Improving the driver. Good and bad.

Just read the news on Denny Hamlin and how the media is (of course) blowing his comments out of proportion. 

But it started making me think, adderall. It improves a driver’s focus. Obviously the big leagues check for it. But do you think it’s used in smaller circles? 

Obviously, I don’t condone drug taking in any form. I see people that need enhancements like that as weak. 

But, this brings up another topic- improving yourself as a driver. Particularly, mental flow. 

How do you guys access it, do you train for it? I have found (on simulators and when Karting) that I can achieve it about lap three or four and usually maintain for awhile until I start to get sloppy from muscle strain (kart steering takes muscle!)

dont go too crazy with the comments here folks. Don’t get the thread shut down. Keep it light. 

I might be misunderstanding the question, but for me, saying what I want to do out loud as seems to engage different parts of my brain. It helps with cementing the flag stations at new tracks, turn in points, etc.
I.e. "Don't lift here", "smooth hands through here," "hard on the brakes now," "ease brake pressure, but not too much," "single turn input here," "etc." 

Obviously the best teacher is practice, so more track time is the most helpful for me.

On the "nifty gadgets" side of things:

https://www.apextrackcoach.com/

This thing is awesome - I hadn't seen it before I started track days with Just Track It, but most people there seem to have one. It feels kinda cheaty in use, but really alerts you when you're getting sloppy. One of the better drivers I've run with at track days noted that it helped him reduce loss of braking pressure when heel-toe downshifting. That is - it builds a model of how much potential braking pressure your car should have **at a given point on track (more to it, but that's the jist) - it was noticing that when braking there was a periodic loss in maximum braking pressure coming into some corners and "alerted" the driver by more red lights. 

It also helps identify "scary" vs "fast" when trying new lines etc. The realtime and iterative feedback loop is pretty bad ass. Iterate to dominate! 

**edit ^^

Stay. Hydrated. All. The. Time.

Visualize everything.  If I can see it in my mind and on the track, I can make my car do it, repeatably.

Have a plan for every corner before I get there, and execute it, modifying if necessary due to traffic or condition changes.

Never try to corner faster; try to corner more smoothly and use all the grip available.  Faster pace will follow automatically.

If I'm off-line for the same corner for two laps, it's time to think seriously about coming in.  If I do it a third time, I'm coming in, period.

If I'm off-line two corners in a row, it's time to think seriously about coming in.  If I do three in a row, I'm coming in, period.

accordionfolder said:

I might be misunderstanding the question, but for me, saying what I want to do out loud as seems to engage different parts of my brain. It helps with cementing the flag stations at new tracks, turn in points, etc.
I.e. "Don't lift here", "smooth hands through here," "hard on the brakes now," "ease brake pressure, but not too much," "single turn input here," "etc." 

Obviously the best teacher is practice, so more track time is the most helpful for me.

On the "nifty gadgets" side of things:

https://www.apextrackcoach.com/

This thing is awesome - I hadn't seen it before I started track days with Just Track It, but most people there seem to have one. It feels kinda cheaty in use, but really alerts you when you're getting sloppy. One of the better drivers I've run with at track days noted that it helped him reduce loss of braking pressure when heel-toe downshifting. That is - it builds a model of how much potential braking pressure your car should have (more to it, but that's the jist) - it was noticing that when braking there was a periodic loss in maximum braking pressure coming into some corners and "alerted" the driver by more red lights. 

It also helps identify "scary" vs "fast" when trying new lines etc. The realtime and iterative feedback loop is pretty bad ass. Iterate to dominate! 

You are the first person I have seen with real-world reports on that gadget I was interested but skeptical

I am no top-level driver, but I see a huge difference between when I am prepared mentally and when I am not.  This is just autocrossing, but if I show up late and I am hurried in changing tires and I only get a few walks of the course, and I am socializing with my neighbor...my runs suffer.  On the other hand, if I take time to concentrate, run the course in my head, have a plan of attack, get focused...my times improve and my mistakes are fewer.  

The only tip I can offer is to "get in the zone".  I see people checking tire pressures on grid, fiddling with their GoPro, or hurriedly strapping in because they were out of the car talking.  I have the car ready well in advance, tires set, everything adjusted where I want it.  I get in and take a few laps of the parking lot to warm up the oil.  When I get in line, I start the camera several cars back.  For at least 5 minutes before my run, I am thinking of nothing else but my run.  When I get to the line, I am focused and "in the zone".   

After a few laps I go into Yoga breathing and enter a zen like state, then after about 45 minutes my headset goes off with some team members yelling some E36 M3 that I can't understand.  It took several hundred laps to achieve this, much better than a freaked out reactive driving.  Somehow I still get the fastest laps of our team, likely we are all slow, I'm just the least slow.

In reply to Stefan :

I believe he is saying that people who use those medicines strictly as performance enhancers are weak, not those who legitimately need them to assist with actual, diagnosed issues.

pinchvalve said:

The only tip I can offer is to "get in the zone".  I see people checking tire pressures on grid, fiddling with their GoPro, or hurriedly strapping in because they were out of the car talking.  I have the car ready well in advance, tires set, everything adjusted where I want it.  I get in and take a few laps of the parking lot to warm up the oil.  When I get in line, I start the camera several cars back.  For at least 5 minutes before my run, I am thinking of nothing else but my run.  When I get to the line, I am focused and "in the zone".   

I don't have this problem at all, perhaps to the point of a fault - I'll get "in the zone" immediately and not notice some equipment hasn't been set up properly, like windows rolled up or seatbelt locking clip not in place, or just forgetting to start a camera/data logger if I'm lucky. In fact at my last autocross, my best run by a large margin was immediately after rushing to change out a busted coolant fitting cap. Forgot to roll down windows and start the data logger too.

