Auto Racing Concentrating while on track

One of the items that I am working on this year that I have struggled with is focusing while driving. As ridiculous as that sounds my mind drifts into what I am going to eat later, going over a checklist of things I need to do when the race is over, "Is there something wrong with the kart, but there isn't", or just random thoughts. It is costing my the enjoyment, I am making mistakes on track, and devaluing my time on track. I typically am a team of one, so at times that can be burdensome, but I have also lacked focus on big teams, where my job is just to drive. Any tips and tricks as I head into 2025 racing year would be appreciated. 

Good luck with that. I kinda envy your ennui.  My track driving attention was  always diverted by the "What if (something bad) happen$" or berating myself for an error in the last corner and then arriving at the next one not fully mentally prepared cause I am berating myself for the last corner.  Rinse and repeat for the full session.

I suspect every new track driver has to work through this issue and is why most experienced drivers will tell you not to modify the car until you have this bit figured out. I think athletes call it "being in the Zone"

So i'm actually going to say that this isn't entirely a bad habit. it shows that you're able to compartmentalize your activities on track, and direct mental capacity  to other factors beyond pure driving. That's an important skill to develop for success, yours just isn't as focused as it could be.

I get this way occasionally, too. Particularly in cars I'm overly familiar with where driving them is kind of muscle memory at that point. The way I get my brain back into the present moment is simply to narrate my laps. Just using internal dialogue to describe move by move what I'm doing and what the car is doing. Nothing gets you into the moment like describing it. It's also a great way to spot bad habits which have become ingrained on autopilot. 

It's an issue.  I have done some stock car racing, short oval, and the thing I admire the most about a big time Nascar driver is how they can focus in and run right on the edge, lap after lap, within a few tenths of a second.  100 laps for me, and my spotter would have to point out that I was slow by half a second, at which point I would remember I was in a race car...

Weirdly, I have that same problem a lot in sim racing where it feels like I have to actively direct my focus most of the time to turn a decent lap and it's hard to get in the zone, but not at all in real life, where I just naturally get into the zone quickly and my thoughts rarely drift further than wondering who might be driving a car that multiple drivers are sharing. I might even have too much focus IRL, which causes me to do things like blow past hidden turns in offroad rally, or overlook the fact that a particular point of an autocross course happens to be quite close to a concrete pillar so I should be careful around there and definitely not initiate a wicked drift toward it for funsies.

I generally have no problem getting into the 'zone' and staying there.  When I catch my mind wandering it's time for me to pull off the track....

Rodan said:

I generally have no problem getting into the 'zone' and staying there.  When I catch my mind wandering it's time for me to pull off the track....

This.  When I did track events or AX there was nothing in my brain but driving.  When I started mental drifting to my sailboat I knew it was time to quit the track events.

I have been racing for over 20 years, I have experienced being in the zone, however my life has evolved over the years, but physically and mentally have been a struggling. Deciding if you want to spend time with your family, spend the money, and spend many hours planning can be more challenging then when I was 20 years old. Physically injuries and illness have set me back, still trying to rehab. 

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

I agree with JG. This is more-or-less my experience on track, especially in an endurance setting when I'm in the car for 2 hours at a time (ideally). 

My mind goes through a cyclical pattern. I start pretty amped up at the beginning of my stint, extremely aware of the car, how it's settling in as well as myself. At some point I consciously find myself thinking, "Hm, I wonder what kid 1 or kid 2 is doing right now". That always makes me smile. I also sometimes think, "Wow, it's been 20 min since I last looked at the clock. I wonder how many laps I've done since then". I see this as being very comfortable in the car/on track and then invariably I start talking to myself about the lap and my performance. "Ok dude, that was a little hot through there" or "HELL YEAH ME/SVEN/HATCHET/insert race car name here, nice job." and then I'm back deep in the zone there for a bit.

The timing of this cycle also definitely depends on what's happening around me. If I'm having a big time battle, the silly thoughts about my kids don't typically come along. I also have found that I end a stint like that much more mentally tired.

For sprint racing, I experience much less of the wondering where all the laps/time have gone but I do typically have one moment where my brain takes me somewhere entirely different. 

I was actually explaining this to a racing friend recently who found it totally nonsensical. I don't think it's entirely different than taking the straight away to tighten belts, check gauges and take a few deep breaths. 

You can't totally disengage with the task at hand, that would be very dangerous but I've always thought this is my brain's way of shedding some of the physical and mental stress that is being on track. 

This one is right up my ally:

I have A.D.D. in a big way and the mind wandering off halfway through a vintage race is something I routinely need to combat. The opening laps are fine but if I'm then clear and running on my own, I need to work at it.

I am my own spotter; as I come past the start finish I tell myself "let's make this a good lap, hit your marks and focus" If mid lap I start to wander I do this thing in my head "focus focus focus" I sometimes even say it out loud.

I also use internal motivators. 

Mine is a mid pack car and I am routinely one of the last two cars on the lead lap. I use staying on the lead lap as a motivator.  I also look ahead to backmarker cars; I typically catch one or two and I make it my goal to hunt them down.

Working on focus doesn't end once I come off track. I look at my lap times and see where I could have been if all of my lap times were within 2-3 tenths. This keeps my motivated as well.

I have one final trick that may seem goofy; I tilt my head forward and down as if I was racing bikes again and I'm tucked under the bubble.

