Wayne Taylor's advice for managing a winning race team

Image by Brian Cleary
share
tweet
emailBy www.epartrade.com | 10 hours ago

Both as a driver and team owner, Wayne Taylor is a winner. The sportscar-racing champion started Wayne Taylor Racing in 2007 with his teammate Max Angelelli. As a driver, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Rolex 24 At Daytona (twice), the 12 Hours of Sebring, and the inaugural Petit Le Mans in 1998. Today, Taylor’s team entries have finished in the top-three in the Rolex Series and subsequent IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship standings every year but one.

In short, he’s the perfect person to seek out to get the best advice on managing a winning race team.

Sharing his insights about establishing a superior record in winning big races and championships, Taylor asserts “I think the big thing is the passion, from my standpoint. I saw Jeff Gordon on TV saying he saw the passion in my eyes about winning.

“Of course we also surrounded ourselves with really good people. Without them nothing could happen, they’re like family. I live in Orlando, my race shop is in Indy, and I trust them with anything, year in and year out.”

Another aspect of Taylor’s winning formula: “I get the right drivers, that’s a big part of winning. But even if you have the drivers, the team, the passion, someone still has to pay for it, and we have a great relationship with GM and the Cadillac brand. Konica Minolta have been with me forever, and Ricky Taylor and Mike Mathe have been tremendous partners for nine or 10 years. I think you need all those pieces to be successful.”

And finally, Taylor notes “Drivers are very important in the whole scheme of things. I’ve been fortunate both my kids turned out to be star drivers. We won everything in 2017 with them.”

Taylor describes his company’s culture as a “family-type environment. Everyone knows what their responsibilities are, and they’re all accountable for their jobs, including me. We have the same motivation, the same passion. That consistency with your work force is important.”

Looking specifically on the tech side, he notes that developing a tech team starts with supporting its members from the start. “We look for young people. Our chief engineer, Brian Pillar was just a junior engineer when the senior guy left. I put him in the role, and I would put him against any engineer. Every Friday after work, he drives home and he calls me on the way, gives me a heads-up on what’s going on, what he’s planning for the weekend.”

Taylor feels it’s important to treat everyone on his team well. “We are just a group of guys who go racing. We are all at the same level as far as I’m concerned, the assistants, the marketing people, the team manager, our racers – all the same. You engage with everyone.”
Taylor’s approach helped deliver more success for his team at this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona. Image by Cantrell/LAT

Time is important in racing, and Taylor’s use of it never stops. “I don’t have a life, let me tell you,” he laughs. “This telephone is glued to me seven days a week. You have to do that if you want to succeed. You have to work at it all the time, motivate the team, you have to motivate everybody to make things happen for partners like Konica Minolta: get media coverage, branding, social media coverage. We do so much as a team that’s not just about racing.” He notes “I use the racing team as a vehicle to do business. I’m lucky, because I have a team I trust, so I can focus on business.”

Because of his need to focus on business, much team work is based on delegating. “I have to take care of raising money all the time. You don’t keep the kinds of partners we have without delivering. We have never gone a year without winning a race. We have won every single year we’ve been in business,” he says proudly.

Currently, Taylor is already planning-ahead for 2022, when new changes are coming down the line – a new amalgamated race car engine among them. And, he’s always strategizing to gain the small advantages necessary to be truly good at running a race team. “It’s so competitive – you have tenths of a second between the top 10 cars. We’re working on ways to go further in the engineering department; it’s about developing new technology, making the pit stops faster to gain a tenth of a second, working with drivers on in-and-outs, laps, and track positions,” he explains.

The logistics of moving a team can be as daunting and expensive as racing itself, Taylor notes. “It’s extremely stressful with so much equipment, so many people flying around. You have up to five different trucks with millions of dollars-worth of stuff in them. We always choose the best mechanics, engineer, best drivers for the trucks, and then we have two people who work on the logistics all the time. For example, going to Daytona, we will run one car there, and we need 50 people to run it for two days before and the 24 hours of the race. We need hotels, rental cars, golf carts at the track, meals. It’s like moving house each time.”

Taylor believes 85% of a race team owner’s time should be devoted to sponsors and sponsorship money, which are the lifeblood of a team. “The other 15% goes to discussing things with your engineer and team manager, discussing race strategies, how we’re going to run the race. I like to keep my fingers on everything, and some people call me a control freak,” he attests.

