May 6, 2025 • 51 mins
On today’s episode of Throttle Therapy, Katherine explains the role of simulation work while preparing to face a new track, what she learned from the adjustments the team made during the NASCAR Xfinity race at Texas Motor Speedway, and how those lessons will apply to her next race in Charlotte. Katherine is then joined by her mental coach, Gloria Budd, to discuss the tools drivers use to conquer the unconscious mind, release negative thoughts, and stay focused on the track.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Throttle Therapy with Catherine Legg is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to this
(00:21):
week's episode of Throttle Therapy with Me, Catherine Legg. I
am a little bit tired today because I literally just
got back from Texas from the NASCAR race this weekend.
I stayed on with my sponsors drop Light and des Nuda,
and we watched the Cup race and supported some of
the Cup guys and we had a great time. But
(00:43):
the flights were all delayed getting back in, so I
had a very late night and did not go to
cross fit this morning. So I'm a bad girl and
I need to make up for that afternoon. So this
weekend was, by all accounts a success. Overall, I would
think you would call it. Everybody was happy because I
(01:05):
finished a race. I however, was not super happy. I mean,
I am happy that I finished. I'm happy that we
saw the checker flag. I'm happy for the team because
they deserved it. I feel like my luck this year
has been.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Kind of awful.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Honestly, and I don't know how to break the cycle.
I'm hoping that Texas acts as that cycle break for us,
because we did finish and it would be something to
build off. What happened was we went to Texas again
in the spirit of Catherine's luck. This year we had
practice and qualifying rained out.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Now that was both lucky and unlucky.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So it was obviously very unlucky because I hadn't raised
Texas before and I needed the practice. I need as
much time as I can get in these cars, and
that the practice is so limited anyway, it's like super valuable,
so you need every single life you can get. So
it rained and we sat there and we thought we
were going to go out and qualify, and I cannot
(02:06):
tell you how sick I was feeling about the prospect
of going straight out on the track and trying to
throw down and qualifying that I had no idea. I've
driven it on the sim because GM were wonderful and
they gave us some sim time, But I am not
the kind of driver that can make that relate apples
(02:26):
to apples like it's super helpful. But to me, it's
a different beast when you're actually on the track. When
we do sim work, it's for a number of different reasons,
and I guess we're all looking to get something out
of it. As a driver, I'm looking to learn the track,
lift points, breakpoints, gears, whatever it may be, trying to
(02:49):
get the experience of being there without actually being there.
We're also working on the car, so we have a
bank of engineers that set there and work on the
setup of the car, and that's their primary focus. So
it kind of goes hand in hand and you can
do both at the same time. I do find sometimes
that the sim can be driven a certain way to
(03:09):
elicit lap time, but it's not necessarily the way that
you would drive your race car. So you have to
try and stay in the mindset of this is how
the car would drive, or this is how I believe
the car would drive, and not try and look for
lap time just to match your teammates. And so we
did a lot of work in the SIM going into Texas,
(03:31):
and I think we made a bunch of improvements to
the car, and so it's a really useful tool for
the engineers, and it's really useful for them to validate
what they already suspect going off of changes that they
made in previous years.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Obviously, the cars.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Have been around for a while, and so they have
all the data and the notes from last year, a
year before, and depending on the track and the you know,
the conditions changed so much you can only go off
of what you know, and then you have to kind
of be smart when you're there and make the changes
on the fly to suit the conditions at that time.
(04:08):
But the more work you can do in preparation at
the sharper head of time, the better. And so I
was sat there waiting to go out as the dryers
were out on the track on Friday, thinking okay, I
could go home here because I weren't qualified because there
were more cars than there were spots on the grid,
and it was literally just three of us who hadn't
been there before, and those guys had more experience in
(04:31):
these cars. So I was feeling the pressure, let's put
it that way. Anyway, The lucky part is that it
was then rained out for qualifying, so we got in
on owner's points. So, like I say, very unlucky. We
didn't practice. Lucky we didn't qualify because that means that
I started. I think we were the last ones in
so I started in last place on the grid ready
(04:54):
to take the green. So nerves back again because again
never driven here before, didn't know what to expect, still
very new to NASCAR, and I'm sat on the grid thinking,
the first time I'm going to see this place is
as we take the green flag, and everybody said, well,
that's how we did it during COVID and I'm like, great,
that's not how we do it now. So I was
(05:16):
planning on taking it easy. Obviously, the main goal this
weekend was to finish, so taking any kind of risk
was not going to fly was unacceptable. So everybody was
telling me, just finish, just do all the laps to
scare the experience. So I was erring on the side
of cautious of conservative. So I basically my goal in
(05:39):
life at that point in time was to make it
to the first competition yellow, which was twenty laps in
without getting lapped. Burying in mind, some of these guys
at the front have a lot of experience in this
car and at that track, so they can just go.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Out and kind of hammer it straight away.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I'm finding out where the limit is having seen it before. However,
we got to twenty laps in and I hadn't been lapped.
That was the point in time where I was just
starting to feel a little bit comfortable. Car was super
loose on entry and quiet loo on exit. So I
told the team. They made an adjustment, and we went
back out for the second stint, if you like, in
(06:20):
the first stage, because there's three stages in a race.
So we went back out and the car was worse.
We made it worse, but that's good because every change
that we make, I'm learning and I'm trying to figure out, like,
what does want. So I knew that I didn't like that,
and we made it the next twenty laps to the
(06:41):
end of the first stage without getting lapped. We went
back on that change and we made another change, and
then the car was getting better. Every change we made
from them made the car better until we actually made
it too tight. We made it understeer too much, and
so for the second half of the race, I was
battling understeering in the middle.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I couldn't get it to turn.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I couldn't roll the center of the corner, which meant
that my entries were way better than they were at
the beginning of the race, but my mid to exit
was not. So we were working on the car and
trying to trying to make these changes, and I learned
a lot. About halfway through the race, I think it
was about halfway through. The race was three hours long
(07:21):
because there were so many yellows, which is mind blowingly
bonkers to me. It was carnage and all three series
in trucks, in Xfinity and in Cup. There was a
lot of yellow at Texas and sometimes that's just how
the cookie crumbled, and hey, the fans want to see
the action, as do I. Right, So about halfway through
the race there were there was a wreck in front
(07:44):
of me and my spotter, who is awesome, He's amazing.
He's telling me to go to the middle, telling me
to check up. I'm looking in my mirror trying not
to get hit by the car behind, and then all
of a sudden, smash. I get hit by the car
behind because he got hit by the car behind him,
which I didn't know at the time, So I was
a little pile up going into turn one.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
There was anything that I could have done differently in
that situation. I looked at it and I tried to learn,
but in any other form of racing, I would say
there is a certain amount of your responsibility and you're
at a fault even though somebody else did.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
The crime, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Like if you're driving in sports cars, for example, and
you get taken out by a Prototype and you're driving
a GT car or a vice versa, or you get
taken out by another GT car, it's like, Okay, you
put yourself in that position. A little bit could have
been avoided. It's still kind of on you. I feel
like in NASCAR you get taken out of these races
and it's not on you at all. There's no way
(08:47):
you cannot put yourself in that position, otherwise you wouldn't
be racing. So I feel like there's a lot of
luck that goes into this with other people crashing into you. Now,
I will say probably if I hadn't been at the
back and we had been further up the grid, then
I wouldn't have been in that position.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Maybe, so maybe maybe that's why.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But we were learning, so got hit from behind, not
my fault, got tagged on the front end too, so
I had a ton of damage. So we came down
pit lane, we lost a couple of laps, We didn't
make it out in front of the pace car, which
was really touch and go, and the team did an
incredible job at patching me up with what's called bearbon,
(09:27):
and I think it's basically like this super sticky body
work fixer that comes in sheets that you can stap
on the car and it will hold it together for you.
So my car was patchwork together by the team and
they sent me back out again.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
And actually these things can take a hit.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Because I was hit in the back, I was hitting
the front and the thing was rolling really straight still,
so I had a bit of a vibration. We changed tires,
came down pit lane again. On the positive side, this weekend,
I came down pitl like seven times at least.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
So I got a lot of pitstop practicing.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
So anyway, at this point, we're like two to four
laps down, I don't know in that range, and as
soon as you were more than one lap down, you're
kind of just driving around trying to stay out of
everybody's way, trying to learn.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
So that's what we did.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
We used it as a test session and we were
testing changes to the car, and I was trying to
get faster and try and carry more entry speed and
then like I say, we tightened up the middle and
so we had to try and get that middle to
roll better, which we did. There's a couple of changes.
The last two changes were made towards the end of
the race were fantastic.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
And I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I've got it in my head now that that's what
I want everywhere because it gave me feel and platform
to the car. And whenever you can give driver feel
and feedback through the wheel, I think that's positive because
you can push it close to the edge without it
being numb.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
The end of the third stage and in multiple that
down got damage trying to stay out of everybody's way,
and then you lose a bunch of time trying to
stay out of everybody's way as well, because you're trying
to give them enough room. You're trying to signal to
them where you want them to pass so they don't
lose any time. Because you don't want to impede anything
or change the outcome of the race. You want to
show some respect. So then you get out of your
rhythm and then it's just like one thing after another.
