Paul F. Gerrard - Optimum Drive: The Road Map to Driving Greatness

OPTIMUM DRIVE

This is NOT just a book about driving! It literally is the Zen of teaching, internal assessment, and personal growth. Pauls years of coaching, (including me) have paid off in a must read for anyone pursuing limits beyond their comfort zone. Dont buy this book to drive better buy it to be a BETTER PERSON and to find what makes you tickNo kidding! Oh yea, and you can drive faster!

- Bob Miller, 2001 World Challenge Rookie of the Year and Volvo NA Race Team Owner

As an aspiring racer and lifetime student of performance driving, Ive thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from Optimum Drive. Pauls writing is full of insights both into the psychology of competitive driving and drive itself - accompanied with some very powerful and useable techniques. The way he brings to life the role of tires and the concept of Zerosteer improved my lap times. From his decades of experience, this book delivers on its promise to make you smarter, better and faster.

Chris Cappy, President, Pilot Consulting Corporation

Optimum Drive is a racers guide for anyone trying to get to the top tiers of professional motor racing. As a professional driving coach Paul has seen a wide range of driver issues and understands the complexity of modern motorsports and its technological components. Paul explains the areas a driver must focus his efforts on to master his craft.

- D. Bruce Reichel, Racer and Career Driving Trainer, Driving SME

I have been involved in high performance driving, including club racing, at all amateur levels for twenty-five years. No professional I have been exposed to in numerous driving and racing schools over the years has articulated, demonstrated and taught high-performance driving and race-craft knowledge and skills better than Paul Gerrard.

-Gary Church, President & CEO of Aviation Management Associates, Inc.

Have you tried driving an automobile at the limit of performance on a track naked?

Paul Gerrards comprehensive principles overlay a method of drilling down to the truth of your skill set. You get in the car, take your fire suit off, and get blasted by a pressure washer. Sure this sounds painful, but youre washing in the honesty of driver skills assessment.

In doing so you growperforming at a higher levelgoing beyond the plateau that you never realized you were stuck on.

Reading Pauls book is an insightful and welcomed experience. Optimum Drive stands apart from the crowd of how-to-drive-a-race-car publications.

-Rob Schermerhorn, Delta Vee Motorsports LLC

Copyright 2017 Paul Gerrard.
Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.

Cover and Interior Illustrations: Micheal Castiglione
Cover Design: Roberto Nunez
Layout & Design: Roberto Nunez

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Optimum Drive: The Roadmap to Driving Greatness

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication has been applied for.
ISBN: (paperback) 978-1-63353-517-6, (ebook) 978-1-63353-518-3
BISAC category code SPO041000 SPORTS & RECREATION / Sports Psychology

Printed in the United States of America

I have no Idols, I respect work, dedication and competence.

- Ayrton Senna

Table of Contents

Paul and I met up many years ago at the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School where we both had an association. I still remember vividly sitting listening to him in the classroom where he perfectly described the intricate balancing act the car and driver do at the first moment the brake pedal is pressed, through to the apex, applying power and the corner exit. It was obvious that he had a way of bringing the interaction of man and machine into words and sensations that we can then translate into lap time.

This book pulls on all of those world experiences, on and off track, taking you from the very basics of driving to the qualities and skills you need at the top level. Even if you have won World Championships, all of us can still learn, and the day you stop, is the day you finish second. I promise youll learn something so read on

Allan McNish, Formula One Driver, Three Times Le Mans Winner, WEC/ALMS Champion, Television commentator and analyst

Most people may find the concept of a book about driving, NOT published by the DMV, to be peculiar at best. Living in a driving culture where we almost universally have contact with a car or even a steering wheel on a daily basis the thought of reading more than we absolutely have to in order to take advantage of this beautiful freedom might seem asinine. However, while Optimum Drive is more about human potential than human transportation, more about racing than actual driving, I still believe that if for some reason we all had to dribble a basketball to work, the NBA players would be the best commuters out there and we would all be practicing our dribbling skills. So, while this book may not be about daily driving it is rooted in a subject matter that a vast majority of us can relate to on some level even if, sadly, we dont all dream of racing cars.

Fortunately, for those of us who are driving fanatics, Optimum Drive is a tactile guide to improving every aspect of your passionwith a twist: Within these pages driving seems almost like a vehicle to teach ridiculously poignant lessons on living a fuller, more capable life; Its a clear map to accessing and concurring facets of our human condition that typically restrain us behind the wheel and in life. Consequently, after reading this book you may be a much faster, smarter driver but you might also be able to grasp the bosonic string theory and its 26 dimensions of space with a bit more verve.

As a racer and a biology major I find Pauls physiological and psychosomatic perspective of the driver strangely refreshing. When driving at the limit its easy to feel that virtually all of the instincts we have capitalized on to become the most successful specie in our planets history do exactly nothing for us on a racetrack. Paul leads us through a clear path of logical progression identifying and celebrating parts of this innate wiring not just for their shortcomings in a car but for how they can be utilized to find our true potential. He pulls the veil off of what is sometimes called driving talent, breaking down the ability to learn driving skills into their components while offering a chronology to the lessons that results in an enhanced learning ability. I have always considered the rate that a driver can learn to be a measure of their talent but Pauls concept is viable and awesome!

Ive known Paul for nearly 20 years and have always been amazed by his combined acute observation skills and a bizarrely effective ability to communicate. When you mix in a pinch of intellectual juggernaut and a dash of self-effacing humor you have the makings of a great writer that in this book hits the proverbial nail on the head more times than an ironworker.