Building a successful sponsorship program is all about the relationships, he says, adding that he prefers the word partner to sponsor. “Every company out there is a potential partner. We actually deliver money back to them tenfold over what they give to us.” He stresses the importance of taking those potential partners to the track to experience a race. “We had to bring in the Japanese senior executive for Konica Minolta, and then we signed a deal within two weeks – he’d never been to a race before.”

All the work aside, Taylor shares that he’s living his dream. “I’ve been in racing since I was 15, and now I’m 63. I drove up to 2006, started the team in 2007, and I was really fortunate to go from driving to team ownership, it doesn’t happen to a lot of drivers.”

 

PFANNER: Farewelling the man who changed my life, and RACER

151 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Paul Pfanner | 3 hours ago

His eyes flashed with passion and warmth as we talked about family, friends and racing. This was one of many special moments I’d enjoyed with a man whom I’d long admired and looked to for advice and inspiration during my five decades of immersion in the world of racing. I often came away from these magical encounters with Rod Campbell filled with newfound confidence and a renewed resolve to push ahead regardless of the challenges. But this encounter with Rod was different than anything previous. He was saying goodbye.

Two days earlier, my battered iPhone lit up as I walked into my home on a Friday evening at the end of a disorienting week at RACER HQ. The world and auto racing was grinding to a halt as a result of the spreading COVID-19 pandemic. At a moment I should have been in St. Petersburg for the NTT IndyCar Series season-opener, I was instead standing in my kitchen as Townsend Bell was calling out of the blue.

After some initial banter about the chaotic events of the past week, we paused as I sensed that Townsend’s tone was oddly somber. He then revealed the reason for the call. Townsend is married to Rod Campbell’s daughter, Heather and in a halting voice he shared that his father-in-law was in hospice. Townsend knew how much Rod and I respected each other, and he suggested that I reach out soon to the Silver Fox to hopefully share a moment together before it was no longer possible.

Related

INSIGHT: Rod Campbell – mover, shaker, maverick

Remembering motorsport marketing pioneer Rod Campbell

This was a gut punch, because I was in awe of Rod whenever I was fortunate enough to enjoy a moment with him. Positive energy flowed effortlessly from this man who was the ultimate insider. From Formula 1 to IndyCar to NASCAR to IMSA to SCCA and NHRA, Rod and his PR and marketing firm, Campbell and Company served the Ford Motor Company’s dynamic global performance and racing initiatives. From humble beginnings in Canada, Rod used his winning personality, quick mind and boundless enthusiasm to become a key behind-the-scenes influencer and power broker whose presence was felt during the glory days of the SCCA Can-Am and F5000 in the 1960s and 1970s before he moved into the intoxicating world of Formula 1 that he loved most of all.

Over six decades, Rod influenced the global racing and the automotive worlds through his optimistic vision, intuitive creativity and supernatural gifts of hypnotic persuasion and relationship fire-walking. Rod also had an uncanny eye for spotting talent, and a divine touch in mentoring those lucky enough to be in his orbit.
Campbell’s ties to racing spanned decades. Here, he’s pictured in announcer mode in 1964. Image courtesy of Pete Lyons

It took me nearly 36 hours to find the courage to send a text to Rod asking if he felt up for a call. On a Sunday that should have been the joyous first race day of the 2020 Formula 1 and IndyCar seasons, I was now unexpectedly at a family dinner trying to find comfort with those dearest to me ahead of the gathering storm of tragedy and social disruption that would soon engulf our world.

As I stood by the warmth of my brother-in-law’s new BBQ, my iPhone buzzed to life with a FaceTime call from Rod. My instinctive excitement quickly gave way to a rush of raw emotion as I pushed the button to see Rod’s familiar face and trademark round eyeglasses. Rod then began to say goodbye in a way only he could. He dryly and matter-of-factly laid out his untreatable medical issues and his looming fate with a shrug and a dose of dark humor.

Rod’s love for his beautiful family and appreciation for his incredible and improbable life dominated the conversation, but he also wanted me to know that he was proud of me and of our RACER team. He complimented our RACER editors and correspondents for their tireless coverage of the traumatic events of the past week, and joked that in light of the madness, it might actually be a good time for him to check out. I fought to hold it together as I told him how much he had meant to me. In our final moments of conversation I told Rod that this was the first time he’d ever disappointed me, saying, “I thought you were immortal”. Rod flashed his wry smile and said, “I share your disappointment, Paul”.