(11:20):
They're passing you and so I'm out there literally trying
to learn, trying to survive, and all of a sudden,
going down the front straight, the front tire blows and
I haven't had that in a stock carp before. It
felt to me like I ran over some of my
own bodywork and there was a big explosion. I can't
tell you how loud the bang was. And so after
(11:41):
being shocked for a second, I managed to get it
under control and we kept out of the wall. We
got down to the apron and we crawled around because
we were already, you know, lapped down.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
There was no point in me pushing.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Trying to get back to the pits to put a
tire on, so we took it nice and easy. We
got back to the pits, they changed to tires and
they sent us out again, and then, yeah, we were
just learning and surviving for the rest of the race.
I think lap time wise, I have to go and look.
But you know, I was practicing pit lane. I was
trying to carry speed in. I want to look at
(12:14):
SMT day to see whether, like how I compared to CHEB,
because you can only ever compare yourself to your teammates.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Really, they have the same car as you.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
And I think we got closer and closer, and even
with a super damaged car, we were getting better at
the end. So I think that's just a testament of
how much lapse counts and how much experience counts, because
I know that if I was going into Texas lined
again with no practice, I would be way better from
the get go having had that experience than I was then.
(12:48):
So we finished. Everybody was super happy that we finished
because we got that monkey off our back, and we
are already looking forward to and planning for Charlotte in
a couple of weeks. I'm going to drive up there
probably tomorrow night or Wednesday morning. We have the GM
SIM again to do Charlotte prep, and then I'm going
(13:09):
to be making a seat for the Cup car ready
for Mexico, and I am very much looking forward to
the next one. I'm really pleased that these races are
coming in quick succession because I feel like it keeps
you sharp, especially with the SIM in the middle, and
I really I just want to keep going. I want
(13:30):
to keep going and keep improving, like I'm super motivated.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I love this. It's not easy. I love the challenge.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
I love the community aspect of it and how kind
everybody's been in the paddock and supportive, and I, yeah,
I just want to get better and get some results
for everybody that's believed in me, and for my own
psyche as well. I think the team did an incredible job.
I really like my crew, I like my crew chief,
(13:58):
I like my crew, I love the team. Jordan does
a fantastic job, and I feel like we're all one
team pushing for one goal. Everybody's always super positive and happy,
and I just love the environment and it feels like
we're going to get there. Honestly, I just feel positive
about it and I can't wait for the next one.
(14:18):
So you spend the entirety of the race, as we did,
making adjustments to try and make the car better for Texas,
because every track you go to is very different, and
they you can't just take the setup and move it
to the next track. It's a very different setup for
every track. Some of them are similar, some of them aren't.
(14:38):
And what I will say though, is the changes that
we made in Texas, I have now a frame of
reference of what those things do to the car, Like, Okay,
this is what packer does, or this is what the
track bar does or you know, I think I know
what it does. So if we keep building on that,
(14:58):
then i'll know, you know, three four or five races
down the line, maybe this is a track bar adjustment,
or maybe this is that adjustment, because I want that feeling.
So the changes to the car always make the car
do a similar thing. It doesn't always feel the same,
but it's definitely in that direction. But the setups are
(15:20):
very track and condition dependent. So today I have a
good friend of mine who I've known for a number
of years and we work together.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Way back when I was just.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
A young driver looking to forge my way into racing
and not knowing how to do it mentally. So basically,
there are so many aspects to being a good race
car driver. Obviously you've got natural talent, You've got the
hard work and buckling down and putting in the effort.
(15:55):
You've got the physical side, and you've got the mental side.
And I think the mental side is key. There are
a lot of good drivers out there. Whether they are
strong enough mentally dictates whether they make it or not.
And so I have over the years pride in myself
that I have built a strong mental fortitude, let's say,
(16:21):
of being able to do this, but they're still room
for improvement. So I still talk to Gloria on a
regular basis and try and make my mind as strong
as my body and my work ethic and so. Gloria
is very well renowned, especially in Europe, as one of
the best mental coaches for young drivers coming up through
(16:45):
because she gives you those tools to be able to
put into place how you should approach and think about
the mental aspect of racing.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
So here is Gloria's interview this week. I have.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
A friend of mine and we've been friends for a
number of years. We've worked together in the past, and
she is equally as much a motorsport not as I
am and has definitely shaped my career in more ways
than one. I would like to introduce you all to
Gloria Bud. Gloria, thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Thank you, Catherine. I'm honored to be here with you.
We go back a long way, don't we A long way.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
We don't want to age ourselves though.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
An absolutely not. But you know, I've been in the sport.
I don't know. I think it's about forty six years
or something crazy like that.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Now, So that's impressive.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I don't know many people who have been in the
spot for that long.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Honestly, I don't meet so many in the product these
days now.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
So I'm going to tell our listeners a little bit
about what you do and how I met you, and
I know you were you were around before I came
on the scene, but I got to know you as
a mental coach and I got to work with you,
and you helped me. I can't tell you how much,
(18:21):
because before that point in time, I had never really
considered the impact that your thoughts have on your career,
let alone your life and everything else, right, So I
was just kind of plodding along. I didn't, to be
quite honest, Gloria, I didn't even really know what an
emotion was. I don't know that I could have labeled
(18:42):
any of the emotions that I was feeling because I
just didn't grow up with parents or like, my parents
were wonderful, but we didn't think about that kind of thing.
My dad's always been super positive and in still you know,
like you are what you think in me, But I
never went to that debt. So I found you, and
you you helped me. We were looking at it from
(19:04):
a performance perspective where how do how do I get
better mentally? Because I think, honestly, I believe that racing
is as much mental as is anything else. I think
there's a lot of talented drivers out there, but if
you haven't got it right in the head, then you
know you're not going anywhere. So I came at it
from that perspective, and then it opened my eyes to
(19:25):
all the other perspectives and it.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Kind of became part therapy for me in a way.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
But I want to know, I want you to explain
to the listeners, like what made you, what motivated you
to get started down that road, and then just say,
you know, like what it looks like to take a
person like me in my infancy and walk them through
all the stages.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
What got me into it was, as you say, I'd
already been in motorsport for quite a long time, and
I suppose watching drivers, listen to them, seeing them, or
just sports people in general. I started to think, you know,
it's the mind that makes the difference, because all these
guys are all hugely talented drivers. They're talented, are they quick?
(20:15):
But there's something missing here and it is the mental side.
It took me about three years to study various different disciplines,
some of which I studied in the States and I
studied NLP. I studied hypnosis, which I found to be
super powerful, and I still study now. I never stop.
(20:38):
I'm always learning. I work with an incredible guy and
neuroscientists and I'm learning from him. There's another woman in
this country who I've just been doing some training with.
She's phenomenal. So I'm always looking for just for new technologies,
new thoughts about the brain, you know, new understandings about
(20:59):
the brain, because there are some phenomenal people out there
who are just coming up with all sorts of incredible things.
So I started the mental side of my work. As
you may recall, I don't know. In two thousand and one,
I think I finished my studying and I was asked
(21:20):
to work with a British tennis player who at the
time was twenty eight, so his tennis career was kind
of going down instead of up. And I'll just tell
you very quickly. So it became quite a big story
because his goal was to get into Wimbledon and we
only had about three weeks to work together. What became
(21:42):
very apparent was that he didn't really believe in himself enough,
so we worked on his belief I also introduced the
use of inspirational music, which had never been done before,
and I said to him, record a piece of music
you find particularly inspirational on your workmen because we didn't
(22:03):
have iPods then, and take it on court and listen
to it during the changeovers. So off we dropped. He
gets into Wimbledon first round. I went to watch him play,
and he was playing out of his skin. And he
beat an Italian player who was top fifty in the world.
So this was a big, big deal. I mean, Barrie's
(22:25):
ranking was three hundred and something I can't remember now,
but you know, on the world's on a global scale,
it wasn't very high. So that was all great. I
was excited. I went home. The next day Barry called
me and said, I've just got my drawer for the
next round. I saw, that's great. Who are you playing?
He said, I've drawn Pete Samprass. Oh wow, I know,
(22:48):
world number one. I thought, oh, that's going to be
a bit interesting. Then where do we go from here? Anyway,
it became a big story and he played the match
of his life against Pete samp person. He became the
first person ever to take him to five sets at Wimbledon.
So this was an unknown guy who Drew Pete played
(23:12):
the match of his life and went on to have
you know, the best year of his tennis career. And
on the back of that match was offered a contract
to commentate with Sky, which I think he still does today.
So that was my first client. So it ended up being,
you know, quite a big deal. And it was interesting
(23:33):
because he picked a very specific piece of music to him.
What was it, You'll Never Walk Alone.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Ah, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
He was from near Liverpool, he loved Liverpool Football Club.
They are do you that's amazing. So yeah, it became
a huge story. And then the story got out that
the piece because then everyone was saying, well, what's he
listening to? What's he listening to? And I didn't tell
the press. He told them in the end that he
(24:03):
was listening to You'll Never Walk Alone because he was
from that area and he was a phenomenal Liverpool fan.
So of course all that story got out that you know,
he got invited to Liverpool Football Club, he met all
the players. It was just incredible. So it was this
huge story around and it was a story of you know,
(24:25):
once you learn to be mentally strong, actually you can
do anything. You could do anything.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
When that happened, did you look at yourself as well
and go, Okay, I'm really good at this and I
made this work with him, and I believe in it,
and so you put everything behind it from that moment forward.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Yeah, yeah, from that moment forward, I just continued to
work with tennis players, and then in later years it's
just been all racing drivers really because that's my core sport.
