like your racecar was. Have fun.


Is there any problem I can not solve?

No.

The only racecar I'm getting into has an iron V8 and single-port injection.

I never had a racecar, that was my green car before I changed it up.

skype me, I'll help you relax

Get rid of all your gauges. It's not possible to constantly check them and stress out if they're not there. Keep all the sensors in place, but hook them up to an ECU/datalogger that has the ability to just give you a warning light when something goes outside of the ranges you set. All you need on the dash is a tach (or just a shift light), a bigass warning light, and maybe a lap timer.

My version deals in drag racing.
I feel the adrenaline when my staging lane starts to advance. Once I get up to the light, I'm calm and it's like nothing exists. When I trigger the pre stage lights and I'm waiting for the other guy to hit his...I'm all business. Everything happens so fast, I don't really pay attention to anything but the track and my tachometer. It's over before I know it. Then I pick up my timeslip and review my datalog/ make minor adjustments, and do it all over again.

What's your racecar? What are you doing with the green car? I'm guessing there is a thread I failed to read.

Back in high school I used to puke before every match due to nerves and then would over think everything and freak out during a match. Eventually, training and instinct kicked in and I started to just wrestle. I no longer thought about all the what ifs or about who was watching and just did it. I basically found the zone. You have the skills, you have the passion, go back to your basics and trust your instincts. Once you get back in the zone, your mind should be clear and non essential things are just not there. That's the definition of "the zone" to me. A place where things are clicking, muscle memory is happening, and I'm just along for the ass kicking.

Try shifting way early, like 5000rpm. It'll ease your mind about the car and focus on driving. I did this at ORP when I was learning so I could focus on a new track and my line. Don't push braking points either, you might find some time by letting the car settle after braking and before turning.

Carol Smith has a bunch of recommendations about this in either Engineer to Win or Tune to Win, but the simplest solution is to remove the things that you obsess about. If your old lady hassles you at the track, don't bring her, and make sure she knows that calling for anything but an actual emergency is grounds for a beating she won't soon forget (but remind her that it hurts you worse than it hurts her). If the car worries you, stop working on it yourself. If you can't afford to pay someone to keep it healthy, and still run as many days as you want, then dial it back to a point where you don't have to do anything but check the oil and turn the key every weekend. As far as stressing about going faster, don't look at your lap times until the end of the weekend. At the absolute least, wait until the end of your session, and just go back and watch the video. Yell notes to the camera or make hand signals on the straights to keep track of what you're doing. My point is that if you add complication (more data, more time spent obsessing about it, heart monitor, Pusha whining in your ear between sessions about how hot it is in the trailer and how his perm is going flat) you're not going to be all Comfort Eagle, and NOT being Comfort Eagle apparently hasn't worked very well so far.


Once upon a time I either read or was told about how The Army of Darkness (legendary WERA endurance team) made a decade long string of championships out of enforcing a total goosfraba environment in their pits. They brought masseuses to the track with them. They built the bikes to be indestructible, and never worried about them. They Bro'd out all weekend. The racing was fun, and the championships flowed. I'm sure it didn't happen overnight, but they learned to remove everything that distracted them from enjoying themselves.

"Inner Speed Secrets" is a good book to read if you haven't already. Usually if I get to grid early enough that I can get all my crap turned on and belted in with time to spare, I spend the rest of the time visualizing what I'm going to do on track. If I start to lose focus on track, it helps me to talk myself around the track out loud (i.e., "brake now, downshift to 3rd, turn in, roll off brakes...."). A lap or so of doing that constantly gets me back into subconscious driving mode.

But I'm still a nub, so what do I know...:noob:

I go and have fun. It relaxes me and helps me to kick it up a notch. Reading the track and watching gauges and enjoying it keeps me too busy to worry about other things.

^This, this is what I'm doing personally.

Dump everything you can onto the ECU/computer/etc., and just focus on what you went out there to do.

+1 on inner speed secrets. Great series.

All about grid for me, focus, breath, relax and drive a few perfect laps in your head. In inner speed secrets they talk about creating a mental trigger, when you perform this action you know its game time. For me in my old car it was when I held down the button to turn off all the electronic nannys it flashed on the dash "esc off" and from that point on nothing else mattered, you go into your zone.

Maybe you need to dig deeper into what causes this? Fear of mechanical failure, or fear of not performing your best or messing up?

I think "fear of something happening that requires more money." This could be a mechanical failure or wrecking the car, I feel powerless to reliability problems that have never really happened in the last 3-years.

This song ALWAYS loosened me up before an autocross run.



If your freighting about finances every time you hit the track, maybe you should hold off on racing. Its just a part of the game.

I say a prayer while on the grid, before almost every session. I stretch before I get in the car and after I'm all strapped in. Also some breathing exercises while on the grid.

