Sorry
Saturday, June 12, 2010 at 10:22AM
I am engrossed in the Le Mans 24 hour, as you should be, and we also have Canadian F1 and England playing soccer. I can only multitask so much, so the blog is suspended for a day.
Night Moves
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 10:26AM
Radio Le Mans did a nice interview with 1992 World Formula One Champion, Nigel Mansell, who is sharing a car with his two sons, a first for Le Mans. It is also Nigel's first time here, and as a man who was known by the tifosi as "El Lion," not someone faint of heart. Yet even Nigel is daunted by the track, and particularly night racing. He has never raced at night before, and is having to qualify himself to do it. The story reminded me of my first visit in 1998 when I unexpectedly met Wayne Gardner.
Wayne, as most of you I hope know, was 1987 World 500cc Motorcycle Champion, and more importantly for this story a winner of the notoriously tough Suzuka 8 Hour, a race that is dark for the last hour, and who rode the last three hours on his own as his co-rider was sick. "Mr 110%" as he was thereafter known, tough as nails and determined. So, here he was in pit lane at Le Mans down to drive an open prototype of not front rank status. Wayne at that time was trying to make a career on four wheels with his own touring car team, and he was driving for Toyota in Japan. Now Toyota had a wonderful looking and very quick prototype that year, almost won but broke in the last hour, and Wayne wanted a drive. Toyota turned him down for lack of Le Mans experience, so Wayne bought a drive to get it.
After the first night session, when Wayne typically was doing well for what the car was, I met him in the garage looking very sorry for himself. He said he had never been so scared in his life. "200 mph down Mulsanne in the dark, the wind is trying to suck the helmet off my head, and I'm paying for this!" Says all there is to say about what makes the Le Mans 24 hour the greatest race in the world.
The ACO, the Club that organizes the 24 hour, yesterday announced the rules for cars from 2011. I have asked Tony Dowe, past winning Team Manager, for his thoughts on them when he has had some time to study them and their implications. In broad terms the top class, LMP1, will be reduced in engine size and hybrids of any type allowed. Current cars will be "grandfathered in" subject to engine restrictions. The ACO has undertaken to equalize the performance of all engine types which should quieten the petrol brigade. The smaller LMP2 class is being subject to a lower cost cap of 400,000 euros, worth less every day, which it is suggested will only be possible if you use what is a current "Challenge Car" which just happens to be built and sold by the ACO.
The GT1/2 classes will disappear and become GT Endurance, which is basically GT2 spec cars, which is a good move. The catch here is there will be a pro class and an amateur class, with only the pros being able to race new cars, and the amateurs, or gentlemen racers, will have to use cars one year old or more. Tony does not like this at all, but I will wait on his full comments and let you have them another day.
David Richards of Aston Martin is not thrilled with the new regs, although he does welcome a belated equalization of the diesels and petrol engines in the top class. David says sports cars do not run diesel engines, but just look at the Audi R8, is that not a sports car? It seems likely that Aston will build a new car for next year, and Audi are rumored to be building the R18, although Tony thinks the days of the diesel are numbered. As much as I love the technology, the sound of a v12 Aston is so much sweeter.
Talk about night moves, sorry Bob Seger, but who put this schedule together for this weekend? Le Mans 24 hour, Canadian F1 GP, World Cup Soccer to name three. How is a guy supposed to get any sleep let alone make any night moves? Then when the World Cup is over the Tour de France starts. That's the next two months shot to pieces, and most of us have to work too!
