Ruthless Racing Decisions are Made Before You Even Hit the Track
Racing Lab Series Part 5
Wheel to wheel racing on a sim, especially iRacing is weird.
It feels not very ‘racing driver’. It’s like racing but domesticated, and made polite. People kick off with the slightest bit of aggression, that in a real race is considered normal and expected - by kart racing standards anyway!
Yet at the same time, random and pointless take-outs are the norm too…
The racing is strange, random stuff happens and the rules of engagement on a sim aren’t transferable to a real kart race.
BUT…
What is transferable to real racing is that your live decision making on making moves has to be fast and clear.
The best route to high clarity, decisive and clean strong moves is to have your decisions made in advance. By advanced, I mean before you even hit the track!
Your overtaking rules of engagement really need to be in your blood, then they just happen with deadly certainty, without thinking.
Crap overtaking and half-moves on the kart track are almost always the result of thinking about the pros and cons of making a move, or ‘how can I overtake without risking a crash?’. Tentative overtaking is always a recipe for disaster.
If you are a bit hesitant against a high quality driver, they will run rings around you - if you are tentative against a less able driver, you are likely to take each other out, probably with the age-old complaint ‘they turned in on me!’.
Of course you cannot foresee every actual overtaking move before you drive, but you don’t need to. What you need is to have your policy of how you will overtake fully prepared.
I say in your blood, because it needs to be a part of you, your racing demeanour.
Drivers know when and where they will make their moves, well in advance they feel it. That’s not a magic cognition, that’s just them knowing and trusting themselves, no doubts about how appropriate it is - also knowing it has a risk, not pre-regretting the mistakes, they just have it.... that’s why they can shape up a move well in advance, but also why they can force a move to happen that looks impossible, they won’t be denied.
I get the feel for it watching a driver, you know they are going to go in, you know exactly what will happen, and they always do. It’s a nice experience from the outside too... clarity is contagious!
‘Find out who you are as a driver’ sounds a bit airy fairy, but it isn’t.
If you ever made eye contact with a driver on a dummy grid who is totally wired, the deadly intent in their eyes is one of total self-understanding, not at all airy fairy because they understand they are demonic and mean harm.
That’s one driver configuration that you might relate to. Or you might be a more strategic driver, who may in fact feel no intimidation from a nutter because you have them sussed-out.
What counts is the strength of your conviction. That strength comes from your intent being aligned with the truth about your character, which isn’t all that easy to align, at all!
Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could just say:
‘I’m a ruthless psycho driver who takes on every move - I execute and win’
And off we go racing doubt free pulling off bold moves never to be defeated again!
But if your character is not aligned with that intention, you will be in even more of a mess than ever before. You get a perfect recipe for half-moves that end in a big incident, initiating an overtake with aggression, then when push comes to shove a true part of your character interrupts and hits the panic button with ‘wtf am I doing!!’ followed by an impossible attempt to abort the move, locked brakes and contact.
Driver lab method to clear, decisive and in advance overtaking decisions
Nobody dedicates real world practice and racing to ‘find out who you are’ on a real track where time is short.
But on a sim you can do it. Well, I would say you really must do it, because the difference it makes is so huge!
Recommended procedure for sim driving
Quick reminder: What we want is to give you a racing driver demeanour that matches your core character enough that it flows out on track, resulting in clear committed decisions without doubts.
Your character is complex so we won’t hit that alignment first time - you will know when you get it right - you’ll feel tremendous.