I don't own the cars I race so I am lucky to not have to worry about having to pay for broken sh*t. When I was tracking my own turbo miata, for some reason I was never really concerned about breaking stuff / wrecking / having to replace expensive stuff.

Exactly what I was about to post. I just go out there with the mindset that I am here to have fun first and foremost.

Have fun
Drive safe
and learn something new

the 3 objects of any HPDE driver.

Don't watch the gauges with the expectation that everything will blow up. If anything write yourself a "comfort" checklist. take it with and check it in the morning (oil, coolant, tire pressure, lug nuts, and whatever else you tend to worry about). hopefully knowing that your car won't just explode and kill you or lose a tire and spin into a wall at 100 mph should be comforting enough to allow you to drive.

Lastly, If I drove my car into a wall, I would shed a tear on the spot and never look back. If you can't walk away from it, then don't race it.

BTW, even the new guys say you worry too much:

Transcendental Meditation

I get nervous before a race, but once the flag drops, nothing can break my concentration. I don't give a ---- about anything other than me and the car/kart on track, and people driving in front and behind me. I drive best with my mouth open, and I'll catch myself becoming very cotton mouthed after a few laps and remind myself to salivate.

Lapping for extended periods of time, however, can have me thinking about what I'm having for dinner, who I'm ------- that night, is she pregnate? etc. then I'm off in the weeds.

Hustler, you need a warcry.

"stop being a -----"

Love,

Curly's girlfriend

I'm just the opposite, in my daily life my mind is constantly going, work problems, house and car projects, bills. But, then I get on track and the only thing on my mind is the next braking and turn in points and wondering if I can carry more speed through the next corner this time ect?

So, I ask you this: why do you do it if it worries you like that?

There should be only 2 distractions:

#1: I can't afford to wreck this car.
#2: If I wreck, I'm gonna get hurt bad.

Solutions:
#1: Race a car that you can afford to load onto flatbed, take to junkyard, and sell for scrap if wrecked.
#2: Cage/seats/restraints/fuel-cel/halon/suit-helmet-gloves-shoes.

If your car is disposable and you know you'll live through just about any wreck, that's where the fun begins.

Also, if everybody else on the track with their DD Evo's and M3's knows you could give a ---- less about getting hit, you'll get waved by a lot more.

That last line is some funny $hit

:bowrofl:

This, seriously.

Like I said, get a cheap ---- 1.6, cage it, do other stuff and have fun.

---- that, he needs to man up and drive the ---- out of the green car. The whole point of it was to track it, he can't just puss out and be like "I like my car too much". ---- you, this forum is depending on you to represent turbo miatas with a fury.

I certainly have more worries about scratching the paint on my car than it puking rods out the bottom end... :jerkit: honestly though - if I worried about the paint, I wouldn't be driving it like I do.
My respect/fear of speed comes from screaming down the back straight with a novice student at Road Atlanta at 150 (and I was holding him back for my sake) in an uncaged 911S with nothing but the OEM 3pt lap belt with no Hanz - and all that concrete.
If I get hurt and can't work for 3 months - I'm screwed financially/business wise, which has reprocutions when providing for a family of 5. So yeah, I'm on edge until I loosen up and get into the groove. I don't worry about the car as it can be easily replaced... but at 40, my health is more important than it was when I was in my 20's, single, and no kids...
My relaxation 'attempts' is like Efini - say a quick prayer, take nice steady breaths, and creep into the power once the tires are nice and warm.
If I ever get to w2w, I'll certainly have a disability insurance policy 'incase' I get fubar'd... hell, I need it now, but broke - so....

For some reason I've identified more with this post than the rest, and you and I could not be further apart in regard to family considerations.

Getting into the mental state before a race makes a huge difference for me. I always do the best when I can zone out and just focus on the driving.

I have a thing I do (this is going to sounds nuts) when I am under pressure or nervous. I use it both at work to get rid of stress or pressure and at the track. I picture myself as a machine. (I know. Nuts). When I’m in the car at line up before the race, I mentally “switch” to machine-mode. I close my eyes and tell myself that from now, until I pass the checkered, Machine-Torkel is driving. A machine has no feelings, no fear, no nervous butterflys in the belly, no buddies with cars you mustn’t bump, no bank account to take the hit if something breaks and so on. It just does its job. Naturally, for reasons one doesn’t need a doctors degree to figure out, the mental process is helped by sitting in a stripped out race car, covered with layer after layer of fireproof materials, helmet, shoes, gloves and a 6-point harness.

Works for me at least. Best of luck!

Sounds like you need to set up a living trust and god parents for your kitty cat. Maybe that'll set your mind at ease on the track.

The old truth of "if you can't afford crashing it, don't race it" is stressing you out.

Go 90% and have fun, when you trust the car, go faster.

I just get high off the RX-7s I'm gridded next to.

