Making the Most of Your 2025 Racing Season – Part 3
By now you should have a few events under your belt. This would be a good time for you to evaluate your progress towards achieving your intermediate goals. Realize that you may find us being somewhat repetitive in some of our philosophies. Understand that repetition is necessary to help build a good routine, which is paramount for ultimate success. It is always important to keep the annual goals in sight but at this juncture we should still be focusing on the intermediate goals you put in place in the first two blogs. (If you have not read blogs 1 or 2, please refer to those blog posts).
Progress Evaluation
Keeping a healthy and positive perspective is essential to achieving a successful season. At this point you need to ask yourself some critical questions. These questions must be fair and answered honestly. The better you become at this self-examination process the more likely you are to become successful.
Race Car P
erformance
- Did you run respectable elapsed times and speeds for the provided conditions?
- Are the engine and chassis performing efficiently and meeting expectations?
- Did you make good tuning decisions for both qualifying and elimination runs?
Driver Performance
- Did the driver have a positive attitude during the outing? NOTE: Often overlooked, attitude plays a key part in a driver’s performance in and out of the car.
- Did your in-car performance meet expectations? Did you complete a proper burnout, stage the car properly, hit your shift points, get the parachutes deployed on time (if you have them) and get the car shut down properly and safely off the racetrack?
Equipment, Maintenance, & Crew Performance
- Is the towing and support equipment performing as expected?
- Is everything on the car working properly?
- Is the crew carrying out their duties properly with a healthy, positive attitude?
Keeping a healthy, positive perspective and focusing on your intermediate goals will help keep you on track to meeting your annual goals. Focus on the positives from these early season outings. That certainly doesn't mean that you should ignore the things that did not go as expected. It is important that for any issue that you identify needing improvement, that you put a plan in place to help correct it. From equipment to crew, race car to driver, there are always areas for improvement. Some may need more work than others.
Warmer Weather & Decision Making
As we move into the warmer months, racing becomes a bit more challenging. The summer heat can make racetrack conditions difficult and tricky. Because of this you will typically see slower elapsed times and speeds. Good planning, preparation and decision making during these warmer times will not only help you excel in the warm weather but will also put you in a great position for when the weather begins to cool off in the fall.
One of the biggest challenges facing us during the summer is the sun and the heat that will generate on the racetrack. We see much larger swings in track temperatures from day to night during the warmer months. Understanding what the conditions are going to be like well ahead of making the run will help keep your program moving in a positive direction. Many teams get hyper-focused on the run that they just made and ignore the changing conditions that are approaching for the next run. Keep in mind that it is very typical to see track temperature differences of 20-30 degrees or more between morning, afternoon, and evening runs. These temperature swings will affect the available grip of the racetrack significantly. Think ahead to maximize your opportunities!
Data
As we have pointed out multiple times in the previous blogs, the data gathered from your data acquisition system and logbook are crucial. If you are new to keeping a logbook or even data logging you will quickly recognize the value of these practices. Not only will you begin to build a library of knowledge that will help you this year but will help you for years to come. If you have historical data from a track that you can access, be sure to review it well in advance of the upcoming event. This coupled with studying the potential weather conditions will allow you to develop a ‘gameplan’ before you even leave home for the event. Establishing a solid and consistent routine between races will help set your team up for success.
Revised Goals or Stay the Course
Now may be good time for you to decide if you need to revise your goals or stay the course. If you have been effectively planning, preparing, and achieving your initial intermediate goals it is quite possible that some new goal setting is in order. Successful teams are always challenging themselves to get better. On the other hand, if things haven’t gone exactly as planned you can, most likely, go back to the self-examination section of this blog and identify the areas that the team needs to work on. Staying the course may be the best plan.
Racing is Supposed to be Fun!
REMEMBER: Racing is something that you do on purpose and should be fun! Nobody makes you go racing. At least that is the way we see it. Racing should be both challenging and rewarding. Having a positive attitude and outlook on what you are wanting to accomplish can have a significant impact on the outcome. If your season isn’t progressing as expected, do not worry. This may be a good time to seek advice and benefit from an outside perspective. This doesn’t mean asking everyone who is parked within earshot of you at the track or calling every contact that you have saved in your phone. After determining the area that requires attention, you should then choose a reliable and knowledgeable source to contact. At this point you can discuss a strategy to help get the program back on track. Nobody said that this racing stuff was going to be easy after all.
Questions or Comments?
If you have any questions or comments about this blog, we would love to hear from you. Much like you and your race team, the RAM Team is always trying to improve and be the best that we can be. You can email your questions or comments to [email protected].
To keep up with everything RAM, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
If you have any comments or feedback, email us at [email protected]
READ PART 1: https://dev.ramclutches.com/making-the-most-of-your-2025-season/
READ PART 2: https://dev.ramclutches.com/making-the-most-of-your-2025-season-2/
