Tag Archives: iZone Driver Performance

Preparing to re-start and post-Covid fitness

08 Thursday Jul 2021

Posted by in Fitness, Formula Vee, Uncategorized

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The amazing thing is that this is where I had my first ever Formula Vee race back in 2015, and so will be a bit like a re-birth after my two year lay-off.

The Covid lockdown was tough for my fitness. Actually, that’s not entirely true – it’s been so damned long that I’ve put on weight, lost loads, then put on even more into the start of 2021.

More serious than that, was that my overall fitness was terrible. Working from home, rarely going out of the house, no gym, and with no real fitness routine, things had got pretty dire.

I started doing quick five to ten minute online workouts – mainly from Billy Blanks’ Tae Bo program. This was brilliant to get me moving again, and quick enough to fit in on a morning work break to get me away from staring at a PC all day. Highly recommended if you don’t think you can face full-on fitness malarkey (and if you can, he also has hour long, 5000 calorie killer workouts).

Tae Bo "I Like What You Do" (Part 2) - YouTube

There is a fitness program provided with the iZone Driver Performance Training, but that looked far too full-on, so I’ve saved them all to work through when I want something more hardcore. My main focus was to get back to the gym ASAP, which I finally got to do. Oh how I’ve missed that heavy bag for slamming in Thai-style elbows and shin kicks, rather than just filling my face with Thai Pla Sam Rod!

Other than working the bag, my two or three weekly sessions have been all about getting my aerobic fitness back up, and flexibility. I have a strong martial arts background so losing my flexibility for the first time since I was eight years old has really bugged me!

Lots of cross trainer, indoor cycling, rowing and pounding it out on the treadmill. I will switch my focus back to core strength by picking up my weights and going back to 100 squats per day and stuff.

iZone also helped with other things that are often overlooked, and I planned to change this year anyway: I barely used to drink liquids, but upped that to at least two litres per day. I switched to an ‘intermittent fasting’ diet (basically skipping breakfast and having two meals per day between 12pm and 9 in the evening – you just need to learn that feeling hungry doesn’t mean you have to eat). Kevin from iZone recommended healthier snacks that you might not expect – like greek yoghurt, peanut butter or cheese so that your body gets the fat it needs to think it’s full. And I always have a nut mix of almonds, Brazils and walnuts as they all give great nutrition.

This has all lead to me dropping a stone of weight I’d put on, but more importantly hasn’t been anything so extreme that I can’t easily sustain all the changes. It also means I’m not denying myself the odd takeaway or fried breakfast – hey, I still want to love food and this isn’t exactly Formula One!

All of this has also massively stabilised my blood sugars and generally seems to suit me. So that must be worth a few seconds a lap, right?

I have plans for a few other things to boost my performance when I get back on track – some of which I might tell you about in another blog, but possibly not all of it!

I hope you have all been keeping yourselves in shape – you never appreciate your fitness until you don’t have it any more. Go on – do a quick Tai Bo Body Blast and see how good it makes you feel!

2021 Season Gets Green Light!

26 Friday Feb 2021

Posted by in Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

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Yes, folks – after sitting out the last two seasons, I’m back!

Driving for Racing Team Vee, and proudly supporting Primrose Hospice, The Birmingham Superprix project and CRPS Racing 4A Cure, I will return to racing in the 750 Motor Club Heritage Parts UK Formula Vee Championship.

I had been dubiously awaiting the latest Covid announcement, but Motorsport UK have give the go-ahead for club racing to start on 29 March 2021. Of course, this will always be subject to any further lockdowns or restrictions, but with the vaccine working its way through the general population I think we’re all feeling much more positive about where things are heading.

In my time off, you’ll probably be unsurprised to hear that I’ve still spent every day obsessed by racing, so although my seat time has suffered, I’ll be coming into this season more prepared than ever, and also much more hungry!

I have been sim racing lots using iRacing, especially driving the Skip Barber car which is probably the closest to a Formula Vee, and have a few more changes going on which should boost my performance.

