Late to Grid - Grassroots Racing

Data-Driven Racing: Insights from Chris Ludwig of LMS EFI

• Bill Snow • Season 5 • Episode 4

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Bill Snow talks with Chris Ludwig of LMS EFI about harnessing data to improve racing performance. Chris shares practical tips on using data effectively at various skill levels, from basic lap time analysis to in-depth brake and throttle assessments. Learn how data can help you become a faster, more consistent driver. Plus, Chris shares a funny anecdote about the importance of pre-race bathroom breaks!

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Hey, it's Bill with the Late The Grid podcast. I am back in the Atomic Auto Studio to bring you another episode of Inspiring Information. In this time, insightful information about data. Chris Ludwig with Lmms EFI is back in studio to share his insights and how you can use data to become a better and faster driver. Also, he shares his ideas and preparation that lead to you not being late to grid. Let's throw the green flag on this episode. Chris, it's great to have you back on the podcast. How are you doing today? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. Sure. I want to dive deeply into data. But before we do, there's a couple things I want to talk about. So the first is, can you share with the listeners why it's important to go to the bathroom before you get in the car for your stint? I went to the bathroom. I, yeah. I don't, I don't yeah, I did not see that coming. I guess I should have. So thanks for bringing that up. Don't over hydrate. I guess. And maybe, be selective about the fluids that you do consume. Coffee's probably not, you know, putting a bunch of caffeine in your body that's a diuretic. Probably not the best thing you want to do before you get getting in a car or for what's supposed to be a two hour stint. So probably not, I forget was at Mid-Ohio or Pitt race. It was Mid-Ohio. Mid-Ohio. All right, folks, so here's what I'm talking about. So Chris was racing with us, the radio racing team. He had the first stint out. Of course we have a great coffee sponsor, Heritage Coffee. So of course we all want to drink as much of that stuff as we can. While we're at the track. And Chris radios in, I don't know where the 20 minutes of five minutes. Yeah, hey, I got to come in and we pushed you out there at about 45 minutes and, you came in, but it's it's a good laugh. And it's something that as drivers, we always have to. You get so much. You're balancing you're balancing your food, your your hydration levels, your energy levels, your mental focus. At some point, something has to gear. But we still had a great showing that day. And you did end up back in the car, I think, to bring home the checkered for us. Yeah, yeah, sure did. You know, I've always thought it was funny. Endurance drivers talk about it a lot, you know, being in the seat. I've heard some say that they've tried and I can't, and I hurt so bad, and my kidneys just were killing me. And we, we got a caution. And, you know, when you're under green and our rolling around, you're kind of concentrating on driving it. Really? It wasn't as bad. But as soon as caution comes out and you're just, you know, motor ING around under caution, and then it's front of mind and it hurt so bad. And I finally made up my mind, I, I'm going to relieve myself because I hurt so badly and I couldn't. So later that day, I called my buddy win that I also drive for. And I said, well, you know, I learned one good thing for you this weekend and let you know if that ever comes up and, you don't ever have to worry about me doing that. So, yeah, it was, Yeah, a lesson learned, hopefully. Yeah. No. That's great. I thought we'd just start off with a little chuckle. Yeah. So you and I were both at PRI this past year. Great show. And I asked you what the coolest thing you had seen was a new set of pressure sensor that's embedded into a banjo bolt. Why? Why would that get somebody excited? It was just really cool and really small. It was like, I didn't didn't spend much time, looking at all that stuff, and I just noticed it passing, and, so it was like a maybe an eight millimeter thread bolt. So if you can imagine that something that small banjo bolt and then having that sensor embedded into the bolt and if you ever want to do, brake pressure, for instance, or any kind of fluid pressure that uses a banjo that has a banjo bolt, integrated into the system would be a simple matter of instead of having a plumb in and then a bunch of fittings together to pull them in a sensor, just take your banjo bolt out and take this both it has the sensor embedded in it and, you know, run it down and you've got you've got data now. So yeah, it was just something I had never thought of. I never would have thought of. And the things you see the, the innovation that you see is just really remarkable. Yeah. That's cool. On something like that, let's just use brake pressure like you mentioned. Would you have sensors at all four corners or just measure one on the front, one a rear? Yeah. Usually I'll have one one front, one rear. Because, you know, usually for, for the driver, you really only need one, so one of the front or rear or whatever, because you're looking