Last week I was in two different places, nearly back to back. I was at beautiful Road America and then just a bit further east at Watkins Glen, where we had some gorgeous almost-fall weather.
It was a unique scenario for me in that I visited both tracks to work with new clients, and I got to learn the nuances of working with each one. It was a tremendous amount of fun as we got to know each other, establish a coach/driver relationship, and have a successful event in both cases.
This all starts prior to the event, with a preliminary virtual meeting which helps not only break the ice, but also gives some insight discussing goals and provides an opportunity to overview track specifics and car nuances.
At Road America, I was working with a driver who was preparing for an upcoming race weekend. We had the luxury of two open test days to not only get the car properly dialed in but, of course, to also get the driver acclimated. Mark had not been to Road America since the same event one year ago, so he was refamiliarizing himself with this incredible circuit. As I mentioned earlier, we had started our work the week before with a virtual track walk and reviewing in-car video from a prior year, which allowed us to hit the ground running.
It was a lot of fun getting to see Mark’s ability as a quick learner, and after driving laps to set references for him, as well as to get the car’s setup adjusted properly for the track, he was able to really start to chip away at the opportunities to bring down his lap time.
After a couple days of fine-tuning, Mark was dialed in for the race weekend, going faster than he ever had before. It was not only rewarding to see his progress, but it was also fun for me to drive his Clubsport GT4RS—a car very familiar to me from IMSA— as I helped get it to a peak performance level.
Once I wrapped up those successful test days with Mark, I headed to Watkins Glen, where I was in a similar scenario of working with a new client who was preparing for an upcoming race. Although I wasn’t driving the car in this case, a lot of the same strategies applied, and it was very rewarding each session to continue making progress. At the end of the day, Jim had bested his previous year’s lap time by several seconds. It was all smiles as we wrapped up the day.
The week got me reflecting on how I was at two different tracks with two new drivers (new to me, at any rate!), and each one of them had success, even though their learning styles were slightly different. With each, it was important for me to understand what key words and phrases, and even approaches—either more direct or more supportive—would help them feel confident in what they were doing.
Having the opportunity to be involved in motorsports and to coach for a living is something I’m really thankful for. It makes it even more fun when you see success for your clients and get to work with interesting and enthusiastic people.