It's what I know best, and so yeah, it it's
just it's gone completely from there, and it's just I'm
(25:04):
so lucky. I think I'm the luckiest person in the
world because what I do is a passion. It's a passion,
and I get help and I care deeply. I care
deeply about my drivers. You know, some of them are
just they're not even twelve years old, you know. And
then you've got the opposite end of the spectrum with
(25:25):
gentlemen drivers. No that's not you, but it's I'm it
doesn't matter what age you are. I'm just as passionate.
So now I use all sorts of different techniques. What
I've learnt also, particularly about racing, is that it's such
(25:46):
a data driven sport now that many young drivers get
into the car overthinking and it's the biggest thing that
slows you down. That will slow a driver down.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I've found that with my coaching.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I've found that they will overthink and overplay, and they
will over analyze what everybody else is doing instead of
just being at one with themselves exactly the same.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
And driving is unconscious. It's not a conscious thing, you know.
And I always say this to young drivers, you know,
how much of the conscious unconscious mind do you think
we use? And they all get it wrong because it's
it's kind of ninety five percent of what we do
and driving is unconscious. So I spend most of my
time these days helping them to have a completely clear mind,
(26:39):
you know, to have a quiet, empty mind, which is
much harder to do these days because all our minds
are busy all the time, because that's the pace of life,
that's how we live. So by using techniques that actually
help to completely clear the mind, that's when you drive
(27:02):
intuitively and naturally. So that's what I do most of
the time.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I find it really interesting because I know that to
be the case. Right, Like, when I'm driving something that
I know and that I have experience driving, I drive
without thinking about it. I don't have to think about
what I do in pit lane. I don't have to
think about what gear I need to be in on
a restart. I don't have to think about pit stops.
I don't have to think about strategy. I just drive,
(27:28):
and I guarantee you the two or however many hours
you're in the car, floor goes buying a flash of
a second, and you cannot remember most of it because
you're just driving. It's like if you're driving home from
work and I don't remember how I got there, but
I know that I did. But with this new stuff
that I'm doing, the NASCAR stuff, I have to consciously
(27:49):
think about it. And I know that my conscious mind
doesn't work at the same speed and the same accuracy,
and it makes more mistakes than my subconscious mind. But
I have no choice at the moment because it's so
new to me. So when I've got that experience and
I've got that programming of what it needs to do
for my own conscious and it can be as simple
as like an overnight programming as well.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
You know, that you wake up the next morning and
it's there.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
But it's difficult to do the subconscious thing when you
don't have that program, didn't you you know.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
No, I understand that and that you know that can
take a little bit of time, But you can also
nail it pretty quickly. Can you really can? Yeah? I
hope you can. So I think that's something we can
work on together. Away from this podcast, I'm going to
give you some tips to nail that, so you can
nail this, this NASCAR and just blow them all away.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Actually, going back to the tennis reference, I was just
in La watching Billy Jean King get her at Star
Put on the Hollywood Boulevard, which is really cool because
she's definitely been an inspiration to women everywhere, not just
in tennis.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Yeah, she has amazingly. I've seen her many times that
at Wimbledon when I used to work in the sport,
and she's always so encouraging because I think the year
after the Barry Cown metch I was working with a
young British girl and she also got into Wimbledon and
she drew Venus Williams first round, so you know that
(29:20):
was a huge deal. So we had to kind of
with that. It was a different set of circumstances we
had to work around creating this real confidence in her,
which came about from doing all sorts of things, down
to getting new outfits to wear, you know, and feeling
really great about herself, which was also really important. There
(29:43):
are so many other elements involved in helping that person
to be confident and to be focused, and most importantly,
to believe in themselves. And that comes from you know,
really kind of getting into the field because our thoughts
(30:03):
create our reality, but the feeling side and the heart side,
because the heart is very very important in the work
that I do as well, all ties in together to
create you know, this person who's gone from not believing
in themselves to believing in themselves. And the other thing
(30:24):
I do quite a lot is and in fact, I
was just having this conversation with one of my drivers
yesterday who's out in Bahrain the Grand Prix, and I
just said, Okay, what I want you to do is
when you go to bed tonight, because it's always a
very important time to you know, set your mindset for
(30:45):
what you're going to do the next day. And I said, okay,
what I want you to do is I want you
to imagine you've already done this, You've already qualified. Where
do you want to qualify? Where do you believe you
can qualify? Okay, so he went for pole. He got
within a whisker of pole today, within a whisker which
(31:07):
I am thrilled to bits about. This is not Formula one,
it's ia F three, So I know from there you
know the next stage will be Okay. Now, I want
the message to your mind to be I've already done it.
I've already won that race. Because your mind cannot differentiate
(31:28):
between what you're stutting it and what you're imagining, so
your unconscious mind will start to take that on. So
the more you feed your unconscious mind these positive bliss, well,
I've done it. I can see it in my mind.
I'm going to run this video in my mind. I'm
going to see myself making a fantastic start or if
(31:52):
it's in qualifying, I'm going to create some space. I'm
going to have such feel for the tires. I'm going
to know when to go and nail that lap. I
know exactly how I'm going to do it, so I
get them to kind of run the tracks through in
their mind exactly what they're going to do, set that
the night before, and more times than not, if they
(32:13):
don't achieve exactly what they set out to, they get
very very close to it. So it's about training your
unconscious mind to take on these beliefs. Imagination is so
so powerful, truly.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Powerful, and I still do that.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
I still use that like visualization technique. But how do
you stop the intrusive thoughts? So I'll give you an example.
I'm there and I've closed my eyes and I'm like,
I'm winning whatever race it is, and I'm doing well,
and I've like passed whoever it is that I need
to pass, and yet together yether, and then my mind
will be like yeah, and then she crashes and I stop.
(32:52):
Don't think about that, like, because you can't not think
about what you're thinking about, right, like, your mind just
goes to it.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
How do you block out those intruths go that is?
Speaker 3 (33:02):
It is tricky because, as I said, we all have
these super busy minds. But I think in terms of
getting negative thoughts, what I would normally do is I'd
work with someone and we'd find a way a release
valve of releasing negative thoughts. So if you create a
valve in the top of your mind, so all my drivers,
as you will perhaps remember, take a journey inside their mind.
(33:26):
They design whatever they want in there. So you design
your own mindset. So I want you to imagine, Okay,
You're going to step inside your mind. You have a
door at the side of your head. What color is it?
Go with the first thing that comes into your mind red? Cool,
So you step through the red door into your mind.
(33:48):
What is the first feeling, what you see, what you hear?
Is it light? Is it dark? What is it like
in there? And that in itself already tells me quite
a lot by the response.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I remember doing this and this for me it was
a box and I don't know why, but you know what,
this is a very good reminder that I need to
go back into my mind.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
And the release valve is under a lot of.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Pressure, exactly exactly. So you know, there are many different techniques,
but I've always found this to be one of the
best ones. So just use this. And the best time
to do it is just before you fall asleep the
night before. That's when you go up there. You're really chilled.
Put in there, whatever you want to put in there.
(34:33):
You can put a screen in if you want to
see yourself on a screen. You design your mind to
a way that's really going to work for you. And
then if you feel the negative thoughts coming in, use
the valve. I always liken it to a kind of
small aircraft window in your head. And when you release it,
(34:54):
when you physically release it, all the negatives get sucked
out into space, into infinity. It's a one way valve,
so they cannot come back in mine's mind.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
An extraction fan in a bathroom.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
I think it needs to be.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
A bit more powerful.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
It's going to be sucked out. There aren't that many
negative thoughts. We're good. We'll just let them go out
into either. So is it the same with everybody?
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Though? Like do you go through the same so everybody
thinks relatively similar?
Speaker 3 (35:34):
Relatively relatively I mean you will get some who are,
you know, supremely confident and they just get in the
car and do it. But quite often it's the first
thing we have to do is to get rid of
the overthinking, because all overthinking does. The more you overthink,
(35:54):
the slower you go. That's the bottom line. It's just
flowing you down because you've taken your focus of just
doing it to coin the Nike phrase, just do it,
because that's what driving is. You get into your road car.
You don't start overthinking about you know, oh there's traffic
light coming out. I need to see if I can
(36:15):
you know, get through it before it goes red or whatever.
You know, you don't drive like that. And if you
reach that point on the track where you literally you've
set your imagination and out before, you've directed your mind
to the outcome that you want, and that is I
am going out there tomorrow and I am going to
(36:38):
get pulled or I'm going to be in the top
three or the top four or the top five, whatever
your goal is, and it has to be realistic. Of course,
that's what you've set. And I didn't remember that as
a child. I did this until I started studying. Really yeah,
(37:00):
I suddenly remembered that. When I was about I don't know,
nine or ten years old, my mom took me to
ballet classes and I absolutely loved it, but I couldn't
do the splits, and I remember it all came back
to me when I was training. I remember lying in
bed one night and I said to myself. I am
(37:22):
going to get up early in the morning and I
will be able to do the splits. And that's exactly
what I did. I ran downstairs to the living room,
I did the splits. I ran upstairs and woke my
mom and dad up to show them that I could
do it.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
That's the power of the unconscious mind and imagination, because
that's where all change takes place. Change doesn't take place
on a conscious level. It's the unconscious mind where we
create the change.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
So do you see the same thing over and over
with everybody, or do you have something thing that like
every now and again will surprise you.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
There's not been anyone. Yeah, I'm gone. You don't operate
the same as the rest of us.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
There is one who springs to mind. I don't actually
work with him, but I'm so impressed with his mental strength.