more for the driver, you're looking more at, what they're doing with the brake pedal and how they're applying the brakes and releasing the brakes. So you can get that with just one sensor. For chassis development, you're probably going to want front and rear, so you can look at brake bias and know what's going on there. So great in motorsports, in racing we are always tweaking. We're always looking for improvements. We're always looking to take a step forward in growth. And last season you mentioned to me that one of your big moments was figuring out sorting out the fuel consumption rate of one of the radio racing cars. How did that come about? How did you finally get that sorted? I can remember we were just dumping fuel into the car and put it back out in the garages at Mid-Ohio, but, what what led to that moment? I don't know if it was, it was just trial and error and finally getting, the, the time, the testing time, to validate what I was trying to do. So to, to back up the ECU master system that we're using, that had been using in one car, and then we're working on fitting them to your other cars. Has a what, what they call a virtual fuel tank, algorithm, that's built into their data system. And basically it it works a lot like what an OE, application does when you're in your car and it's driving down the road and it's telling you what your instant fuel mileage is and whatever age and you have, you know, it'll tell you, you have 20 miles left until or whatever. So it works a lot the same way where it's looking at, injector pulse width and what the ECU is commanding, fuel consumption for the car. What, what it's putting into the what it's putting into the engine. And so it's constantly updating that information. Now the, the rub to it is that you have to know the exact calibration of the injectors so that when these uses we're going to policy director for 1.5 milliseconds. It knows exactly what that mass of fuel is that it's actually putting in. So that was the first part. Was there there's kind of a fudge factor there because you can have injector data that is maybe good or not so good. And when I set up that car, I didn't have real good information. You look up the information and it says, well, it's a 40 pound injector for 40 cc per minute or whatever, gets you in the ballpark. And so then there was a fudge factor in the software to get you from that, that in the ballpark range to precise number that we need, that we want. And then the other part of that was the, you guys have, radium, fuel cells, that are a 14 gallon cell. Again, that's the it's kind of like the injector and it says it's 14 gallons. Turns out we've got a surge tank. We got a couple pumps, foam, a lot of stuff in that tank. So when we were putting fuel in and pumping it back out, we were measuring exactly what the volume of that tank is. And turns out it's closer to 12.5. Once you put all that stuff inside of it. And once we figured that out, then we end up with pretty accurate information now that we can display on the dash that we have, you know, this many and the other part of the ECU Master System is that it, knows the track, your, the length of the lap and, it'll tell you you have two laps of your left, one lap of fuel. It'll tell you if you want gallons or liters. How much soon. How much is left? And then a pit. What I was working on was a spreadsheet that I'd like to, it needs some work, but, kind of the idea that we're getting, I forget what the number was, like 12.5 ish miles per gallon. Under green flag conditions. And then we're getting, you know, whatever it is under code 35. So let's take those numbers. Along with what fuel we have left in the tank and spit out a projected time number. So on, on an eight hour race, ideally, you want to go two hours, two hours versus two hours and limit yourself to three pit stops. And with this time projection, can we make it our. You know, if it's if the time projection says we're not going to make it, then do we take advantage of, code 35? You know, maybe, well, short of what we would likely want to pit and take advantage of that, knowing we're going to have to make another stop anyway. So lots of things going on, and I think we're finally at Mid-Ohio. I was really happy that we finally got zeroed in on on that fudge factor. And now we're getting really accurate information. And then you guys go and want to build some new engines and new injectors, and it's kind of going to we're going to have to start over again. But at least now we have a real good idea of what the process is. And hopefully we can shortcut that and get in that ballpark a lot more quickly. Yeah. Just so we figure something out before we change. Yeah. I want to make sure that I want to make sure the Champ Car officials heard that we measured about 12.5 gallon capacity in that fuel cell. Okay. So any Champ Car officials that make sure you heard that. Well, and that's something that got me thinking too, was, how are they measuring or, you know, are they measuring that? Or if you showed up with, with a cell that had a part number on it that said, it's a 17 gallon cell, but once you get all the stuff inside of it, it really has 15 gallons, which I think is their limit. You know, the are they talking about the part number