The winter Olympics are in full-swing right now. If you think about these or the summer
Olympics, you’re watching the best athletes in the world at their respective sports. Just being the
best though, isn’t enough. There’s always someone trying to take you down to reach the top step
of the podium. How do the top athletes stay at the top and how do the ones trying to beat them do
so? Coaching! Think about it – the best athletes in the world are also the most coached athletes in
the World!

Believe it or not, the same thing happens in the world of auto racing. The same precepts apply in
that those on top want to stay there and those that are not at the top are trying to get there. All
these drivers have something in common with their Olympic cousins – coaching. Keep in mind
that there are multiple ways to be coached whether that’s mental training, vision training, fitness
and nutrition training, or the nuts and bolts of simply driving and trying to achieve the ultimate
lowest lap time.

At FastLane Racing School, we start our one-on-one coaching with beginners and work with
experienced drivers as well to maximize their success on the track. This is a huge benefit for the
driver as the coach can work with each individual driver to help them achieve their goals. We do
this by multiple means. Starting with a classroom session covering the basics and fundamentals,
we start building the foundation of success. In-car driving instruction starts with slalom and other
exercises to gain an understanding of how vision, along with steering/acceleration/braking inputs
affect weight transfer, which can then be applied on track. These sessions are valuable in that we
sit right-seat with our students and they get immediate feedback on their driving. As soon as we
get on the race track, our in-car intercom systems accentuate our in-car coaching. All of these
exercises are demonstrated by a professional instructor/coach first.

As soon as the on-track session ends, we immediately go into a debrief of the session. We look at
what went well and really focus on the opportunities to get better. We utilize Garmin in-car data
and camera systems to enhance our communication with our students. These one-on-one debriefs
go a long way for helping our students grasp the concepts of how their inputs lead directly to lap
time gain (bad), or loss (good). Ultimately, after multiple sessions, the goal is to improve speed,
consistency and understanding of how the driver can modify his or her inputs to reduce lap
times. After a full day of this, we often hear comments from students that they never realized how mentally demanding this sport can be. Huge benefits and understanding take place with
multiple days on track. Either way, we’re here to help make you successful with your on-track
goals.

For more information on how to improve your skill behind the wheel, earn your racing license
and much more, please visit www.raceschool.com and schedule a call with a lead instructor.
We’re happy to coach you one-on-one at the race track whether it’s in a race car, go-kart, street
car or SUV. In addition to our High-Performance and SCCA race licensing programs, we offer
training such as the Defensive Driving Academy (DDA), EVOC (for highway patrol, executive
protection, etc.), and we can also customize a driving program for corporate events, team
building and more. We look forward to seeing you at the race track soon!

By Larry Mason

Copyright © 2026 Larry Mason