It's Not Looking Behind That Kills Your Karting Performance, But Thinking Behind!

How to stop yourself making mistakes in the lead, so you become a winning machine.

Photo Stu Stretton.

Welcome to Terence Dove On Racing Drivers. Every week I deliver driving advice that will set you above the karting normies, that you won’t find anywhere else!

Drivers who reach the front of the pack face a critical challenge. Just when they need to drive their absolute best, with a clear track ahead, their performance crumbles. The root of this problem isn't looking behind - it's thinking about what's happening behind you.

This issue keeps coming up with my drivers when they start to get fast and hit the front. From the lead position, they panic or shut down. It's precisely when they need mistake-free driving, hitting all their marks with total focus and a clear mind, that their performance falters.

Why?

With nothing problematic ahead, our brains search for the biggest threat to focus on. In a race, that threat lies behind. Your attention wanders to what's going on behind you, and this is when mistakes start creeping in.

These errors accumulate as multiple small mistakes or manifest as a big, critical lapse in concentration that costs you the win. This phenomenon affects drivers at all levels - you'll first notice it when you get to the front, but it will resurface at any point in your driving career. Just look at Joe Turney leading at the Worlds last weekend.

Understanding this doesn't make you a poor driver - it makes you human. It's a challenge you must recognise and overcome.

The Computer Analogy: Killing Your Lap-times with Mental Bloatware

Your brain works like a computer. When your old lap-top slows down, you can check the Task Manager. You'll see the CPU usage at 100% where it can’t cope with all the crap that has accumulated there.

By ending unnecessary tasks (stupid bloatware you don’t even recognise), you free up processing power and the computer speeds up again. Chrome will load in a flash, and your mouse will actually respond!

Your brain operates similarly. When you're driving at the limit, you're running a high-load program called "driving fast as hell in the lead". This consumes most of your mental capacity and focus - it's what makes you fast.

But when you think about what's behind you, you open a new program called "what's going on behind me". Your brain starts imagining drivers, simulating scenarios, recalling information about competitors. You're trying to process all this while still driving.

This maxes out your brain's CPU. Like an overloaded computer, your brain struggles. In a kart, this means missing apexes, getting clumsy, and haemorrhaging lap time.

The Onslaught of Performance-Killing Thoughts

The problem compounds. You might open another mental program called "resist thinking about what's behind me". Now you've got:

1. Trying to drive fast (75% of your mental capacity)

2. Thinking about what's behind you (stealing 5% from your driving)

3. Trying not to think about what's behind you (another 5% gone)

Then you add "I'm losing time. What am I going to do? They're catching me. I need to brake later." This causes more problems and uses up even more attention.

You're opening these programs just like your PC cripples itself by running unnecessary updates or scans - useless processes when you're trying to focus on a specific task.

Looking/Thinking Behind is OK - When it has zero CPU Cost

Some drivers look behind without it affecting them. They maintain an efficient, strategic awareness of what's behind, knowing instinctively what to do if someone catches up. It doesn't consume processing power because they've automated their responses to attacks.

I experienced this in a race years ago. Exiting a crucial chicane on the last lap, my carburettor went down. Without conscious thought, I moved right to block the driver behind. It was an automatic response to an inevitable attack. I wasn’t aware that I was going to do that, and it might have been right on the edge of what was legal - but the point is it took zero thought and therefore zero CPU.

This represents highly efficient background programming that doesn't steal attention. It just happens. You're capable of defending when necessary without thinking about it. You'll react correctly when the moment comes because you instinctively understand what drivers will do drivers - you are one. It takes zero imagination.

Winning Strategy: Forced Mental Discipline in the Lead