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Tuck claimed 3rd place in the 2015 BRSCC Mazda MX-5
Championship after a tense championship showdown at Donington.
GTs. He says: “When you start off
racing, you don’t really think of
coaching. Like most kids, you aim
for F1 but then coaching becomes
a way to pay the bills. I love racing
but I love coaching too and I get
really attached to my clients. When
they’re racing and I am not there I
will be watching the live timings
to see how they are doing.”
Clucas coaches clients in a
number of ways; by sitting along-
side them while out on track and
also by setting up data logging for
them, monitoring it from the pits
then going through it all after a
session on track. The right mental-
ity and drive is so important when
going into a coaching session, as
Clucas explains: “Some people
you sit with and you know they’re
good, so it’s just about helping
them find small margins. Then
there are other people who don’t
start off as good but have the right
mentality and talent but have a
different way of approaching it.”
While in-car coaching can be
beneficial for so many drivers,
once they get to a certain level it’s
important that the instructor sits
out. Clucas says: “When I coach
the top guys, we are only looking
for tenths so if someone is losing a
small amount of time on a corner,
it’s hard to notice from the pas-
senger seat. Plus, a passenger is
added weight.
“When you’re looking for small
margins, you need a data logger to
help with the analysis. It’s also im-
portant for the customer to sit in a
calm environment and see what’s
happening.”
Clucas has been in the industry
for 20 years and has this advice
for drivers: “A lot of club racers
go into corners a bit slow or turn
in too early and the problem with
that is there’s a temptation to
pick up the power too soon. In a
low powered car you can get a bit
of understeer and if you haven’t
looked far enough ahead, you’ll
need to lift. So my advice is to go
into the corner faster, wait longer
and get onto the power when the
car is ready.”
While he’ll continue to instruct,
Clucas isn’t sure what’s next for
his own racing career, but informs
us he is open to offers.
At first, I didn’t even take the
racing line, so we paid someone
to teach me by standing on the
corners and putting his foot where
he wanted me to be because I
was wasting so much track.