or are they going to pump the cell and actually see exactly what it's what's holding? So that's, something for everybody out there that, you know, maybe can still push that envelope. I believe if I believe, if there's a question, it gets filled and pumped, you know, and that's the way it probably should be, you know? Yeah, for sure. If you're involved in putting things together, designing systems that help engines run. You have a lot of clients that bring you projects, but a lot of times you don't get to see those projects after they leave your shop in. In the relationship with Raider Racing, not only do you get to put everything together and engineer it, make it look beautiful and functional, but spending time with us trackside, you're able to see your work perform and see how it helps us. Maybe potential issues we might run across that aren't necessarily related to your work, but how we have everything configured. How is that helped you on the business side of what you do at LMS? See, if I, I don't know, I think, I've been doing it long enough. I'm pretty confident in what I do. It's good to see things in action and I've talked about with you before, that a lot of people probably don't know what they don't know, and they buy these things, and I can install them or sell them a product. And I, I enjoy when people use the things they buy to the, to the extent of what it can do, and seeing that with you guys and being able to really delve into the the deeper aspects of the products and make them function and give you the information that they, that they can. I've really enjoyed that. Because I know a lot of what I sell, especially if I'm just selling retail and somebody is doing the install themselves and, and, you know, that they're not using things to the extent of what their, what the potential is. And, so, so doing doing that with you guys, as has been, you know, just really a lot of fun and, and, educational for me because I'm really, getting to push the envelope of what, what the, products will do. Yeah. Yeah. And you did a, you so if the listeners don't know, you put together a beautiful bill that Mark seven wired all the sensors, all the data's, and you and I had a conversation at the beginning of that, part of the project where I had an old haltech platinum ECU. Old, right? I mean, that's that's 15 at least. Yeah, yeah. And the conversation I had with you is what ECU do I need to buy for this? And you said you have what you need. All your engine needs is fuel and spark coming out of that thing. And I think that's important to bring up because folks that want to do a build, whether that's a street build, a conversion, a race car, you have to talk to people like you about what it is, how it's going to be used, what the budget is. You could have easily said, hey, you need to buy this expensive ECU. And I would have said, okay, but the way that you understood what I wanted to do, that mattered. So the reason I bring that up is how important is for somebody to do the research with somebody like you at LMC as they're going down this path of selecting things. But I think it's really important. And. Where do you get your information and, and how you process it? There's so much noise now. With, you know, so many people go to Facebook and there's, there's great information out there, but there's also a lot of noise. And if you talk to someone, especially engine management, it's real important to talk to someone that knows your platform. So in your case, Monster Rotary, I've done a ton of them over the years. I can tell you what you need and what you don't need. And in your case, you know something? You really don't need anything else. You know, if you if you had a turbo set up, you know, running, like a DCT transmission or even a, sequential, dog box, we'd probably want something newer. But in your case, we didn't. So pick up the phone and make a call. I, I under the point, you know, we don't do a lot of telephone calls in general anymore, and I hate to get on the phone and talk to people. But call me and we'll get on the phone. And, that's not to say I hate to talk to people. I. I just have grown. We've all gone down the path of we send emails and we get on Facebook and we do messenger and stuff like that. This is a, a phone conversation, kind of a discussion where you, you need to talk through this is what this is what my calls are. And, this is what I'm running. This is what I'm going to be doing. This is how I'm going to use it, and, and have those conversations and, either on the phone or in person, emails work, but, you know, it's we we don't have those conversations anymore. I remember years ago, that's that's the only way you could communicate. You know, you call the shop and you talk about things and and, we we just don't do that anymore. And, I'd really recommend picking up the phone, making those, making those calls and, and a in a lot of ways, you need to learn the thing you. Have someone that knows the things that you don't know and talk through that. Yep. That's, that's my advice. And and talk to several people, you know, you you can call me. I'll, I'll tell you something. Call somebody else. They might tell you something different. Maybe they're right, you know, you don't know until you have those