How to get faster this year. YEEHA

michaelsmiller · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2011 9:17 pm

Last year I was slower than the two years before. I have had all winter to rationalize my problem. My brain typically functions in a cool, very precise, and strategic manner. Before an autox run I know exactly what I have to do, the shortest path to take, my braking window, how early to hit the throttle, etc. I have analyzed what I do. Tim Aro and Jinx Jordan have shown me on the course what I need to do and on the computer where I lose time. I have also done very fast times at the Extreme schools. Why can’t I do it in competition? The answer is very simple; it’s a mental problem. I pull up to the starting line cool, precise, and knowing what I have to do. I take off, hit second and then the Yeeha side of my brain takes over. My mind says; more gas, more G’s, oh shit more brakes. The car slides, and wags down the course. All that I can hear is the scream, “YEEHA”. The irrational side of my brain says that I can slide into the Chicago, magically gain traction, and shoot out the other end. Oh crap, I just took out the cone wall. The problem is that all that I can think about at the time is how much fun this is. I blow a second for every 30 indulging the yeeha side of car control. The way I see it, I have two options: One, buy a Porche, it will spin every time that I enter the yeeha zone, that’ll learn me. The other is to muster every ounce of discipline to keep the yeeha zone in check. This presents a problem as I co drive with a 17 year old boy who has much less control over the yeeha side of his brain than I do. What right does he have to have all of the fun? I know that there are others who wrestle with the same problem, Rodney, Dustin, … Maybe we should start a support group? How many steps to car control (sobriety) should we have? I’ll do my best to be cool, precise, and strategic this year. Charlie M., when I pull up to the line this year, don’t smile and tell me,”More Gas”. It’s like giving crack to a drug addict. Let’s all get better at the Test N Tune. YEEHA!!!! :twisted:

KendtEklund · **Joined:** Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:29 pm **Posts:** 1204

Dorifto...

It is calling your name...

Or, find a car to RallyCross - you'll get all the YEEHA you can handle.

JohnByers · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2011 9:24 pm

KendtEklund wrote:

Or, find a car to RallyCross - you'll get all the YEEHA you can handle.

Bingo

JasonWatts · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2011 10:40 pm

KendtEklund wrote:

Or, find a car to RallyCross - you'll get all the YEEHA you can handle.

This will deffiently help you understand how to control when your "out" of control. If I could afford another car right now, I would be doing rally... I would find me a nice rear wheel drive car just to have more "fun" then the rest.

michaelsmiller · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2011 12:11 am

You guys are bad. Thank goodness you aren’t drug councilors. I’ve tried rallyX and it truly is a lot of fun. AutoX is what I have time to do now although I plan to try track this season. I would really like to get control of the beast before I have a yeeha moment at speeds above 100 mph.

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2011 1:07 am

What's nice about track is that a strong sense of self-preservation tends to kick in before you get too deep into yeeha.

Graham Jagger · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 12:53 am **Posts:** 1718

I don't know that I have an answer for you but I do know that "yee haw" thing and I love it. I should probably consider entering that 12 step program with you if I want to get serious about AX again.

I can tell you this. My attitude towards autocross changed after about 3 years. Partly my heart wasn't into the competition aspect, just playing around and experimenting with car control and yes, having fun and yee haw happens.

My 2nd and 3rd year I was competing with my friend/mentor/competitor in equivalent cars with equivalent levels of mediocrity. It was a blast. Yee haw was not on my mind. Driving as hard and well as I could was it. Competing with my best friend in a completely different car with pax just never really seemed to make sense to me. I figured he had pax on his side driving a ringer car on cheater tires. He gets it with AX, I only have moments. Once my competitor in class quit and I didn't really have direct in class competitor I just started having fun and playing. That was the end. I didn't care about times and figured for 5 minutes of fun I would yee haw the living crap out of the car. Plus I want to push it over the edge and play catch and release. I was priming myself for track and wanted to know what the car felt like when it went out from underneath me on AX course first.