The Jaguar did make some night moves of its own but the last I heard was that it stopped in pit lane and we never heard any more. There are some curious stories surrounding this team that smacks of "we want a Jaguar at Le Mans whatever it takes." As you know I have been questioning why it is here at all, but it seems there are some questions about its trans-axle gearbox being quite legal, and then there is the qualification or lack of it by Paul Gentilozzi. Now Paul has raced here before but in 1994, so in theory he needed to do ten laps on Wednesday to qualify. F1 drivers like Mansell, Alesi, and Fisichella have had to either qualify or re-qualify because they were here too long ago. On Wednesday the commentators had a list of drivers who were qualified, and Paul's name was not on it, so they presumed that meant he had to do the ten laps, which due to car problems he did not. Thursday we find out the stewards had a different list, a list of drivers that had to qualify, and Paul's name was not on that either, so they let him race. Go figure!
Wayne, as most of you I hope know, was 1987 World 500cc Motorcycle Champion, and more importantly for this story a winner of the notoriously tough Suzuka 8 Hour, a race that is dark for the last hour, and who rode the last three hours on his own as his co-rider was sick. "Mr 110%" as he was thereafter known, tough as nails and determined. So, here he was in pit lane at Le Mans down to drive an open prototype of not front rank status. Wayne at that time was trying to make a career on four wheels with his own touring car team, and he was driving for Toyota in Japan. Now Toyota had a wonderful looking and very quick prototype that year, almost won but broke in the last hour, and Wayne wanted a drive. Toyota turned him down for lack of Le Mans experience, so Wayne bought a drive to get it.
After the first night session, when Wayne typically was doing well for what the car was, I met him in the garage looking very sorry for himself. He said he had never been so scared in his life. "200 mph down Mulsanne in the dark, the wind is trying to suck the helmet off my head, and I'm paying for this!" Says all there is to say about what makes the Le Mans 24 hour the greatest race in the world.
The ACO, the Club that organizes the 24 hour, yesterday announced the rules for cars from 2011. I have asked Tony Dowe, past winning Team Manager, for his thoughts on them when he has had some time to study them and their implications. In broad terms the top class, LMP1, will be reduced in engine size and hybrids of any type allowed. Current cars will be "grandfathered in" subject to engine restrictions. The ACO has undertaken to equalize the performance of all engine types which should quieten the petrol brigade. The smaller LMP2 class is being subject to a lower cost cap of 400,000 euros, worth less every day, which it is suggested will only be possible if you use what is a current "Challenge Car" which just happens to be built and sold by the ACO.
The GT1/2 classes will disappear and become GT Endurance, which is basically GT2 spec cars, which is a good move. The catch here is there will be a pro class and an amateur class, with only the pros being able to race new cars, and the amateurs, or gentlemen racers, will have to use cars one year old or more. Tony does not like this at all, but I will wait on his full comments and let you have them another day.
David Richards of Aston Martin is not thrilled with the new regs, although he does welcome a belated equalization of the diesels and petrol engines in the top class. David says sports cars do not run diesel engines, but just look at the Audi R8, is that not a sports car? It seems likely that Aston will build a new car for next year, and Audi are rumored to be building the R18, although Tony thinks the days of the diesel are numbered. As much as I love the technology, the sound of a v12 Aston is so much sweeter.
Talk about night moves, sorry Bob Seger, but who put this schedule together for this weekend? Le Mans 24 hour, Canadian F1 GP, World Cup Soccer to name three. How is a guy supposed to get any sleep let alone make any night moves? Then when the World Cup is over the Tour de France starts. That's the next two months shot to pieces, and most of us have to work too!
The Jaguar did make some night moves of its own but the last I heard was that it stopped in pit lane and we never heard any more. There are some curious stories surrounding this team that smacks of "we want a Jaguar at Le Mans whatever it takes." As you know I have been questioning why it is here at all, but it seems there are some questions about its trans-axle gearbox being quite legal, and then there is the qualification or lack of it by Paul Gentilozzi. Now Paul has raced here before but in 1994, so in theory he needed to do ten laps on Wednesday to qualify. F1 drivers like Mansell, Alesi, and Fisichella have had to either qualify or re-qualify because they were here too long ago. On Wednesday the commentators had a list of drivers who were qualified, and Paul's name was not on it, so they presumed that meant he had to do the ten laps, which due to car problems he did not. Thursday we find out the stewards had a different list, a list of drivers that had to qualify, and Paul's name was not on that either, so they let him race. Go figure!