Getting rid of gauges is a big one, that's why I datalog and only glance at my tach during a race. The datalog gets played back after I'm finished.
I also listen to this song and get motivated...yes, I actually do.

Deep breathing when sitting on the grid, and visualization of laps while waiting to be released onto the track. That and a pelt of fur glued to the roof for rubbing, animal of your choosing.

Let go of everything except the sensory feedback from the car.

After talking to quite a few people on this, here a list of things I'm going to change and hopefully go faster next time:

• Let go of the wheel. I've been holding the wheel so tight that even when it was in the 50s and 60s a couple weeks ago at the track, I was pouring sweat as usual from gripping the wheel and gritting my teeth. I'm going to relax my grip and not lock my thumbs on the wheel, instead I'll hold it lightly which I'm trying to make a habit on the street. I'm going to drive with my palms and fingers, not my thumbs.
• I'm going to brake earlier to keep the car settled. I can go deep as hell on the brakes and trail brake pretty well, but I'm so far in sometimes that I'm afraid. I think this will help me with corner speed.
• I will only care about corner speed for most of the day.
• I will no longer force the car on the line and hold animosity in my heart over bumps. I'm going to take them in and take-in "the sensory feedback from the car."
• I'm going to write a note telling me to breathe and place it on the instrument cluster.

I've had my head wrong the entire time I've been doing this. I've been angry with every single corner on every track. I really feel like each corner is a jab or hook rather than like I'm surfing the car. I think changing my perspective might free up some time.

Sounds like you have thought things thru and have a plan. Good man. Let us know how it goes. Best of luck.

Sidenote: More people should take the time to analyze their behavior behind the wheel like you just did. I find it funny how some people are ready to spend heavy money on new stuff for the car (and still complaining about the car when it doesn't help) but not be willing to "waste" track time on methodical training.

I totally agree. People always say seat time is the best money spent. I agree with that if you're focusing on improving something the right way, and taking video with data. I haven't been gripping the steeringwheel properly, which is a symptom of the wrong state of mind.

I know this sounds totally dumb, but I'm driving my street car using my hands with more precision and no muscle behind it. The car is free-er and suddenly it has too much swaybar in the rear. I think I'm on to something.

I'm glad my idea made the list. Don't forget to shift early too, that'll help ease your mind too.

I have this weird habit, where i just relax my grip and tap my fingers on the steering wheel. watch at 12:00.

I'm telling you, fur on the inside of the hard top. They had that figured out back in the 70s.

Man or animal fur?

Curly female fur. I gathered mine from when I used to shoot porn back in the day. Those newbie chicks would show up with a chia pet between their legs and I would have to break out the clippers.

lol

Cover your body in vaseline under your race suit, and no underwear. Thats how you go fast.

^ interesting - that just might replace my Boudreaux's butt paste


You'll know when you're there...
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1329053672

And here you sit. Thinking. Well, Hustler is not a thinker. Hustler is a driver. He is a doer, and that's what you need to do. You don't need to think. You need to drive. You need speed. You need to go out there, and you need to rev your engine. You need to fire it up. You need to grab ahold of that line between speed and chaos, and you need to wrestle it to the ground like a demon cobra. And then, when the fear rises up in your belly, you use it. And you know that fear is powerful, because it has been there for billions of years. And it is good. And you use it. And you ride it; you ride it like a skeleton horse through the gates of hell, and then you win, Hustler. You WIN! And you don't win for anybody else. You win for you, you know why? Because a man takes what he wants. He takes it all. And you're a man, aren't you? Aren't you?

Some say that he carries around a demon cobra in his driving suit. And that Talladega Nights is actually his unauthorized biography. All we know is, he is called the Hustler.

lol

Blow Job?

Speaking of mental focus, the kink at CMP owns me. I'll get you next time kink, NEXT TIIIIME!

I've only tracked 2 wheels, and because of that, I have far fewer gauges. My biggest fear is a front brake problem, and the only time I even glance at the gauges is soely for the entertainment of checking my speed near the end of the straight. A lot of guys tape over their speedometer so that they don't mindfuck themselves (okay, if I had a fast bike, "205 mph" might freak me out a little bit as I'm quickly approaching the end of the straight), but it represents nothing more than a number to me.

Get rid of/cover the gauges, and get warning lights instead. You won't have to look at your gauges, and if there are any problems, the lights will prick you in the eyeballs. The only thing that catches my eye on the motorcycle is the fuel warning light. It just flashes steadily when the tank starts running low - I have to look down and out of my way to see the gauges, but when that fuel light starts flashing, I know it in a matter of seconds. The engine light is on the other side of the cluster - I've never seen it come on.

There's only one problem... you wouldn't trust warning lights, would you?

The kink at CMP is one of those things that should not be hard, but you make it far worse in your mind then it actually is. I know my car can take it at 100+mph fine, actually doing it is the problem.