I have always been a little bit in awe of the Society of Automotive Engineers. And, you have to have a lot of respect for those who are so well educated in their field that they are able to write a paper on a subject and present it to an audience at the SAE.

That's exactly what Speed Secret's Ross Bentley will be doing at the SAE's Charlotte conference in December. Ross has written a paper on the topic of Engineering the Driver and will present it live during the conference.

The paper is protected by SAE copyright, so I can't reproduce it here, but I've seen a draft of the document and let me tell you, it's really well done and an interesting read. If you have ever attended one of Ross' Inner Speed Secrets Seminars, you have some idea of what it's about. It's a logical case for the development of a race driver using the Speed Secrets mental techniques and it includes a study of one of Ross' "subjects" (can't give too much away here!) that illustrates the "before and after" results of training using our mental techniques. If you ever wondered whether "all this mental stuff" really works, you won't after reading this.

Of particular interest are the stats about the subject's average finishing position. Starting in 2007 -  prior to coaching, it was 7.88, or about 8th place. 

After Ross' coaching, with all other things being equal, his '08 average finishing position was 3.25. That, my friends, is progress.

You can go to the SAE website and order the paper directly from them - it's about the only way you can get it. Here's the link: http://www.sae.org/servlets/productDetail?PROD_TYP=PAPER&PROD_CD=2008-01-2968 - The title and number are: Engineering the Driver - Paper Number 08MSEC-0050

Or, you could take a look at Speed Secrets 3 - "Inner Speed Secrets" and Speed Secrets 4 - "Engineering the Driver". You'll get the whole picture there!