This is the time of year when racing events are coming up and people start pushing harder. The hosts are talking about how that leads to setting specific performance goals.
They’re contrasting racing in real life (“IRL”) with racing in a simulator. It’s about how your mindset and goals change when you go from virtual laps to real cars on a track.
Car placement is basically where you put your car on the track. The goal is to be in the best spot to brake, turn, and either attack or defend against other drivers.
Wheel-to-wheel means you’re racing right next to other cars, not just driving alone. It’s harder because you have to judge space and timing while staying smooth and predictable.
Racecraft just means how you drive and make decisions when you’re racing other cars side-by-side. It’s not only speed—it’s knowing when to defend, when to pass, and how to place your car so you can keep control.
Minimum speed is the slowest speed you reach while going through a corner. If you slow down too much, you lose momentum and the rest of the lap gets harder—so drivers try to keep that slow point as high as possible.
Flow is when you’re so focused on what you’re doing right now that you stop worrying about the final outcome. On track, it looks like thinking about the next corner instead of stressing about winning.
“Car prep” means getting the car ready for the track. If the tires and brakes are in good shape, you can focus more on driving instead of worrying that the car won’t do what you need.
They’re referring to a specific corner on the track—corner number four. Using corner numbers makes it easier to plan and talk about what to do at each part of the lap.
“Position” here refers to racing placement (e.g., 12th vs 11th) and how that changes driver mindset. The hosts suggest that the psychological pressure of gaining positions can either distract you from execution or help you focus—depending on where you are in the field.
“Break a little deeper” means braking later and/or with more commitment to reach a tighter or more optimal line. It’s a common racing phrase, but it depends heavily on grip, brake capacity, and tire condition—pushing too far can cause lockup or understeer.
Topic
tiny motorcycles
The hosts switch to “tiny motorcycles,” using them as an analogy for how race frequency and risk tolerance affect decision-making. Even though it’s not a car, the underlying driving/riding psychology (staying present, avoiding unnecessary risk) is transferable to track driving.
Dopamine is a chemical your brain uses to make you feel rewarded. The idea here is that chasing a goal—like improving lap times—creates that reward feeling, which pushes you to keep working.
If tires overheat, they can wear out faster and stop gripping as well. That makes the car feel worse and less predictable, so you may need to adjust how you drive or how the car is set up.
Your “setup” is how you tune the car for the track. If the track is hot and the tires don’t grip as well, you change settings so the car handles better.
“Data and video review” refers to using telemetry (like speed, braking points, and throttle traces) and recording laps to identify where performance is gained or lost. The hosts frame it as part of the feedback loop that helps drivers keep improving between sessions.
“Taking the wheels off again” implies a hands-on inspection or adjustment cycle, often to check components that affect handling and tire wear. In track prep, this can be part of diagnosing a “funny” feeling by verifying suspension, brakes, or setup-related items.
Suspension is what connects the wheels to the car and helps the tires stay in contact with the road. Changing suspension settings can make the car handle better when the track conditions change.
They’re using “circle of life” to describe a repeating cycle: you practice, you get better, and that makes you want to practice more. It’s about motivation and improvement building on itself.
A track day is when you drive on a race track with other drivers, usually for practice and learning. It’s not regular street driving—it’s a controlled environment to improve your skills.
Term
comp school curriculum
“Comp school curriculum” refers to a competitive-driving training track the speaker uses alongside their HPD program. It implies a progression from general track skills toward skills needed for competition events.
Term
HPD curriculum
HPD curriculum is the training plan the speaker uses to teach track driving. It’s basically a set of lessons and practice drills aimed at improving how you drive on track.
Topic
intermediate level driver
They’re talking about driver skill levels—like beginner, intermediate, and so on. The point is to match what you’re learning to the level you’re currently at.
A goal is something specific you’re trying to achieve. A hope is more like a feeling or wish that keeps you motivated, and that motivation can help you get into a focused, productive mindset.
Forks are the front suspension parts that hold up the front of the bike and help it absorb bumps. If you swap forks, you can also change what brake setup the bike can use.
Springs are the parts that support the bike and decide how stiff or soft the suspension feels. Custom springs let you tune the bike so it stays controlled during hard riding.
Brake later means you wait longer before slowing down for a turn. If the brakes are better, you can usually stop harder and later, which changes how the bike settles before the corner.
Weight transfer is how the bike’s weight shifts when you brake, accelerate, or turn. More braking usually loads the front tire more, which can change grip and handling.
Races are often split into classes so similar bikes compete together. They’re saying winning your own class isn’t the whole story—they want to beat bikes from higher classes too.
When you switch cars, you have to quickly learn how it feels and how it wants to be driven. The best drivers notice what’s working and what’s not, then tell the owner/team so they can adjust the car.
In racing, the driver’s comments help the team change the car. If you can explain what feels off (or what feels great), the owner can adjust the setup to make the car faster and easier to drive.
They’re talking about how teammates can push each other while still working together. Even if you’re not winning overall, being the faster person in your group can feel better than finishing higher but being the slowest.