There was no hiding my emotions after our call, and I soon followed up with a text to Rod letting him know how grateful I was for his friendship. Many days later, and not long before he passed, I received a final text from him that simply said “thank you”.

My memories of Rod span five decades, and his adventures and accomplishments across the full spectrum of motorsports are legend in the automotive and PR industries. I will leave the telling of some of these amazing tales to Rod’s long-time colleague and good friend Kevin Kennedy, who carries forward his legacy at the renamed Campbell Marketing & Communications under new ownership that includes him. This is how it should be, because in all my years of knowing Rod, he never sought the credit but instead pointed to his colleagues as the reason for his many successes. He repeatedly reminded me that great people make great companies, and when I look at those who worked with Rod along the way, I see so many remarkable people who grew to lead and shape our sport and the automotive business for the better.

But I will share one story about Rod and his profound influence on my life. In the spring of 1998 RACER Communications, (as we were then known) was growing in every area. RACER magazine’s circulation rivaled that of Autosport magazine in the UK, and RACER.com was an early player in the digital race. Our Pfanner Communications Special Projects team was working with Honda, Toyota, GM, Porsche, Penske Motorsports, CART, Skip Barber and also the SCCA via our SportsCar magazine publishing contract. Rod saw that we had momentum, so one night over dinner and a very nice bottle of wine in Long Beach we talked about what was next in both of our worlds. From this conversation I sensed that Rod might be thinking about the sale of his company when he floated the idea that I should consider this in the coming year given our growth trajectory.
A life-long F1 fan, Campbell had opportunities to mix business with pleasure with programs like Stewart F1, which raced with Ford engines. Image by Rainer Schlegelmilch/Motorsport Images

It soon came to pass that John Chambers, the global sales director for Autosport’s parent company, the UK-based Haymarket Publishing, visited Rod in his Dearborn office. Not long after that meeting, Tony Schulp, Haymarket’s Managing Director, sent me a fax (with my name delightfully misspelled) asking if I would be interested in exploring the sale of all or part of our company to Haymarket. It didn’t take long for me to figure out who was behind this.

Out of pride, I resisted Haymarket’s approaches in various ways for nearly 30 months. But I had several guardian angels, including Rod, who tried to help me understand my limited options given the growing carnage caused by the bitter CART/IRL split and the uncertainty and opportunity present in the disruptive dot.com 1.0 media revolution. During this period Rod sold Campbell & Company in 1999, but he somehow still found time to use his velvet hammer multiple times on my thick skull to help me to see the light. With the blessing of my partners led by Rob Dyson, we finally moved ahead and in early January 2001, RACER Communications became part of Haymarket Publishing.

In hindsight, Rod was right and this was the best choice given all that would soon follow. During this turbulent era I soon came to realize that my new English and Scottish colleagues from Autosport were some of the best people I’d ever worked with, and I never forgot that it was all thanks to Rod, the master matchmaker. With his encouragement, I stayed on with Haymarket as the President of RACER Communications for nearly five years before leaving in December 2005 to relaunch Pfanner Communications as a creative services and strategic consultancy with several key members of our team, including RACER’s founding publisher Bill Sparks. The recession soon followed, and while our small business was nearly swept away, Haymarket took the brunt of large losses generated by RACER Communications during this perilous time, keeping the company alive in the heart of the Carpocalypse.

 

Part 2 Pfanner:

Rod and I stayed in touch through the ups and downs of both our worlds, and he provided encouragement during some of my darkest days. We hung in there and miraculously fate led me to an invitation by none other than former Haymarket MD Tony Schulp to a dinner in Las Vegas on Oct. 15, 2011 on the eve of the tragic IndyCar finale where I met the new CEO of Haymarket USA. From there, an improbable chain of events led to Bill and myself reacquiring this company in March 2012 in partnership with Rob and Chris Dyson. Thankfully several of those talented Autosport alumni whom I met through Rod’s invisible hand now work with us today in the RACER 3.0 era, including our brilliant Editor-In-Chief, Laurence Foster, and John Chambers who, ironically, is Racer Media & Marketing’s global sales director.
Campbell maintained a regular presence in the RACER orbit. He’s pictured here talking with then-IndyCar marketing chief C.J. O’Donnell at RACER’s annual Long Beach industry party in 2015.


