How to Use Sim Racing to Improve Real-World Driving on the Track with Connor Bell

In racing, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed—especially when you’re trying to improve. But what if progress doesn’t come from doing more… but from focusing on less?

In this episode of DriveSport, Dave sits down with Connor Bell, NASCAR Canada Series race winner and driver coach, to explore how sim racing and real-world driving work together—and why fundamentals are the key to getting faster.

Connor shares how he made the leap from sim racing to winning in real-world competition, and what he’s learned coaching drivers at all levels. He explains why most drivers struggle when they try to fix everything at once, and how narrowing your focus to one skill at a time leads to faster, safer improvement.

They also dive into the differences between driving the line vs. driving the car, how to build consistency through braking and corner phases, and why developing “feel” matters more than copying fast laps. Connor breaks down how to use a simulator effectively, how to avoid overwhelm during wheel-to-wheel racing, and simple mental techniques to stay calm and in control under pressure.

If you’re using a sim to prepare for track days—or looking to improve your real-world driving—this episode will help you focus on what actually makes you faster.

What You’ll Learn

• Why focusing on one skill at a time leads to faster improvement
 • How sim racing can accelerate real-world driving performance
 • The difference between driving the line and driving the car
 • How to break down a corner into four key phases
 • Why straight-line braking is the foundation of consistency
 • How to use sound and feel to find the limit of grip
 • Why copying faster drivers can actually slow your progress
 • How to stay calm and focused during wheel-to-wheel racing
 • The role of mindset in improving lap times and confidence
 • Why using a simulator regularly can sharpen your driving skills

Ideas Worth Sharing

“When you’re overwhelmed, come back to the fundamentals. Focus on one thing.” – Connor Bell
 “Driving the car means feeling the limit—not just following the line.” – Connor Bell
“You have to work up to the limit in a safe, controlled way.” – Connor Bell

Resources

Connor Bell

Almeida Racing Academy

Protect your car and have more fun at the track with OpenTrack insurance.
Get your quote at https://Drivesport.co/insurance

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

When you're racing wheel to wheel, it's very easy to get overwhelmed. And I can think about a hundred different things I could have worked on, but as we know, that's not the best approach. So you come back to the trailer, you focus on the fundamentals. What's one thing I can work on? And you go and attack it in the next session.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

You're listening to DriveSports, the amateur track driver podcast. Here's your host, DMC.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Hello and welcome to DriveSport. This is the show where we teach you how to get your car on track, drive safe, have fun, and get your car home in one piece. And my guest today is someone I've been really excited to have on the show because he's someone that I've hired several times to coach me through the simulator. I got to know him through uh Suelio Almeida's Academy. So we've gotten to know each other and he's taught me a lot and helped me know that I have a lot to learn. My guest today is Connor Bell. Connor, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Good. Thank you for having me on the show, Dave.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Yeah, I'm I'm honored to have you here. And uh so you are not just a sim coach, you also have a lot of uh success in real life racing as well. You you race for the NASCAR Canada series, you've won one of those series, correct?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Yeah, so uh just this past summer in 2025, made my uh first start in the NASCAR Canada series and one on debut, so it's been uh a good ride so far.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Oh, that's amazing, man. To do that the first time out, that's fantastic. And uh how long have you been coaching?

SPEAKER_00 1:27

So I'd say it's been around two years now. So started two years ago with Sualeo actually. My first ever coaching session was under the Almeida Racing Academy. And sort of at the same time, I was also getting into real life coaching. So it uh definitely came on pretty quick, but uh gotten to be super passionate about it and uh can't wait to uh share some of that expertise here today.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Yeah, and we'll get into that in just a moment. Before we do that, I want to talk a little bit because I think people are really fascinated about this, especially because you know, when there are movies like Gran Turismo that come out, the idea of wow, going from sitting in front of a computer with a steering wheel to you know getting strapped in with a harness in real life in a car. How did how did you make that transition?