Circuits in the street
Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 11:30AM
I am doing an interview with Mark Glendenning of Autosport this morning about the Adelaide F1 race. Autosport is 60 years old this year and is running a series of articles on that history, including a review of iconic tracks from each decade. They have chosen Adelaide for the 80's, which is quite appropriate, as we rewrote the rules for street circuits. This has prompted me to write about what makes Adelaide so good, it is still going after all in V8Supercar guise.
I have said often, and recently, how it annoys me that tracks are built to fit in to the surroundings and not vice versa. This is never more true than for a circuit in the streets. Now I use this term to reflect how it should be viewed, and how I was told to approach Adelaide. One, I was told by the Government who were paying for this that I "was not building a track for 24 prima donnas, I was showing off Adelaide." Two, the sporting body in Australia, CAMS, told me I was building a circuit in the streets, not a street circuit. In simple terms this meant I was not going to be given carte blanche to ignore the rules of track design, but should work as if I were building a normal circuit, and where I could not meet the requirements of those rules then we would discuss options and finally an exemption.
This results in a very different mindset, and I am grateful to them as it was the basis of our philosophy and the driving force behind decisions made to put a lot of effort into rearranging "street furniture" to produce a great track. We knew the race had a long term contract and with Government backing not likely to stop early. We also wanted to make setting up the track as easy as possible, so if we were going to move things like street lights and traffic signals then we should design a system to do that without digging them up every time. Without going into details we came up with great solutions, and it pains me to know that very few have been copied. When I see a race like Long Beach that has been going over 30 years and still has barriers placed to go around light poles I have to ask why?
Of course the streets we had to work with gave us a great start. I always say that a track designs itself, it is there, I just have to find it. Like they say with sculpture, it is in there, you just have to knock all the excess off to reveal it. Adelaide had the parklands next to the city center, and wide roads, but still with medians and light poles and traffic signals that needed rearranging. I was aware as a driver that being able to see through corners was really important, and I did not want it to have that tunnel effect, so I moved the barriers back whenever there was the opportunity, and on the inside of corners moved it back to the back of the footpath. To prevent damage to wheels we filled in the curb to make a FISA type race curb, for which more than one team thanked us for the money we saved them. This lead to problems we had not foreseen. The only piece of track we had problems with was the footpath at the Rundle Street corner, where Rosberg for instance had more of the car on the footpath than the road!
Talking of street tracks, Le Mans started yesterday and the Peugeot's were quick straight out of the box. Under the qualifying times from last year while the track was still cleaning up from being a public road. Audi are going to have to pray for rain, which it looks like they might get. I mentioned Radio Le Mans, and if you are not listening you are missing out. These guys know their stuff. No fluff, know the history, know the cars and drivers, and are on top of what is happening 100% In some ways it is better than TV, as the TV tends to concentrate on one or two cars or teams, while these guys have enough people to be able to capture anything that is happening as it happens, in whatever class. And they paint great word pictures. The description of the Ferrari that came in on the back of a truck during the Qualifying session was classic. I am going to tune in to their commentary during the race rather than listen to the Speed guys. No offence, but they actually know something and do not keep going off into which motel they stayed at when they raced here 20 years ago.
The Jaguar is living down to it's expectations. It ran 6 laps in four hours during practice, and did not manage much more in the two hour qualifying. It has some pace, not enough, when it is going, but whoever in the Jaguar marketing department thought this was a good idea needs to be fired. They have always made great looking cars that are fun to drive, but have been plagued with a reputation for being unreliable. The latest designs are so good I could even be tempted to buy one, but this debacle is not convincing anyone that they have resolved the reliability issues, even though I have not heard of problems with the latest road cars.