Rod was pleased and proud of how this turned out, and I am certain that you would not be reading these words today on RACER.com without Rod’s divine intervention, or the moments his kind and optimistic spirit lifted my spirits when I needed it most. For this I am eternally grateful, because he truly changed my life for the better and saved our company in the process. However, while I once thought I was somehow special or unique in Rod’s world, I’ve since come to realize that this was simply how Rod embraced the alchemy of friendships and the opportunities that most of us could not see to guide us to wildly improbable but positive outcomes.

One week after his passing, I am sure that Rod would not want us to mourn him after such a long, beautiful and happy life. Instead, I believe he would want us be thankful for the good things and great people in our own lives — especially those who share their incorrigible optimism, infectious passion and uncommon courage regardless of the odds stacked against them. Like Rod, these are the ones who will lead us to the future we desire. In times like those we are experiencing today, we need people like Rod Campbell now more than ever.

So goodbye, and thank you my wonderful friend. You were the most optimistic man I’ve ever met. May peace and comfort surround your beloved Sandra, Heather and Alison along with all of your family and many friends around the world.

Oh, and thank you T.B.

 

Bryan Herta's tips on running a successful race team

Image by Motorsport Images
262 shares
share
tweet
emailBy www.epartrade.com | 13 hours ago

Bryan Herta, owner of Bryan Herta Autosport, based in Brownsburg, Indiana, knows how to win races, both as a driver and a team owner.

With two wins in the CART Series and two in the IRL series as a driver; Herta has won the Indy 500 twice as an owner. In 2018, his team won the championship in the Pirelli World Challenge TCR class. Last year, Bryan Herta Autosport won the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Team Championship, with drivers Mark Wilkins and Michael Lewis in the Hyundai Veloster TCR Race Car.

Herta co-founded BHA in 2009, partnering with Andretti Autosport in 2016; last year BHA announced a new partnership with Hyundai.

In short, BHA has established quite a success record. Asked his winning secret, Herta says, “Work with great people. It sounds cliche, but it’s true. If there is a secret, it’s the people. We have great drivers, great crew, great engineers – all their individual contributions as a whole make these great victories happen.”

He describes the culture at BHA as, “Stay hungry. Never allow yourself to coast, or feel that you’re good enough. I always want to feel like we are chasing someone, even if we’re not. I was always competitive as a kid, and it’s what drew me to racing in the first place. I am less of a car guy, believe it or not: it’s the competition that I really enjoy.

“My current partner Michael Andretti personifies that need to be hungry for success. I continue to be amazed at how much energy and focus he brings that drives the team forward. I try to emulate that quality in him.”

Herta appears to have a magic touch when it comes to drivers.

“I like to say I can have one conversation with a driver and develop a sense o if this is someone who can be successful or not,” he says. “Over the years, I’ve honed that sense.”

He enjoys sharing the knowledge of things he’d wished he’d known as a driver, understanding racing strategy from the other side of the pit wall. “When you’re driving, it’s a limited perspective,” he says. “On the team side, I try to share some of that insight with our drivers now.”

When developing his technical team, the first thing Herta looks for is attitude.

“We try to hire positive people with a positive attitude, because it’s a hard job; we are on the road a lot, sometimes working late at night, back at the track early in the morning,” he says. “If you don’t have a positive attitude to start with, it’s hard to maintain positivity. You have to really love it. This isn’t just a job you do; you have to be passionate about it.”

And to keep passionate tech members on his team, Herta says it’s important to listen to them, be good to them, and make sure they have “ownership in the team’s success. Recognize their contribution toward that, make sure when you win a race or a championship that everyone knows their own contribution.”

When it comes to planning, Herta notes, “Time is our most precious resource, not just on the stop watch, but in looking ahead. It can be hard to have a three or five-year plan when you have one- or two-year contracts. You can only truly plan for what you know. But we try to plan and have longer-term goals, stay flexible, and react to changes. It’s the same way in race driving and strategy, you try to take all the information you have, and you have to react to those yellow flags in life, make those decisions in the moment, because they can be the most important ones.”

To be good at running a race team, he stresses it all comes back to people.