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Yeah, it all started right before COVID, I would say. I had gotten out of carting. You know, I did a little bit of local carting, nothing too serious, nothing super competitive. And once COVID hit, I was bored sitting at home, not at school, not hanging out with you know people because we weren't allowed, especially here in uh Canada. And so got myself a simulator and kept wanting more and more and kept feeding off of that competition in the sim, and then decided to pick up a spec Miata in real life and sort of continued to develop that way, kept going up to faster and faster cars until uh now I sort of reach my bucket list series, which was the uh NASCAR Canada series.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Okay, so a couple of questions come to mind from that. First of all, what app were you using primarily when you started SIM driving?

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah, I've I've always been someone who's been uh on iRacing. I I started on iRacing, I've done all my development as a driver on iRacing. You know, occasionally I'll use Aceto Corsa if iRacing doesn't have the track or the car that I want to practice with. But uh I find that iRacing is the most realistic and competitive sim out there.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

I think that's important too, because when someone is thinking about it, they don't quite know which there are a lot of different pathways you can take, a lot of different games you can use. I primarily use iRacing, but I think it's worth saying, you know, you mentioned Acetocorsa, and I want to point out too that it's not Acetal Corsa competicione, right? Which is more of like self-contained in a box, you're racing GT3s, which is a fantastic game. But Acetokorsa has massive modification, right? Gives you options to do pretty much any track. So that's why you mentioned that that's what you use, correct?

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Yeah, so it's it's almost like a sandbox, the original Acetal Corsa. There's thousands, probably probably hundreds of thousands of mods out there online. And what I ended up getting into, especially when practicing for the first NASCAR race, was actually developing my own car model. So trying to make it feel more like the real thing. And it got so accurate that I was actually testing gearing and setup changes for the real team because they were going to attract the series as never had never been to before. So that was really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Oh, that's yeah, that's really cool. And then the nether qu the other question that I had was why Miata? I know the answer, but why did you start with Miata?

SPEAKER_00 4:42

I think a couple different reasons. One, it honestly is the perfect car for development, it's the perfect first step. It's not too fast to the point where you can get into serious trouble or scare yourself, but at the same time, it's ultra competitive. So there's, you know, even at my local track, there's 25, 30 cars that are identical. And uh you basically get to race people um no matter what level of your development you're at. So when I was first starting out, I still had people to fight with, and then as I got better and better and continue to develop, there was still people I could battle with. So I think those two reasons are are the biggest in terms of why the MX5 is the best development car.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Yeah, it is so easy to get into. The cost, relatively speaking, of something bad going happening is not as high as, say, like, I mean, I track GT4, Porsche GT4. There's a lot of cost associated with that, but I'm also not racing. I'm not going wheel-to-wheel with anybody. So yeah, that's a wonderful choice. And it's a very popular car at the track. If you're thinking, hey, maybe I'm going to take that next step, that's a good thing to consider. Okay, so you started to get into it. What was the point at which it started to become would would you consider yourself professional, semi-professional? What is the the level the terminology that you would use?

SPEAKER_00 6:01

I think starting to get into that professional stage, I would say it is the NASCAR Canada series is sort of the premier series in the country. So I'd say, yeah, starting to work into the uh professional category, you could say.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

So that means that you have to go out and get sponsors, right? It's not just uh it's not that you just get to show up and drive the car. You also have to locate the money to drive that car as well.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

For sure. Yeah, that's been a big part of the last, I'll say, year. You know, everyone thinks being a racing driver is just the on-track stuff and and you know, maybe the physical preparation beforehand. But I'd say that's probably a maximum of 10% of the job. It's all the preparations, you know, the year before trying to generate sponsorship, you know, trying to deliver on what you can offer to these companies. So it's a lot of work, but uh it's part of the job, and and I enjoy that part as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Yeah. Well, that's good that you enjoy it because it really is. I mean, like you if you're gonna race, now you're also in social media suddenly, right? Because you've got to post stuff about your sponsors, you got to keep people excited. So that is a big part of the commitment to that. So that's wonderful that you love it. Because I I have met other guys who are in the sport and they don't enjoy that aspect, but unfortunately, it's just part of the job. Uh and by the way, since we're on that, uh, just a shout out to your Instagram page. That's ConnorBell.racing, correct? On Instagram. What other places do you want people to follow you?