And he's still quite young. I'm not going to name
any names, but of course he's still quite young. But
he has a very very good mental attitude. He just
literally he'll get to the track a bit later than
everyone else, and then he goes into preparation load and
(38:32):
he becomes very serious and doesn't speak to anyone and
he just gets out there and does it incredible.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Really see that freaks me out because as a kid,
I had this reoccurring nightmare that I was going to
be late on the grid for Gokut race. And I
was a young kid, I mean, I must have been
like en and so it used to worry me so
much that I would be late on the grid and
they would leave without me and I'd miss that heat
race or whatever it was that I was doing.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
So ever since then, for however many years it's been.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
I've always been in the car early, ready, early, just
so that those demons stay away. But the thought of
turning up late and being that uber confident person like
I can be confident, I've learned how to fake it
until I make it.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
Sometimes the intsive thoughts get the better of me.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
But it doesn't work the same for everybody either, in
the like I couldn't do it his way and he
couldn't do it my way.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
No, exactly exactly, but the overthinking is is a common
thing with drivers, male and female. Thankfully, now I'm working
with one or two more females, and obviously where you know,
I'm actually going out to Saudi next week to work
with a young Saudi girl who's been given a wildcard
(39:54):
to thefron Academy race and that's a big deal. It's
a big deal for her.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
So is there a different between the men and the
women that you work with, all the boys and the
girls depending on ages. Not In terms of overthinking confidence.
I would imagine there might be that women are not typically.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
As confident as naturally confident as men. No, definitely not.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
You take an eighteen year old boy and he thinks
he knows everything at that age, right, whereas we're all
very much more insecure and we have to learn how
to be confident. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
But I think we're much more in tune with our
emotional brain and our thoughts and our feelings. I think
we're very much in tune with that, and I think
that can really help us sexually.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
That's a strength.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
Yeah, it's a strength. It absolutely is.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Can you apply this in like everybody else's real life?
Speaker 1 (41:02):
And I know it applies to tennis and racing and
probably every other sport out there, and probably business to
a certain extent, to and negotiations and that kind of
thing for.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Normal people with normal jobs that they go and do.
Is it a is it something that they can use
to better their lives?
Speaker 3 (41:22):
To absolutely one, Yeah, absolutely, I think it's it's really important.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
For control their thoughts kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Yeah, exactly, and manage them in the same way that
I help drivers to manage them, you know, or to
get rid of them and get to that optimum mindset
of just having a clear headspace. And that can be
done with many different visualizations imaginations. But it is so
(41:55):
so important, you know, because so many of us, Catherine,
live in such a busy world. Now, our thoughts are
either in the past it was, or they're in the future.
There is only ever the present moment. And this is
a you know, this is like being in the golden
(42:16):
how once you can get yourself just the present moment,
all the other thoughts disappear and fall away, and just
to be in that wonderful present moment is just the
most fabulous thing. But that's how we all spend our
lives with it, you know, because the past is gone,
(42:37):
you know, Yesterday's gone. You can't change it. All you
do with the past is take the learnings from it.
We never stop learning. We never stop learning until the
day we leave the planet. But take some learnings but
then let go of it. It's not going to disappear.
It's still there. But don't spend percent of your time
(43:01):
in the past and the future, which is not going
to help you in the present moment. Certainly in terms
of sports, it's not going to help you at all.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Do you think that having so much access to technology
like phones and computers and things like that, do you
think that takes away from being in the present moment
because you're you're like lost in this technological ether.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
I think it does totally. I mean when I started
in the sport, there was no data. They couldn't talk
to the drivers or anything. I mean they literally, you know, oh, pit.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Boards, what happened to pitboards? Ok? L plus zero point?
Speaker 3 (43:41):
But they would just go out, you know, and you
wouldn't know unless you've got some scouts out on different corners.
I mean, they could come back and tell you whatever
they wanted to tell you, and often they did if
they were a bit slow. But it was in many respects,
whilst it was much more dangerous then, it was actually
(44:03):
much easier because there was less of everything else. People
didn't have phones and we didn't have all this myriad
of data available to us that then fills our minds,
so you know, it was easier. I think for drivers
in a.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Way, how do you think that the simulators fit in?
Because I've noticed that with younger drivers, they use the
sim religiously to get out to speed and their minds
somehow make that a reality, whereas I think for older
generation it doesn't compute quite as much. Like I will
(44:41):
do a track on the simulator, and while I know
it's very similar, I can't overlay the two in my
mind precisely, you know, like it's just two different things.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
It doesn't, it doesn't.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
It helps immensely, don't get me wrong, and I'm so
glad that we have it and I couldn't live without
it because it takes away some of that learning proces.
But I think that the younger generation are able to
just make that reality.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
I do spend quite a bit of time in simulators
with the guys, and they have a driver coach there
as well, so you know he'll be going through you know,
where they're losing a bit of time where they can
gain time and stuff. So I think I think they're invaluable,
particularly for young drivers. But but yeah, there is an
element of well, it's not real, so it doesn't matter
(45:26):
if I go off. And I have seen that with
if it doesn't matter, you know, because it's not real.
And actually that probably isn't going to help you too much.
I think you've got to adopt the attitude if you're
in the sim you've got to believe that you're on
the track, and drivers if you were on the track
for real, because if you don't take it seriously enough
(45:49):
in terms of, well, it doesn't matter, I'm just gonna
you know, I don't care, really, And I have seen
that once or twice, not very often, but they play
a very important role, and I think they're I think
they're great actually, and I think the drivers do get
a lot from them, a great deal.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
That's interesting because when I do it, it's a different
mindset because when I do it, I'm like, Okay, don't
crash and embarrass yourself because you're trying to impress the
engineers and you want them to think that you're a
really good driver. It's not about what you're getting from it.
It's thinking about everybody else. That's another very female trait.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
I think that, Yeah, and that's really that's you focusing
on others rather than turn that focus onto you. It's
only you out there, causing it's nobody else, and you're
doing it for you first and foremost, not for the
engineers and you know, the driver, coaches and everyone else. Yes,
celebrate with them when you've had a great result, that's first,
(46:46):
But it's just you out there. It's only you. I
think it requires a pretty selfish focused mind to be honest,
a very yeah, selfish focused mind. It's just in the
car out here. Nobody else is out here with me.
They might be on the radio to me, but you know,
it's just me. So I'm going to, you know, do
(47:09):
what I feel is is right. I trust. I know
trust is really important. It's you know, building that trust
in yourself. I know this track like the back of
my hand. I could probably drive it with my eyes closed.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
They've done studies with that, haven't they.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
Mber Sena was able to like literally draw the track
and do a lap.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Time and it was identical to what it was exactly.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
And he's you know, he was probably one of the
most incredible drivers I ever knew. Feedback when he put
out the car it was just like an encyclopedia downloading.
He was just incredible.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
If there was one piece of advice that you could
give to a young driver, and it was just one
thing that they could take with them for their career,
what would that be.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
It will be to trust in their intuition and their imagination,
because what you can imagine, you can be, you can achieve.
And once you believe that, use the power of your imagination.
As Einstein said, imagination is far more important than knowledge.
(48:21):
Use your imagination, see it, feel it, let it sink
into you, and then just go out and drive intuitively
and naturally. Because once you can do that, and once
drivers have got that and they do that, they come
in and say to me. The first thing they say
is why did it feel so easy?
Speaker 1 (48:43):
When it's easy, you're fast, And when it's difficulty, I
say this, the people at the back are trying way
harder than the people at the front.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
Trust me, Yeah, exactly exactly. But you make it harder
for yourself with overthinking and thinking about others rather than
you only you.
Speaker 1 (49:01):
I'm going to I'm going to use that advice, and
I'm going to give a great deal of thought about
what we've spoken to going into going into my next race.
But do you love racing or do you love the
mental side of racing. Do you still love the sport
as well? Or is it more what you can do
for the sport.
Speaker 3 (49:19):
In terms of it's more what I can do, really
I do. I do still enjoy it. I mean it's
changed beyond belief, somewhat more complicated these days, but I
do still love it. I don't go to many races
now at all, not many at all, but no, for me,
it's all about if I can make a positive difference
(49:41):
to someone's career or their life, well that's then my
job's done.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
So simple is that if you take somebody from start
to finish, So when you first begin and then when
you finish, is that like a complete one eighty market
difference and you can look at that person and go,
I did that.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
I mean put in the work. Obviously, you have to
do the homework, but.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
You get gratification, I guess, out of being the change
in that person and making the difference.
Speaker 3 (50:08):
Yeah, it's a quiet gratification. I don't go around saying
I did that or anything like that, but it's just,
you know, it's it's just a quiet joy. I Mean,
there are some sundays when I'm watching them on YouTube
or whatever around the world and they'll win, and I'm like,
(50:28):
you know, the racing mom who's sitting here in tears
because they've done something really special and I'm so happy
for them. So it's really all about it's about the drivers.
Speaker 1 (50:39):
That's amazing. I've missed talking to you. It's been a while.
I think I'm going to give you a call before
my next race.
Speaker 3 (50:45):
Please do, please do. All I want to say is
that I am super proud of you. I think I
think you've done incredibly well in the sport. You don't
give yourself enough of a person on the back, and
you are such an inspiration to thousands, if not millions
of women around the world. So keep doing what you're
(51:05):
doing because you are incredible Kasterine, and I mean that
from the heart.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
I feel the same way reverse. Thanks for listening to
Throttle Therapy. We'll be back next week with more updates
and more overtakes.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
We want to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (51:22):
Leave us a review in Apple Podcasts and tell us
what you want to talk about. It might just be
the topic for our next show. Throttle Therapy is hosted
by Katherine legg Our. Executive producer is Jesse Katz and
our supervising producer is Grace Fuse listen to Throttle Therapy
on America's number one podcast network, iHeart, open your free
(51:43):
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Throttle Therapy with Catherine Legg is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to this
(00:21):
week's episode of Throttle Therapy with Me, Catherine Legg. I
am a little bit tired today because I literally just
got back from Texas from the NASCAR race this weekend.
