Driving Tips sponsored by Apex Pro

Sweat begins to drip into your eyes under your helmet, as you pull back into your paddock space and shut off your car. Immediately you begin to check over the car; it overheated slightly so you check the coolant level. That weird noise in slow speed right-hand corners also comes to mind. You’re still slightly concerned about your Porsche 911’s potential terminal IMS bearing issue, but you’re not that worried about it. Time to check out that noise now. You jack-up the left side of the car with your buddies’ bottle jack and some 2x4’s since you conveniently left your jack in the garage at home. After finding a loose sway bar end link, you tighten it back up, lower the car, and grab a bottle of water. Now it’s time to hop in with your Novice Student. The helmet goes back on, you grab your communicator, and you buckle up in your students over-powered, under sprung, non-caged street car to hit the track at break-neck (almost) interstate speeds. Somehow your student manages to drive very slowly, yet somewhat dangerously, trying their absolute hardest to learn the ways of the tracl. You work with them frantically to keep things on course, and help them to slow everything down.

“Your confidence is getting there,” you say to your student, “but I really need your initial brake input to be more firm! Good focus out there, but I want you to work on glancing in those mirrors more often.”

Does this sound familiar? You check your watch. Thirty minutes until the next session. Just enough time to catch your breath and hear about your paddock mates’ new endurance team they’re starting (None of their spouses have approved of it yet.) Now, it’s time to get back on track!

“Dang it, forgot to hit record on the in-car camera again.”

And on the saga goes.

If this is what your day at the track looks like, where do you find time to fit in data review? We all know that objective performance measurement is the key to improvement. Whether that is having a qualified coach work with you, following a faster driver on track, setting up an in-car camera, using a lap timer, or fitting your car with a full-on space shuttle quality data logger, measuring performance to make relevant changes is critical to the learning process.

Weekends at the track are cluttered and distracting, just like the office when you’re trying to get something important done. Learning to focus on the information we can actually use while at the track is key. A full data review session is usually reserved for pro-level teams that have a nice space to debrief away from the hustle and bustle. For the rest of us, data review is something we do once we get back home or to the hotel in the evening. But, what if we could manage to spend 5 to 10 minutes after each session to review only the most important parts of the previous session? I bet that would not only make our next session more focused and disciplined, but would also make debriefing in the hotel room more impactful!

Data has progressed immensely in the past five years. Here’s what industry leader VBOX Motorsport has to say about it on their website:
“One of the biggest improvements has been in driver training software. By designing the software to be used by the driver instead of the engineer, the hard work of finding improvements can be done by the computer, which can be presented to the driver in a clear and concise format. Race car data logging is no longer the sole preserve of the specialist data engineer.”

The bulk of the products from VBOX/Racelogic are on the more hardcore end of the spectrum, but they are infinitely more user friendly than data of old. They also make more sportsmen/ weekend warrior friendly tools! This is just one example of a company that grasps the ease of modern data, and there are countless others.

So there are some obvious distractions at the track. Realistically if we can keep a debrief post-session between 5-10 minutes that would be ideal, right? It’s all about picking the data system that works for you. For most of us in the track hobby, something more serious than a phone app, but less intense than a full MoTec or AiM racecar style system works really well (You don’t buy a tire depth gauge if you need a ball joint remover!). The VBOX Sport, AiM Solo, APEX Pro and many more are a few products that fit the bill.

For the sole purpose of a quick de-brief, I think the current crop of “sport data systems” (i.e. not dash loggers with a thousand math channels) provides the perfect chance for a brief data review. So what should one look for when doing a brief data review session after being on track, assuming that one has a system capable of displaying lap times, and interface to make notes.

• Ignore the outliers
  
  
  
  • Stuck behind slow traffic with no point-by? Mechanical issue? Bedding brakes?
    
    Eliminate those from your consideration set.
    
  
  
  
  
  • Find what you did well, and reinforce that behavior!
    
    
    
    • Consistent lap times? Pat yourself on the back, and make a note!
      
    • Improved on something from a previous session? Make a note!
      
    
    
  • Identify what you did not do well
    
    
    
    • Many times, this process will cause you to recollect details that would not normally come up. Did you accidentally pass without a point-by? Did you hold up a car wanting a point by? All of those are things that taking time to review your data may help you to remember!
      
      • Were you consistently being passed in one corner, or on the following straight? Maybe your turn in is too early/late, or brake release too abrupt. Use that as a data marker! If you keep giving point-by’s exiting turn 5, look at the data in turn 5!
        
      
      
    
    
  
  

Now, let’s cover setting goals for the next session!
No matter what system(s) is your weapon of choice for measuring your performance, learning how to use it is key to unlocking the information you need between sessions. Prepping for the next session means taking what you learned in your debrief, and setting goals. Going on track without goals can be dangerous. We’re all at the track to have fun, and to me a component of that fun is coming home unscathed. In my experience, setting specific and measurable goals is one of the best ways to avoid aimless driving, and it aids in constant improvement.

• Continue doing what you did well! This reinforces always starting with the positives. We want to keep our outlook positive to build confidence. Don’t get down on yourself!
  
• Identify 1 corner on the track that need the most attention! Where are the places that your predictive time plummets, or you APEX device is showing loads of red lights? Focus on those places alone. This doesn’t mean you should ignore the rest of the track, this just means you should devote your focus to these 1-2 places where you need to improve the most.
  
• Identify 1 overall driving habit you need to improve upon the most(initial brake input, tendency to turn-in early/late, brake release, shifting habits, do you hover your foot over the clutch? Etc.).
  
• Come up with no more than 3 total items to work on in the next session, then get in the zone!
  

Always set these “goals” before you go out. Driving on the track without goals is dangerous!
So next time you’re at the track trying to find time to upload your on-board video and data in-between sessions, remember, there are simpler solutions available. Find what works best for you. Spending good coin on a quality in-car camera is worth every penny, same goes for the data system that you will actually use! Implement the items mentioned above, then pull your video and data in the evening for a more in-depth review. Do those things, and save some cash to hire a coach once/year 😊 and you’ll be on your way to faster times, increased safety, and tons and tons of fun at the track!


- Andrew