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yeah, Instagram is certainly a good place to uh keep updated with what I got going on, and then also the YouTube for sure. So that's just Connor Bell, C-O-N-N-O-R-B-E-L-L. I've got uh lots of coaching content on there and definitely a good place to uh get lots of free content.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Yeah, so let's use that as the the spot to start talking about the coaching. I did look at one of those YouTube videos just before we went into this, and of course, I have hired you. We've done, I think like three live sessions together, and it's definitely helped me. I saw the impact on real life driving on the track uh last season. This season I'm waiting to get out on the track. They're being a little slow right now. So let's talk about that for a second and put ourselves in the shoes of someone who's listening to this. They're going out to the track, they're doing high-performance driving education, HPDE. What is a sign when you start coaching someone that you know they're going to make progress quickly compared to someone that you think they're gonna get coaching from you, but I can already see that they're gonna struggle with it. What's the difference between the two?

SPEAKER_00 9:30

I think being open to learning. You know, there's there's two very different people I'd say I encounter when coaching. There's someone who's really open, wants to learn, wants to learn new things and apply it to their driving. And then some people, not that they're not wanting to learn, but it's um they've developed these skills over the the years or or months of their driving career. And um it's the battle of trying to eliminate bad habits and and kind of being stuck between you know the new content that we're trying to learn and the old things they they might have developed over the course of their driving career. So I'd say that's probably the biggest one.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Yeah. You gotta be able to say, hey, there's always something here to learn, and I am open to it. And I think there are different levels here, right? I go to the track, I coach at the track, and they're the people that are like, I don't want coaching. They just they just shut down the conversation, they just want to go out and drive. And I think, well, okay, whatever level you're at right now, you're gonna be at that level for a good long time, if not always. Then there are the ones who are like, I want coaching, and they're good for it for like a session or two, and then like I want to drive on my own. And I always think, man, unless you're George Russell, Max Verstapp, and you know, any of these, you still have things to learn, and even they have still uh things to learn. So the the other camp that I think is the best is the ones who are always looking for coaching and always want it. It doesn't matter, like I'm sure you love to receive coaching, even though you're a very accomplished coach yourself, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Absolutely. Yeah, I I still get coaching up to this day. I've got a couple people within the Almeida Racing Academy, our coaches, we all sort of feed off of each other. And so uh there's never a point in your driving career where you're too developed or or too fast to not need coaching. So, like you mentioned, Max Verstappen, all these guys have engineers, and there's a reason why these people are are still on the F1 teams is because everyone needs coaching.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Yeah. And that's just a principle of success in life, too. In my other job, I'm I'm an executive coach, I'm a trainer, and the most successful people that I know are most open to receiving that kind of coaching. So I think we've preached that. Now let's say that I'm in the car or I'm in the sim and I'm with you. What are some mental approaches I can take to put myself in a place where I can get the greatest benefit from that coaching?

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Yeah, I I honestly think that part all starts with the coach. I think as long as you're open to what the coach is telling you, that that's already the first step, as we mentioned. But beyond that, as a coach, like we mentioned in our last session, actually, it's all about the fundamentals. So if you as a coach are trying to teach your student four different things at once, it's just not gonna work, as I'm sure you know from your other career as well. And so I think focusing on the absolute fundamentals, one thing, it's sort of the principle of less is more, right? Um, the less things you coach, it probably means are gonna be more important, and then that's gonna be easier to apply for the student. So I would say that's the biggest thing there.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

As a coach, you have to show restraint because especially with someone like you who knows so much about the sport, you sit down with someone like me and you're like, there's 20 things I see right now you're not doing right. But the question is which one, maybe two of those things are most valuable? And I think there's a responsibility there on the student's part too, to recognize that I cannot improve everything at the same time. I'm not going to get a perfect lap if this is my fourth time out at the track or whatever. All I'm gonna do is I'm gonna learn a skill, and I want to get better at that skill than I was before.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Certainly, yeah. I think one of the traps students fall into as well is going online and seeing how much information is out there. You know, whether it's YouTube videos or blog posts or forums or courses, there's so much to learn. And I think it's very easy to try and watch 20 different videos and try and apply the 20 different things in your driving, as you mentioned. But again, unfortunately, while it sounds great, it doesn't really work. So you sort of have to restrain yourself, like you mentioned as the student, and really focus on just going one by one, letting the skill develop. And then once you have that down, then you can move on to something else.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Yeah, and there's a principle here that I'm sure you teach. I've heard Suelio say it, and it's are you driving the line or driving the car? And I think so many people are so concerned about the line when they get in. But what you really want to do is drive the car. Uh, could you describe the difference between those two things for us?