conversations. Yeah, well, let's jump into the the focus and the meat of this episode. And that's data. And data has so many opportunities for someone in their motorsports journey, whether they're just starting out or whether they're growing through the ranks of Earl SRO, you know, going up in the IMSa data can provide so much information to help us be better. But let's baseline what data is. So when you're asked the question of data and what does it mean to me as a as a driver, as a racer, what would how would you answer that? I think I think it you mentioned kind of the progression, working up the ladder. I think it means a lot of different things. As you progress as a driver. Starting out, it's probably just like lap time. There, there's a million different ways to approach it. And if you're starting out, maybe you're really serious. You can you can delve in to deeper dives of data, but you first need to learn how to be consistent. And data doesn't do you a lot of good. In my opinion. If you're, you know, if your lap times vary two, three seconds per lap. With without traffic, if you're just out doing the lapping today and you're just running by yourself and traffic isn't involved and and your lap times are varying quite a bit, then there's more basic things you need to work on. And really looking at data, so early on, it's probably just a lap time and a lap time really can can help you just generalize how how consistent you are. And then once you start moving up, data is is really important. But you also need to it's a big learning curve to be able to, translate that into something that you can use. Once you make that step, you know, I'd say you guys, I'm working with with you guys, at rater, you've got some really good drivers that, are at that next step kind of level from, I would say being entry level club racers to being potentially pretty good. And at that point you need to be able to interpret the data. And that's where coaching can really be a benefit. And bring in either a data guy that can translate it for you, or hiring a coach for a weekend or two, or and that can look at that and tell you what it means. The, the other avenue I've always enjoyed learning and just doing things myself. Partly, I guess I'm kind of cheap, so I don't want to pay somebody to do something I think I can do and maybe enjoy learning in the process. So I've always, enjoyed making mistakes on my own to, you know, learn. And so there's a lot of books out there and pick up books and read and read and read and that all, you know, help you if you want to do it yourself, to be able to coach yourself. But always, you know, no matter what level you're at and what sport you're and bringing up that second set of eyes and to look at things objectively from outside, can certainly help. So you well, since we're talking of answers, your question, it does, it does. Yeah. So when, when you're, when you're driving and you're at the track, you're racing and you have access to data, what are you looking at while you're at the track, data wise? Yeah. First thing I look at again is lap time. And I can system. And if, if a driver can, can be within a couple of tenths, again without traffic coming into play, lap after lap. And then you're at the point where you're doing the same thing at the same place and the track lap after lap after lap. Now, whether that's right or wrong, you're being consistent. And then we can start working on making changes and whether we need to move, breaking point upper back or brake release upper back. Turn in, you know, different things. Throttle application higher up on the throttle. Even if you're doing the wrong thing, you're doing it consistently. Then we can start working on, making changes. So the first thing I look at is, is consistent consistency of lap time. And once you're there, then were the probably the first thing I'm looking at is min corner speed. And then, brake application, and release in the brakes and how you're doing that. So yeah, that's those are the real basic things that, account for a huge part of how your lap time develops. And, you know, whether you can make progress or not, you know, so you mentioned looking at throttle application. And what was interesting is after our Champ Car race at pit, you did a deep dive into the data. And you saw during my stint that the throttle was being pushed 98% instead of 100. And so me being in the car, I could have sworn I had that thing down as far as it can go. And for the listeners, you might think I'm six foot too tall, but I'm a short guy. And we made we made a seat change either the night before the morning of that event, and we positioned it differently, which allowed us to see better. But perhaps the cause and effect of this is I didn't have the ability to fully put the pedal down. Yeah. Have you seen it was it was less than that. There were, there were spots where I think it was down in the 70s or something, because I made the comment to you that, there were there were places where you were hitting 100% and then there were places where it was down, I think, like in the 70s. And then some like mid to high 80s. And, because I made the comment to you that the mid 80s probably not really making a difference in power, but you're probably still