Endurance racing is like a long-duration race where you don’t just go all-out for a few minutes. You have to stay consistent, manage wear on the bike, and often share driving duties with teammates.
They mention GLTC as the kind of racing Brian was doing. Different racing series have different rules and equipment, which can change how hard it is to be fast and how much setup matters.
“Set up” means the bike/car is adjusted so it handles the way the rider wants. If it’s not set up well, it can feel harder to control and slower even if the rider is talented.
Rain makes the tires grip less and makes braking take longer. If there’s a lot of water on the track, it can feel like you can’t see or stop as well, so you have to slow down earlier.
They’re talking about a specific track (AMP) where they raced in the rain. Wet tracks change braking and grip, so passing and fighting for position can get intense.
In the rain, you can’t brake as aggressively without risking a skid. They’re saying they were able to slow down in time for the corner by braking before it got too late.
Mixed conditions are when parts of the track have different grip, like some corners are wet and others are drying. It’s harder because the car can change behavior corner to corner.
Adverse conditions are when the track is harder to drive on, like when it’s wet or mixed. In those situations, tires and car behavior matter a lot more than usual.
Tire choice is one of the biggest levers for lap time in rain and mixed conditions because it directly affects tread pattern, compound, and how quickly the tire can evacuate water. The wrong tire can cause loss of traction and even overheating or instability, which is why drivers talk about it as a competitive advantage.
An electrical problem is when something in the car’s wiring or sensors acts up. In a race, that can cause the car to run poorly or even shut down, even if the driver is doing everything right.
Making the car “as wide as possible” usually means increasing effective track width (often via wheel/tire choice and alignment settings) to improve lateral stability and reduce how easily the car feels like it’s rolling or slipping. In rain, a wider stance can help the tires maintain grip and provide more predictable turn-in through complex sections.
“The S’s” are a set of corners that go left-right-left (or right-left-right). In wet conditions, they’re especially tricky because the car has to keep changing direction smoothly.
“Defense” in racing is how you keep someone from passing you. You don’t just go fast—you place your bike so it’s harder for the other rider to find a safe place to get around you.
Sprint racing is a shorter race where you push hard right away. Because it’s not long, getting a good start and passing cleanly can matter a lot.
Term
endurance bike
An “endurance bike” is a bike meant for longer races. It’s usually set up to be easier to ride for a while, and in this story it’s being used because the rider thinks it’ll help them perform better.
A “five-speed transmission” means the bike has more gears than a four-speed. More gears can help the engine stay in the right rev range, which can make the bike feel quicker when you accelerate or exit corners.
More corners means more chances to gain time or get stuck behind someone. With 13 corners, you’re constantly braking and adjusting your line, so passing takes planning.
“Overlapped” means you’re riding next to the other bike at the same time. When that happens for lots of corners, it usually means you’re both trying to set up a pass.
“Under braking” is when you’re slowing down for a turn. Passing there can work because you might brake later, but it’s also risky if you’re too aggressive.
This is about planning ahead to pass. Instead of trying to make a move at the last second, you set up your speed and position earlier so the passing opportunity is there when you reach the corner.
In racing, you often choose a line early and then stick with it. If you commit to that plan, it can be hard to change your mind at the last second without losing time or risking contact.
When two cars are very evenly matched, you can’t always force a pass. So you often have to wait for the other driver to slip up—like braking a little wrong or turning in at the wrong time.
“Pace discrepancy” is basically how much faster you are than the car in front. If you’re not clearly quicker, you usually can’t pass unless the other driver makes a mistake.
“Entry” is what you do when you first approach and turn into the corner. “Exit” is what you do as you leave the corner—when you get on the gas and straighten out.
On a track, corners aren’t independent—you have to think about how one turn sets up the next. The best approach is the one that helps you carry speed through the whole sequence.
Concept
intuition vs experience
They’re saying it’s not just luck or a gut feeling. With practice and feedback, what seems intuitive turns into something you can trust because you’ve seen it work before.
Concept
control is out of my hands
Even if a coach gives great advice, the driver still has to execute it on track. So the coach focuses on what they can affect—like guidance and readiness—rather than outcomes.
When they say “go out on track,” they mean the actual driving sessions. It’s not just about feeling confident—it’s about turning that mindset into consistent driving that helps you go faster.
“Approach” is your plan for how you’ll drive in the session. Instead of just hoping to do well, you decide what you’ll focus on while you’re actually on track.
Lap time is how long it takes to do one full lap around the track. Faster lap times usually come from driving more consistently and making better decisions in corners.
LIVE
Hi, I'm Scott, and I'm Seth, and we are Track Walking. Tonight, we talk about a paradox,
which has always been an intriguing concept to me in general, a paradox, which is two things.