“Identify areas for improvement, areas of weakness; empower them to come up with solutions to address those,” he says. “I wouldn’t want to make it seem like I am doing everything. If I do anything right, it’s trying to put good people in the right positions and let them do what they are great at.”

Herta maintains race-ready consistency with his team through reciprocated loyalty and strong communication.

“We communicate to every member of the team, in the office, management, to part-time helpers for race weekend, full-time crew chief, or engineering staff,” he says. “You communicate the expectations, what you’re trying to achieve. The more people know about what we are trying to do, the easier it is for them to contribute. Everyone wants to feel like they know what’s going on, and what they are working towards.”

Just the logistics of moving a team can be daunting and expensive. Herta offers this advice.

“It’s the simple things that are important, making sure the crew is fed; when we look at hotels and travel arrangements, we try to look at places that are clean, nice, have restaurants nearby,” he says. “You want to take care of the guys, because it’s the little things that get under your skin as the season wears on. We try to minimize those kinds of irritations.”

Asked how to build a successful sponsorship program and the amount of time a race team owner should devote to sponsors and sponsorship money, he admits, “There’s never enough time.

“It’s a never-ending process, you can’t shut that down. You have to execute and operate as a team, have a plan in place, and communicate with all the staff. But even if you do all those things, you still need great partners as the building blocks for any success in motorsports. I spend 70 percent of my time on those endeavors. That’s a lot, and it’s probably my least favorite part, but it’s also the most important part. To have good people, you need give them the tools to do what they are good at, which requires great sponsors, great partners to give them the tools. That’s where I really see my role: giving them those tools to be successful.”

Summing up, Herta recalls, “One of the IndyCar team owners once described running a team as taking everything you’ve got, plus a little bit more. I’ve found that to be true. If you are really passionate about it, and you love it, it’s one of the most rewarding things you could possibly do. I feel very fortunate to wake up every morning and do the thing that I most want to do.”

 

What Was Senna’s Bizarre F1 Technique About?

817,034 views
•Mar 19, 2020

19K 511 Share
Save


Driver61
138K subscribersAyrton Senna had a really unusual throttle technique that simply doesn't make much sense. What is the technique, why did you do it and would it work in today's modern F1? You may have read online that Senna had this really unusual technique where he would stamp on and off the throttle as he was exiting a corner. In this video, we take a look at footage from Senna where you can clearly hear this blipping of the accelerator as is driving through the corner in his McLaren F1 car.

 

How Schumacher’s Driving Style Won 7 F1 Championships

322,551 views
•Apr 1, 2020

13K 242 Share
Save


Driver61
138K subscribersSeven world championships and 91 wins over 19 years in Formula One. Michael Schumacher is still one of F1’s most successful drivers, but how did he manage to be so fast over so many seasons?
------------------------------
What was it in particular about his driving style that allowed him to dominate Formula One and how did it compare to other drivers such as Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton? Michael Schumacher was in Formula One for a very long time. Therefore it would be unfair to say that his

driving style remained the same. Throughout the whole period, even in between races, the cars are constantly being upgraded each weekend. That's not to mention that Schumacher also changed between cars each season and also teams like Benetton, Ferrari and Mercedes. On top of that Formula One tends to have big regulation changes every three or so years. The very best drivers won't have a static technique.

There's no one size fits all driving style and they really need to adapt to the changing grip, the changing balance of each individual car, tyre and circuit. This adaptation of driving style is a skill in itself. It's actually a lot easier to see differences in driving style from Schumacher's era of the

90s and 2000s than it is today. F1 cars back then were a lot less refined than they are nowadays.

 

How to Heel and Toe Like Senna: Rev-Matching Tutorial

319,205 views
•Jan 12, 2016

5.1K 213 Share
Save


Driver61
138K subscribersHow to heel and toe? Driver 61's professional racer, Scott Mansell, explains in this tutorial what the heel and toe technique is all about and how to rev match properly in your road, track day or race car. Here's what we're going to cover: - What is heel and toe -

Why we would want to rev match and downshift this way - A step by step guide about how to heel and toe, including the order of your inputs and how to position your feet - The best way to practice heel and toe, so you’re well prepared before you try it on the circuit Heel-toe is a technique

whereby you match your car’s engine speed or revs to your car’s wheel speed to create a smooth downshift. If you don’t match the engine’s rev to the wheel speed you risk locking up the driven axle and destabilising the car. You do this by using your right foot across both the brake and

accelerator pedals; toe on the brake and heel (or the side of your foot) on the accelerator pedal.

