A great big hug to the marvelous publisher of Vintage Motorsport, Tammy Boyette, who gave me a shout after the last post and who is always a marvelous booster of that part of the sport I'm so interested in, vintage and historic racing. Tammy, I missed you on Thursday at PRI but the stand looked great, as usual! See you in Florida in a few months.
I'm often asked by those with many different levels of high performance driving and club racing experience what "silver bullet" exists that can magically take seconds off their lap times, yield them the consistency they seek and propel them to the victories they feel deserved. If I could provide that information in some compact, easily digestible and encapsulated form, I'd be driving a Pre-war Alfa Romeo or some fabulous Fifties Ferrari, Aston Martin or Maserati sports racing car!
By carefully considering that quandary of how best to learn more, explore and provide credible, succinct and proper professional advice on how to go quicker, think better and carry on with less drama, that question gets the thought it deserves, and the drivers that seek it are able to know why instead of just going through the motions.
Now, more than ever, it's reaffirmed time and time again that this pursuit is so much more than just "getting out on track." The entire approach, planning and execution every time the wheel turns is a thinking person's game. People ask if I ever get tired of speaking, writing about and working with people who want to improve their driving skills, whatever the venue. "Of course not," I reply.
The most recent epiphany emerged from the latest client of mine, a retired Navy admiral, well known and well thought of in the historic racing scene in the US. This fellow is a pretty good driver, been at it for well over a decade in all sorts of classic British sports cars. From Pre-war MG's to wood-framed, sliding pillar front suspensioned antiquities to attractive fiberglass-bodied bolides with French language inspired names, he's definitely an enthusiast! Working together at the last event of the year at the fast, smooth Roebling Road Raceway near Savannah, we'd already met in the morning for two short, fairly intensive discussions. Instead of supplying him with simple quantitative information, we instead began the intelligent discussion focused on redirecting his mental approach, the goal being to break through his performance plateau.
After he'd had time to digest some of what we'd been talking about, he was lined up on the pit lane ready to go out for his afternoon session, receiving final words of encouragement from me. After I finished and leaned back, he motioned me back towards him and said "You know, I've just been riding around all this time, there's so much more out there... I can't wait!"
Wow. That's why I do this. It never fails.
The "light bulb" allowing him to think about driving and racing in a more intelligent way came on for him that day. After years running just off the podium in large groups, he was again on his way up the grid...
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