I have said often, and recently, how it annoys me that tracks are built to fit in to the surroundings and not vice versa. This is never more true than for a circuit in the streets. Now I use this term to reflect how it should be viewed, and how I was told to approach Adelaide. One, I was told by the Government who were paying for this that I "was not building a track for 24 prima donnas, I was showing off Adelaide." Two, the sporting body in Australia, CAMS, told me I was building a circuit in the streets, not a street circuit. In simple terms this meant I was not going to be given carte blanche to ignore the rules of track design, but should work as if I were building a normal circuit, and where I could not meet the requirements of those rules then we would discuss options and finally an exemption.
This results in a very different mindset, and I am grateful to them as it was the basis of our philosophy and the driving force behind decisions made to put a lot of effort into rearranging "street furniture" to produce a great track. We knew the race had a long term contract and with Government backing not likely to stop early. We also wanted to make setting up the track as easy as possible, so if we were going to move things like street lights and traffic signals then we should design a system to do that without digging them up every time. Without going into details we came up with great solutions, and it pains me to know that very few have been copied. When I see a race like Long Beach that has been going over 30 years and still has barriers placed to go around light poles I have to ask why?
Of course the streets we had to work with gave us a great start. I always say that a track designs itself, it is there, I just have to find it. Like they say with sculpture, it is in there, you just have to knock all the excess off to reveal it. Adelaide had the parklands next to the city center, and wide roads, but still with medians and light poles and traffic signals that needed rearranging. I was aware as a driver that being able to see through corners was really important, and I did not want it to have that tunnel effect, so I moved the barriers back whenever there was the opportunity, and on the inside of corners moved it back to the back of the footpath. To prevent damage to wheels we filled in the curb to make a FISA type race curb, for which more than one team thanked us for the money we saved them. This lead to problems we had not foreseen. The only piece of track we had problems with was the footpath at the Rundle Street corner, where Rosberg for instance had more of the car on the footpath than the road!
Talking of street tracks, Le Mans started yesterday and the Peugeot's were quick straight out of the box. Under the qualifying times from last year while the track was still cleaning up from being a public road. Audi are going to have to pray for rain, which it looks like they might get. I mentioned Radio Le Mans, and if you are not listening you are missing out. These guys know their stuff. No fluff, know the history, know the cars and drivers, and are on top of what is happening 100% In some ways it is better than TV, as the TV tends to concentrate on one or two cars or teams, while these guys have enough people to be able to capture anything that is happening as it happens, in whatever class. And they paint great word pictures. The description of the Ferrari that came in on the back of a truck during the Qualifying session was classic. I am going to tune in to their commentary during the race rather than listen to the Speed guys. No offence, but they actually know something and do not keep going off into which motel they stayed at when they raced here 20 years ago.
The Jaguar is living down to it's expectations. It ran 6 laps in four hours during practice, and did not manage much more in the two hour qualifying. It has some pace, not enough, when it is going, but whoever in the Jaguar marketing department thought this was a good idea needs to be fired. They have always made great looking cars that are fun to drive, but have been plagued with a reputation for being unreliable. The latest designs are so good I could even be tempted to buy one, but this debacle is not convincing anyone that they have resolved the reliability issues, even though I have not heard of problems with the latest road cars.
Le Mans!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010 at 10:38AM
This year's Le Mans 24 hour is finally here. Practice is about to start and you can listen live on RadioLeMans.com. Practice starts at 4 pm local time and runs through to midnight today and tomorrow, and then Friday is the usual rest day with the driver parade before the race, early Saturday morning here in the US.