 

Racing Seats: How to Pick Out the Best Seats for your Car

2,550,691 views
•Mar 26, 2017

43K 1K Share
Save


ChrisFix

6.26M subscribersAftermarket Racing Seats. Learn how to properly chose what aftermarket racing seat is good for you. I go over which seat material is right for you (aluminum vs composite), how to measure yourself so you know you will properly fit in the seat, how to measure your car so you know the seat will fit in the car, and what hardware you need to get to mount the seat!

Where I got my seats (with prices): .gl%2F6XOiIT&redir_token=GyVqRNvWFBS-GASfnNaocMApTYN8MTU4NzUzMzQ1MkAxNTg3NDQ3MDUy&event=video_description&v=ugWuTk-A5Fw They said you guys can call them with any ?s (973) 773-3177 Impact Gun I used to remove the seats: .to%2F2HgwRwL&redir_token=GyVqRNvWFBS-GASfnNaocMApTYN8MTU4NzUzMzQ1MkAxNTg3NDQ3MDUy&event=video_description&v=ugWuTk-A5Fw Mic I use: .to%2F2nrcUZ2&redir_token=GyVqRNvWFBS-GASfnNaocMApTYN8MTU4NzUzMzQ1MkAxNTg3NDQ3MDUy&event=video_description&v=ugWuTk-A5Fw
Thank you Stable Energies for not only allowing me to film at your store but for helping me make sure I cover the most commonly asked questions about racing seats!

 

How to Install Racing Seats

3,794,073 views
•May 10, 2017

58K 1.5K Share
Save


ChrisFix

6.26M subscribersLearn how to install aftermarket seats in your car. In this video I install bucket racing seats in my car for more side support, safety, and comfort on the track and on the road. I cover everything you will encounter when installing racing seats from using floor mounting

brackets and side mount brackets, how to route the seatbelt (and future harnesses), and more! Tools/Products I Used Racing Seats: .gl%2FNFK3zP&event=video_description&v=sfr51IPk3X4 Cobalt Drill Bits: .to%2F2pkHKqt&event=video_description&v=sfr51IPk3X4 Electric Drill: .to%2F2q3xFOa&event=video_description&v=sfr51IPk3X4 Metal Punch: .to%2F2q3Akah&event=video_description&v=sfr51IPk3X4 Paint Marker: .to%2F2qsmJuv&event=video_description&v=sfr51IPk3X4 Takata Racing Harnesses: .to%2F2qTxQw0&event=video_description&v=sfr51IPk3X4

 

SAFEisFAST: The mental edge

Barry Cantrell/Motorsport Images
45 shares
share
tweet
emailBy RACER Staff | 8 hours ago

Mental Preparation - The Mental Edge

20,270 views
•May 22, 2014

270 2 Share
Save

SAFEisFAST
29.4K subscribersAs all of you probably know, racing is very much a mental sport. And it's that special ability to focus and concentrate when the pressure's really on, that separates the champions from all the rest. We have an array of top drivers with experience in Formula One, IndyCar and the World Endurance Championship, including five top starters in the 2014 Indy-500 - Simon Pagenaud, Marco Andretti, Juan Pablo Montoya, Sebastian Bourdais and Ryan Hunter-Reay - explaining just what gives them that Mental Edge. .com&redir_token=ewf9A1clBiYVxvyVYwQ0Vp8kg-l8MTU4NzY4MDQ1NUAxNTg3NTk0MDU1&v=prPX9HAwI7E&event=video_description is a free Online Driver Development program for aspiring drivers providing video tutorials as well as direct advice from today's top racers and industry experts.

The latest how-to video in the Race Ready series from SAFEisFAST — the online resource for young racers — focuses on strengthening your mental game.

Mental mistakes lose races and having that special ability to focus and concentrate when the pressure’s really on, is what wins them. In the video below, top drivers from IndyCar and the World Endurance Championship — including Simon Pagenaud, Marco Andretti, Juan Pablo Montoya, Sebastian Bourdais and Ryan Hunter-Reay – explain what gives them that mental edge.