Two docks sitting in a lake right next to each other, paradox. We have lots of ducks this time
of year, and a lot of diving ducks, they like all of a sudden disappear, and then they like
loop up to the surface. They're so buoyant. Shockingly so. They don't just come to the surface,
they like bounce out of it a little bit, like they breach a little bit. It's so cute. It's never
ending enjoyment for Becky, who loves to look at all the wildlife. Becky and I are in the same
picture, so sorry to disrupt you with more bird stuff. Birds, muskrats. Oh, I do love muskrats,
too. They make a mess of everything. Yes, they do. Squirrels got some cats, although now that the
lake isn't frozen, maybe the cats are just living where they should be now. Instead of taking a
shortcut across the lake. Yeah, they were absolutely walking straight across the frozen lake,
idiots. Yeah, paradox. It's this idea that two things that are seemingly opposite, that are
seemingly like can't cooperate with each other, can coexist at the same time. I've always found
that to be an interesting concept. So we're kind of getting into competition season. So I know like
a lot of our sim racer buddies have been doing like lots of competition and stuff like that,
but we're kind of getting into the IRL racing coming up. And it's always interesting coming
into the year seeing the goals that people have for themselves on track, especially those who
are going like specifically for competition, right? They've got these goals like, all right,
I'm going to, of course, like want to improve this thing on the car. And then I want to get a podium
or I want to win the championship, right? That means these are the goals.
Set high goals. That way you can be disappointed in a new and exciting way.
And I understand why we set these kinds of goals because we want what's on the other side
of all the effort that we put in, right? I mean, we want something to show for it. We want to improve,
we want to be better than those that we are competing against.
And the world has told us that setting goals is important.
Certainly over the last few years, it's become a popular part of psychology that,
you know, you should goal set to achieve these things. You can't just randomly stumble into
success. It has to be somewhere you go on purpose. Premeditated. Yeah. Where was this
when we were talking about New Year's Eve or New Year's goals? You sound like more of a
goal skeptic now. I'm all for life goals. It's just racing goals. That seems silly.
That's fair. Yeah, like when we talked about parkour and going off-roading, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Achievable things. That's what I'm all for.
And like, I'm totally on board for these results-based goals.
But I don't think those are goals. I think those are hopes. And those are two different things.
But everybody who makes them thinks they're goals.
Yeah. Because it's something in the future that you work towards, right?
How is that not a goal? You're going to have to tell me why
like they're not just like the act of setting a goal might be counterproductive, but like
they're not even setting a goal to start with. No. I think the difference between a hope and a goal
is agency. Okay. Is the power to influence that particular goal or hope?
So like if you had a goal of climbing a mountain, the mountain's not going anywhere. It's just you
versus the mountain. It's a big lump of rock. You versus the mountain versus the weather versus
conditions versus money to get gear, like that kind of stuff. But like money and gear,
you can plan that ahead. Right. The mountain largely doesn't change. The weather, however,
is like the thing. And there are some years that you just don't get to go up because the weather
will not cooperate. But if it was just easy, then it wouldn't be a goal. Like you have to have a
chance of failure. Otherwise, you just, it's just like walking to the kitchen.
But I think the goal is to make the earnest attempts.
Okay. I think the hope is the successful completion of that goal.
You see what I'm saying? I do kind of, but then in racing, like what is actually a goal in racing,
then? Boy, not stuff we like to talk about. I mean, the hope is always like,
I want to be top 10. I want to be podium. I want to win the championship. I want
whatever those kinds of goals are, or hopes are that we set as goals. Because again, we don't
decide who else shows up. We don't decide their level of prep,
the level of money and time spent. Or if our car breaks, or they're like, we,
there's so much in racing that we don't get to decide. Especially in a competition format.
Like this is competition. It's not like I'm going to lose five pounds.
Like that's, that's a goal. You can do that goal, right? That's something that you have control over.
But when you say, all right, in this field of 40 cars, I'm going to win.
And maybe, maybe you will, right? But that's not the goal. That's the hope on the other side of the goal.
And so the paradox here is that having these hopes of the result that we want
is weirdly gets in the way of achieving that hope in the present.
Okay. Explain that to me.
So when we talk about the work of driving, when we talk about awareness, vision, car control,
car placement, like all of this stuff, when you go out on track and you're trying to do well,
right? These are the things you're thinking about. You're thinking about if you're in wheel
to wheel, you're thinking about racecraft, you're thinking about distance to the car,
minimum speed, placements, what you're better at, what they're better at, all of these things.
You really don't think I'm going to win this race
in the moment, unless you're like last lap and you're like 20 seconds ahead of everyone else,
right?
If I say sometimes, sometimes, you're just not used to winning.
Ouch.
It's fair. It's fair.
But what ends up happening is that when we are in full control of our skills and our awareness
in the moment, that's called flow. That's when we've been offered a challenge, a genuine challenge
to our skills, but an achievable one within our skill set or our car prep, as it were.
We are using our skills. We're using the awareness. We're really having to pay attention,
but we're in the moment. We're thinking, okay, I went into that corner a little hot. Next lap,
I'm going to change it here. All right, what's next? We got turn four. We're going to do this.
