There aren’t many opportunities to celebrate ninth-place trophies. In most sports, there are the winners, and then there’s everyone else–the great rabble of non-winners–more commonly known as losers.
But this sport we love called autocross is a little different. At least, I’ve convinced myself it’s different to avoid developing crippling self-pity and a pill addiction. Such was my powerful rationalization …
My first time there in '94, I was driving a great car,Steve Hoelscher's X1/9, and I ended up driving way under my capability. Never underestimate the mental part of that event. To me it was not the same as a local event. The size of the courses and number of entrants in your class drove that point home. I dnf'd my first 2 runs, and made a conservative run for the 3rd just to get a time. The 2nd day was much better but not enough to overcome my first day mindless driving. I recall going back to the hotel after day one and barely remembering any of the runs. Getting into the mental aspect of that event is I think half the battle. Great event though, I recommend it to anyone. There is nothing like it I've ever been to in any form of racing.
I've been autocrossing off and on for about 15 years. I don't think I have 100 events in, but I'm getting close. I still can't fall asleep the night before a local autocross and I wake up before my alarm. I'm failing at the mental game, but I hope it never goes away.
As Per (and everybody else who knows me) would tell you, I have a penchant for sticking my face in where it doesn't belong and over-coaching people whether they like it or not. Chalk it up to 15 years as a track & field competitor and another 5 years as a high school coach. Therefore, I feel the need to burden you with my thoughts.
First of all, bear in mind the approaching hurricane took up a buttload of brain pan, since your bride and birds were back in the belly of the blowing beast. That's not a concern for Canadian competitors.
However, if you plan on returning to the Nationals next year, take someone along with you whose sole job is to do all the video recording and removing any distractions so you can quiet your mind and spend some time preparing for each run.
Since we saw a lot of the pre-run mishegas and the runs themselves, we were also privy to a lot of camera adjusting and general futzing right up to the starter. Someone else should be interviewing competitors and playing videographer so you can use the brain space for something more conducive to getting your mind right. Do what you want to do rather than what you think we want you to do.
From what I've seen, Nationals is unlike any other event. If you have a bad day on the Tour, you can pick up the slack on the next race weekend. At the Nationals, you have to be ready today, as in right now. If you're not, your options to regain lost ground are minimal.
Your ability to multitask is commendable. However, there are times when you need to focus on the job at hand, not on fulfilling our voyeuristic desire to know all the gory details about the competition.
Preparing yourself mentally takes many forms. I'm sure you have one. If not, find one that's useful to you and work it (psychocybernetics might be a good way to start or whatever you did before ImprovSports). Give yourself some time to utilize it and don't be shy about carving out a little space for yourself in that regard.
mazdeuce said:I've been autocrossing off and on for about 15 years. I don't think I have 100 events in, but I'm getting close. I still can't fall asleep the night before a local autocross and I wake up before my alarm. I'm failing at the mental game, but I hope it never goes away.
This year was the first in a while for me. I think it's because A.) I knew that no matter what I did, the 40yo farm truck was going to be in the bottom 10% and 2.) I was just goingto have fun and hang with friends. I chucked the competitive part of me to the curb. I know that I just don't have the funds to make my new toy a top national contender and I really don't want to. I want it to be enjoyable, fun and a great conversation starter. I want it to be the reason a newb brings his 15 year old Camry to an autocross and run, not watch.
Its sounds counter-productive but taking the competition side out of this sport makes it more fun and competitive.
I race a ministock neon. I'm also one of the tech inspectors for the late model series. I was doing both one day this past summer, and had decided to forgo hotlaps because of the double workload of the day, but five minutes before hotlaps were to start, i decided i had nothing to do, so I suited up quick, went out, and crashed into a guy who had spun on the back straight.
My head wasn't where it needed to be.
I guess the mental part could be split into maybe three types of mistakes: overdriving, underdriving and failure to have learned the course. Anyone want to suggest additional categories?
For overdriving, it has helped to mentally write off the runs and "slow down to speed up", falling back on the basics and just concentrating on getting clean runs. Some days the result is surprisingly good, others not, but the practice is worth it anyway.
For under-driving I've tried to watch my competitors and ID one or two places on the course where they seem to really get something I haven't yet, work up a theory on how to change my approach and try it their way. Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery, after all. 
I had a nationals-type situation once where I just hadn't gotten a handle on the course and DNFed on all 3 of my runs, so I'm no help with that one. That sucked. Sure, it was raining like mad and there were 10 times more cones than I'd ever seen on a course but damn that was embarrassing.
In reply to conesare2seconds :
Another one we all forget is: fear.