I stayed on with my sponsors drop Light and des Nuda,
and we watched the Cup race and supported some of
the Cup guys and we had a great time. But
(00:43):
the flights were all delayed getting back in, so I
had a very late night and did not go to
cross fit this morning. So I'm a bad girl and
I need to make up for that afternoon. So this
weekend was, by all accounts a success. Overall, I would
think you would call it. Everybody was happy because I
(01:05):
finished a race. I however, was not super happy. I mean,
I am happy that I finished. I'm happy that we
saw the checker flag. I'm happy for the team because
they deserved it. I feel like my luck this year
has been.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Kind of awful.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Honestly, and I don't know how to break the cycle.
I'm hoping that Texas acts as that cycle break for us,
because we did finish and it would be something to
build off. What happened was we went to Texas again
in the spirit of Catherine's luck. This year we had
practice and qualifying rained out.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Now that was both lucky and unlucky.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So it was obviously very unlucky because I hadn't raised
Texas before and I needed the practice. I need as
much time as I can get in these cars, and
that the practice is so limited anyway, it's like super valuable,
so you need every single life you can get. So
it rained and we sat there and we thought we
were going to go out and qualify, and I cannot
(02:06):
tell you how sick I was feeling about the prospect
of going straight out on the track and trying to
throw down and qualifying that I had no idea. I've
driven it on the sim because GM were wonderful and
they gave us some sim time, But I am not
the kind of driver that can make that relate apples
(02:26):
to apples like it's super helpful. But to me, it's
a different beast when you're actually on the track. When
we do sim work, it's for a number of different reasons,
and I guess we're all looking to get something out
of it. As a driver, I'm looking to learn the track,
lift points, breakpoints, gears, whatever it may be, trying to
(02:49):
get the experience of being there without actually being there.
We're also working on the car, so we have a
bank of engineers that set there and work on the
setup of the car, and that's their primary focus. So
it kind of goes hand in hand and you can
do both at the same time. I do find sometimes
that the sim can be driven a certain way to
(03:09):
elicit lap time, but it's not necessarily the way that
you would drive your race car. So you have to
try and stay in the mindset of this is how
the car would drive, or this is how I believe
the car would drive, and not try and look for
lap time just to match your teammates. And so we
did a lot of work in the SIM going into Texas,
(03:31):
and I think we made a bunch of improvements to
the car, and so it's a really useful tool for
the engineers, and it's really useful for them to validate
what they already suspect going off of changes that they
made in previous years.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Obviously, the cars.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Have been around for a while, and so they have
all the data and the notes from last year, a
year before, and depending on the track and the you know,
the conditions changed so much you can only go off
of what you know, and then you have to kind
of be smart when you're there and make the changes
on the fly to suit the conditions at that time.
(04:08):
But the more work you can do in preparation at
the sharper head of time, the better. And so I
was sat there waiting to go out as the dryers
were out on the track on Friday, thinking okay, I
could go home here because I weren't qualified because there
were more cars than there were spots on the grid,
and it was literally just three of us who hadn't
been there before, and those guys had more experience in
(04:31):
these cars. So I was feeling the pressure, let's put
it that way. Anyway, The lucky part is that it
was then rained out for qualifying, so we got in
on owner's points. So, like I say, very unlucky. We
didn't practice. Lucky we didn't qualify because that means that
I started. I think we were the last ones in
so I started in last place on the grid ready
(04:54):
to take the green. So nerves back again because again
never driven here before, didn't know what to expect, still
very new to NASCAR, and I'm sat on the grid thinking,
the first time I'm going to see this place is
as we take the green flag, and everybody said, well,
that's how we did it during COVID and I'm like, great,
that's not how we do it now. So I was
(05:16):
planning on taking it easy. Obviously, the main goal this
weekend was to finish, so taking any kind of risk
was not going to fly was unacceptable. So everybody was
telling me, just finish, just do all the laps to
scare the experience. So I was erring on the side
of cautious of conservative. So I basically my goal in
(05:39):
life at that point in time was to make it
to the first competition yellow, which was twenty laps in
without getting lapped. Burying in mind, some of these guys
at the front have a lot of experience in this
car and at that track, so they can just go.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Out and kind of hammer it straight away.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I'm finding out where the limit is having seen it before. However,
we got to twenty laps in and I hadn't been lapped.
That was the point in time where I was just
starting to feel a little bit comfortable. Car was super
loose on entry and quiet loo on exit. So I
told the team. They made an adjustment, and we went
back out for the second stint, if you like, in
(06:20):
the first stage, because there's three stages in a race.
So we went back out and the car was worse.
We made it worse, but that's good because every change
that we make, I'm learning and I'm trying to figure out, like,
what does want. So I knew that I didn't like that,
and we made it the next twenty laps to the
(06:41):
end of the first stage without getting lapped. We went
back on that change and we made another change, and
then the car was getting better. Every change we made
from them made the car better until we actually made
it too tight. We made it understeer too much, and
so for the second half of the race, I was
battling understeering in the middle.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I couldn't get it to turn.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I couldn't roll the center of the corner, which meant
that my entries were way better than they were at
the beginning of the race, but my mid to exit
was not. So we were working on the car and
trying to trying to make these changes, and I learned
a lot. About halfway through the race, I think it
was about halfway through. The race was three hours long
(07:21):
because there were so many yellows, which is mind blowingly
bonkers to me. It was carnage and all three series
in trucks, in Xfinity and in Cup. There was a
lot of yellow at Texas and sometimes that's just how
the cookie crumbled, and hey, the fans want to see
the action, as do I. Right, So about halfway through
the race there were there was a wreck in front
(07:44):
of me and my spotter, who is awesome, He's amazing.
He's telling me to go to the middle, telling me
to check up. I'm looking in my mirror trying not
to get hit by the car behind, and then all
of a sudden, smash. I get hit by the car
behind because he got hit by the car behind him,
which I didn't know at the time, So I was
a little pile up going into turn one.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
There was anything that I could have done differently in
that situation. I looked at it and I tried to learn,
but in any other form of racing, I would say
there is a certain amount of your responsibility and you're
at a fault even though somebody else did.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
The crime, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Like if you're driving in sports cars, for example, and
you get taken out by a Prototype and you're driving
a GT car or a vice versa, or you get
taken out by another GT car, it's like, Okay, you
put yourself in that position. A little bit could have
been avoided. It's still kind of on you. I feel
like in NASCAR you get taken out of these races
and it's not on you at all. There's no way
(08:47):
you cannot put yourself in that position, otherwise you wouldn't
be racing. So I feel like there's a lot of
luck that goes into this with other people crashing into you. Now,
I will say probably if I hadn't been at the
back and we had been further up the grid, then
I wouldn't have been in that position.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Maybe, so maybe maybe that's why.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But we were learning, so got hit from behind, not
my fault, got tagged on the front end too, so
I had a ton of damage. So we came down
pit lane, we lost a couple of laps, We didn't
make it out in front of the pace car, which
was really touch and go, and the team did an
incredible job at patching me up with what's called bearbon,
(09:27):
and I think it's basically like this super sticky body
work fixer that comes in sheets that you can stap
on the car and it will hold it together for you.
So my car was patchwork together by the team and
they sent me back out again.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
And actually these things can take a hit.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Because I was hit in the back, I was hitting
the front and the thing was rolling really straight still,
so I had a bit of a vibration. We changed tires,
came down pit lane again. On the positive side, this weekend,
I came down pitl like seven times at least.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
So I got a lot of pitstop practicing.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
So anyway, at this point, we're like two to four
laps down, I don't know in that range, and as
soon as you were more than one lap down, you're
kind of just driving around trying to stay out of
everybody's way, trying to learn.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
So that's what we did.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
We used it as a test session and we were
testing changes to the car, and I was trying to
get faster and try and carry more entry speed and
then like I say, we tightened up the middle and
so we had to try and get that middle to
roll better, which we did. There's a couple of changes.
The last two changes were made towards the end of
the race were fantastic.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
And I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I've got it in my head now that that's what
I want everywhere because it gave me feel and platform
to the car. And whenever you can give driver feel
and feedback through the wheel, I think that's positive because
you can push it close to the edge without it
being numb.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
The end of the third stage and in multiple that
down got damage trying to stay out of everybody's way,
and then you lose a bunch of time trying to
stay out of everybody's way as well, because you're trying
to give them enough room. You're trying to signal to
them where you want them to pass so they don't
lose any time. Because you don't want to impede anything
or change the outcome of the race. You want to
show some respect. So then you get out of your
rhythm and then it's just like one thing after another.
(11:20):
They're passing you and so I'm out there literally trying
to learn, trying to survive, and all of a sudden,
going down the front straight, the front tire blows and
I haven't had that in a stock carp before. It
felt to me like I ran over some of my
own bodywork and there was a big explosion. I can't
tell you how loud the bang was. And so after
(11:41):
being shocked for a second, I managed to get it
under control and we kept out of the wall. We
got down to the apron and we crawled around because
we were already, you know, lapped down.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
There was no point in me pushing.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Trying to get back to the pits to put a
tire on, so we took it nice and easy. We
got back to the pits, they changed to tires and
they sent us out again, and then, yeah, we were
just learning and surviving for the rest of the race.