SPEAKER_00 14:21

I'm glad you brought that up. That's sort of the basis of my coaching philosophies. So driving the line, you know, the very classic way of coaching drivers is to, you know, get use all of the track, get right to the apex, track out all the way. And I understand why, you know, it's gonna make the corner easier to navigate. In the end, once we have all the baseline skills built up, it's certainly gonna help pace-wise. But driving the car is more important because that means you're essentially driving the tires closer to the limit of grip. So, to put it into perspective, driver A could drive the line at 10 kilometers an hour. And even though he's driving the perfect racing line, he's never gonna be as fast as the driver that's driving to the limit of the tires on the wet racing line. So driving the car and the tires is way more important. And I think that's what I typically focus on in my coaching sessions. It's starting with the absolute basics. How do we feel what it means to drive the car? And how can we apply this to the different portions of the corner?

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Yeah. And I would use a term learning the car. I think of it as a conversation. When I get in someone's car new for the first time, or even in the sim, right? You can do this an infinite number of times where you have all these different cars in iRacing or whatever. It's not like I can say every car is the same. I'm gonna drive every car the same. That's not it. I have to have a conversation with the car. I have to say, where can you break? And the car goes, Well, I can break here if you do this. How much can you turn in? How much oversteer do you have? Right. And and Connor, I always like to take some terms that we understand very clearly. Like oversteer is when you turn it and the car turns more than you expected, or understeer and you turn it and it turns less than you expected. Every car is going to have a different set of things that it likes to do and doesn't like to do, and you need to take the time to get to know that. And just driving the line isn't going to get you there.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Yeah, for sure. Like you mentioned, it's a it's a conversation with the car, it's giving it some input and feeling what the output is. Like we've focused on in the past, I think we want to try and feel the limits of the car in the safest way possible. You know, people hear the word limit or feeling the grip of the tires, and they think it's a scary or dangerous thing, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that way. You know, we got to think about what part of the corner is the safest portion to start working up to, again, driving the car, feeling the car, connecting to the car. And there's parts of the corner where that's easier. The straight line braking phase is one of those parts of the corner where we can start to get comfortable with the feedback that the car is giving us. And I think slowly working your way up is the best way to go about it because you you definitely don't want to knock your confidence.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Yeah. And I love too that you're talking a lot about the tires. I think that's as an aspect of it that when I first started, I had no idea about tires. I didn't know anything about them. And the more I do this, the more I go, wow, it's all about the tires. It's very, very important to understand how well they're inflated, what's the temperature, all of those things. And that gets into something that you teach in particular that I've experienced with you and had not heard before, which is the importance of sound and using sound as a reference point. Can you talk to us a little bit about what that is and why you do that?

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Yeah. So for those listening that run on a simulator to practice for real life, you've probably experienced the extra level of difficulty where we basically don't have the G forces that we have in real life. You know, when we're in a real car, everyone talks about the seat of the pants feel, and that's just something we don't get on the simulator. So what we got to think about is well, how can we substitute the lack of feeling that we're we're getting, or I guess not receiving in the simulator? And so one of the best ways to do that, especially in eye racing, is through the sounds that the tires are producing. It's not necessarily something we're gonna be able to directly translate over to real life, but what it is gonna help us with is developing the processes of working up to the limit. And we're simply just gonna be using a different delivery method of how we're feeling the car in real life, which, as I mentioned, is gonna be the G Force and that C to the pants feel.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Now, the question comes to mind, because you're saying in the simulator, that's what we have to use, but isn't that still useful in real life as well? Of getting used to the sound of the car?

