5 Ways to train for racing in the offseason
When it comes to the offseason for a racing driver it can be hard to figure out how to improve your driving without actually being in the car. The purpose of this post is to give a few ideas as to how the average driver can improve when they can’t be on track. While professional drivers are able to dedicate more time to prepping their craft during the offseason, as well as able to find ways to get to the track more often, these are more directed at the club racer or gentleman driver who has to still work a 9-5 job to support their hobby.
SimRacing
There are a number of reasons simracing is a beneficial training tool. Firstly simracing can be used as a tool to keep your racing reflexes sharp. Regardless of what your opinion is about the realism of the driving experience in a simulator, the same mental approach can be used when on track and you still need to use your tactile, visual, and auditory senses to control the “car”. If you are simracing competitively then racecraft can also be learned and developed. While the stakes may not be as high, the process of setting up and completing a pass are highly realistic and will require the same mental sharpness as it does on the real track.
Another major advantage to simracing in the offseason is the mental aspect of maintaining focus during a race. I think most would agree that auto racing is a seriously mental game and maintaining a high level of focus through a stint ranging from 20 minutes to 2 hours can be an incredibly challenging task. You can use the simulator to maintain and grow this ability by driving long stints while minimizing mistakes and maximizing lap times. Doing this consistently will train your brain to stay “locked in” on the task of driving both on the real racetrack as well as the simulated one.
The final benefit of simracing that I will list here is the ability to learn a track. If you know what tracks you will be driving during the next race season, simracing on simulators such as iRacing can give you an early look at what you will be experiencing on track. Many of the top simulations have incredibly accurate laser scanned versions of most popular tracks around the world. This can give you a rough idea of braking references, track camber, bumps and allow you to create a relatively detailed track map just using time spent driving on it at home. Professional teams all the way up to Formula 1 use simulators to prepare for the upcoming races, so why shouldn’t you? All it takes is a few hundred dollar wheel and decent computer to get started.
2. Fitness
This is by far one of the most overlooked aspects of racing at the amateur level. It has come to light in the last few years how incredibly important it is in professional racing. But why do you need to focus on it while driving your Miata around in a 15 minute race? Well the best explanation I have heard is if you are not using as much energy to physically drive the car then you have more energy to mentally focus on driving the car.
So what should you work on? Well that depends because anything will help to a certain degree. If it is losing some weight, gaining some muscle, or doing cardio to increase muscle endurance it will all help to some extent. There are plenty of articles and videos on the internet about some of the workout regiments F1 and Indycar drivers do to prepare for racing and that would be a good place to start. A good mix of endurance and strength training using things like battle ropes and rowing machines are a good start at simulating some of the conditions you will be withstanding in a race environment.
3. Studying
Ok bear with me, this is more fun than studying for school. To be the best racers we can be, we need to remain open to new knowledge and in some cases change our approach. The kind of studying I am talking about can vary greatly. In the offseason you may want to learn more about driving techniques, setup and car improvement, mental preparation, or learning a specific track. Written content such as the “Speed Secrets” books written by Ross Bentley and Carroll Smith’s “Drive to-” books give insight on various topics from basic driving tips to more advanced vehicle dynamics topics. Another source of information that is valuable would be video content such as webinars and track guides. A great source for this is racers360.com which offers free and paid content that covers just about every question you could have about the act of race-driving. They also offer track guides for just about every track in North America, giving you insights that can be useful when you head to the track.
Take notes on whatever you learn and use them throughout the season as topics to refer back too when analyzing what you are doing as a driver either alone or with a coach.
4. Karting
Rental Karting is undeniably a fantastic training tool for a race car driver. It really brings everything together from being a fantastic workout, working the same senses and muscles used in a race car, to being a tool to work on focus as things come at you very fast in a kart. New tracks continue to pop up around the country and offer a great way to train whenever it is convenient for you. Most also host leagues consisting of sprint races and endurance races that will give you a similar feel to a race weekend. The only downside is that you may be limited by the amount of money you are willing to spend on it, but compared to seat time in a real car it is pennies.
5. Video Analysis
I am a huge advocate for analyzing video. Maybe you are driving a new car this season, maybe you are racing with a different group of drivers, maybe you are racing on a new racetrack, no matter what analyzing video can help you. You may want to study some film of your driving from last season and really slow it down to determine some things you are consistently doing wrong or can improve on. You also may want to use the video of an opponent, ideally one faster than you, to compare techniques to determine what they are doing better or worse than you. If available, broadcasts of past races either in the series you are in or a track you are running can give you an enjoyable way to determine the way drivers manage the race, set up passes, or where they make mistakes.
Going through old races with a fresh and open mind in the offseason really can bring up plenty of ideas you can implement when you get to the track. Reviewing video with a coach in the offseason or before a race weekend can also help you find that extra time you are looking for when you get to that first practice session. Analyzing your driving and sizing up your competition before you ever are on track with them is one way to get ahead of them before the season even starts.
Hope you all enjoyed me breaking down these 5 things you can do as a driver to improve in the offseason. Be sure to follow along on social media as well as this website for more driver improvement content. If you have any questions that you think I can answer, feel free to reach out on social media or send me an email at nathan@nathansaxonracing.com and I will try my best to point you in the right direction.
Also if you are interested in improving your driving during the season, I offer driver coaching services ranging from video analysis to full on driver coaching at the track. You can find out more about that here.