That's just step by step by step. It's in the moment. And when you fast forward and you think
of the result, when you are in the moment, that flow goes away and that flow is the best chance
of achieving the result. And so that's the paradox is that by thinking of the pink elephant,
the pink elephant doesn't appear, right? So if you're preoccupied with winning out on track,
you will not drive your best. Are you with me? Maybe. Yeah, I see where you're coming from.
I don't know that I all the way agree with you. All right, go. I think the desire for a result
can be distracting, but maybe this is just in racing cars. There's a whole bunch of things
where you're like, no, I'm going to try a little harder, but I'm going to do the things I know
how to do better because the result of doing that will be spectacular. And I think it's different
if you're in second, trying to go into first than if you're in 12th, trying to go into 11th.
I think you think you can have your head in a different spot. You can be willing to
try a little harder, break a little deeper, like you understand that in this moment,
me being the best that I can be matters. And if you're in 12th going for 11th, you're like,
eh, I'm not going to screw it. Like, it's just, I'm fine here. And maybe you don't do that when
you're 12th going into 11th, but I personally fight for position differently whether or not
it matters. But when I'm doing tiny motorcycles, also, we've got, I'll have like eight races in a
day. Right. And like kids, you don't want to knock over. Yeah. And it's just sort of like, it doesn't,
you know, it doesn't benefit anybody for me to try like something brave in the second to last
corner to go from 7th to 6th. Right. I've got four more races today. You know, if I have a good
battle, that's fine. But will I, will I work really, really hard on the second to last corner?
If it might mean that I can get position to get first instead of second?
Yeah, I'm not going to be dangerous, but I'm going to be a lot closer to being dangerous than I would
further down. But I think that's motivation. I don't think that's preoccupation. I think
that's using the desire for that hope for that, you know, quote unquote goal that we keep talking
about. I think that's the dopamine to like keep you coming back to do the work to, you know,
when you're in between us, when you're about to go out to say the hottest session of the weekend,
and you're kind of like, eh, track is going to be junk. The drifters just went out.
Tires are going to be melting. Like there's not much I can learn here. I'm just going to,
I'll just go out to a couple laps. Like that's, that's what you go out on the track with versus
like these might be podium sprint conditions. Like what can I do to prepare
for podium sprint in this condition? All right, the track is going to be really hot. That's
mean it's going to be a little slippery. It's not going to grip quite as well. What car setup
changes could we try to make it better in these conditions because we might need that on other
tracks? Or you just come into the weekend with the goal or the hope
of being number one in every single session, right? You don't just want to win the weekend.
You want to win the weekend in every condition possible, right? Like you just, you don't want
to beat the competition. Like you want to be the best at everything.
Need them to know that they were beat. Tell them, tell them who it was who did it.
But like in, in that desire to like want to win, like to want this, to hope for this result,
I think that's that dopamine. That's the, the, the motivation to keep digging deep,
to keep trying things, to like do another five minutes of data and video review.
Like when you were thinking, well, I could take a look at this on my car. It feels a little funny.
It's fine. It's like, I really want this thing. Let's do it. And it's taking the wheels off again,
checking the, checking your suspension or your setup, something like that,
making a little adjustment and learning, right? It's taking more notes. It's drinking more water,
you know, whatever it is on a track weekend, it's that little bit of extra to go back to.
Like that's the work that leads to the flow that gets you to the results. And those results
motivate you, the hope for the results motivates you to do the work better so that you can get
to it. So I think it's like this circle, circle of life, maybe.
Yeah. So it's less than I'm trying hard to go from second to first is that I'm
giving up easier when I'm going from six to seventh or seventh to sixth. Yeah. So
I should be doing, I should have that level of intensity all the time, but I can only.
If, if that's what you want though, right? Yeah, that's true. I mean, that's, that's something in,
I'm working with Revmatch, which is a track day organization this summer,
and we're using my HPD curriculum and my comp school curriculum with them this year,
which is pretty fun. It's something I've been working on for a few years, like kind of refining.
It's going to be interesting to see how, how their organization kind of puts into practice.
But like one of the things I'm sure to say in there is sometimes people don't want to
move up. Sometimes people don't want to quote unquote improve. There are drivers legitimately
who just intermediate's good. Like that's fine or advanced is fine. Like they're,
they're good there and outside pressure or motivation or cheer speeches
aren't going to be what gets them to like go learn new skills or to try to
move up into the next category. That has to be a self-motivated thing. And so that's something
I was very clear to put in there is like, you know, once you get to advanced, you really,
you know, they'll, they'll have meetings of course and stuff, but nobody gets pressured
into like you have to complete this drill. Like you don't have to like here's in advance. There's a
basic required skill level and very explicitly unlike all these areas. If you display all of these,
you are an advanced level driver. And as long as you keep displaying those,
I don't care if you go to competition, like hang out, have a good time,
hand out the window, whatever you want, you know, play by the rules and we're all good.
Or same for intermediate, right? If you display these level, these skills, you are an intermediate
level driver. And if you're good with that, cool, you know, so you should, you should only want
for someone that thing that they want for themselves. I mean, when you say it like that,
it sounds really smart and deep and like fortune, fortune cookie level stuff, right?