SPEAKER_00 18:55

Certainly. Yeah, there are there are some instances in real life where you can use the sound as well. I would say typically you're gonna get, you know, lots of screeching from the tires in real life when we're over the limit of the tire. So it can be a way to, you know, start feeling where we're over the limit and maybe under steering and then dial down from there. So there are some uses that way, but typically in real life, you won't get much tire sounds when we're at the limit. So it's not as useful, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

And just give us one trick for those who are both trying to learn in the sim and drive in real life. Can you get into the specifics of how someone can become more sensitive to sound? So I'm learning a new track, I'm trying to figure out how to corner properly, I'm trying to figure out how to brake properly. What can I do to start using sound for that?

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Yeah, so I would say when you're you're running an iRacing, I like popping out to the audio settings and actually lowering the engine sounds. That way the differential between engine and tire sounds is bigger. It's a bigger delta. So naturally you're gonna be able to hear those tire sounds a little bit better. And then all you're gonna look to do is basically start experimenting with braking pressures. And once you feel you're at the limit of the tires, just under a lockup or under ABS, you can connect that to the pitch of tire sound that the car is producing. And that's sort of gonna be your cue to base your braking off of as you um continue progressing. So if we want to talk about, you know, how we can translate that over to real life, it would be the exact same process, except when we feel we're at the limit, we're gonna connect that to the sense of g force or the sense of pedal force, and we're just gonna look to replicate that every time we go around that that corner or every breaking zone around the track. So, really, I guess my coaching style is to get feeling, right? A lot of people will look at telemetry and they'll say, okay, this driver is breaking to 50 bar in this corner. I need to try and replicate this as much as possible. But if you don't have the baseline skills built up, and if you're just trying to copy other drivers, it unfortunately, you know, 99% of the time doesn't work. So it's like, how can we work ourselves up to our comfortable limit and develop a feeling that we can work off of that way we can consistently achieve that lap after lap, corner after corner?

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Yeah. Boy, that that's such an important thing of looking at who you're looking at when you're trying to get a reference of how to drive. And in fact, that's something that I'm working on is creating instructor labs for, for example, Utah Motorsports Camp, which is my home track. People go and look and they'll see someone has posted Utah Motorsports Campus, West Lap, Mustang, right? And they show it. But what it doesn't account for is that this person is in a wheel-to-wheel race, or that this person has five to six years of experience. And we're trying to replicate their lap, and that's not what we should do if we're new. We need to first understand just what a nice, clean, good, solid lap is, and then we can start building from that. What do you what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Yeah, absolutely. It's it's very easy to get in that trap as a uh a newer driver. You know, there's there's thousands of onboard laps on YouTube. You can pull up telemetry from other drivers, and like you mentioned, it's a whole you know collection of skills that the driver has used to get to that point where they're breaking that late, where they're achieving those lap times. And like we mentioned before, if we just try and copy that, it's typically gonna end in an unsafe environment. And I think that's the most important part to highlight. We we don't want to put ourselves in in situations where we're not being safe, not only because that could damage the car and put you in a dangerous situation, but it Could also knock your confidence as well. And I've seen that happen before where drivers will, you know, try and go too fast too early, they'll knock their confidence. And then it's very hard to regain that. So it's important to take small steps and build those baseline skills first.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Oh, that's such an important principle. One of the things that I but part of it I picked it up from Ross Bentley and his training of how to train instructors, I kind of added my own little thing to it. But there does need to be this balance, like a three-legged stool, between the ability of the car, the confidence of the driver, and the skill of the driver. All three of those things need to be aligned. And if they have way more confidence than they have skill, we've got a problem, right? But on the other side, if their confidence is just hammered down, like you said, they will lose interest in it and they'll feel like they can't succeed. So how do you, Connor, as a coach, manage that balance between those things?

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Yeah, I think part of it is setting expectations. The student needs to know that they're they're not going to set Max Verstappen level lap times right away. So it's not setting that expectation at first. I think sometimes it's important to highlight that, you know, we're just looking to get the feeling down first, or we're just looking to improve this portion of the corner for now. And you know, you sort of give them the idea that, you know, later on we'll be able to look for pace. Right now, it's just developing or improving the skill we're currently working on.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

This brings up a question which is, and I don't know if you've thought about it or if you have a way to do it, uh, but how to measure your skills development? And the quick, easy answer is well, it's just the time. But if we're looking at individually, the skill of breaking, the skill of cornering, all those things, how do I start to know whether or not I'm actually improving or whether I'm just doing the same thing over and over?