I think lap time wise, I have to go and look.
But you know, I was practicing pit lane. I was
trying to carry speed in. I want to look at
(12:14):
SMT day to see whether, like how I compared to CHEB,
because you can only ever compare yourself to your teammates.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Really, they have the same car as you.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
And I think we got closer and closer, and even
with a super damaged car, we were getting better at
the end. So I think that's just a testament of
how much lapse counts and how much experience counts, because
I know that if I was going into Texas lined
again with no practice, I would be way better from
the get go having had that experience than I was then.
(12:48):
So we finished. Everybody was super happy that we finished
because we got that monkey off our back, and we
are already looking forward to and planning for Charlotte in
a couple of weeks. I'm going to drive up there
probably tomorrow night or Wednesday morning. We have the GM
SIM again to do Charlotte prep, and then I'm going
(13:09):
to be making a seat for the Cup car ready
for Mexico, and I am very much looking forward to
the next one. I'm really pleased that these races are
coming in quick succession because I feel like it keeps
you sharp, especially with the SIM in the middle, and
I really I just want to keep going. I want
(13:30):
to keep going and keep improving, like I'm super motivated.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I love this. It's not easy. I love the challenge.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
I love the community aspect of it and how kind
everybody's been in the paddock and supportive, and I, yeah,
I just want to get better and get some results
for everybody that's believed in me, and for my own
psyche as well. I think the team did an incredible job.
I really like my crew, I like my crew chief,
(13:58):
I like my crew, I love the team. Jordan does
a fantastic job, and I feel like we're all one
team pushing for one goal. Everybody's always super positive and happy,
and I just love the environment and it feels like
we're going to get there. Honestly, I just feel positive
about it and I can't wait for the next one.
(14:18):
So you spend the entirety of the race, as we did,
making adjustments to try and make the car better for Texas,
because every track you go to is very different, and
they you can't just take the setup and move it
to the next track. It's a very different setup for
every track. Some of them are similar, some of them aren't.
(14:38):
And what I will say though, is the changes that
we made in Texas, I have now a frame of
reference of what those things do to the car, Like, Okay,
this is what packer does, or this is what the
track bar does or you know, I think I know
what it does. So if we keep building on that,
(14:58):
then i'll know, you know, three four or five races
down the line, maybe this is a track bar adjustment,
or maybe this is that adjustment, because I want that feeling.
So the changes to the car always make the car
do a similar thing. It doesn't always feel the same,
but it's definitely in that direction. But the setups are
(15:20):
very track and condition dependent. So today I have a
good friend of mine who I've known for a number
of years and we work together.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Way back when I was just.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
A young driver looking to forge my way into racing
and not knowing how to do it mentally. So basically,
there are so many aspects to being a good race
car driver. Obviously you've got natural talent, You've got the
hard work and buckling down and putting in the effort.
(15:55):
You've got the physical side, and you've got the mental side.
And I think the mental side is key. There are
a lot of good drivers out there. Whether they are
strong enough mentally dictates whether they make it or not.
And so I have over the years pride in myself
that I have built a strong mental fortitude, let's say,
(16:21):
of being able to do this, but they're still room
for improvement. So I still talk to Gloria on a
regular basis and try and make my mind as strong
as my body and my work ethic and so. Gloria
is very well renowned, especially in Europe, as one of
the best mental coaches for young drivers coming up through
(16:45):
because she gives you those tools to be able to
put into place how you should approach and think about
the mental aspect of racing.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
So here is Gloria's interview this week. I have.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
A friend of mine and we've been friends for a
number of years. We've worked together in the past, and
she is equally as much a motorsport not as I
am and has definitely shaped my career in more ways
than one. I would like to introduce you all to
Gloria Bud. Gloria, thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Thank you, Catherine. I'm honored to be here with you.
We go back a long way, don't we A long way.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
We don't want to age ourselves though.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
An absolutely not. But you know, I've been in the sport.
I don't know. I think it's about forty six years
or something crazy like that.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Now, So that's impressive.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I don't know many people who have been in the
spot for that long.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Honestly, I don't meet so many in the product these
days now.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
So I'm going to tell our listeners a little bit
about what you do and how I met you, and
I know you were you were around before I came
on the scene, but I got to know you as
a mental coach and I got to work with you,
and you helped me. I can't tell you how much,
(18:21):
because before that point in time, I had never really
considered the impact that your thoughts have on your career,
let alone your life and everything else, right, So I
was just kind of plodding along. I didn't, to be
quite honest, Gloria, I didn't even really know what an
emotion was. I don't know that I could have labeled
(18:42):
any of the emotions that I was feeling because I
just didn't grow up with parents or like, my parents
were wonderful, but we didn't think about that kind of thing.
My dad's always been super positive and in still you know,
like you are what you think in me, But I
never went to that debt. So I found you, and
you you helped me. We were looking at it from
(19:04):
a performance perspective where how do how do I get
better mentally? Because I think, honestly, I believe that racing
is as much mental as is anything else. I think
there's a lot of talented drivers out there, but if
you haven't got it right in the head, then you
know you're not going anywhere. So I came at it
from that perspective, and then it opened my eyes to
(19:25):
all the other perspectives and it.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Kind of became part therapy for me in a way.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
But I want to know, I want you to explain
to the listeners, like what made you, what motivated you
to get started down that road, and then just say,
you know, like what it looks like to take a
person like me in my infancy and walk them through
all the stages.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
What got me into it was, as you say, I'd
already been in motorsport for quite a long time, and
I suppose watching drivers, listen to them, seeing them, or
just sports people in general. I started to think, you know,
it's the mind that makes the difference, because all these
guys are all hugely talented drivers. They're talented, are they quick?
(20:15):
But there's something missing here and it is the mental side.
It took me about three years to study various different disciplines,
some of which I studied in the States and I
studied NLP. I studied hypnosis, which I found to be
super powerful, and I still study now. I never stop.
(20:38):
I'm always learning. I work with an incredible guy and
neuroscientists and I'm learning from him. There's another woman in
this country who I've just been doing some training with.
She's phenomenal. So I'm always looking for just for new technologies,
new thoughts about the brain, you know, new understandings about
(20:59):
the brain, because there are some phenomenal people out there
who are just coming up with all sorts of incredible things.
So I started the mental side of my work. As
you may recall, I don't know. In two thousand and one,
I think I finished my studying and I was asked
(21:20):
to work with a British tennis player who at the
time was twenty eight, so his tennis career was kind
of going down instead of up. And I'll just tell
you very quickly. So it became quite a big story
because his goal was to get into Wimbledon and we
only had about three weeks to work together. What became
(21:42):
very apparent was that he didn't really believe in himself enough,
so we worked on his belief I also introduced the
use of inspirational music, which had never been done before,
and I said to him, record a piece of music
you find particularly inspirational on your workmen because we didn't
(22:03):
have iPods then, and take it on court and listen
to it during the changeovers. So off we dropped. He
gets into Wimbledon first round. I went to watch him play,
and he was playing out of his skin. And he
beat an Italian player who was top fifty in the world.
So this was a big, big deal. I mean, Barrie's
(22:25):
ranking was three hundred and something I can't remember now,
but you know, on the world's on a global scale,
it wasn't very high. So that was all great. I
was excited. I went home. The next day Barry called
me and said, I've just got my drawer for the
next round. I saw, that's great. Who are you playing?
He said, I've drawn Pete Samprass. Oh wow, I know,
(22:48):
world number one. I thought, oh, that's going to be
a bit interesting. Then where do we go from here? Anyway,
it became a big story and he played the match
of his life against Pete samp person. He became the
first person ever to take him to five sets at Wimbledon.
So this was an unknown guy who Drew Pete played
(23:12):
the match of his life and went on to have
you know, the best year of his tennis career. And
on the back of that match was offered a contract
to commentate with Sky, which I think he still does today.
So that was my first client. So it ended up being,
you know, quite a big deal. And it was interesting
(23:33):
because he picked a very specific piece of music to him.
What was it, You'll Never Walk Alone.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Ah, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
He was from near Liverpool, he loved Liverpool Football Club.
They are do you that's amazing. So yeah, it became
a huge story. And then the story got out that
the piece because then everyone was saying, well, what's he
listening to? What's he listening to? And I didn't tell
the press. He told them in the end that he
(24:03):
was listening to You'll Never Walk Alone because he was
from that area and he was a phenomenal Liverpool fan.
So of course all that story got out that you know,
he got invited to Liverpool Football Club, he met all
the players. It was just incredible. So it was this
huge story around and it was a story of you know,
(24:25):
once you learn to be mentally strong, actually you can
do anything. You could do anything.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
When that happened, did you look at yourself as well
and go, Okay, I'm really good at this and I
made this work with him, and I believe in it,
and so you put everything behind it from that moment forward.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Yeah, yeah, from that moment forward, I just continued to
work with tennis players, and then in later years it's
just been all racing drivers really because that's my core sport.
It's what I know best, and so yeah, it it's
just it's gone completely from there, and it's just I'm
(25:04):
so lucky. I think I'm the luckiest person in the
world because what I do is a passion. It's a passion,
and I get help and I care deeply. I care
deeply about my drivers. You know, some of them are
just they're not even twelve years old, you know. And
then you've got the opposite end of the spectrum with
(25:25):
gentlemen drivers. No that's not you, but it's I'm it
doesn't matter what age you are. I'm just as passionate.
