Have you ever had a bad weekend at the track? Even a disappointing weekend can still be beneficial in identifying what to focus on as you move forward and prepare for your next outing.
I was recently at the track with a client, and even though we were as prepared as we could be, fate, luck and opportunities didn’t go in our favor. We didn’t end the weekend with results that reflected the effort, and we were certainly short of the goals we’d set for the event.
What we did do, though, is highlight some areas of focus moving forward, all within the circumstances we can control. We were able to identify things that we can prepare for prior to the next event.
We can’t control the outcome of each on-track session, but we can control how we go into each session. For instance, it can be something like fine-tuning your overarching strategy for the event weekend or having a specific run plan for each session.
Perhaps you can develop a better strategy to ensure a more successful qualifying effort. That could be something like thinking about how to find the right gaps for open space on track, even with a crowded field. Or maybe it’s race-specific goals, like race craft at the start of a race or how to stay focused throughout.
Wherever the opportunity might lie, there’s always something to think about and identify as you move forward.
One of the best ways to go about this is to review video in order to reflect and highlight where these areas of opportunity might be, then create a plan of how to work on them moving forward. Maybe that means outlining a plan in advance or simply reviewing and practicing on the simulator prior to the next event.
It’s amazing how, with the sim, you can not only practice on your own, but the AI component has opened up a whole new level of ways to practice race craft. For example, you can focus on starts or do specific passing drills.
I know that the next time we’re heading to the track, my client and I have a very focused plan to persevere and to not allow one disappointing event to turn into two.