SPEAKER_00 24:53

That's a good question. I think you know, lap times are not always the best representation. Certainly you can look at consistency. You know, am I able to string lap times that are closer together in general? And then also looking at, you know, your corner structure. Like have you improved your braking so much where now we're over slowing for the corner or we feel the need to move our breaking point later? So generally, corner structure stuff will be a good sign that we've developed or or or you know improved a certain skill in terms of braking or rotation phases of the corner. So yeah, I'd say those are probably the main things.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

What are, for the uninitiated, what are the phases of a corner?

SPEAKER_00 25:38

I would say I divide it into four phases. You've got your straight line braking phase. This is simply when we're braking with our wheel completely straight, and the only goal there is to slow the car down as efficiently as possible. The second phase is going to be the initial turn-in. So this is when we're transitioning from slowing down the car to turning it into the apex. The third phase is what I'll call the mid-corner phase. This is as we're approaching the apex and getting our last little bits of rotation done. And then I just have exit as one portion of the corner. And the reason why I don't have the exit divided into multiple sections is because it should be the easiest portion of the corner, as long as you've done everything right before the apex.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Okay, so the four phases straight line breaking, the turn in, mid-corner, and the exit. Which one do new drivers tend to struggle with the most?

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Struggle with the most, I would say, if you're a really new driver, straight line braking. Not because it's a super difficult portion of the corner, but because it can lead to a lot of inconsistency. Drivers, I find, won't have a certain feel that they're targeting in terms of how hard they should break under the straight line braking phase. Sometimes they might break a little too light and they won't get enough deceleration done, and then they run into issues mid-corner where they're carrying too much speed. And then they might break too hard where they're either getting into ABS or locking up the tires in a non-ABS car. So I'd say that's always the first portion of the corner I like to work on just because it helps develop consistency. And then once we have that down, we can start getting more advanced with um the rotation phases of the corner.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

Yeah. And since you brought up ABS, should we be getting into the anti-lock brake system or should we not be getting into that? Let's say if I'm driving a typical GT car.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

I would say it depends slightly on the car. You know, if you're in a super high-end like spec race car, a Porsche Cup car or something like that, you probably can use a little bit of ABS because it's meant to do that. But in most cars, especially street cars and even on the simulator, we typically want to avoid ABS. The reason why is because anytime we do get into ABS, we're most likely going to put the front tires over their grip limit. And that's actually going to lead to less deceleration, inconsistency in terms of our speed control, and we're not going to have much front tire left for the turning phases of the corner.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

So best to get just under that, the threshold.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

What's something else that you like to focus on when you're in particular coaching someone who is either on the real life track or they're getting ready to go onto a real life track?

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Yeah, great question. I think it's developing your processes for finding the limits. So that's personally, I think, the most important thing when a driver is using the simulator to practice for real life. It's not, you know, remembering references and using the exact same ones in real life. It's not expecting the exact same amount of grip. It's not, you know, taking the exact same lines in real life. The simulator is best for developing your processes to find the limit. And the reason why that's important is because one, you get to work on, you know, developing the safety portion of slowly working up to finding pace in real life, and you get to prepare that process on the sim beforehand. And then also you get to be more efficient with your time in real life. As I'm sure everyone knows listening to this, track time is not only super expensive, but it's very limited, right? We don't get six hours a day to run laps, oftentimes not. And so it's how do we be the most efficient with our time and as safe as possible.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Yeah. That's the one massive advantage that using a sim to prep has is just the sheer reps. And especially in iRacing, or I don't know if a set of corsa has this. I know ACC does not, but the ability to mark a reference and then just hit that corner over and over and over 50 times in the space of an you know a half an hour. Can you talk about why we do that? Why we mark a spot and then we just practice that corner over and over?

