My love for motorsports goes back to my childhood. And when as an adult, I attended a ‘track day’ event at a local racetrack, I became instantly hooked. I quickly became a member of Chin Motorsports, a great ‘high-performance driving event’ (HPDE) club, and started taking instruction and doing ‘track days’ regularly. Over time, the good folks at RRT Racing in Dulles, Virginia, converted my BMW into a track-only, fully built race car – and over many years, I ascended through the ‘run groups’ with Chin to the highest-level group. I frequently participated in events at Virginia International Raceway, Watkins Glen International, and participated in an event at Daytona International Speedway.
We are not racing at these events. These are HPDEs where we separate into different run groups depending on experience and skill level. Moving from one run group to another requires a ‘sign-off’ from a chief instructor and is specific only to the venue on which it is achieved. A sign off is, in essence, an audition where instructors ride in the car for a full session and grade the driving performance. They evaluate the driving line, throttle input, braking, and rules compliance. At the more advanced levels, passing in turns, driving side by side through high-speed esses, and keeping the car composed at high speeds is required. Proper driver etiquette and sound discretion are a must. There is usually a written test as well, where we have to identify all flag-stations’ locations and state the meaning and purpose of each flag type (there are nine). Because this is a dangerous activity, instructors make sure we are up to the task before advancing to a higher group.
There are generally three run groups that accommodate four levels of drivers. The most basic is the novice group, which requires an instructor in the car at all times. Then there are novice solo, intermediate, and the highest level- advanced groups. We all start as novices and work our way up from there. The ‘advanced’ group comprises highly skilled drivers with high-level equipment (often professional race cars), and is very fast. With Chin Motorsports, we sometimes have professional race car drivers on track with us in the advanced group- yes, the same folks we see on television.
Safety is always the highest priority. We are encouraged to make a full commitment to safety, so in the advanced group, we have roll cages, halo racing seats, six-point harnesses, and we wear HANS devices. HANS is an acronym for ‘head and neck safety.’ A HANS device rests over the shoulders and positions under the safety harness. It clips to the back of the helmet and works by preventing the head from traveling forward in a frontal collision. In essence, it secures the helmet to the body, which is secured to the seat, preventing a forward snapping motion of the head that can cause brain stem injury. HANS is a giant leap forward in motorsport safety.
As my commitment to track day events accelerated, I was increasingly conflicted because of the time it took me away from my business – and more importantly, I was concerned that it was a distraction. I was of a mindset that my company had to have my full attention, and I felt guilty if I diverted this attention to other interests. I thought I always had to be the hardest working person and had no right to expect anybody to work harder than I did. I had to set the benchmark. The track events I attended were typically two-day events and required a day of travel each way. This schedule took me out of the office for up to four days for each event. I was generally doing one or two events per month, from March through October.
One morning when driving to the office and listening to Wharton Business Radio, I was treated to a show that included a guest that was a psychologist. He discussed the tendency for some CEOs to have affinities for ‘extreme’ activities or ‘extreme’ sports. He specifically mentioned Richard Branson’s love for wind-surfing. Larry Ellison’s and Ted Turner’s sailing of dangerous waters. And the list goes on. The psychologist suggested that doing these extreme activities or extreme sports can be a positive indicator for business because it raises the threshold for risk-taking and teaches us better recognition and risk management. Of course, these activities are dangerous, so every individual has to responsibly decide before engaging in risky or unsafe activities. My purpose here is not to suggest that CEOs should engage in extreme sports or activities. However, it is to suggest that having proclivities for such should not necessarily create a conflict of interest.
Authors Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal, in their bestselling book ‘Stealing Fire,’ go further. They write about the relationship between business successes and achieving ‘flow state’ through ‘ecstasis,’ or an alternate consciousness that is an experience far beyond the normal sense of self. They recognize extreme activities as one of several methods for achieving ecstasis. In the movie ‘Ford v Ferrari,’ Matt Damon playing Carroll Shelby, states, “There’s a point at 7,000 RPM, where everything fades. The machine becomes weightless. It disappears. All that’s left, a body moving through space, and time. At 7,000 RPM, that’s where you meet it. That’s where it waits for you.” I have experienced this sensation, not as a function of RPM but as a function of sustained speed.
Although what we do is not competitive or sanctioned racing, there are common elements – albeit at a lower level. We run data in our cars, and we compete against ourselves by trying to make the fastest lap-times that we can. I measure my performance not only by how fast my laps are, but also by how consistent my measured times are from lap to lap. When I can run consecutive laps within tenths of a second of each other over 3.27 miles, 17 turns, and 130 feet of elevation change, I know that I am processing and repeating with high accuracy. From there, I can work on continuously improving and trying to shave fractions of seconds off of my lap times. This quest for consistency and data-induced continuous improvement transfers wonderfully to the workplace and is likewise a pathway for improved business performance.
From my experience, I have become convinced that one of the critical traits possessed by the better competition drivers, or necessary for better lap times, is processing speed. Everything on the race track happens quickly. The faster we can process and respond to inputs – whether visual, auditory, tactile, or visceral, the faster we can go and still be safe. To this extent, there would be a neuroplasticity element to improvement that would allow for faster processing with repetition and ongoing and continuous improvement. As we get older and our processing speed naturally slows, it seems this neuroplasticity would be especially beneficial.
Another critical trait required for us to be effective on the race track is focus and concentration. Everything that is not important has to be blocked out – there can be no distractions. Failing to do this at 160 miles per hour can have far more significant consequences than just a slower lap time. The European consultancy, ‘Roland Berger’ in November of 2017, posted an article called “What Can CEOs Learn from Race Car Drivers?” In their research, Nicholas Bissantz, the CEO of Bissantz & Company, working with neuroscientist Gerhard Roth concluded that race car drivers “learn how to blind things out that slow them down.” They say that “Behind the steering wheel or in front of a management dashboard, what really counts is: Don’t get distracted. Stay focused and dismiss all of the unnecessary information.”
The world of business is replete with aphorisms derived from auto racing and motorsports. Peter Hinssen, in his book on business transformation, “The Network Always Wins,” quotes Formula One legend Mario Andretti: “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” Dan Coughlin wrote “The Management 500: A High-Octane Formula for Business Success” – a book of lessons learned from auto racing. And our coaches repeatedly remind us to “always look up to where we’re going and never down at where we are.”
So, between improving risk tolerance and risk management, embracing continuous improvement, improving processing speed, and improving focus and concentration, I have convinced myself that taking my car to the race track may not be such a bad thing for business, after all.