How has it worked for me? At the last event, an SCCA time trail, all of my lap times were within 3 tenths of each other. In the last ten lap session; the first 7 laps had a good bit of traffic and I manged to stay within 3 tenths. The last 3 laps were clear and I dropped 2 seconds but all of those were within 3 tenths as well. 

Yes, professional racers are focused but make no mistake they are working at it. Give yourself goals throughout the race and that will keep yourself focused.

This is a topic that's worthy of an entire book.  In fact, there are several more or less on the topic.  Check out Keith Code's "Soft Science of Roadracing Motorcycles"  as the title implies it's written for motorcycle racing but it applies to all forms of racing as well as other activities that require being in the zone for maximum performance.  There's also "The Inner Game of Music" and "The Inner Game of Tennis"

In reply to APEowner :

+1 on the Keith Code book; I use so much of the stuff from that book when I'm instructing.

lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (Vyvanse)

Before I go out on track I try to think about what I'm shooting for with the session. Maybe I'm trying to fix how I take a particular corner or trying to improve my braking in some way.

That gets my brain focused on the driving, and then I find I can spend most of the session focusing on the driving. But I don't think there's anything wrong with letting a few errant thoughts wander in while your toodling down a long straight, especially if you're in a slower car.

red_stapler said:

lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (Vyvanse)

Um no; if you don't have ADD this will ratchet up your anxiety and make things worse.

Tom1200 said:

red_stapler said:

lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (Vyvanse)

Um no; if you don't have ADD this will ratchet up your anxiety and make things worse.

Lol I meant this to be tongue-in-cheek.  A lot of folks in my sim racing group have some flavor of neurodivergence, and Vyvanse has been a minor miracle for a few professionally diagnosed folks who had trouble concentrating for long stretches.

In reply to Tom1200 :

This guy is right on. I am my own coach, my own sportscaster if you will. "Okay here we are coming up on this left, let's hug the right side, there is where we want to be, that's the point we want to brake..."

Not saying this as any kind of racing expert but from ADHD and trying to stay in the moment, it takes practice and work for me. 

When I raced, I used to just focus so much on catching the next car and passing him, that I never really would drift. It didn't matter if the next guy was a position ahead or a lapped car or I was the lapped car. I just had to drive my ass off to catch the next one, then the next one, and on and on til the checkers. I think that's why I was better at enduros over heats. Enduros, cars get strung out and you can focus better on one at a time instead of groups.

I'm generally pretty relaxed in the car and have never had trouble staying focused for all the shorter duration stuff I've done for decades.

 2 hr endurance stints changed things a bit for me,I struggle to stay in the zone when finding myself just lapping nearly alone for a spell.

 Going hammer down just to try and find/catch another car isn't the best idea to get a car to the end.

 I'd do a radio check for updates,lap times etc and see if I'd fallen off the usual pace....I generally did so that info brought me back to the party lol.

In reply to AxeHealey :

I've done a bunch of those enduro 2 hour stints, and I've found that when I'm in 'the zone' I'm going as fast as I usually do/hitting my assigned times, but have that spare mental bandwidth. Things start slowing down for me. If I'm in an on-track battle for position, I'm watching the cars I'm fighting with, analyzing their lines, where they're slow and where they're fast, watching the other drivers' eyes and hands (are they struggling/overdriving? Are they cool and relaxed?), looking at their tires to see if there's anything obvious about their condition, considering where I'm strong and weak relative to them, and I do the narration thing too. Even tell other drivers where they should be trying to pass me if if I were in their cars. And I'm always plotting how to use everything I can sense to either prevent them from passing me or figuring out how to pass someone else. It's like a game of chess at 100+ mph. People ask me how I can process that much information at competitive racing speeds - I wish I could say 'do this,' but I can't. I just think that way at speed, it's not conscious. 

In enduro stints that are less fraught, I'm thinking about our long term strategy, driving gently as possible to hit the marks and planned laptimes to conserve fuel, tires, brakes, etc., thinking ahead to the next pit stop, and the sequence for that. If there are changes I'm detecting in the car as the tires wear and the fuel load lessens, I'll tell the crew chief about it and offer to repeat it to the next driver getting in directly on the radio so they can ask me questions while I'm in the car and answer them as best I can. If they're expected changes, that's an easy conversation - if there's something unexpected, I'm chirping up ASAP. As I radio in to our pit box every quarter-tank as the fuel goes down (hopefully we have a reasonably working gauge, right?), I ask what the tactics are for the next stop and if we're changing our race strategy. Ask if there's rain or some other weather coming. Are we changing drivers? If so, who's getting in (this lets me know if I have to do any seat or belt changes as I roll down pit lane to the pit box)? All 4 tires or just two? Full fill or part fill? Are we doing a brake change on this one? Switching to night lights? I'm a lot more comfortable knowing exactly what's going to happen at the next stop so I can do what I can to make that stop faster and easier on the crew and the next driver. And yeah, I'm thinking about all this because ultimately, I'm thinking about doing everything I can to put us into the best position I can to win. 

- Bill C

In reply to red_stapler :

I knew you were kidding.......but wasn't sure everyone else did.

P3PPY said:

In reply to Tom1200 :

This guy is right on. I am my own coach, my own sportscaster if you will. "Okay here we are coming up on this left, let's hug the right side, there is where we want to be, that's the point we want to brake..."

Not saying this as any kind of racing expert but from ADHD and trying to stay in the moment, it takes practice and work for me. 

As an ADD poster kid I understand; it's why I talk to myself.

I actually don't gel with SIM racing because there are no physical consequences of getting it wrong. It doesn't trigger my brain the way being in an actual car does.