tkerrmd

Well for those of you who keep time of yourself on a particular track and have hit a wall and cant get any faster what do you do? Well assuming your car is well sorted and has no major upgrades to be done the answer for me was to hire a coach.
I just finished three days of racing at Sebring PBOC Winterfest. I had a coach for the whole event. I choose a race weekend because I wanted advise on racecraft, qualifying, etc.
I started with the lofty goal of wanting to hit my best time then take 2 seconds off of that. Unrealistic but possible.
The coach asked for video and data of me to review before he got there. the coaching started by email and reviewing data weeks before the event.

Coach showed up the night before the enduro race. went over detailed principles and plans for the three day event.

He took my car out and made a few suggestions but agreed the car was well sorted and ready to go.

Practice, qual and race data reviewed each time I came in in detail. Coaching continued on the radio during each track outing.

Very intensive very through very professional very friendly very fun.

I hit my PR end of first day. End of secon day took two seconds off of that. Mission accomplished!!

How you say. well Sebring has 17 turns so a tenth here and there at each corner added up fast. Careful traqmate data analysis of every entry speed, corner speed, exit speed added up!

Precisely hitting turn in's and apexes. Using the whole track. Yes basic you say and I know. but are you really doing it?? I wasnt. I learned that and improved in one weekend more than the last year. this would not have been possible without the coach I had.

The most important thing I did that really cut the time is I drove my 700hp car more like a momentum car. I entered faster and carried more cornering speed. This was only possible after a new trust I learned in the car and its ability. I learned this from coaching.

bottom line also very simple, get off the brake and get on the gas as much as possible and new coast. these seem like simple basic principles but I needed more help to refine my skill and be PUSHED. the coach safely did this.

even better the coach coached on of my friends at the same time. a very skilled racer, he too took two seconds off his fastest sebring lap!

The weekend was amazing and I can now run smooth 2;18's at sebring. Yes I need to knock another second or two off but at least I am making progress again!

thought I would share with you guys.




BTW the coach that made this all possible for me and my friend was Dave Scott our own VELOCE RAPTOR. I will always be indebted to him he was awesome!!

thank you Dave!!


tom

jbossolo

That's fantastic Tom, glad to see the yellow beast is running strong, as always.
Kudos to VR. I'm considering doing this with the Radical, soon!

Paul 996

Very Cool!

Veloce Raptor

Wow. Thanks, Tom. I don't know what to say. It was a real no-schit pleasure to work with you and Kevin. I greatly enjoy working with folks who "get it" and who are comortable working methodically, rather than wanting to make 2+ second inprovements in one session.

You guys were a real treat. I am very, very proud of both of you. Hope we can make the naxt major leap forward soon!








Professional Racing and Driving Coach

tkerrmd

Well for those who want to be faster and better racers and have never been coached, it is a must!

Dave truely made the weekend special and was terrific, highly recommend him!!

gbaker

Wait. His coaching is better than his avatar collection? No way.

TRT41

I spent a 1/2 day with Dave as a coach a few weeks ago. Tme well spent it was great, wish the track had been open for the full day.

TRAKCAR

I spoke to Tom a couple of minutes at the track, same as for me, every good coach will make you faster and it is a ton of fun as well!

Everyone from as low level as just signed of solo to expert racers should get a coash once a year.
It is the cheapest mod in dollars for laptime IMHO.

Even when you already know what they are saying; you need an expert looking in from the outside sometimes..

mhm993

Very cool. For most of us, "more gas, less brake" is very tough without a coach in our ear.

Also to be noted: ALL cars are momentum cars.

Veloce Raptor

Corrected...









Professional Racing and Driving Coach

multi21

I'd be curious to see if Dave himself gets a coach to ride shotgun every once in a while with him.

Also curious if the coach is detecting what is supposed to be done by the seat of his pants in the passenger side or with data points or both?

How often does the seat of the pants feel match up with the data points that a person isn't taking a particular corner fast enough?

Veloce Raptor

Yes, Dave does. As often as he can get someone whose skills he respects into his right seat!

As for your other queries, it depends. I do not go into specifics about any client, nor how I coach/coached them. Some clients in fact don't have passenger seats, so data and also video with sound are key. However, I will say that usually there is some correlation between what the data and video show and what is going on when I am in a client's car. For example, it is easy to spot double spike braking in the data when a client is doing a heel/toe downshift in a heavy brake zone...and this is also usually evident in the car. As for speeds in corners, that information is usually obvious from the right seat based on how the car is reacting to the existing speeds. And having a data overlay from a faster driver or even just having the client ride as passenger for a few laps can really reinforce this.








Professional Racing and Driving Coach

BostonDMD

How about a group buy for Dave's services?..........

I would love to chop 2-3 secs. at WGI......

Gary R.

I hear he takes Mr. Chicken coupons as partial payment too!


Sounds like you did a great job, WTG Dave!

BostonDMD

For some reason I tend to believe that he would prefer payment in gold coins.......

One of these days I will be good enough to hire him and let him coach me to the next level..........