Matt Romanowski

I figured I'd share some of my new data from Lime Rock earlier this week. One of the areas that has seen increasing attention is biotelemetry. I used a unit from Wireless Motorsports, which is the same that Wayne Taylor Racing has used this year at Sebring and other races.

My resting pulse is about 62, and driving for the two days, the highest I saw on track was about 142. Most of the time I was in the 120s.

Here's some video with the data overlaid

amso3

Looks like it refreshes at about 1 HZ. Cool. Did you watch the car video on the Isle of Mann? Heart rate 150 is for 17 minutes. This is becoming popular, I'm sure we'll see more equipment. Thanks for posting

Matt Romanowski

It's 10 Hz, but this is a prototype CAN connection. We're still working out the bugs on a couple of things.

It's amazing how fast some people's heart rate is when they are driving. Some of the guys at Mt. Panorama (this unit is made in AUS) are over 190 for short periods.

There is probably a handful of similar systems right now, but I think it will explode. You can track all sorts of things like heart rate, body temp (I have it too but it's not really exciting), blood O2, blood sugar, CO2, eyeball tracking, breathing speed, and a bunch more. This is definitely going to be more popular and fit in with the professional driver training programs.

ProCoach

Matt, the cool thing is that is technology is trickle down from WEC and F1 factory teams. They've been studying this for years and have integrated this all into their junior teams. RLer Hunter Allen did this with an LMP2 race winner in IMSA a few years ago at VIR. The results were very telling...

The fitness and aerobic capacity of a top line IndyCar driver destroyed a former front line American sports car pro. Amazing!

Matt Romanowski

To me the trickle down is what is so cool. All kinds of things are done at the highest levels, but it's not always affordable or possible at the club level. Now people can monitor their body temps and heart rate for less than a set of tires on most cars!

Chris at Wireless Motorsports is a real expert on this. Here's a good article he wrote (similar to the SSW article) https://wirelessmotorsport.com/blogs...-in-motorsport

Mahler9th

Interesting.

Like many things, it can be helpful to consider separating the steak from the sizzle.

Eventually folks will figure out what is actionable information and what is more of a curiosity. The "quantified self" movement has been blazing for a few years now and there are lots and lots of devices and apps, which in the end are much ado about nothing.

I am an ex-college athlete and work in the medical field, and as part of the latter spent some time looking into potential sports medicine applications of these new and emerging technologies. Lots of noise, little signal so far.

In any case, one thing is clear, consumers need to be careful with respect to claimed or implied benefits versus those actually achievable, as well as safety. Medical devices are regulated, gadgets are not. And lines can be blurred.

Matt Romanowski

There is plenty of good application for the information this system and others like it gather. There is no question that this device is not a medical grade device that you should stake your life on, but it's not made for that either. It gives a real measure of the drivers heart rate and body temp. This can tell you if the driver is over stressed, over heated, comfortable with the track/situation, and many other things.

Working with someone, on their first working with this info, they had a build in their pulse from 120ish to over 150. Asking them if the session was good, they said it was and the car was fine. Then asking them what made their pulse get so high, they started telling about a car that held them up for 5 laps and was a major problem. So, now to work on managing these situations with that driver and we'll probably find more things that set them off.

This is good technology to use for this application. If it wasn't, they wouldn't be using it at the top levels of motorsport (as Peter pointed out). The technology will trickle down and their will be more and more of this at the club level.

Beantown Kman

Okay, I appreciate the fact that this information would be of interest. But, as Mahler9th points out, I'm not clear how the data will be used to benefit the driver. Would you not expect someone's heart rate to go up as he is either engaged in a heated battle with another car or he is driving close to the limit? Is driving with a heart rate of 140 going better than driving at 150?? I can certainly see where a lower heart rate would benefit a driver doing a long stint in an endurance race. But in a sprint??

ProCoach

I agree, BTKMan. Most folks don't use what they have. I have no one who has inquired for any other biometric monitoring than blood sugar level.

In cycling training and some other high level physiological monitoring, pulse and respiration rate can uncover fitness deficits. Don't want to know mine!

ELange0322

I guess the question is "Will this show me a meausre of the level of stress that I'm experiencing while driving" and therefore be an indicator that maybe I need to back off slightly and drive more relaxed and "under control" (not that I would have felt that I was out of control). I sometimes notice that I'm tense and been told that I start to breathe heavily. It's funny because when I drive with someone right seat and just carry a casual conversation I'm always way more relaxed and pretty much run comparable times. How would this system work and is this a good way to measure ? You say cost less than a set of tires Matt...not sure I'm considering $1K to know my heart rate.

Matt Romanowski

You would be very surprised to see what people's heart rates do when they are driving. For instance, one person's heart rate when from the 120s to 150 in 5 laps and then went back down. The cause? Not being able to get by one car.

So, looking at heart rates and body temp, you can determine what things "set off" a driver, cause them to lose focus, anxiety, and to possibly make bad decisions.

Also, the person's heart rate can tell you what level of stress they are driving under. Some stress is good, too much can impair the person's judgement and lead to poor decisions. Here is a good article on what knowing heart rate can help https://wirelessmotorsport.com/blogs...-in-motorsport

I've put a number of systems in cars and have gotten very good feedback and results. It's helped people with identifying their subconscious weaknesses and concerns so they can overcome them. It's also great for the simple training aspect of being able to keep ones heart rate in check, but that is just the surface. You should really check it out!

Yes, it will certainly show you the stress levels that you experience when driving. The link above talks to this. You will also be able to tell what corners cause you more stress than others, what situations cause the stress, and how hard you are working while driving.

Cost wise, the system is $650-$669 depending on how it's configured. I know it's paid for itself for me.

winders

How has it paid for itself?

Matt Romanowski

In figuring out what things increase my stress level, what makes me calmer, and how those affect my ability to drive my best. I've spent more than the price of the unit on event entries, track expenses, etc, and not had the same results.

stujelly

I have this system from Matt and what I have determined is I thought I was in pretty good shape for the beginning of the season at Sebring. Then hurt my elbow and have not been in the gym for months but thought I could handle a full race weekend.

Ran VIR a couple of weeks ago and found myself struggling to complete the first sprint race.

Just out of curiosity I checked my heart rate and it was measurably higher than at Sebring.

Maybe because VIR is a big boy track and there is a huge pucker factor and that caused my heart rate to be higher or maybe it was the heat.

All I am saying is it gave us 1 more piece of data to review to assist in determining why we were off our game.

It's like having brake pressure or wheel speed sensors.

Not totally necessary but helpful to paint the picture of what is going on in the car.

Cris Brady

Missed this thread earlier but saw a reference in one of the latest threads.

In June I turned on the exercise tracking of my Microsoft Band 2 fitness band for one of my DE sessions at NJMP Lightning. This was in full race gear, 3 layer nomex suit, nomex gloves, shoes and balaclava, no cool-suit. Outside temps were 80 degrees. Mind you, this wasn't a race, so I wasn't going 10/10ths, but even so, my avg heart rate for the 3rd session was 152, with a peak of 164. It started out low and climbed rapidly and stabilized. That peak was probably the shot of adrenaline when the back end stepped out on me going over the hill that is turn 6 and I had to grab some opposite lock to gather the car up. Turn 6 is a sharp up and over with a blind apex and blind trackout. Easy to get out of shape there. Always interesting stuff. I'll try to remember to turn is on for the Summit Point race. Since I often forget to turn on my video, the odds aren't with me.