OPTIMUM DRIVE
“This is NOT just a book about driving! It literally is the Zen of teaching, internal assessment, and personal growth. Paul’s years of coaching, (including me) have paid off in a must read for anyone pursuing limits beyond their comfort zone. Don’t buy this book to drive better – buy it to be a BETTER PERSON and to find what makes you tick…No 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, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from Optimum Drive. Paul’s 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 Gerrard’s 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 you’re washing in the honesty of driver skills assessment.
In doing so you grow—performing at a higher level—going beyond the plateau that you never realized you were stuck on.
Reading Paul’s 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
The Myth of the “Natural” Talent
Getting in the Optimal Drive Zone
The Foundation: Club level vs. Pro level, a cautionary tale
Timing is Everything/The Devil is in the Details
Paul and I met up many years ago at the Jim Russell Racing Driver’s 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