Speed Secrets Podcast

Simon Hayes of Performance Physixx joins me to talk about what the best race drivers do to ensure they’re fit to drive… as well as providing advice on how you can improve your fitness levels – and drive even better.

Simon and his team at Performance Physixx works with drivers of all levels (although he currently spends a lot of time with Indy car and sports car drivers, having trained F1 drivers in the past) on their physical fitness and nutrition to improve their driving performance. You can learn more about Simon, Performance Physixx, and how they can help you by going to their website at www.performancephysixx.com.

Michael Beck, Adam Nielsen and Robert Vierhout from the Ten-Tenths Podcast join me to talk about autocross, engine swaps, and why people are in this sport. And then… each tells of their Aha! moment when they learned something that made a big impact of them driving faster – something you can use.

The Ten-Tenths Podcast is just over a year old now, and has become popular because of the casual – and often, very funny – discussions that Michael, Adam and Robert have.

Listen in and subscribe to the Ten-Tenths Podcast by visiting http://tententhspodcast.com, and be sure to follow them on Twitter (@10tenthspodcast), Facebook (www.facebook.com/tententhspodcast/) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/tententhspodcast/).

James McMahon and Davin Surdivant of Kartpulse join me in a conversation about how to use karting to tune up your car driving skills, and even more… actually going karting as an end in itself. It’s such a great form of motorsport, and James and Davin share their experience in this episode, providing advice on what you can learn from karting that you can apply to driving your car.

Kartpulse is an online community designed to grow awareness of the sport of karting. Its grassroots community is focused on sharing information and helping each other to keep the sport as fun as possible. James and Davin are the co-founders of Kartpulse, and they help to develop the online resources that the community shares, such as articles, social media and the Kartpulse Forums.

Kartpulse Site: Kartpulse.com

Kartpulse Forums: forums.kartpulse.com

Follow Kartpulse on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

The video of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost that James refers to is at: https://youtu.be/D0Sg8it4ZbY. It’s very cool! And the video that Davin refers to is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql11ht4WqgM

Jeff McKague and I talk about where to look when driving, how mistakes can be identified by vision errors, how to train your vision, and the advantages of being a slow learner. Yes, being a slow learner has its advantages – and can actually help you be a faster driver.

Jeff is a long-time driver coach and certified sports vision trainer. He lives in the Toronto, Canada area.

To learn more about what Jeff does, go to his website at http://eventmatrix.ca.

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Ryan Selsor and I talk about what sim racing is, how track drivers can use simulators to improve their driving, what he’s learned from sim racing that applies directly to track driving, and what you need to get started using a sim.

Ryan is one of the top sim racers in the world (although that’s a bit like comparing a Formula One driver to a NASCAR driver and saying one is better than the other), and has also done autocrossing and track days. In other words, he can relate the sim world to the “real” one.

In our conversation, Ryan and I talked about a lot of different resources and websites:

• RaceDepartment (http://www.racedepartment.com)
• Crimson Simulators (https://crimsonsimulation.com)
• Playseat chassis (https://www.playseatamerica.com)
• iRacing (http://www.iracing.com)
• Automobilista (http://www.game-automobilista.com)
• rFactor (http://rfactor.net)
• Thrustmaster (http://www.thrustmaster.com/en_US)
• Logitec (http://gaming.logitech.com/en-us/gaming-controllers)

Thanks for listening, and talk to you next week.

Dr. Mike O’Neill and I talk about flow, or getting into the zone, and focus, and how that applies to driving faster. His research in the workplace, along with his experience as a race driver, has led to specific tactics that you can use to perform more consistently at your best – in flow – and that’s what we discuss in this conversation.

Dr. Mike leads workplace research at Haworth, a global office furniture manufacturer based in Holland, Michigan. Their research provides a global perspective, and practical insights, on how the design of workspace affects people’s health and work performance. Early on, Mike worked in design consulting; he then became a professor of interior design and industrial engineering at the University of Wisconsin. Since then, he has led research efforts in the office furniture industry. His educational background includes degrees in psychology and architecture. He has written numerous articles and two books about how the design of office space affects work performance. On the personal side, Mike holds a private pilot’s license - and a competition racing license through Midwest Council. He races his ‘74 Porsche in the Vintage/Historic class, at tracks including Road America, Blackhawk Farms, and GingerMan, and is also a nationally certified DE instructor through Porsche Club of America.

For more info about Dr. Mike and to contact him:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmikeoneill
• Twitter: @Ask_DrMike
• Haworth: http://www.haworth.com/research/white-papers

Matt Covert and I talk about autocrossing, road racing, and the steps in between; whether smooth is fast or not; and especially what he’s learned from others – from what they’ve done well, and their mistakes. In fact, it’s the mistakes that we’ve all made that we learn the most from – so let’s learn from some of the people Matt has talked to.

I met Matt just a few months ago, and have been super-impressed with his Racers HQ podcast and magazine – and the help he’s providing to many drivers. In addition, he’s done stunt driving, and is an avid autocrosser.

As Matt mentioned during the show, he interviewed me for his magazine, Racers HQ, and you can get access to the article for free by going to http://www.racershq.com/ross. In it, I share a “Top Ten of Tips.” And be sure to listen to Matt’s podcast and check out the other information he shares by going to http://www.racershq.com.

Thanks for listening.

Adam Jabaay and I talk about how to club race for next to nothing, building your network and community to get people to help you, and providing value to others. We then get into what Gridlife is, and how younger people are getting into the sport, but in different ways than in the past.

Adam is a club racer in SCCA, NASA and Lemons, a HPDE instructor, and one of the organizers of the Gridlife events. He’s also a co-host, along with Austin Cabot, on the Slip Angle podcast; in addition, they have the TrackTuned.com blog.

Be sure to listen to the Slip Angle podcast at TrackTuned.com. And learn more about Gridlife at www.grid.life.

If you take a few minutes to leave a review of this podcast I'll send you a check for a million dollars. Well, not quite. In fact, not even close. But it would still be cool if you'd leave a review. I'll send you a "thank you"!

James Colborn and discuss why some drivers love and use data acquisition systems, and some don’t; how he’s become a bit of a guru with data; what it is that he likes so much about using data; and whether data can be over-used. Then we switch to talking about the experience of moving from track day driver to club racer, and then to pro racing – and even back again.

James is a self-funded amateur/pro racer and sometimes track day driver who has become a data acquisition geek. He shares tips and advice on how to use data systems through some very useful videos he posts on his website at http://www.jamescolborn.com. Oh, and he describes himself as "Most happy when racing."

I hope you enjoy this week’s episode. Keep learning and having fun!

James Chartres and I talk about how a club racer or track day driver can manage all of the things that are needed before and at the track, and still allow time to really focus on one’s driving. We also talk about some specific driving techniques, including left-foot braking, trail braking, and driving a momentum car.

James races a Spec Racer Ford in the SCCA San Francisco region, runs his own team – Kanga Motorsport – and in his spare time is an aerospace engineer for NASA (or is that the other way around?!). As a club racer, James has put together some amazing marketing partnerships to help support his team, too.

Be sure to check out James’ Kanga Motorsport website at http://www.kangamotorsports.com. Also, James mentioned Brian Bonner and BRM (Bonner Race Marketing): https://www.facebook.com/PSSTbyBRM.

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