Completely agree! That was a great post.
Thanks! There are lots of guys faster than me and Psycho is certainly one of them.
I started thinking about it earlier and figured maybe I'd be better off by limiting how much time I spend practicing. Granted, the practice does help a ton with consistency for me, but I think it also lifts my expectations of myself a bit more than is reasonable.
This was exactly my problem. I expected, since I put in all that time practicing and practicing that I should be blazing through the field and winning everything. It was all ego. Leave your ego in the pit and just drive.
On a brighter side, I put down my fastest lap of the week last night in the race.. sub 47. That was pretty exciting!
A "racer" I respect once said if you're turning your personal bests in races you're doing something wrong. I disagree with this wholeheartedly. I usually don't hit my best rhythm unless and until I'm in a race with others. Hot lapping by myself is not the same as trying to follow someone who's faster than you. I usually turn my fastest laps when I see someone I know is faster than me, chasing me down.
The preparation model I use now for the Sunday league I'm in is to get the cars, have Bob break them in if necessary, then about 2+- hours before the green flag drops I hit the lounge to get used to the car on whichever track it's being run at. I usually do it in the league's lounge and sometimes others come in and we do some practice races. The only time I make an effort to practice more than that is if I'm completely unfamiliar with a track or it's one I really don't like, Rome for instance.
I recall a go karting experience I had when I was around 13-14 years old. Jeez, what a long time ago that was. Anyways, I was out there destroying the other kids on the track no matter their age. I was thinking myself all that, even though I was lifting going into the tighter turns. I don't know if the guy worked there or was some random grownup but he got on track and for a while it seemed he and I were the only two out there. At any rate I found out he was faster than me and trying to keep up with him I discovered I could keep the gas pedal mashed down through the whole course. After that I was easily making him defend every corner and we had a lot of fun. I never did beat him but like I said, it was a lot of fun trying once I
knew it could be done and that I was capable of doing it.
I said that to say this;
Hanging out and just watching the guys that are faster than you is usually more beneficial than struggling to keep up with them on track and certainly better than hot lapping by yourself. Watching them go through a turn 15 mph faster than you normally do will convince you that it can be done and once you
know this you'll be more confident trying it.
I'm on psychos side! We are the party poopers!
so I imagine qualifying runs like F1 then? A 20 minute or so session to string together as many flying laps as you wish?