SPEAKER_00 30:13

Yeah, I think it allows us to isolate certain techniques that we're working on. So let's say if you just wanted to focus on improving your straight line braking, we can set a reference before a corner that has a really long straight line breaking phase, and it just gives us more of an opportunity to isolate a certain technique and practice it more times within that certain period of time. So, you know, if you went were going for full laps and you didn't have the active reset point set, you would spend probably, you know, 10 times the amount of time to work on the same exercise.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

Okay, just shifting gears a little bit, what's something that you've learned from competing in real life that you didn't recognize or understand before when you first started going out on the track? I would say it's the mental game.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

When you're racing wheel to wheel, even if you're you know running time attack or or trying to go for fast laps, it's very easy to get overwhelmed. And it really comes down to coming back to the fundamentals, like we spoke about. And so from the mental side, I've had experiences in real life where I'm a second off pace in qualifying, and I can think about a hundred different things I could have worked on, but as we know, that's not the best approach. So you come back to the trailer, you focus on the fundamentals. What's one thing I can work on? What's two things I can work on? And you go and attack it in the next session.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

Yeah. There's just too many inputs to try to think of anything more than that, anyway. What's a trick that you use to I don't know if calm yourself down is the right word or get yourself in the right mindset so that in the midst of stress, it doesn't overwhelm you? And I and I'm saying this to compare, I'm thinking about my audience of someone who's just like getting into passing for the first time. They have to pass someone on track or someone's passing them, which the first time it happens is very stressful. What's something that you they could borrow from what you do in racing that can get them in a spot where they can do it and not feel stress when they're doing it?

SPEAKER_00 32:22

I think it all comes down to making sure your body is relaxed. In these high stress moments, it's very easy as a driver to literally death grip the steering wheel, hold your breath. I've experienced that before where I literally realize I am not breathing. And so it all starts with relaxing your hands on the steering wheel. That's gonna calm your whole body, it's gonna let you feel the car better. And just taking deep breaths, make sure we're calm and not strangling the car because once we're strangling the car, we can't feel anything. And then we lose our baseline that we're we started working from in the first place.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

Yeah, that's so important. I hope everyone was paying attention to that. Relax your hands. So this has been super useful, Connor, and I really appreciate this. Can you talk to us about? I know there's one sponsor in particular. I know you've got some awesome sponsors, but you've got one that does uh some philanthropic stuff and you'd like to talk about them.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Could you share that just briefly? Yeah, so my uh title sponsor from last year and actually moving into the 2026 season is the Diamond Foundation. The Diamond Foundation, like you mentioned, is a philanthropic initiative here based locally in Ontario, Canada. And what I'm essentially doing throughout my racing season is helping raise awareness for the change and you know, um, the efforts they're making in our local community. You know, their primary focus is supporting local charities such as the Ottawa Mission. So basically helping homelessness, giving people a place to sleep, education, and so on. And then also the Ottawa Heart Institute. And so they've been a big player in my community, and I just wanted to uh shout them out for all the work they've been uh doing. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

And I'm gonna ask you some wrap-up questions, some quick fire questions at the end. But let's just recap again where they should go if they want to follow you, and also if they want to hire you, like I've done, for uh coaching.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

Yeah, so you can follow me on Instagram at Connorbell.racing. On YouTube, it is just Connor Bell. And then if you're looking to hire me as a coach, you can go to the almedaracingacademy.com website, go to the coaching page, and you will see my booking link there.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

Okay, fantastic. So now what I do with all of my guests, Connor, I ask a pit stop question that just cut gets us to pause and think for a moment, and then I'm gonna ask some hot lap questions that are just kind of rapid fire at the end. Sound good? Awesome, sounds good. So the pit stop question I ask everyone is what's the most expensive lesson you've learned while driving at the track?

SPEAKER_00 34:56

Ooh. I would say pushing too hard too early. I had an experience where I had been running my first radical race. It was unfortunately on a street circuit when it was raining. That was my first ever race in a radical. Wow. Oh yeah. And uh I got a little bit overwhelmed and started, you know, pushing for a podium, sent it a little too hard into a corner, and uh took the rear wing off the car. So uh that was definitely a lesson I had to learn. And again, comes back to our conversations of you know, earlier where we got to slowly work up to the limit because uh, you know, if you're not finishing the race, you're certainly not finishing on the podium.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

So yeah, yeah. There's no sense in pushing if you don't know where you are, if you don't know the track. All right, hot lap questions. What's your favorite car that you've driven?

