Ross Bentley - Inner Speed Secrets

MENTAL STRATEGIES TO
MAXIMIZE YOUR RACING
PERFORMANCE

ROSS BENTLEY
RONN LANGFORD

F irst of all, I would like to once again thank everyone whom I acknowledged in my first book, Speed Secrets. Your input, motivation and support were the keys to that book, which obviously has led to this one. Of course, thank you to everyone who made Speed Secrets a success by purchasing it.

I really want to thank Ronn Langford, my mental coach and coauthor, for setting me on a path that has developed my abilities as a race driver and coach better than I ever would have without him. What Ive learned in working with Ronn through the years, and particularly on this book, will help me throughout the rest of my life.

Thank you to everyone who helped in the development of this bookall those people who took the time to proofread, edit, provide feedback, and give encouragement. Also, to MBI Publishing, thank you for taking on both this book and Speed Secrets.

While doing research for this book, and for my own interest, I have read many books on subjects related to what Ronn and I discuss here. Most of them are listed in the Recommended Reading list in . I would like to thank the authors of those booksthey have helped me learn a lot.

Over the past few years, Ive had the opportunity to work very closely with a number of race drivers. In providing personal coaching, Ive been able to use them as test subjects for all the strategies presented in this book. I specifically want to thank Bob, Chris, Tim, Ryan, Jeffrey, and Lee for their openness and willingness to strive to be even better race drivers. Im sure they didnt mind being my guinea pigs, as I imagine they enjoyed the improvements they made as much as I did.

Next to what Ive learned about applying Inner Speed Secrets from coaching race drivers, Ive learned almost as much from my daughter, Michelle. I dedicate this book to her, and hope she enjoys her personal performance in whatever endeavors she chooses throughout her life as much as I will enjoy observing her.

And finally, thanks again to my wife, Robin, for all her support, assistance, and dedication.

Ross Bentley

For several years, I have wanted to put all of the concepts that I have been privileged to learn and work with into a book. But when youre really focused upon your life purpose, its easy to just put it on a back burner. So for several years, I worked on parts and pieces of this book and conducted some high-performance seminars just for the fun of it.

Then last year, Ross, who had just completed his book Speed Secrets, asked me about writing a book together, and calling it Inner Speed Secrets. It would be about the concepts that Ross and I have taught and worked with for many years, and, from Ross perspective, how to implement the concepts at the highest potential level. Ross has done this over the past several years, and is experientially knowledgeable about the concepts.

We outlined the book and submitted it for consideration for publication. And sure enough, there was interest. So, I would first like to acknowledge Ross and his commitment to kicking me in the rear and getting the job done. Otherwise, it would never have been finished.

In addition, there are many others who have been my teachers and mentors over the years, far too many to name. Some of you know who you arefor others, well talk about it in the future. I would like to acknowledge specifically some who have taught me so muchAnthony Robbins, Dr. Paul Dennison, and Dr. Carla Hannaford.

Most of all, I would like to acknowledge the people I have been given the opportunity to work with, who have taught me more than all others combined. Gabe, Toni, Rita, Wes, and other clients who have had serious traumatic brain injuries and other debilitating conditionsthey have taught me so much about what human potential really means, even after top neurologists had given up on them.

I would also like to dedicate this book to my daughter, Dorri. Dorri was a beautiful young woman, just graduated from high school and on her life path, when she was killed by a drunken driver. As a result, my personal mission was totally changed and my life was led into a unique and meaningful purpose.

And to Dani, my soul mate and life partner. You really complete me!

Ronn Langford

N early everyone who has set foot to gas pedal has thought at some time that all he really needed to be up there with Fangio, Moss, Senna, and Schumacher, would be a really fast car, some practice, and a little luck. Indeed, those items are helpful, even necessary, but if you are making out a wish list to see you to a championship, dont put them at the top.

First, youll need an appropriate physical and neurological make-up. Every endeavor requires a certain basic set of tools, both innate and learned. Michael Jordans genetic code predisposed him to be a greater success playing above the rim than, say, riding Derby winners. Julia Child was similarly destined to be more successful with a bain-marie than a pas de deux. Like an uncarved block, you came into this world, potentialities to be realized (or not.)

The happenstances of your life and your environment roughed in the shape. You refined that with ever more precise tools. You watched. You did. You learned. Gradually, you formed from the formless. And now here you are. Interest, propensity, and circumstances have placed you on a starting grid, the shriek of engines dulled slightly by your earplugs. Your eyes are keen (or artfully corrected). Your heart rate is optimized by training and experience. You are ready for the flag to drop. What sets you apart from the others also waiting? You may differ in innate abilities. Some are more blessed than others. But you may differ more by how fully you have developed those abilities that are specific to this odd commotion of competing in a race car on a cast loop of roadway. And most important, because the differences are the greatest, where those tires nudge the staggered chalk lines, your ability is measured by how fully you have integrated your body, soul, and mind with a clarity of intent.

Truth be told, any fool can go fast. It takes something more to go very fast. To go faster still, to be among the fastest, takes the most careful burnishing of all that has come to you by nature and all that you have learned. Sometimes those endowed with all that nature can muster are able to coast on the early, easy successes of what they came with. To do well, they are not pressed to sharpen and particularize their talents. Cursed with a flair, a friend of mine called it, as he looked back on the moments of flashy brilliance in an otherwise unrealized life. His successes came easily, so he was never moved to work for rewards beyond the immediate horizon. Probably youve known at least one driver who basked in early triumphs, whose natural talents later had the doors blown off by someone who cosseted a lesser legacy. He didnt know that the tortoise and the hare would be on the midterm.

It is now a sports clich that the mental game is the real game. But clichs become clichs because of the truth within them. As you sit on that grid, as you fall in behind the pace car, your mind is the designated driver, whether you recognize it or not. It is best that it be well prepared. In 1975, when I wrote a book called The Centered Skier, my elevating the emotional and intellectual aspects of the sport to the same importance as the physical was dismissed as woo-woo stuff. When I taught guided fantasies and visualization, eyes rolled heavenward. So imagine my delight in finding that woo-woo stuff all these years later embraced as rock solid basics in Ronn and Ross wonderful book. Hey, these guys get it! Furthermore, they have enlarged it and codified it. They can explain it and teach it, and they have made it practical, graspable, feasible, and readily available to you.