God, I should write fortune cookies. Yeah, we, yeah. God, that would be fun.
I feel like, isn't there a symbol on the fortune cookie? I feel like we could just make a white
t-shirt with red lettering and, and it could be like race car to 16 or something like that. I
don't know, whatever the lucky numbers are that they put at the end of fortune cookies.
Or we could learn to make fortune cookies so that we could put our own fortunes inside them
and hand them out to people that track weekends. I once learned that there's like
one or two fortune cookie companies and like that's it. And everyone gets their
cookies from these same like one or two companies and that was before COVID. So I,
I don't know if that's got streamlined into one or what.
But you can contract them to make like, there was a time where you could
get custom fortune cookies made. You just contact them and they're like,
we'll put what, what you need inside them. See now I,
see this, man, we should have done this instead of stickers, like the get better soon stickers
that we have for GLTC drivers. We could have just gotten them a fortune cookie and just be like,
here you go. But we know what's inside of it. We know you're not sick. We just think you can be
better. Oh man, that would have been so much better. Everybody likes fortune cookies. I don't
like the cookie, but I like the little fortune. I love the cookies. It's too good. Too crunchy.
Yeah. What kind of world do you live in? Oh yeah, you're the saggy serial guy.
Thank you. Yes, I am. But yeah, I think that's the, that's largely like the, the cycle of
you know, that there's, there's a distinction between a goal and a hope,
but that our hopes are really what motivate the work that allows us to get to the flow
and the flow is then what can achieve the goal. So I think like if I was to make a flow diagram,
like that's kind of what, what I would be drawing little arrows and things like that.
So is it somehow, if we change our thinking about this, we still have the same,
we have a result as a hope instead of a result as a goal. Is it somehow less disappointing
if we don't achieve it or does it still feel bad in the same way? I think, I think it actually
allows you to feel bad because a hope is, I think a very emotional thing. Like it's not
really rational. It's just something you hope for and a goal is something you work towards, right?
And so I think allowing it to intentionally putting it in the emotional category,
like places at where it should be from the get go, like it's an emotional hope is like a,
an, an emotional investment in something invisible.
And so if you don't get it, like it's, it's an emotional thing. So yeah, it's like,
you should be disappointed. It's disappointing. It's sad, but it was from the beginning,
like it could have been sad. It's the Pandora's box, right? It could have been sad or it could have
been amazing. I guess that's the thing is in order for something to feel amazing
when it happens, you have to have the distinction of it feeling like super crappy when it doesn't,
like you have to have the, the low to balance out the high. The risk. Cause if it doesn't,
if it doesn't make you sad, then it doesn't matter if it makes you happy. Right. Yeah. I,
or the fear of not getting it, you know, that whole thing, but yeah, but again, like that,
the fear of that was something that a show Becky and I watched called Shorzy,
goofy show about hockey, which is very funny. Yeah, they talk a lot about, you know,
well, the guys just don't want to win. It's like, no, no, that's not enough. They have to hate losing.
Yeah. And I always thought that distinction was interesting because kind of like you said, like,
if you love to win, like it's okay if you lose, right? But like when winning happens, it's great.
But like if you hate to lose, you're going to work your ass off a lot more, I think.
I feel very attacked by this whole line of talking.
Well, but what is losing to you, right? Like, I think to you that would look much different than
than others. That's true because I'm not really a results based racer. I'm, if I race
badly, I feel bad. It doesn't, it doesn't much matter what my position is. I tend to finish higher
if I race well, right? But it's not the position that makes me sad. It's doing a bad, like knowing
that I did a bad job racing. That's what makes me feel bad. Yes. So, yes. So I think that's,
that yeah, that's probably the difference for you.
So yeah, I was just mostly around thinking about that again, now that we're in
competition season and competitions have happened and will be.
Yeah, I raced. I raced already. It's we've, we're waiting for the second round to happen down here.
So. Wild. How, how many weeks till that happened?
Three, I think until the next race. Okay. So going to solo thing or no with the team.
So the, the same father and son that I raced with last year, it's just that the bike has, we
are running the same motor that we ran in the last round last year. So we have all the horsepower,
but we put a set of forks on it that have a disc brakes. And now we have all the horsepower
and the ability to stop, which is quite a new revelation. And we're trying to get the suspension
sorted out right now because we're doing things way outside the realm of what the bike was ever
meant to do. Custom springs are being made. That's the. Well, and that's the thing where my,
my car brain would go to. It's like, okay, you make the same power, but you're going to be able
to brake later, which means your top speed is really going to be higher, which also means that
your capacity to pitch the bike forward using the brakes can be much higher. Right. Necessity
setup changes. Yeah, there's, there's a lot dynamically, a lot going on. And yeah, we're,
there's suffice to say we did very well in our first round and we want to do better.
It's one of those things where just just being the fastest bike in our class isn't good enough.
We need to beat the bikes in the faster classes to prove how good we are.
You want to beat everybody.
