I was at Buttonwillow for a PCA-GGR Time Trial this past weekend. Ran practice all day Friday and Saturday and half of Sunday. The weather was hot ~106 degrees and the pyrometer on the track surface said 120 degrees. I stayed sharp all weekend and was able to post personal bests each day. I had Hank Watts ( a zoomy guy here in Northern California) ride with me for one session and after a few tweeks I dropped 2.5 seconds off of my personal best! So now I'm stoked. A fellow driver from Porsche Racing Club is in attendance as well and both of our cars are built to the same spec class rules. He's running 2:10's flat and I'm running 2:10.05's in traffic, so I'm a happy camper since I normally run ~1 second faster during a time trial.

After the morning sessions I'm all set to go. Car's been running fine in the heat but then I start to get a headache, not bad, but a headache. And I start to feel tired. In essence I start wilting from the heat ever so slightly. My competition from PRC is in the immediate run group in front of me and runs a 2:08:05! I run in the 2nd run group and run a 2:13:02!

During the run the heat bothers me and the track conditions have changed as the temperatures climb. Instead of making adjustments, my fun time trial becomes work. I lose my "edge", I just put down 2 consistent, "ordinary" laps and get the hell back to the trailer. A somewhat disappointing end to a great weekend.

The car was fine. The track was hot, but fine. But my competition was metally tougher than I was and I basically backed it off. It really gives you an appreciation for the road racers such as Scott Pruett or others who just hit their lines every time and have the mental toughness to lock in and go.

Ah yes....I still have so far to go....

Bill P.

Very true. And would guess that your competition was doing something more than you were in keeping cool. Staying cool, physically, is a major part of keeping cool mentally. Maybe he sat in his air conditioned truck for an hour? Maybe he had a cool-shirt, and maybe he just had cooler air temperatures and track conditions than you did...

Cool-shirts ROCK!!! If you plan to run lots of events out in the California desert and the like, a cool shirt is a great investment...

-Josh2

Thanks Josh!

I'll post another thread on cool shirts. In hindsight, maybe I didn't keep cool enough. I drank water like a fish...but I was hot and tired, so I didn't do a good job of keeping myself ready.

Bill P.

Bill, what you had was dehydration (headache), heat exhaustion, and the early stages of heat stroke.....with temps that high you need gallons of water per day.

I have a 10x10 canopy that I bring to every event, it was a GREAT investment. The shade alone will cut temperatures significantly, add to that a few improvised misting nozles under the canopy cover, and taking a nice 30 minute break under there makes a HUGE difference in how well I'm functioning towards the end of the day.

Keeping cool is vital. Keeping hydrated is vital. Here in the high desert (Colorado), if you're drinking water left and right, but haven't visted the porta-john in well over an hour, you're not drinking enough water. And if you stopped drinking for a while, then start to feel thirsty and hot, it's too late to recover. The best you can do is hold steady at the point by keeping in the shade and drinking even more.

When it's hot and dry, and even more so when it's windy, keeping cool and hydrated is mucho important.

Here's a handy trick... Volunteer to help work the events, become an event official, then take a possition that gets you into the airconditioned timing and control room in the tower for a couple hours each day, now THAT'S the key...

Just try to find ways of keeping cool...

-Josh2

Did you ever see Mikey Schumaker climb out of his car after a F1 race at a hot venue?
He ain't hardly sweating. His heart rate is prolly back to 40 after 2 minutes
There's a lesson there.

Absolutely! Physical conditioning makes a huge difference in handling the heat, no doubt about it.

-Josh2

Your comments on physical conditioning motivated me to go on a long brisk hike this afternoon that I might not have done otherwise.
Thanks guys, it feels great.

try a 45 minute enduro kart race for a work out. i'm in good shape, but that absolutely kills me. it's amazing to me how one's fast laps happen about 20 minutes in -- tires are hot, kart starts working, etc. -- and then lap times slowly start to degrade. has taught me a lot about focus, endurance, and consistency. driving is a mental act, i'm convinced.

Funny thing, this. I'm NOT in shape at all, and a 20 minute karting session leaves me wrung out. Yet, quite a few times, I end up turning my fastest times at the end of the session. This most recent time, my very last lap was the fastest of the entire event, and I was REALLY waiting for that white flag.

For years, friends have told me that I think too much while I'm out there (note: this was when I was road-racing bikes), and they claim they can actually see a difference when I stop trying. They're probably right.

Yep. Driving is all about focus. I just use same mental skills I used as a competitive track and criterium cyclist. One of the greatest things I learned from cycling is how to make very smooth line and how to carry speed through a corner. You learn real quickly about smooth fast lines when all that seperates you from the pavement is a 3/4" strip of rubber! Competitive cycling was about 50% mental focus and 50% physical conditioning for me. However I was always amazed at how at times I could overcome pyhsical exhaustion and still maintain focus required to win a race. Competitive driving for me is about 10% physical and 90% mental focus. I think my problem now is I have a hard time taking recreational car driving seriously.