This year was the first time I autocrossed my RX7 (3 times, actually) and my very first time out with the car, I was afraid to push it. I spent too much time worrying about not breaking it. This last time out, while I was still really slow, I could feel myself pushing the car harder than before. I took it off my mind that the car was fragile, because it's proven that it's not. I trusted it, and it rewarded me with faster runs.
Add to that, FoF (Fear of Failure). It's what kept me from getting started in autocross for a long time. I had friends that were doing it, so I knew it couldn't be too hard. My brother went and couldn't stop talking about how fun it was. What finally inspired me? Oddly enough, it was an ad for Track Night in America, "What are you waiting for? Make this the year you get on track!" and while I haven't done a track day yet, it did inspire me to break down my barriers and just do it.
I think this mindset carries true in other aspects as well.
When it comes to sports, I know I'm a very competitive person. Sometimes this intensity hurts the overall performance. I play men's softball, and see this all the time. Guys get all amped up, and try too hard. Going for a home run, they pop out--- or trying to make a good play, they freak out and make an error.
In a lot of ways, it's the same as autocross. What I do to relax, and perform better is:
* Recognize you are a grown man, playing a kids game
* Realize there is no prize money, no interviews with Kimmel or Conan.....
* Accept the silliness, and absurdity of it all (either 40 year olds playing ball, or grownups racing through cones in a parking lot)
* Relax and enjoy the moment---- because in the end....that's why we do this stuff
In reply to TheRX7Project :
we have an event at the Indy Speedrome. Walls and all. I always do well there because I trust our course designer and push just as hard as I do at Grissom. I've seen so many people that were always quite a bit faster than me fall because of fear.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
Did you just admit to being 45% mental?
Because I think all of us would put that number much higher. 
conesare2seconds said:I had a nationals-type situation once where I just hadn't gotten a handle on the course and DNFed on all 3 of my runs, so I'm no help with that one. That sucked. Sure, it was raining like mad and there were 10 times more cones than I'd ever seen on a course but damn that was embarrassing.
That wasn't at Wilmington was it? I remember a national even there with three trailers worth of cones on a 2 mile course in a downpour.
Bobzilla said:conesare2seconds said:I had a nationals-type situation once where I just hadn't gotten a handle on the course and DNFed on all 3 of my runs, so I'm no help with that one. That sucked. Sure, it was raining like mad and there were 10 times more cones than I'd ever seen on a course but damn that was embarrassing.
That wasn't at Wilmington was it? I remember a national even there with three trailers worth of cones on a 2 mile course in a downpour.
That sounds like driving through a construction zone, not an autocross.
In reply to Pete Gossett :
it was a 80+ second autox for STF
It was at NCCC national convention in Indy. The low-speed was run at Grissom AFB. The course pretty much broke all the rules covered in the GRM how-to webcast a few weeks back - it crossed itself a couple of times, there were enough cones to make any DOT envious, etc. All the big points drivers from around the country were there and I was excited to see how how I'd do since I was starting to run pretty well regionally. Not my day.
In reply to conesare2seconds :
I remember my first divisional at Grissom was like that. SBR did the course and it had 3 crossovers, was 70+ seconds and you could have one car on course at a time. an early crossover at Grissom is fine, a late one not so much
J.G., I love the headline, haaa! And it's true, Solo/autocross and even more so Nationals are mental games. I found Pro Solo helped me a lot back then, the constant high pressure performing. It's like doing that floor exercise or skating routine at the Olympics, but without all the pre-practice.
Congrats on your comeback and trophy!
Running the former GRM Focus in my first RallyX and first auto sports event ever last month was interesting. The car could handle way more then I was throwing at it, but I had to get over my fear of something breaking and flinching a little every time the shocks slammed into the bump stops or other loud noises. Thankfully I'm running in a class of one so far, so I'm just comparing my times and trying to get faster and not beat anybody.
Good article JG. I completely agree. For the past couple years I would always get into my own head at big events and overthink the course. This year I kept reminding myself to treat national events like a local and drive the course like I would at home. The results payed off and I was less anxious/nervous then previous years.
This past weekend, I celebrated two 10th place finishes. (2-day event) On Saturday, I did not like the course and let it get to me. I was all over the place, spinning and hitting cones and going off course. I had to take a step back and re-center myself and make a plan for how to get a clean run. That has not been my modus operandi in the past, so I was proud that I could take a breath, make a plan and execute it.
The same process repeated on Sunday sadly, I struggled and coned away my best run. That run would have only put me in 10th, and I had to work hard to get a clean run and get that position back even though it was a slower run. While I never felt that I did my personal best, I did celebrate being able to remove my head from my posterior and get a solid run in the books. PFA
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