You may have seen my name pop up on the list of iZone Performance drivers. This is something else that has been a huge change, as I have been active in their daily Zoom training in all aspect of improving my performance – physically, technically, and especially mentally. This training has been amazing, not just for racing, but for strength and motivation in everyday life through this pandemic. Go check them out!

The iZone coaches have also reinforced some realisations that I was slowly coming to myself about approaching things from a much stricter and more structured way, and I have a few more essential things to sort out for the next time I get back in the car.

It’s an exciting time, and you can of course expect blogs, videos and lots more from me and my social media accounts along the way. Feel free to contact me if you would like to get onboard as a sponsor or support me and the team in any way, or if you think I can help you or your brand.

And again, in case I don’t say it enough, if you’re reading this then thank you! I love your support and words of encouragement and am eternally grateful to have you all with me!

May be an image of text that says "CUNCE Ouulton 2021 PROVISIONAL CALENDAR 1&2 CADWELL PARK 17th APRIL 3&4 CROFT CIRCUIT 29th/30th MAY 5&6 ANGLESEY COASTAL 19th/20th JUNE 7&8 SNETTERTON 300 17th/18th JULY 9&10 & SILVERSTONE INT 7th AUGUST 11&12 BRANDS HATCH INDY 11th/12th SEPT 13&1 OULTON PARK INT 9th OCTOBER 750 MOTORCLUB FORMULA VEE เ7 HERITAGE PART CENTRE"

Motorsports UK Esports Series and iRacing update

04 Sunday Oct 2020

Posted by in eracing, Products, Racing, Uncategorized

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In a very strange year, it’s now October, and the only racing I’ve done has been online.

This does mean I’ve sunk many hours into sim racing with iRacing, and improved a fair bit from where I was for my last blog.

I have now completed my first ever full season with iRacing, and also completed the minimum number of weekly races so that I get $10 credit back to spend on the game. If you complete 9 out of 13 weekly races in a season you get $4 credit, up to the maximum of $10 up to a certain licence class, with another $10 available for A and B class events.

I finally have the A licence now, but to be honest it only really allows you to do a couple of much longer endurance events, which I don’t want. I’d much rather have their 15-40 min race format, because I have a job and fiance who would not agree with me doing 24 hour online races!

More importantly, though, I actually did quite well in my overall leagues in the iRacing series I was racing in.

My main race series is still Skip Barber, but I also did pretty well in the RUF, Radical and GT. I stopped racing the basic MX5’s which were a major learning series for me, but still dip in occasionally and also do a few of the Advanced Mazda Cup races. I also concentrate more on the other open wheel series: Formula Sprint, Renault 2.0 and F3. And I’ve used my $10 credit to buy the Ferrari GT3, which seems like a good series to do.

So, as you can see, I finished right up the pointy end of several leagues, which I was chuffed with! This means I get promoted to tougher leagues, so we’ll see how this season goes.

I should note that this is NOT the best way to go iRacing. You should concentrate on just one or two cars and master them. This will mean your iRating goes up as you’ll do far better at your specialist series. If you jump into multiple cars, your iRating score sorts you into races accordingly, so if you’re fast in Skip Barber and then jump into the unraced Ferrari, the game assumes you’re just as good in both, so when you finish right at the back your iRating drops as well.

But I’m doing this for fun, and am happy with an iRating around 1500 as long as I get to drive different stuff.

Last week, I also had my first ever genuine win in the Motorsports UK iRacing Esports Series!

I do quick race reports on my Facebook pages, so you should have seen them already if you’re following them (and you should be!).

I like some layouts of Lime Rock Park, but hate the one with the West Bend Chicane, so you can imagine my ‘joy’ as I logged into the pre-race practice to try the Dallara F3 around there.

However, I soon found I was within a second or two of the usual fastest drivers, and knew I could improve with more laps. I qualified in 3rd place!

With a decent start I actually crossed the line at the end of the first lap in the lead, but lost a place soon after… although I was still right on their tail for the next few laps.