So now I use all sorts of different techniques. What
I've learnt also, particularly about racing, is that it's such
(25:46):
a data driven sport now that many young drivers get
into the car overthinking and it's the biggest thing that
slows you down. That will slow a driver down.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I've found that with my coaching.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I've found that they will overthink and overplay, and they
will over analyze what everybody else is doing instead of
just being at one with themselves exactly the same.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
And driving is unconscious. It's not a conscious thing, you know.
And I always say this to young drivers, you know,
how much of the conscious unconscious mind do you think
we use? And they all get it wrong because it's
it's kind of ninety five percent of what we do
and driving is unconscious. So I spend most of my
time these days helping them to have a completely clear mind,
(26:39):
you know, to have a quiet, empty mind, which is
much harder to do these days because all our minds
are busy all the time, because that's the pace of life,
that's how we live. So by using techniques that actually
help to completely clear the mind, that's when you drive
(27:02):
intuitively and naturally. So that's what I do most of
the time.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I find it really interesting because I know that to
be the case. Right, Like, when I'm driving something that
I know and that I have experience driving, I drive
without thinking about it. I don't have to think about
what I do in pit lane. I don't have to
think about what gear I need to be in on
a restart. I don't have to think about pit stops.
I don't have to think about strategy. I just drive,
(27:28):
and I guarantee you the two or however many hours
you're in the car, floor goes buying a flash of
a second, and you cannot remember most of it because
you're just driving. It's like if you're driving home from
work and I don't remember how I got there, but
I know that I did. But with this new stuff
that I'm doing, the NASCAR stuff, I have to consciously
(27:49):
think about it. And I know that my conscious mind
doesn't work at the same speed and the same accuracy,
and it makes more mistakes than my subconscious mind. But
I have no choice at the moment because it's so
new to me. So when I've got that experience and
I've got that programming of what it needs to do
for my own conscious and it can be as simple
as like an overnight programming as well.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
You know, that you wake up the next morning and
it's there.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
But it's difficult to do the subconscious thing when you
don't have that program, didn't you you know.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
No, I understand that and that you know that can
take a little bit of time, But you can also
nail it pretty quickly. Can you really can? Yeah? I
hope you can. So I think that's something we can
work on together. Away from this podcast, I'm going to
give you some tips to nail that, so you can
nail this, this NASCAR and just blow them all away.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Actually, going back to the tennis reference, I was just
in La watching Billy Jean King get her at Star
Put on the Hollywood Boulevard, which is really cool because
she's definitely been an inspiration to women everywhere, not just
in tennis.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Yeah, she has amazingly. I've seen her many times that
at Wimbledon when I used to work in the sport,
and she's always so encouraging because I think the year
after the Barry Cown metch I was working with a
young British girl and she also got into Wimbledon and
she drew Venus Williams first round, so you know that
(29:20):
was a huge deal. So we had to kind of
with that. It was a different set of circumstances we
had to work around creating this real confidence in her,
which came about from doing all sorts of things, down
to getting new outfits to wear, you know, and feeling
really great about herself, which was also really important. There
(29:43):
are so many other elements involved in helping that person
to be confident and to be focused, and most importantly,
to believe in themselves. And that comes from you know,
really kind of getting into the field because our thoughts
(30:03):
create our reality, but the feeling side and the heart side,
because the heart is very very important in the work
that I do as well, all ties in together to
create you know, this person who's gone from not believing
in themselves to believing in themselves. And the other thing
(30:24):
I do quite a lot is and in fact, I
was just having this conversation with one of my drivers
yesterday who's out in Bahrain the Grand Prix, and I
just said, Okay, what I want you to do is
when you go to bed tonight, because it's always a
very important time to you know, set your mindset for
(30:45):
what you're going to do the next day. And I said, okay,
what I want you to do is I want you
to imagine you've already done this, You've already qualified. Where
do you want to qualify? Where do you believe you
can qualify? Okay, so he went for pole. He got
within a whisker of pole today, within a whisker which
(31:07):
I am thrilled to bits about. This is not Formula one,
it's ia F three, So I know from there you
know the next stage will be Okay. Now, I want
the message to your mind to be I've already done it.
I've already won that race. Because your mind cannot differentiate
(31:28):
between what you're stutting it and what you're imagining, so
your unconscious mind will start to take that on. So
the more you feed your unconscious mind these positive bliss, well,
I've done it. I can see it in my mind.
I'm going to run this video in my mind. I'm
going to see myself making a fantastic start or if
(31:52):
it's in qualifying, I'm going to create some space. I'm
going to have such feel for the tires. I'm going
to know when to go and nail that lap. I
know exactly how I'm going to do it, so I
get them to kind of run the tracks through in
their mind exactly what they're going to do, set that
the night before, and more times than not, if they
(32:13):
don't achieve exactly what they set out to, they get
very very close to it. So it's about training your
unconscious mind to take on these beliefs. Imagination is so
so powerful, truly.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Powerful, and I still do that.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
I still use that like visualization technique. But how do
you stop the intrusive thoughts? So I'll give you an example.
I'm there and I've closed my eyes and I'm like,
I'm winning whatever race it is, and I'm doing well,
and I've like passed whoever it is that I need
to pass, and yet together yether, and then my mind
will be like yeah, and then she crashes and I stop.
(32:52):
Don't think about that, like, because you can't not think
about what you're thinking about, right, like, your mind just
goes to it.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
How do you block out those intruths go that is?
Speaker 3 (33:02):
It is tricky because, as I said, we all have
these super busy minds. But I think in terms of
getting negative thoughts, what I would normally do is I'd
work with someone and we'd find a way a release
valve of releasing negative thoughts. So if you create a
valve in the top of your mind, so all my drivers,
as you will perhaps remember, take a journey inside their mind.
(33:26):
They design whatever they want in there. So you design
your own mindset. So I want you to imagine, Okay,
You're going to step inside your mind. You have a
door at the side of your head. What color is it?
Go with the first thing that comes into your mind red? Cool,
So you step through the red door into your mind.
(33:48):
What is the first feeling, what you see, what you hear?
Is it light? Is it dark? What is it like
in there? And that in itself already tells me quite
a lot by the response.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I remember doing this and this for me it was
a box and I don't know why, but you know what,
this is a very good reminder that I need to
go back into my mind.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
And the release valve is under a lot of.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Pressure, exactly exactly. So you know, there are many different techniques,
but I've always found this to be one of the
best ones. So just use this. And the best time
to do it is just before you fall asleep the
night before. That's when you go up there. You're really chilled.
Put in there, whatever you want to put in there.
(34:33):
You can put a screen in if you want to
see yourself on a screen. You design your mind to
a way that's really going to work for you. And
then if you feel the negative thoughts coming in, use
the valve. I always liken it to a kind of
small aircraft window in your head. And when you release it,
(34:54):
when you physically release it, all the negatives get sucked
out into space, into infinity. It's a one way valve,
so they cannot come back in mine's mind.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
An extraction fan in a bathroom.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
I think it needs to be.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
A bit more powerful.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
It's going to be sucked out. There aren't that many
negative thoughts. We're good. We'll just let them go out
into either. So is it the same with everybody?
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Though? Like do you go through the same so everybody
thinks relatively similar?
Speaker 3 (35:34):
Relatively relatively I mean you will get some who are,
you know, supremely confident and they just get in the
car and do it. But quite often it's the first
thing we have to do is to get rid of
the overthinking, because all overthinking does. The more you overthink,
(35:54):
the slower you go. That's the bottom line. It's just
flowing you down because you've taken your focus of just
doing it to coin the Nike phrase, just do it,
because that's what driving is. You get into your road car.
You don't start overthinking about you know, oh there's traffic
light coming out. I need to see if I can
(36:15):
you know, get through it before it goes red or whatever.
You know, you don't drive like that. And if you
reach that point on the track where you literally you've
set your imagination and out before, you've directed your mind
to the outcome that you want, and that is I
am going out there tomorrow and I am going to
(36:38):
get pulled or I'm going to be in the top
three or the top four or the top five, whatever
your goal is, and it has to be realistic. Of course,
that's what you've set. And I didn't remember that as
a child. I did this until I started studying. Really yeah,
(37:00):
I suddenly remembered that. When I was about I don't know,
nine or ten years old, my mom took me to
ballet classes and I absolutely loved it, but I couldn't
do the splits, and I remember it all came back
to me when I was training. I remember lying in
bed one night and I said to myself. I am
(37:22):
going to get up early in the morning and I
will be able to do the splits. And that's exactly
what I did. I ran downstairs to the living room,
I did the splits. I ran upstairs and woke my
mom and dad up to show them that I could
do it.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
That's the power of the unconscious mind and imagination, because
that's where all change takes place. Change doesn't take place
on a conscious level. It's the unconscious mind where we
create the change.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
So do you see the same thing over and over
with everybody, or do you have something thing that like
every now and again will surprise you.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
There's not been anyone. Yeah, I'm gone. You don't operate
the same as the rest of us.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
There is one who springs to mind. I don't actually
work with him, but I'm so impressed with his mental strength.