Laynie Kelly asked me the other day in a comment about how I market myself, and I was going to send her an e-mail, but thought I might do it here for you all to read. In some respects I do not like to "market" myself too much as I get to many "tire kickers" as it is. That's how I spend a year talking to clients and would be clients without doing much design. People find me through recommendations mostly, either other people in the sport, Sanctioning Bodies like the SCCA, or insurers. My reputation and my designs are my best marketing tool. A big problem is that no one has published the fact that there are rules to building tracks since the late eighties, I guess to avoid litigation, so track owners do not know they need someone like me in the first place. They all think they can do it, or worse still find a driver to tell them. I have two things to say about that, "drivers are like lawyers, they all have an opinion," and "I won't tell them how to drive the car if they promise not to tell me how to build a track." As I have said before, not many drivers can really put into expression what they do, that subconscious bit we were talking about yesterday.
The Internet has made it easier to be found once someone decides they need a designer, so I have a web site courtesy of my lovely wife Xan, this blog and Google. Networking is the biggest single thing I do with Facebook and a professional network called LinkedIn being really useful tools, but there is always e-mail and phone. It would be really nice to go to lots of events, but either I am too busy or have no work so cannot afford to do it. Public speaking such as the Forum on track construction and operation in New York last April and the upcoming one in Cologne, Germany, are a great tool for putting yourself out there, particularly to a focused audience. I do radio or press interviews as well and write articles for other web sites.
Last, I have advertised once in a specialist track construction magazine, but it is expensive compared to my daily rates, and not being a major consulting group, hard to justify. I did get the San Antonio project as a result, but that is yet to show its full potential as a fee.
So lots of time networking via all the media available. It has taken time to re-establish myself out there in the market as I "disappear" off to construction projects from time to time when track work gets in short supply. I guess I need to do what Bernie once told me, we should always listen to Bernie, "you need talking money." I should start the clock ticking the minute I start to talk to a client because he is learning something from the get go. It is the chicken and egg situation, I need to give him enough to convince him that I am their man, without giving away the farm. If someone knows how to do that let me know.
Massa has extended his contract with Ferrari as predicted, so I think the music has definitely stopped. From what I have read or seen there are no obvious young guns in the lesser formulas waiting to replace drivers anyway. Picking up on that, I know you all think I am having an affair with Mark Hughes as I carry on about his writing on racing in Autosport, but you really need to subscribe just for his articles. He wrote a piece about F1 in the May 13 issue which is just poetry. One snippet.
"It cannot ever cease to be the pinnacle because whatever is the pinnacle becomes de facto F1. So it stands there while a tide from the lower reaches continues to lap upon it, depositing new waves of hot talent upon it, allowing no place for mediocrity. Take your foot of the gas and your history."
Lastly Martin Whitmarsh of McLaren and FOTA stated the obvious, "The US does not need F1...teams have to market themselves to the US." It begs the question of why Austin is spending the money to promote the teams and their sponsors. The F1 Rights Holder CVC, Bernie, the Teams and their sponsors should be spending the money to promote themselves to us.
Laynie Kelly asked me the other day in a comment about how I market myself, and I was going to send her an e-mail, but thought I might do it here for you all to read. In some respects I do not like to "market" myself too much as I get to many "tire kickers" as it is. That's how I spend a year talking to clients and would be clients without doing much design. People find me through recommendations mostly, either other people in the sport, Sanctioning Bodies like the SCCA, or insurers. My reputation and my designs are my best marketing tool. A big problem is that no one has published the fact that there are rules to building tracks since the late eighties, I guess to avoid litigation, so track owners do not know they need someone like me in the first place. They all think they can do it, or worse still find a driver to tell them. I have two things to say about that, "drivers are like lawyers, they all have an opinion," and "I won't tell them how to drive the car if they promise not to tell me how to build a track." As I have said before, not many drivers can really put into expression what they do, that subconscious bit we were talking about yesterday.
The Internet has made it easier to be found once someone decides they need a designer, so I have a web site courtesy of my lovely wife Xan, this blog and Google. Networking is the biggest single thing I do with Facebook and a professional network called LinkedIn being really useful tools, but there is always e-mail and phone. It would be really nice to go to lots of events, but either I am too busy or have no work so cannot afford to do it. Public speaking such as the Forum on track construction and operation in New York last April and the upcoming one in Cologne, Germany, are a great tool for putting yourself out there, particularly to a focused audience. I do radio or press interviews as well and write articles for other web sites.