Doing track immediately removed the yee haw nonsense out of my system and go me very focused. Also, as James notes, self preservation says don't yee haw, we're going to damn fast to do that.

So maybe I could suggest you get one person in your class, riding together, compete together, push each other to get that much better. Your focus tends to get pulled in the right direction to meet your goal. With the lack of goals, you just drive around. I have found my best sessions in HPDE are when I have a preset goal for that session and/or weekend. Just arriving to drive and have fun gets seat time, but not necessarily good learning time.

This year I will try and drop the yee haw attitude and focus (or at least try). I'll be co-driving something different and don't plan on letting the car owner trash me every time. He's thinking right now he'll just kick my ass every event cause I won't try. Let's just keep that our little secret. Beating him in his own car and seeing a grown man cry is way more satisfying than a fridge magnet :lol:

Not sure if that helps at all. Maybe I should just try rallyx too!

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2011 4:03 pm

You post brings up one of my favorite quotes from of all people, Mike Tyson:

Quote:

Everyone has a game plan, until they get punched in the face.

EVERYONE struggles with this (well maybe not folks like Jinx and Feinberg). There is a very fine line between out of control and #1 PAX.

My only big of advice would be to focus on one simple thing before a run, stay cool, you know like Fonzie. That helps me turn off the Yeeh haaaawww in my head.

The Rallyx suggestion isn't a bad one either. That is nothing but 1-2 mins of solid Yeeh hawww, ohhh sh*t!

Les Davis · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 2:04 pm **Posts:** 2059

Just don't eliminate the "Yeeha" completely. For me the difference between a good run and a great run is the sprinkle of "Yeeha" which I actually refer to as "Angus" as in Angus Young from AC/DC. If you have ever watched a live performance of AC/DC from the 70s you might know what I'm referring to. There are certainly guitarists who make better sounds with a guitar than Angus, but NO ONE plays with more energy. It is this essence that I aspire to capture every time, but rarely do.

Carlton Whitehead · **Posted:** Sun Feb 13, 2011 7:13 pm

Les Davis wrote:

Just don't eliminate the "Yeeha" completely. For me the difference between a good run and a great run is the sprinkle of "Yeeha"

This. My fastest runs tend to happen when I'm thinking clearly about the course layout and also a little in touch with my inner crazy. That is much easier said than done though.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Sun Feb 13, 2011 8:30 pm

Les Davis wrote:

Just don't eliminate the "Yeeha" completely. For me the difference between a good run and a great run is the sprinkle of "Yeeha" which I actually refer to as "Angus" as in Angus Young from AC/DC. If you have ever watched a live performance of AC/DC from the 70s you might know what I'm referring to. There are certainly guitarists who make better sounds with a guitar than Angus, but NO ONE plays with more energy. It is this essence that I aspire to capture every time, but rarely do.

$10 to the person who queues up "Thunderstruck" on the PA when Les hits the start line.

KendtEklund · **Joined:** Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:29 pm **Posts:** 1204

I actually tried to find a bit of Yeeha/Angus at the T+T.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Sun Feb 13, 2011 10:17 pm

KendtEklund wrote:

I actually tried to find a bit of Yeeha/Angus at the T+T.

That's one way of putting it

.

KendtEklund · **Joined:** Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:29 pm **Posts:** 1204

JamesShort wrote:

KendtEklund wrote:

I actually tried to find a bit of Yeeha/Angus at the T+T.

That's one way of putting it

.

I did say 'tried' - the only thing I found for sure was that finish cone :lol:

michaelsmiller · **Posted:** Sun Feb 13, 2011 11:08 pm

I had a great time at today’s TnT. I started out working on my line, short being fast. I progressed to trying to see how close I could get to the turn around cones. I guess that I need to apologize for all of the cones that I made people chase. The times where Ok, but not magical. I then started letting the Yeeha side of the brain take over a little bit by bit. That took about a second off and the times were pretty good. Les and Carlton, you were right, the game plan only gets you so far, a carefully controlled infusion of Yeeha gets you the rest of the way. :car:

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