Several times over my driving career, many times one specific question has been asked of me….
“Do you ever get nervous?”
99.8% of the time, the answer is mostly a one word answer: ” NOPE”. Well, here’s the real truth…
The late Ayrton Senna was quoted once as saying, ” The helmet hides unfathomable emotions”. He is absolutely spot on. When you cinch down that helmet strap, and latch the HANS clips on, its time to go to war. Many emotions do hit, and I would be a total fool to say nerves don’t hit a driver at some point. They would be telling a total lie if the said so. Nerves hit drivers at different times. For me personally, nerves strike me at only one point. That point is when I get the helmet latched and I am alone in my thoughts. It gets magnified more when I am in the car, alone in my thoughts with nobody around, the National Anthem is playing loudly, and I am anticipating the command to start engines. The very first big event I ran in back in 2010, the field went to the frontstretch, and shut the engines off. We all stood beside our cars, paid respects to our country, then proceeded to climb back aboard our chariots. That race imparticular, waiting on the command felt like an hour, while they did driver intros. In that specific moment, that was the first and only time in my career that I have been nauseated in a car like that. All from pure nerves. But anyone that has had their foot in a throttle on a racetrack will tell you, when you hit that start switch and the 650 man choir under the hood starts to sing..the butterflies go “adaios”. Anytime the track is taken on, you truthfully are putting your life on the line. Hence the reason I say, if a driver tells you he or she doesnt have some nerves….he or she is lying to you. Point Blank. Because you truthfully face danger everytime.