And he's still quite young. I'm not going to name
any names, but of course he's still quite young. But
he has a very very good mental attitude. He just
literally he'll get to the track a bit later than
everyone else, and then he goes into preparation load and
(38:32):
he becomes very serious and doesn't speak to anyone and
he just gets out there and does it incredible.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Really see that freaks me out because as a kid,
I had this reoccurring nightmare that I was going to
be late on the grid for Gokut race. And I
was a young kid, I mean, I must have been
like en and so it used to worry me so
much that I would be late on the grid and
they would leave without me and I'd miss that heat
race or whatever it was that I was doing.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
So ever since then, for however many years it's been.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
I've always been in the car early, ready, early, just
so that those demons stay away. But the thought of
turning up late and being that uber confident person like
I can be confident, I've learned how to fake it
until I make it.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
Sometimes the intsive thoughts get the better of me.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
But it doesn't work the same for everybody either, in
the like I couldn't do it his way and he
couldn't do it my way.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
No, exactly exactly, but the overthinking is is a common
thing with drivers, male and female. Thankfully, now I'm working
with one or two more females, and obviously where you know,
I'm actually going out to Saudi next week to work
with a young Saudi girl who's been given a wildcard
(39:54):
to thefron Academy race and that's a big deal. It's
a big deal for her.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
So is there a different between the men and the
women that you work with, all the boys and the
girls depending on ages. Not In terms of overthinking confidence.
I would imagine there might be that women are not typically.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
As confident as naturally confident as men. No, definitely not.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
You take an eighteen year old boy and he thinks
he knows everything at that age, right, whereas we're all
very much more insecure and we have to learn how
to be confident. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
But I think we're much more in tune with our
emotional brain and our thoughts and our feelings. I think
we're very much in tune with that, and I think
that can really help us sexually.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
That's a strength.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
Yeah, it's a strength. It absolutely is.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Can you apply this in like everybody else's real life?
Speaker 1 (41:02):
And I know it applies to tennis and racing and
probably every other sport out there, and probably business to
a certain extent, to and negotiations and that kind of
thing for.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Normal people with normal jobs that they go and do.
Is it a is it something that they can use
to better their lives?
Speaker 3 (41:22):
To absolutely one, Yeah, absolutely, I think it's it's really important.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
For control their thoughts kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Yeah, exactly, and manage them in the same way that
I help drivers to manage them, you know, or to
get rid of them and get to that optimum mindset
of just having a clear headspace. And that can be
done with many different visualizations imaginations. But it is so
(41:55):
so important, you know, because so many of us, Catherine,
live in such a busy world. Now, our thoughts are
either in the past it was, or they're in the future.
There is only ever the present moment. And this is
a you know, this is like being in the golden
(42:16):
how once you can get yourself just the present moment,
all the other thoughts disappear and fall away, and just
to be in that wonderful present moment is just the
most fabulous thing. But that's how we all spend our
lives with it, you know, because the past is gone,
(42:37):
you know, Yesterday's gone. You can't change it. All you
do with the past is take the learnings from it.
We never stop learning. We never stop learning until the
day we leave the planet. But take some learnings but
then let go of it. It's not going to disappear.
It's still there. But don't spend percent of your time
(43:01):
in the past and the future, which is not going
to help you in the present moment. Certainly in terms
of sports, it's not going to help you at all.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Do you think that having so much access to technology
like phones and computers and things like that, do you
think that takes away from being in the present moment
because you're you're like lost in this technological ether.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
I think it does totally. I mean when I started
in the sport, there was no data. They couldn't talk
to the drivers or anything. I mean they literally, you know, oh, pit.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Boards, what happened to pitboards? Ok? L plus zero point?
Speaker 3 (43:41):
But they would just go out, you know, and you
wouldn't know unless you've got some scouts out on different corners.
I mean, they could come back and tell you whatever
they wanted to tell you, and often they did if
they were a bit slow. But it was in many respects,
whilst it was much more dangerous then, it was actually
(44:03):
much easier because there was less of everything else. People
didn't have phones and we didn't have all this myriad
of data available to us that then fills our minds,
so you know, it was easier. I think for drivers
in a.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Way, how do you think that the simulators fit in?
Because I've noticed that with younger drivers, they use the
sim religiously to get out to speed and their minds
somehow make that a reality, whereas I think for older
generation it doesn't compute quite as much. Like I will
(44:41):
do a track on the simulator, and while I know
it's very similar, I can't overlay the two in my
mind precisely, you know, like it's just two different things.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
It doesn't, it doesn't.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
It helps immensely, don't get me wrong, and I'm so
glad that we have it and I couldn't live without
it because it takes away some of that learning proces.
But I think that the younger generation are able to
just make that reality.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
I do spend quite a bit of time in simulators
with the guys, and they have a driver coach there
as well, so you know he'll be going through you know,
where they're losing a bit of time where they can
gain time and stuff. So I think I think they're invaluable,
particularly for young drivers. But but yeah, there is an
element of well, it's not real, so it doesn't matter
(45:26):
if I go off. And I have seen that with
if it doesn't matter, you know, because it's not real.
And actually that probably isn't going to help you too much.
I think you've got to adopt the attitude if you're
in the sim you've got to believe that you're on
the track, and drivers if you were on the track
for real, because if you don't take it seriously enough
(45:49):
in terms of, well, it doesn't matter, I'm just gonna
you know, I don't care, really, And I have seen
that once or twice, not very often, but they play
a very important role, and I think they're I think
they're great actually, and I think the drivers do get
a lot from them, a great deal.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
That's interesting because when I do it, it's a different
mindset because when I do it, I'm like, Okay, don't
crash and embarrass yourself because you're trying to impress the
engineers and you want them to think that you're a
really good driver. It's not about what you're getting from it.
It's thinking about everybody else. That's another very female trait.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
I think that, Yeah, and that's really that's you focusing
on others rather than turn that focus onto you. It's
only you out there, causing it's nobody else, and you're
doing it for you first and foremost, not for the
engineers and you know, the driver, coaches and everyone else. Yes,
celebrate with them when you've had a great result, that's first,
(46:46):
But it's just you out there. It's only you. I
think it requires a pretty selfish focused mind to be honest,
a very yeah, selfish focused mind. It's just in the
car out here. Nobody else is out here with me.
They might be on the radio to me, but you know,
it's just me. So I'm going to, you know, do
(47:09):
what I feel is is right. I trust. I know
trust is really important. It's you know, building that trust
in yourself. I know this track like the back of
my hand. I could probably drive it with my eyes closed.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
They've done studies with that, haven't they.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
Mber Sena was able to like literally draw the track
and do a lap.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Time and it was identical to what it was exactly.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
And he's you know, he was probably one of the
most incredible drivers I ever knew. Feedback when he put
out the car it was just like an encyclopedia downloading.
He was just incredible.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
If there was one piece of advice that you could
give to a young driver, and it was just one
thing that they could take with them for their career,
what would that be.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
It will be to trust in their intuition and their imagination,
because what you can imagine, you can be, you can achieve.
And once you believe that, use the power of your imagination.
As Einstein said, imagination is far more important than knowledge.
(48:21):
Use your imagination, see it, feel it, let it sink
into you, and then just go out and drive intuitively
and naturally. Because once you can do that, and once
drivers have got that and they do that, they come
in and say to me. The first thing they say
is why did it feel so easy?
Speaker 1 (48:43):
When it's easy, you're fast, And when it's difficulty, I
say this, the people at the back are trying way
harder than the people at the front.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
Trust me, Yeah, exactly exactly. But you make it harder
for yourself with overthinking and thinking about others rather than
you only you.
Speaker 1 (49:01):
I'm going to I'm going to use that advice, and
I'm going to give a great deal of thought about
what we've spoken to going into going into my next race.
But do you love racing or do you love the
mental side of racing. Do you still love the sport
as well? Or is it more what you can do
for the sport.
Speaker 3 (49:19):
In terms of it's more what I can do, really
I do. I do still enjoy it. I mean it's
changed beyond belief, somewhat more complicated these days, but I
do still love it. I don't go to many races
now at all, not many at all, but no, for me,
it's all about if I can make a positive difference
(49:41):
to someone's career or their life, well that's then my
job's done.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
So simple is that if you take somebody from start
to finish, So when you first begin and then when
you finish, is that like a complete one eighty market
difference and you can look at that person and go,
I did that.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
I mean put in the work. Obviously, you have to
do the homework, but.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
You get gratification, I guess, out of being the change
in that person and making the difference.
Speaker 3 (50:08):
Yeah, it's a quiet gratification. I don't go around saying
I did that or anything like that, but it's just,
you know, it's it's just a quiet joy. I Mean,
there are some sundays when I'm watching them on YouTube
or whatever around the world and they'll win, and I'm like,
(50:28):
you know, the racing mom who's sitting here in tears
because they've done something really special and I'm so happy
for them. So it's really all about it's about the drivers.
Speaker 1 (50:39):
That's amazing. I've missed talking to you. It's been a while.
I think I'm going to give you a call before
my next race.
Speaker 3 (50:45):
Please do, please do. All I want to say is
that I am super proud of you. I think I
think you've done incredibly well in the sport. You don't
give yourself enough of a person on the back, and
you are such an inspiration to thousands, if not millions
of women around the world. So keep doing what you're
(51:05):
doing because you are incredible Kasterine, and I mean that
from the heart.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
I feel the same way reverse. Thanks for listening to
Throttle Therapy. We'll be back next week with more updates
and more overtakes.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
We want to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (51:22):
Leave us a review in Apple Podcasts and tell us
what you want to talk about. It might just be
the topic for our next show. Throttle Therapy is hosted
by Katherine legg Our. Executive producer is Jesse Katz and
our supervising producer is Grace Fuse listen to Throttle Therapy
on America's number one podcast network, iHeart, open your free
(51:43):
iHeart app and search throttle Therapy with Katherine Legg and
start listening
Host
Katherine Legge
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