getting all the power. But there were some spots that were pretty low, and I'm pretty sure that's limiting the, the potential of the motor. And so yeah, and that's something you really want to know because, you know, you're going to come back into the pits and say, yeah, it was flat. Yeah. You know, so that that's an area where, you know, kind of goes into more car development. The mechanicals of the car were the data showing you that, hey, we need to make a change of this car to be able to extract the full potential of it. So, you know, or just have taller drivers or have a taller drum stretch, you know, with hanging upside down. Yeah. Yeah, something like that. You know, and I can remember that race. And there are times when I would reposition myself in the seat, you know, maybe push off or something or, or try to sink down a little bit. I know I have to do that in the R7. That's one of the offseason projects I have, is actually move the seat up slightly because it's it's a fixed, a fixed amount. But I bring that up because that is just one small example of how data can help us. We wouldn't have known otherwise, me as a driver specifically that that that's an opportunity to perhaps shave a couple of tenths off. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. One of the times we talked before and you mentioned it just a little bit ago, is looking at brake data. One of the first things that you look at when you start to, to peel away data and try to learn from it, when we when we're on track, we're always thinking about speed and application of the throttle as quickly as we can out of the corner. But why is braking so important? I mean, it's easy, especially, the cars we're driving, low power stuff. Until you get, you know, probably five, six, 700 horsepower and really have big power that, can light the tires of anywhere on the track. The throttle isn't nearly as important as what the brakes do, because the brakes, braking, into and through a corner, has a huge effect on how the chassis applies, weight to the tires. And that's what you're doing as a driver is balancing how you're applying the weight to the tires. And, so one is that, manipulating the balance of the car, into and through a corner? The other is, brakes will show you, how you're approaching a corner. We see a lot of this with, introductory drivers, new drivers. If you're new to a track where you'll apply the brake, you know, you come down a long, straight, so, you know, back straight in that Ohio, you come carry a lot of speed down there. You're like, okay, this is where I need to brake, apply the brake. You see the brake pressure jump up, and then you realize I got on the brakes a little early. The brake pressure falls. You kind of coast a little bit. You're probably not releasing the brake, and you might not even be, aware that you're doing it, but you're coming off the brake pressure. Come off the pedal a little bit because you you started your braking way too early, so you see it fall down, and then you see it come back up as, as you turn it. So that's, that's one easy thing to look at. And in that case, you need to extend your braking a little deeper, so that, that pressure, what you want to see is the pressure come up and then trail off. And that's the other thing where, once you release the brake, you start to turn in, if you're new, you might have an instructor that's telling you to get all your breaking down on the straight line, release the brake and then turn turning. That's not fast. So generally, what we talk about trail braking, you're going to brake, turn the car in, and as you turn the car in and turn it down to the apex, you're going to see that brake trace, you know, tail off instead of falling off. And when you do that, you're keeping the, the weight on the nose and applying weight to the tire, to the front tire to allow it to turn and, you know, turn better. And there's balance to that. You know, maybe the car is really loose and, if you if you trail brake in very deeply, maybe it upsets the car, but, you know, there's balance to that. So the one thing generally you don't want to see is a trace going up and then just falling off where you're releasing the brake before you even turn it. And so that's, that's just general things you're looking at with, with brakes and, you know, you might see as well, if you're trail braking in, and as you're turning in, you're realizing that, pack down a little bit too much, be coming into this corner, and then it jumps back up. Things like that that you're looking for, you know, in general, you'll see it jump up quick and trail off. But there's a lot of caveats of that as well. So that's, that's just one thing you look for what you don't want to see is that going this. Right. So you talked about folks getting started out with just sort of looking at lap time or data, at what point where they start to have a system that can show them either, you know, brake application or throttle application and maybe even g loading? I mean, if you think about it, when you I hate spending money twice on anything and a good lap timer. You know, you're going to you're going to spend a couple hundred bucks, probably on a good lap time or unless you're using your phone or something like that, that works, you