From my experience I don't think anyone's doping, certainly not in anything remotely amateurish. We had a thread on that topic a couple years ago:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/doping-in-motorsport-dissertation/116789/page1/

I avoid caffeine before driving events, 90% for avoiding the jitters, 10% for the bladder.

kb58 said:

I avoid caffeine before driving events, 90% for avoiding the jitters, 10% for the bladder.

I drink two coffees instead of one when I know I'm going golfing. Maybe that's why I really seem to improve at about 1.5 beers in...

Re: Adderall

Are we sure it actually is a performance benefit to people who do not have an attention disorder? Or is it the sugar pill effect like people who think marijuana makes them better at homework or beer makes them better at golf.

In reply to Jaynen :

Just started using it - so the jury is still out. My small anecdote indicates that It DOES seem to help with consistency, but my personal experience is hardly scientific. I'll probably report back on it when I know more. 

In reply to Robbie :

From what I can find adderall and it's effects are pretty well understood:

https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-63163/adderall-oral/details

Stefan said:

So people who suffer from ADD or ADHD and take medications like Adderall are weak in your eyes?  Nice.

Or perhaps you'd like to explain yourself a bit better and not sound like a bit of an insensitive jerk?

That said, I'm not aware of any amateur series that perform drug tests on their drivers or crew.  Aside from routine physicals, its up to the driver's to abide by the rules and to watch each other for signs of any negative impacts of any medications, illegal or otherwise.

Oh Jesus, Once again, for the millionth time, “”NO!”, I’m not bagging on people that actually need it, I’m talking about people that abuse a substance because they feel their own skills are inadequate. Who ####ing called the PC police? Get lost. 

In reply to Trackmouse :

I agree he took it out of context - as previously noted by a few people; no need to escalate it further though - just ignore him.

There is a lot of good information in a short time on this thread - lets hope we can keep the ship moving forward. 

I've found that I do better in the car if I don't have very much caffeine.  I was just talking with my doctor about that this morning and he said that the diuretic component likely dehydrates me more than the stimulant helps.  He mentioned hydration and pre-race carb loading as proven ways to maintain focus.

Speaking of pre-race carb loading, I knew a guy who drag raced a lot and always sucked on hard peppermints the whole time he was at the track. He said the continuous sugar supply seemed to help his reaction times on the tree. Might have been placebo, who knows.

I've been busy and didn't have a chance to reply sooner.

As someone who takes Adderall everyday and been racing 30 years I'll pass along a few things.

First Adderall is not some wonder drug that gives you uber concentration; all it does it take the 7 competing thoughts and brew them down to 2-3. The other big benefit is it simply gets your brain to slow down for a split second so that you don't overlook things. Best racing example I can give is having the car break and then later realizing there was a "hmm that's odd" moment a few minutes before the break down. The Adderall gets you to slow down and think "hey that plink plink noise under the hood sounds just like the noise the water pump belt makes when pops off.

Next one of the hallmarks of ADD is that people with it tend to gravitate towards adrenaline sports; the lack of dopamine makes the world feel like it's crawling. So when your traveling along at 100mph it seems normal. I routinely get comments about my waving to my fellow competitors while 4 wheel drifting through corners.

The big area where it would make a difference is debriefing off track. It makes it possible  to slow down enough to listen to any questions that took longer than 15 seconds. Dealing with ultra methodical people (Engineers  & certain doctors) can be torture. Ironically while we ramble on endlessly, we want you to give us a 5 second explanation. I  make my living as a purchasing analyst in the contracts department, from time to time I drive cooperate attorneys  round the bend. While they have a set reason as to why things are as they state, my brain is ratcheting along at 500 mph and I've got 5 different sets of logic teed up ready to counter any argument.  Watch the Monty Python skit where the guy says "I could be arguing on me own time".  As long as I'm on the subject of TV (off on a tangent another ADD hallmark) I can't watch most sitcoms; Friends, Sienfeld pick one I already know the punch line 10 seconds before it happens. So what does that have to do with racing? Well the same thing that makes my brain process the 17 possible punchlines on a sitcom also has my brain coming up with 17 possible passing scenarios on any given corner. 

The one on track area the Adderall would help is impulse control; making it less likely you'll try something really stupid. Of course I've seen plenty of non ADD types with zero on track impulse control.

Now if you don't have ADD and take Adderall you'll be pinging of the walls.

Finally for the record I find it ironic that I the ADD poster kid actually read the comment about "weak" people and new it wasn't about people who take Adderall. 

In reply to accordionfolder :

You couldn't be more correct!  The Apex is great.  Especially the real time aspect of it.  And the fact the hardware doesn't change, just the App get updated.  And speaking of, the updated App has all kinds of cool stuff in it.  I thought it was neat that it knew what track I was at (PBIR) and I didn't even have to enter it!  And I don't know how much more simple to use it could get.  I got mine at www.rcesafe.com.

In reply to CompetitionComponentsLLC :

Wtf, bots...

In reply to Trackmouse :

Canoe. We call those little floating turds canoes. 

In reply to Trackmouse :

In reply to Appleseed :

According to previous posts that account is a forum sponsor. 

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/advertiser-playground/apex-in-action/131396/page1/

Easy guys----- he's not a canoe, just came across as one.   Competition Components has been an advertiser with GRM for years.   If you are curious about the TrackPro check them out. 

Competition Components

I installed a Traqmate data system last year, it really helps!  It gives instant feedback about your lap, which corner you went faster, which you went slower, if you're going faster vs the previous lap, etc.  All in the car where you can easily see it and process it...