Last, I have advertised once in a specialist track construction magazine, but it is expensive compared to my daily rates, and not being a major consulting group, hard to justify. I did get the San Antonio project as a result, but that is yet to show its full potential as a fee.
So lots of time networking via all the media available. It has taken time to re-establish myself out there in the market as I "disappear" off to construction projects from time to time when track work gets in short supply. I guess I need to do what Bernie once told me, we should always listen to Bernie, "you need talking money." I should start the clock ticking the minute I start to talk to a client because he is learning something from the get go. It is the chicken and egg situation, I need to give him enough to convince him that I am their man, without giving away the farm. If someone knows how to do that let me know.
Massa has extended his contract with Ferrari as predicted, so I think the music has definitely stopped. From what I have read or seen there are no obvious young guns in the lesser formulas waiting to replace drivers anyway. Picking up on that, I know you all think I am having an affair with Mark Hughes as I carry on about his writing on racing in Autosport, but you really need to subscribe just for his articles. He wrote a piece about F1 in the May 13 issue which is just poetry. One snippet.
"It cannot ever cease to be the pinnacle because whatever is the pinnacle becomes de facto F1. So it stands there while a tide from the lower reaches continues to lap upon it, depositing new waves of hot talent upon it, allowing no place for mediocrity. Take your foot of the gas and your history."
Lastly Martin Whitmarsh of McLaren and FOTA stated the obvious, "The US does not need F1...teams have to market themselves to the US." It begs the question of why Austin is spending the money to promote the teams and their sponsors. The F1 Rights Holder CVC, Bernie, the Teams and their sponsors should be spending the money to promote themselves to us.
Mind Games
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 at 11:27AM
Bit late with the blog today, lots of interesting stuff going on, and hopefully one day I will get to design and build a track! Singapore is still alive, Arizona has a life of its own and has since it surfaced, and San Antonio is still trying to work out how to get the cost right. Had an e-mail out of the blue this morning for an interview about the Adelaide F1 track! I'll let you know when that is going to be published, but it is the best motor sport magazine and a rare honor. Seems like I am a 25 year overnight success!
Mark Webber has signed a one year extension to his Red Bull contract as expected, so it looks like the music has stopped and the seats are full for next year, in the top teams at least. I talked about Mark's mental strength and how that is the difference between any Champion and just plain talent. I love motor racing in particular, as I found even at the level I competed at it teaches you so much about yourself and how the mind works. I have said here before, there is a huge difference between racing and driving fast, and that is all in the mind and how you can divorce the driving from the strategy.
Now we all should know we have two sides to our brain, creative/imaginative and the rational, and how we balance those makes us who we are I guess. When racing I found out that both sides work at the same time and a "conversation" is going on while some other piece is doing the actual driving. When you get to a particularly difficult looking piece of the track your imaginative side is telling you to slow down, don't like the look of this, too fast. The rational is saying "now look, we went round here at 3500 revs last time, so let's try 3600." Or on a bad blind crest I remember the logical part saying to the other "turn left, it turned left last time dummy, so turn left." Your right foot is oscillating between the two, "make your mind up." Fascinating. This is only part of it of course, there is also the way the brain learns to cope with increasing speed, the ability to process data, sights and sounds, learn braking and turn in points, who is quick where and where are you quicker, how to get a run on them etc.
There was a nice piece in Autosport a few weeks ago prior to the Monaco GP on how to master the place. Of course it included reference to Senna's famous "out of body" experience during practice, lapping 1.5 seconds quicker than Prost in the same car. Mind games of course, but not to be dismissed. I am no Senna, but my best win came at Winton, a great club track in Australia, on a day the rain fell from the sky and never stopped. I told myself to drive the car as fast as I could, and if someone was able to go quicker then so be it. I resigned myself to being totally wet and ignored the rain. I qualified on the front row, the flag fell and I never saw anyone again all race except to lap. I do not know if it was what Senna was feeling, but the track was terrible, standing water everywhere, and I felt as if a part of me was being projected through the eye slot in my full face helmet and "feeling" the road in front so I knew what the grip level would be. Spooky eh?