We would love to beat everybody. I don't think we're going to beat everybody, but we can beat,
we can beat a lot of people that we shouldn't beat on paper. And every time we do that,
um, like if you could charge our battery with everyone else's bad feelings, we're just,
we're just trying to get enough people to feel bad about themselves to make us feel
good about ourselves, which sounds. Is that how F1 recharges their batteries with super
clipping just based off of how bad they're making other people feel? Probably. Yeah.
Yeah. And that's, that's really the problem with Haas doing well is you, you take away
like the fact that, that Haas used to provide that energy to everybody from an unlimited source
just by driving around feeling bad and no Haas is doing well and nobody knows what to do about it.
So. Well, but now you've got Aston Martin and Williams feeling pretty bad right now. So.
Yeah. I mean, yeah, there's, there is a lot of comedy. There's comedy in tragedy going on in
formula one right now. Um, probably similar to what's going on in my tiny motorcycle racing as
well. Um, as we show up and people sort their builds out for the year and things like that.
Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting with, for me, like I don't have a particular event or like season long
thing that I'm competing in. Um, I'm going to be doing some driving, but yeah, my like competition,
hope or goal really is just to do it. Um, because I don't know what like, okay, I know the cars,
I'm going to be in in a couple of them, but otherwise I don't really know what I'm driving or
what I would be competing in otherwise. So I can't like, I've no, no gauge for like what that hope
would be. The goal is just to drive as well as possible. I was going to say, you know what
driving well feels like. Right. You can put you in a variety of different cars. Right. And you'll
come off track and go, I either did that well or I did that poorly. Yeah. And really the, the goal,
especially when I get into other people's cars, besides like bringing it back in one piece,
is really to adapt as quickly as possible and to be aware enough of the car. It's
good aspects and the things that need to be improved to get that feedback back to the car owner.
You can't tell me like, you don't have a back-ear mind goal of beating the car owner.
Always. Always. Um, certainly not realistic, but yeah, I mean, that's, that's the thing when
they talk about like teammates in the same car, right? Right. Yeah. It's like, I got, I got to be
the fast one. Even if it's by a couple of tents, like if it's by a couple of tents, like I feel
by more, come on. We do that endurance racing as well between the three of us. There is,
you know, we could get 10th overall, but if I was the fastest rider on the bike that day,
I would feel much less bad about 10th overall than if we got third overall, but I was the
slowest guy on the bike. Yeah. Yeah. I remember when, when Brian was racing GLTC and we were
kind of doing the whole teammate thing, right? Um, like Brian's quick. Um, and like Brian never
really had like a fully well set up car. Um, and, you know, and we were, you know,
coaching him up here and there, but like Brian had a lot more in it and like
Brian was pretty damn quick at some tracks, just like naturally. And so like whenever,
whenever he'd be ahead of me, like I'd kind of smile and stuff. And by the back of my head, I'm
like, man, I really want to be in front of you though. Um, it was, it was so much fun. I remember
especially AMP. He and I just talked about this a few weeks back, but at AMP when it was wet and
everything and like, uh, he, he definitely like, we definitely had some side by side
moments, like fighting it out sort of stuff that was just like smiling underneath my helmet,
a little bit extra, like having them come at me and vice versa. So it was a good time.
Those are good. In the last endurance race, we had about 25 minutes of rain.
And, um, but it was one of those things where I on the track, I went down and I came back and
all of a sudden I came back facing the other direction and you could see the wall of water
coming. Oh yeah. Like proper, proper East Texas, Florida, you know, the same thing where you're,
you're like looking into a gray wall where the world ceases to exist because it's all wet.
And it was just one of those moments I'd been on the bike for 10 minutes. I was like,
Oh no. And by the time I got to the next corner, it was just like all the way down. And the good
thing was, you know, I was able to just like get on the brakes, slow the bike down before the corner
and do that. But when it was raining, I started to feel comfortable, not fast, but comfortable.
Okay. And then I started to pass people who are better than me. I mean, in general, better than
me. It was largely because they had, there was no reason for them to take any risk. Um, you know,
they were, their positions were solidified. All they needed to do is circulate in the wet.
But, oh, it felt good. It felt good to pass people in the wet and, and just be like, I'm
in this moment. I'm faster than you because I choose to be. And that's red.
I mean, I've, I have passed more than a fair share of people in adverse conditions
or in mixed conditions. Sometimes due to tire choice, uh, sometimes from like,
I don't even want to say a minor mechanical, but like, you know, their car cut out because
they're having this electrical problem and stuff. And part of me is like, I mean, that sucks,
but I'm going to finish higher than you. And so like, I'm, I mean, that's part of competition,
right? It's like the car has to work, the bike has to work. Your tired decision
needs to be the best that it can be and do the best that you can with it versus other people
like them. That is competition. So yeah. Yeah. Feels good to be good. It feels good. Yeah. And
that's part of why, um, when I raced at pit race a couple of years back in the rain, um,
but on a super grippy track surface, uh, a 15 wheel, 15 inch wheel guys just don't have much
of an option because we don't have a full width rain tire choice, which just sucks.
