Whoops, I did it again…..

You race cars, you have crashes.  Not sure who said that but I wish they hadn’t.

Adelaide Rally 2022 ended early for us with a trip to the armco and damage that wasn’t going to get straightened up overnight at the service park. Not our first crash but with any luck just might be the last, hopefully I’ll get the hang of this driving game before I get old enough to hang up the helmet.

I’ve had a few crashes in the past and have always taken the time to reflect on the circumstances to see why it happened.  Every crash really boils down to either poor decision making or poor judgement and in every case we’ve been able to see a pattern or a path that led to the incident.  Might be trying too hard and pushing too early, or stressed and time poor in the lead up, losing attention or focus and being distracted, or perhaps the preparation was lacking and the car wasn’t mechanically perfect.

Whatever the reason, it’s important to embrace the situation and learn from the experience to make sure you don’t repeat it.

This crash was no different and really didn’t take much investigating to identify the culprit, the nut behind the wheel.  In this instance, lack of focus was the primary problem. Let me explain.

For most people most of the time driving isn’t exactly all consuming, most can drive while having a conversation, humming a tune or plotting world domination in their mind, all while navigating the joys of peak hour.

Racing and rallying requires a bit more focus, and while Dick Johnston might have been able to crack wise with the TV cameras at 280 down conrod, us mere amateurs need to keep our mind on the job.  In rally this might be especially true as you have a lot to process, the road, the conditions, the behaviour of the car and of course the constant stream of invaluable notes coming through the headset via the navigator.

Pace notes change the complexion of a road stage completely and once mastered the mental picture painted of the road ahead makes the experience much clearer, quicker and more enjoyable than just “driving what you can see”.  Some drivers take years to come to grips with the notes and getting the pacing and rhythm right and keeping the focus with all that going on.

But here’s the rub, you need to maintain focus, it doesn’t take much to drift a bit and before you know it that funny noise or warning light or Rallysafe message you’re trying to read has consumed the bit of brain space you needed to recognise the Left 3 you were supposed to be getting ready for is in fact already here and now it’s too late.

And that’s what happened to me.  Stage 1 was less than a minute long, still getting the comms volume set and thinking about the tyre pressures.  Stage 2 was a bit longer but still not really focused, spent a long time on the speed limiter wondering if it was bad for the car.

Stage 3, still a short stage and the car is starting to hook up but ultimately as a driver I’m still not fully focused on the notes or in a rhythm and while the notes were coming through clear and timely they didn’t quite penetrate and the corner came up too fast.

But what about “every crash really boils down to either poor decision making or poor judgement” how does that apply here?

The answer is in the first two stages – I already knew that I wasn’t focussed.  The Nav asked if everything was OK, the speed limiter was distracting and I fumbled through the first short stages.  I recognised this but still choose to push early instead of dialling back a few notches and easing into the day. That was a bad decision.

Judgement plays a role here too, we had just come off a win in another event just a few weeks prior, we felt like we were in the top group for this event as well so the ego and expectations are high and pushing early should be fine, right? Very poor judgement.

Hard lessons to learn.

But we rebuild and move on and make some mental (and actual) notes for next time to be a bit more reflective, ease in a little slower and take the time to get the focus set, the eyes up and the feeling right before going full send.

I don’t want to write another one of these.