Several other F1 drivers in the article talk about special races like that. I guess it is an ability to achieve a level of concentration so utterly complete that nothing else matters, not even your concious self. What if we could capture that in our life more often, what could we achieve?
On a completely different note, now you all think Barnard has lost it, the IRL must be using the same PR agency as Red Bull and BP Oil. After the total debacle trying to rescue the driver and put out a fire during last weekend's IRL race from Texas, and if you have not seen it go on YouTube, you would think they would come out and say "sorry about that but we will totally review our emergency planning, rewrite our response procedures, recheck all our equipment, and retrain all of our response team to ensure this never happens again." But no, we got "we will check that hose to find out why it did not work, and we have the best response teams in the business." Really? Well we all saw how "world class" they were for ourselves.
Mark Webber has signed a one year extension to his Red Bull contract as expected, so it looks like the music has stopped and the seats are full for next year, in the top teams at least. I talked about Mark's mental strength and how that is the difference between any Champion and just plain talent. I love motor racing in particular, as I found even at the level I competed at it teaches you so much about yourself and how the mind works. I have said here before, there is a huge difference between racing and driving fast, and that is all in the mind and how you can divorce the driving from the strategy.
Now we all should know we have two sides to our brain, creative/imaginative and the rational, and how we balance those makes us who we are I guess. When racing I found out that both sides work at the same time and a "conversation" is going on while some other piece is doing the actual driving. When you get to a particularly difficult looking piece of the track your imaginative side is telling you to slow down, don't like the look of this, too fast. The rational is saying "now look, we went round here at 3500 revs last time, so let's try 3600." Or on a bad blind crest I remember the logical part saying to the other "turn left, it turned left last time dummy, so turn left." Your right foot is oscillating between the two, "make your mind up." Fascinating. This is only part of it of course, there is also the way the brain learns to cope with increasing speed, the ability to process data, sights and sounds, learn braking and turn in points, who is quick where and where are you quicker, how to get a run on them etc.
There was a nice piece in Autosport a few weeks ago prior to the Monaco GP on how to master the place. Of course it included reference to Senna's famous "out of body" experience during practice, lapping 1.5 seconds quicker than Prost in the same car. Mind games of course, but not to be dismissed. I am no Senna, but my best win came at Winton, a great club track in Australia, on a day the rain fell from the sky and never stopped. I told myself to drive the car as fast as I could, and if someone was able to go quicker then so be it. I resigned myself to being totally wet and ignored the rain. I qualified on the front row, the flag fell and I never saw anyone again all race except to lap. I do not know if it was what Senna was feeling, but the track was terrible, standing water everywhere, and I felt as if a part of me was being projected through the eye slot in my full face helmet and "feeling" the road in front so I knew what the grip level would be. Spooky eh?
Several other F1 drivers in the article talk about special races like that. I guess it is an ability to achieve a level of concentration so utterly complete that nothing else matters, not even your concious self. What if we could capture that in our life more often, what could we achieve?
On a completely different note, now you all think Barnard has lost it, the IRL must be using the same PR agency as Red Bull and BP Oil. After the total debacle trying to rescue the driver and put out a fire during last weekend's IRL race from Texas, and if you have not seen it go on YouTube, you would think they would come out and say "sorry about that but we will totally review our emergency planning, rewrite our response procedures, recheck all our equipment, and retrain all of our response team to ensure this never happens again." But no, we got "we will check that hose to find out why it did not work, and we have the best response teams in the business." Really? Well we all saw how "world class" they were for ourselves.