Like it's, it's really great for low grip tracks, like super downpour stuff. Like it's great,
but in anything mixed conditions, you know, we're at a bit of a disadvantage for sure.
So, oh well, say love you. And then it still feels bad. Even if you know, it's not like a skill
issue, you know, it's not one of those things where, you know, they're passing me because
they're better than me. You're like, now they're passing me because they just like,
in this situation, their car is that much better and it still feels bad. Oh, it feels terrible.
Like through the S's, like the S's at pit race are amazing, good fun. And I shut like the best
I could do was like make my car as wide as possible. I just had nothing for the cars
that were coming up behind me. And it's like, yeah, I mean, I can do my best to slow them up and
like, you know, be predictable, drive a good defense and like that's what I've got.
I will say in this, the first round, the sprint racing that we did in the first round,
the very first race of the day was a combined race. Ladies races always first, ladies first.
I'm because that's how they do things. But there's only, I think there's two young women
racing right now. So they combined ladies with dinosaurs and dinosaurs are over 40.
Perfect. That's you. That's me. So I went out and
raced, I borrowed the endurance bike because I wanted to do well to borrow the faster bike.
And I raced against my friend Glenn Eason, who's the dad of Carl who will have,
should have run that interview already by the time this show goes.
Glenn racing is Glenn is super good fun.
And he went out on Carl's fast bike and I went out on our fast bike and we both wanted to win
first race of the day. Nice. So everybody's watching. There's, I mean, for us, like everybody
watching is there's like 30 people in the stands. Yeah. But you know, and you may know all of them.
All of them know us. Like, like they know who Glenn is. They know who I am. They know what's
going on. And Glenn jumped me on the start. Legally. No, it was, yeah, it was a legal,
it was a legal start. Like the bike is, bike has got a five speed transmission instead of
our four. And there's some other reasons that he got a better start than I did probably also
because he's a better starter than I am. And in then I was on him. Like,
so the track has got 13 corners. And I was overlapped with this bike, like eight out of the
13 corners, like going in or coming out and every lap, every lap I was there and every lap,
it was like, all right, I'm not going to pass him, but he's going to know I'm here.
And I tried to go outside and I tried to go inside. I tried to get him under braking.
There was just, the bikes were too closely matched. And at the one time he made a mistake,
I had already set, tried to set something up a corner and a half before to go around the outside
of him. And so like I had altered my line so that I would exit the corner differently and get a
different drive and he booped and he hit a curb and it sent him right out to the outside right
where I wanted to be. And so I had to check up and had I not done that and been able to go to
the inside, I probably could have passed him then, but I'd committed to a course of action then.
But the race was so good. Yeah. Like we got done and there were people in the stands with their
arms in the air. That's awesome. And I couldn't even remotely be upset because we had done,
we had done such a good thing between the two of us and we had done such a good thing in front
of the people who were watching and wanted to see a good race that, I mean, winning the race
would have done nothing to make that better. I mean, maybe. I could have got him on the last,
I could have got him on the last corner and he beat me by half a bike length at the finish line,
which is kind of where he was in every lap as we went around there. He would do that and then he'd
pull me at the end of the straight and we would do that over, but half a bike length at the finish
line. If I had had him by half a bike length at the finish line, that probably would have felt a
bit better. But yeah, racing can be so good. Yeah. So what I heard from that is you beat a couple
women is what I heard. Young women, yeah. Yeah, and that's something that is talked about a lot
in another racing is sometimes you can do your best. A lot of times actually you can do your best
and the cars are so closely matched or so closely mismatched that you have to hope
that they make a mistake. Otherwise you're just going to stay where you are. Yep. You know, we
talk about the pace discrepancy that you really need in order to pass somebody who doesn't make a
mistake and it's usually nothing less than a second. Yeah. Otherwise you've got to hope for
them to make a little error on entry or exit or just turn in a little too early or something.
You need something to help. Otherwise like the pace advantage that you need is not
insubstantial. Right. It's tough. It's really tough, but that is, that is. It's fun because it's so
close. You could be close for a whole race and it's so good. Yep. And the person in front of you
knows that you know and you know that the person in front of you knows or vice versa. Yep. And
you know that the person behind you is just waiting for you to make a mistake. Right. The
person behind just knows that they are sitting there unless that person makes a mistake like it's,
you both are just doing your best. Yeah. It's good fun. This is why we actually like racing,
isn't it for those moments? Yes. Yeah. Is for me at least. Yeah. And I genuinely do
like to see the drivers that I coach do well. Like have a good result. Have an aha moment
right where we talk about something and they either go out and do it or you know sometimes
you know, there's like a complex or a series of corners where it's like we're not really sure
what is faster here. Like go try some stuff and come back. Like we'll look at data. We'll look at
video. You know, we can see what's going to work out better and they go try some stuff and that
they instinctively kind of figure out what's faster and then we come back and look at the data
and it's like, Oh yeah, you tried this stuff. It shows us faster and that's what you ended up on
anyway. Let's talk about why that is. Right. Let's solidify this as not intuition. Let's solidify
this as experience at this point. And yeah, it's, it's really good fun. So I think, I think if
anything, this, this means I need to set some goals and hopes as a coach this year.