I dropped back a little, but then caught and passed them, and despite several cars giving chase and almost catching me, and some very close calls with some cars I was trying to lap, I won by 6.5 seconds!

Not bad at all!

That leaves me 5th in the championship, but don’t think I have much chance to gain more than a few places, but I’ll give it my best shot. It might be the last time this series is ever run, so I have to make the most of it before I jump back into a real car on a real track…

Which still might be on the cards for Formula Vee this year… Watch this space!

Progression

23 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by in Formula Vee, Technique, Uncategorized

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I am faster than I was.

The only problem is that everyone else has got faster, too!

This can make it feel like you’re not making much progress towards the front of the grid, but does have the bonus that you’re scrapping with the same people, which can be a lot of fun.

People seem to get faster in leaps, almost like unofficial divisions. The way I see it, I have two more of these ‘leaps’ to go until I’m up there, fighting for race wins. Whether I’ll ever actually be able to make those leaps is another matter…

At the moment I’m hanging around the fringes of the top 10, and the next leap will get me fighting for the top 6. At Anglesey I stayed right on the back of the lead chain until the end of the first lap, and then started falling back (or technically they all started getting faster and I couldn’t match the pace). So, driving well and with a bit of luck, I can scrape in the top 10 but that’s about as much as I can hope for.

You may have noticed that I’m being brutally honest with myself, here, and I’m saying that this extra speed is still purely in me.

Sure, the Sheane would benefit from new Ohlins suspension all round, but would that really make me faster? I think I’d find a few tenths of a second, but it wouldn’t be a ‘leap’ forward.

There are a lot of people in Formula Vee who buy a new car expecting it to carry them forward, and in almost every case the only profound effect it has is on their wallet! And that is because whatever car they’re in, the limiting factor is still themselves!

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If you put me in Paul Smith’s all-singing, all-dancing Dominator, I have no illusions about the fact I wouldn’t go much faster. The best I could hope for would be that the new car made me feel more comfortable and confident, which may help me towards making that next ‘leap’. Otherwise I’d be much better off spending that money on a bunch of test days to pound around the track.

These thoughts were backed up at Cadwell, where eventual championship winner Ben Miloudi drove my car for RTV. Despite me thinking I was giving it about as much as the car could do, Ben battled for the lead from his first time out in the car!

I’m certain that if you put any of the front-running Vee drivers in any car from the rest of the field, they would still be front-running drivers – just like if you put anyone else into their cars they’d still be around the same speed as they normally were.

Alex Jones is one driver who has successfully made one of these ‘leaps’ – and he did it after driving a new car. However, this new car probably wasn’t the key. Alex had a load of professional driver coaching and worked really hard off the track to re-focus his efforts as a racer, and I think all of that paid off far more than his new car.

So is coaching the way forward? Quite possibly – but bear in mind you can’t suction cup the instructor to your car if you race single seaters, so that will make learning much tougher than having someone sat next to you. And it’s expensive, relatively. It’s not really an option for me, as I don’t have any spare budget at all, and driver coaches don’t work for free – especially for a new 40 year old driver who’s not expecting to quit his day job and reach Formula 1 in this lifetime.

A cheaper option is to have online coaching on a sim like iRacing. Here you will be coached on everything you need to drive faster, but then of course you’d have to translate that into real life – which is easier said than done when carrying 20mph into a corner can have you upside down and on fire in a gravel trap!

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I know a few drivers in Vee have also used iZone Driver Performance at Silverstone. This seems like a great idea – you basically pay around £160+VAT for 2 hours on a driving simulator. For that you get a full performance report showing your strengths and weaknesses. I haven’t looked into this too much but it does seem like the most viable option, and then no doubt there’d be a blog all about my experience – so watch this space!

The other option is to make sure you listen to what people are saying, read everything you can, and try and put the thought out of your head that you might crash and kill your car!

This year I do intend to push myself a lot harder, so expect me to try and put that into words as I figure out how to get myself further up towards the pointy end of things!

It’s not that long to go, now – I’ll see you out there soon!

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