derBayerische March/April 2023 - 24

A R E T R O S P E C T I V E O N N C C ' S 2 0 2 2 A X / H P D E P R E P S E S S I O N
Gerrard, Perry McCarthy, and Ben
Collins, who all remain friends.
Besides his role as The Stig,
Gerrard had great stories to tell
about his stunt driving and auto
racing careers. A story that stood
out was the Hot Wheels stunt jump
that Gerrard performed with Tanner
Foust in 2011 at the Indianapolis
500 in front of 400,000 fans. The
stunt involved a 100-foot drop
down a life-size orange Hot Wheels
track in a Pro 2 offroad truck, accelerating
to 107 MPH and hitting a
ramp at 4Gs to jump 337 feet. This
broke the record for jumping
distance which was previously 304
feet. The stunt cost $10 million and
required a lot of engineering, taking
over a year to develop due to the
space constraints of the venue.
Gerrard and Foust practiced the
stunt about 40 times each in preparation
for the actual jump that
would be performed in front of
the crowd. Though the record has
since been broken by a jump
performed in the desert with essentially
unlimited room, Gerrard said
this was probably his proudest
stunt. However, he admits it was
maybe not one of the smartest
things he has ever done. " It was a
bit sketchy, " he shared.
Gerrard quoted a famous line
from Steve McQueen's character in
the 1971 movie Le Mans, " A lot
of people go through life doing
things badly. Racing's important to
those who do it well. When you're
racing...it's life. Anything that
happened before or after is just
waiting. " Born out of frustration of
what was lacking in all of the racing
books he read, Gerrard wrote
Optimum Drive in 2017. He sees
this book as the culmination of his
professional experience and life
lessons. While most racing books
describe how to become " good, "
Gerrard saw the opportunity to
consider why so few people become
" great " at it by examining what they
do differently.
" There is no natural talent, it is
all earned. You just have to get to
work and focus on the driver, not
the car, " explained Gerrard. Core to
Gerrard's thesis is that natural talent
is a myth, and we all have the
potential to be great with enough
practice and the right learning
process. Although it's asserted that
it takes 10,000 hours to become an
■ From Paul Gerrard's presentation during NCC's " Prep Yourself for AX/HPDE Season, Presented by RRT " virtual event on April 19th, 2022.
expert at most things, Gerrard
believes that it requires more than
just practice. He believes practice
must be guided by a focused,
thoughtful and honest process for
continual improvement and learning.
To put his philosophy to the
test, Gerrard shared how he enjoys
taking on new challenges, such
as learning sports like sailing, with
which he had little to no prior
experience.
Having a process and roadmap
gives us steps to improve to avoid
plateauing. A common trap Gerrard
has seen drivers fall into is modify24
ing
their cars to improve. All the
successful professional race car
drivers he knows were normal people,
but the difference is that they
didn't allow themselves to plateau -
they kept learning and pushing for
improvement. Gerrard also pointed
out that you carry your skills and
experience as a driver with you.
Modifying one car to be particularly
fast doesn't improve you. It's also
not just about more seat time -
improvement comes from focused,
rational training that avoids ingraining
bad habits.
Essential to Gerrard's process
of continual improvement is
dissecting the fundamentals. For
example, a common instruction to
new drivers is telling them, " Eyes
up! " But he suggests, when you
think about it, if the driver is looking
down it's because they are not comfortable
- perhaps with the car, the
track or the conditions. These are
the real reasons someone might not
have their eyes down the road.
He also pointed out that we are actually
trying to " think down the road "
to anticipate, not just " look. "
Exercises on practice facilities such
as skid pads allow drivers to focus
on the fundamentals and gain skills
to correct understeer and oversteer.
" The lessons of becoming
great at something are universal, "
concluded Gerrard. He is a firm
believer that cross training, doing
things with similar fundamentals,
perhaps such as riding a mountain
bike, also helps us improve as
drivers. Paul Gerrard's processes
for continual improvement can be
applied across the activities in our
lives to achieve our personal and
professional goals - focus, hard
work, and intellectual curiosity
remain essential.
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https://www.amazon.com/Optimum-Drive-Road-Driving-Greatness/dp/B07GDTZSRD

derBayerische March/April 2023

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