I was going to ask, I was going to ask about that if you feel like that's a valid
like having hopes for your drivers. Do you, do you ever like, Oh man, I hope they,
or do you just hope that they do what they hope to do?
Well, yes, largely yes. It is, it is kind of wild when you're coaching multiple drivers in
like the same class. Like you both can't win. Like all three of you can't win here, right?
But like, what's your best? Like, what's the best you can do?
And that's, that's what we try to do. And, and that's when I've become much better at like kind of
the control is so out of my hands in terms of their performance on track. All I can do
is try to communicate the very best that I can
in questions, in thoughts, in sight, like whatever it may be. And, you know, take care of myself on
a weekend, you know, try to get good sleep, try to eat healthy, hydrate all the same stuff that
drivers do like I need to do. You know, I'm just less physically exerted and just like a lot more
mentally exerted by the end of a weekend. And yeah, and that's it. So, but when they, but when
they do it, give yourself a little pat on the back, like, like they did it, but also I mean,
I help them do it. Well, it's kind of, it's, it's a lot like you said about result versus
personal performance is like, I've had weekends where one of my drivers has won. And I thought I
was okay. And like, I'm happy for them. I'm less, and I can't even say I'm less pleased with myself,
but like, I'm like, all right, I need to really didn't like that I did this or that I approached
it like that sort of thing. And so, you know, when a driver would have like a post weekend
debrief, like, all right, these are the things that worked well. These are the things that didn't
work well. I do that for my coaching, like what worked well this weekend, what was a win that
we did that we tried different, maybe it worked, maybe it didn't, but like, all right, so next
weekend, let's try this something. And sometime that's driver specific. You know, working with new
drivers, often, you know, the communication changes, obviously, the workflow and the timing can change
as well. That's all a balancing act. So, yeah, so a little bit of both. Okay. Depending. But
my my performance, do you know what your hopes, do you know what your hopes for your drivers are
then? Yeah, when I'm all to win. Take, take it home. And honestly, like, yeah, I want largely,
it is what you said, I hope for them what they hope for themselves. And oftentimes, I hope for more.
Okay. I've, I've run into, I saw someone post about this that they've, that they rarely meet drivers
who have self doubt. And I thought that was the wildest statement. Because I'm like, I've rarely
met one who doesn't have self doubt, like, or thoughts or questions or like something.
But like so often, especially like when you are in the position to get podiums, to get wins,
like you've gone up against some good drivers, and you've had bad weekends, right? And so the
natural like hope for a result is always there with, but shit might happen. Like I might just not
mentally be there when I need to be. And like we can talk and we can improve that for next time,
but like, it can happen. And so oftentimes, like, that's when, you know, depending on the driver
in this situation, like, I oftentimes hope for better than they hope for themselves. And, and I
think that's good. A lot of times, I think people need like, need to be hyped up a little bit,
like you can do this, you can do this. And then as long as they are able to pick that up on some
level, like, I'll be the fake it till you make it motivator, if that's what, if that's what needs to
happen in the moment, you know, otherwise believe in you is pretty powerful. It's a wild statement,
isn't it? Yeah. But at, and at the same time, like I've also had drivers like
swinging their arms, chest out, like feeling really good going into some really important
sessions and like just need to have the like quiet conversation. So what are you going to do when
you go out on track? Right? Like what, what's, what's your plan? How, how are you going to approach
this? Like I, I love the energy, but energy don't get lap times and it doesn't get victories. Like,
what's, what, you know, I like the confidence, confidence can be that extra little bit, but
like, what's the work? What's the work that you're going to do? You can't just emote yourself into
a victory. There has to be some solid work there. Yeah. It can be the sprinkles on top of the Sunday,
but like we need that hot fudge and ice cream. I want ice cream is what it is. You sound hungry.
It's like a second podcast in a row where we've talked about ice cream. This is amazing. Yeah, well,
maybe it's that time of year. Maybe. We are at track walking podcast on Facebook and Instagram,
but discord is our hangout spot. Link is in the bio. Like, share, comment, subscribe,
rate. I don't even know. I should get a flow for like all those things that we would like you to do,
but yeah, also share with us what your goals versus hopes are this for racing season.
And I think that would be interesting and how you distinguish between the two.
But yeah, thanks for listening. We'll be back next week with more shenanigans,
like always. I'm Scott. And I'm Seth. Have a good week. We'll talk to you next.
About this episode
Scott and Seth kick off with a “paradox” theme—two opposite ideas that coexist—then map it to racing psychology: goals vs hopes. They argue that result-focused “goals” can pull you out of present-moment flow, while flow (step-by-step awareness and car control) is what actually enables performance. The debate continues with counterpoints: desire for results can fuel the extra work that leads to flow. They also trade racing stories (wet conditions, close wheel-to-wheel battles, coaching debriefs) and discuss how coaches should hope for drivers’ aims while still focusing on actionable process.
