{"id":26556,"date":"2019-11-25T04:00:04","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/?p=26556"},"modified":"2019-11-10T14:45:57","modified_gmt":"2019-11-10T22:45:57","slug":"q-should-i-use-ear-plugs-protection-when-race-driving-on-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/q-should-i-use-ear-plugs-protection-when-race-driving-on-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Q: Should I use ear plugs\/protection when race driving on track?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q<\/strong>: \u201cWhat is your opinion on hearing levels and controlling them? In my Radical, I usually don\u2019t wear ear plugs. Even though I don\u2019t think I am picking up on all the sounds available, I do notice that if I do use ear plugs, I think I\u2019m missing something. But I do feel calmer while driving. I did say \u201cfeel,\u201d as I don\u2019t have anything to back that up. What is your opinion?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: What? Pardon me, what did you say? Sorry, I\u2019m hard of hearing. J<\/p>\n

Seriously, we participate in and hang around a noisy sport. Over time, no matter how quiet your car, it will affect your hearing. Trust me on this one. You don\u2019t have to spend your life around pro racing to have your hearing impacted.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve said it a million times, and I\u2019ll say it again, the more quality sensory information you take in through your vision, kinesthetic\/feel, and auditory senses, the better you will drive<\/em>. So, it would then seem logical to not wear hearing protection that would restrict what you hear, right? But here\u2019s the thing: ear plugs filter out the sounds that are too loud. They actually help you focus on the sounds that are important. I\u2019ve tested this back-to-back with enough drivers (myself included) to know that some hearing protection can actually help your driving. And this may also be why you feel calmer when using ear protection.<\/p>\n

Not long ago I was coaching a driver on a test day, and he\u2019d gotten to a very good baseline lap time, one that he could turn fairly consistently. After a short break, he went back on track and was nearly a second slower. We couldn\u2019t figure out why, at first, but then he mentioned that he\u2019d forgotten to put his ear plugs in after the break. He said it sounded fast, but he wasn\u2019t, so he put the ear plugs in and went back out. You can guess what happened \u2013 he was faster again.<\/p>\n

So, it will come as no surprise that I think all drivers should use some form of ear protection. And this is another super-important point: be consistent with it. Your brain calibrates the sound with speed and grip levels, so if you wear ear protection some times, and not others, you won\u2019t drive consistently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: \u201cWhat is your opinion on hearing levels and controlling them? In my Radical, I usually don\u2019t wear ear plugs. Even though I don\u2019t think I am picking up on all the sounds available, I do notice that if I do use ear plugs, I think I\u2019m missing something. But I do feel calmer while driving. I did say \u201cfeel,\u201d as I don\u2019t have anything to back that up. What is your opinion?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-ross"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26557,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26556\/revisions\/26557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}