SPEAKER_00 35:49

Uh, it's gotta be the NASCAR Canada series car. Super high horsepower, spinning the tires in pretty much every gear. It's uh quite the thrill to drive.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

Amazing, and you get to do that on a regular basis. Bucket list car you haven't driven yet?

SPEAKER_00 36:03

Ooh, I would say probably a mid-level formula car. I was always a super big fan of the Formula Three on iRacing, and I think it's just the perfect balance of down force to power.

SPEAKER_01 36:16

Well, there's still plenty of time, right? Still could happen, right? Favorite track to drive in real life, and then favorite track to drive on a sim.

SPEAKER_00 36:25

I'd say it's probably it probably has to be Canadian Tire Motorsports Park here uh just outside of Toronto, Ontario. All blind corners, super sketchy, and you really got to uh be uh brave to find those last few tents. And then I'd say track I'd like to drive would probably have to be Bathurst. I I find it such a joy to drive on the sim. The walls are close, you know, there's uh lots of elevation change, and you really got to send it to uh find the last little bits of time as well.

SPEAKER_01 36:54

I I love that your choice on both of those are ones where there's high risk involved. That's that's that's a race driver mentality for sure. Uh I think I know the answer to this already, but what's your most proud track driving accomplishment?

SPEAKER_00 37:09

Yeah, it would probably have to be the uh NASCAR Canada series debut race, but uh hopefully we can have a bigger moment uh this season. Yeah, amazing.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

Best piece of driving advice you ever received from someone else?

SPEAKER_00 37:22

Ooh, good question. So I had a coach myself around a year ago, and what he said is it's just the limit, bro. And honestly, that was some of the best advice I've gotten. And in that first NASCAR Canada series race, we were talking about being mentally overwhelmed at a certain part of the race. I got a pit road speeding penalty and got sent to the back of the field. I was getting roughed around coming through the field and wasn't driving very well. I was spinning the rear tires in some spots. Literally, what I said out loud in the car is it's just the limit, just the limit of the tires. And mentally, that put me back into the state where I'm feeling what the car is doing and coming back to the basics of how I'm approaching driving the tires and driving the car. And so I think although it sounds simple, it's probably the best advice I've gotten.

SPEAKER_01 38:17

Yeah, you have to respect that limit. Can't go any more than it, and trying to go more than it is gonna make you slower. That's great. And then, last thing, what's one thing you want every amateur driver who's listening to this podcast to do?

SPEAKER_00 38:30

Ooh. Honestly, I'll have to say getting a simulator and actually using it. So I had a portion of my real life racing career where I neglected the simulator for probably a year, and that was the worst real life racing season I've had to date. And honestly, I think the reason for that is not using the simulator, not using it before weekends to prep for the track I'm racing on, and also it's just gonna keep you sharp in general. So get a simulator if you don't have one, if you have one, use it regularly, and you're gonna see the uh benefits pay off the next track day you have.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Yeah, more and more I've done this, the the more I understand that there is a synergy between driving on the sim and driving in real life, both help each other out. So I love that advice. And and Connor, I've really enjoyed this interview with you. It's been a pleasure to get to know you in coaching and get you to know you a little bit more here in this interview. I really appreciate you being here. Yeah, thank you so much, Dave. It was uh pleasure on my end as well. And uh we'll talk soon. And thank you everyone for listening. Uh, if you have any questions that you'd like uh me to answer, uh you can send that to show at drivesport.co. And if I don't know the answer, I'll find an answer to it. And uh also tell me uh who you want to hear from and send your guest suggestions. Uh you can send all those to show at drivesport.co. Thanks for listening. Eyes up, stay fluid.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

You've been listening to Drive Sports, the amateur track driver podcast, hosted by DMC and produced by Drive Sports LLC. Research and assistant production by Victoria Vedez. Music is by Illigant via premium beat licensing. If you have a question, guest suggestion, or a track DMC should visit, please send it to show at drivesport.co. Please subscribe to DriveSport on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to get your podcasts. And follow us on social media at DriveSport Co. We'll see you in the next episode.