know, when you're really first starting out, but you see, you see those all the time guys, they start out with their phone and they want something a little better. You know, maybe, what's the aim solo? You know, we spend some money on that. Well, then I want a little more data. I want, I want. And you've spent money over and over and over again. It's it's it's hard to dive in right from the beginning, but, you can use that information really early. As long as, you know, once you've established consistency, like we've talked about, and you're a consistent driver, and then if you know how to interpret the data or you're going to use a coach if, if you're serious about going first and being a good race driver. You can start right from the right from the beginning if you have someone that if you know how to interpret it or you have someone coaching you, so there's really no time that I would say it's too early. But the first thing you need to do is establish that consistency that I can go out and run laps and, and, and not make wild, you know, inconsistencies overlap, right? Right. Yeah. And so is there a number you have in mind? You know, let's just say it's a it's a two minute track, or the person is out running two minutes on that track, you know, is is ten second variable. Is that too much or two seconds. Yeah, that's way too much. You know, once you get inside of a second, then you're you're getting somewhere. Okay. Ideally you're going to want to be several tenths. You know, lap the lap. Once you're within, you know, once you're with a, at a club level, and, you know, once you're within a half second, then you're, in my opinion, you're starting to really, do the same thing, you know, establish a rhythm. And, that's that's something you can really work with if you're two three seconds. Anything over a second? Then that's something to still work on. And, and that doesn't mean that data can't help you work on it, but, you know, if, if you're wildly different in your line or wildly different in your breaking point, where when you first get on the brakes or brake release or whatever data can show you and it's it's kind of like you in the throttle, you know, when you come back to the pit in your mind, you know, your leg is fully extended anyway, whether or not that was the extent of the travel of the pedal, in your mind that that's that's all you got? But then you can come back into the pit and say, okay, this you know, I actually was I didn't my, my breaking point is actually varying by 50ft and lat to lap. Then, then that's something that can be pointed out. Maybe didn't know that, you know, so it can be useful at any time. It's just, you know, can you interpret it? The somebody's interpreting it for you and, and what's your motivation to, to improve, you know, at what level do you say, hey, I'm good enough. I'm out here driving and having fun, and, you know, I only do this a couple times a year. You can't work up to that level of consistency if you're only doing a couple track days a year and you know, if that's what you do and that's that's what is fun for you, then then great. Yeah. So there's two times, I think when we can look at data. One is trackside, we're at the event and the other is post event. You're at your back at home. We all live busy lives. We have busy times at the track you're pulling off. You got things to check on the car. Of course. Always have people coming up asking questions. What are some quick tips to review data while at the track? Whether it's do it between every session, focus in on these elements. What what would you recommend to listeners to check in between sessions to help them learn? Yeah. Again. Again. Lap time consistency. And then you can look at things like, you know, pull up histograms and look at, like a throttle histogram. You know what, what, what percentage of full throttle are you at at a lap or over the course of your session? So things like that. If you have, it's always good to have someone to to have, data to compare. So, looking at the pit weekend and this was something that I did afterward, but you can do this if you dedicate time. That's that's one thing about data. You need to dedicate the time to it. So if I really wish I had looked at, at the track when I was with you guys, because what I saw was, consistently, I was running, I ended up looking at your data and, and, Dillon's and looking at kind of three of us and consistently I was a little quicker than you guys, but you guys were consistently quicker in a couple spots than you guys were doing something a little different than I was. And several turns, actually. And then there were a couple turns where I was doing things that were different than you guys. And one turn in particular, I was, you know, putting quite a bit at time when you guys do this one turn. And if we'd looked at it at the track, then we could have made those adjustments at the track. So but it, it's just the idea that you're dedicating the time to it. And if you got if you got a half an hour that you can just overlay speed traces. In that case, that's what I was doing, was looked at a speed trace. And, the one particular corner I was carrying a lot more speed, than you guys were. And then there were other corners where you guys were were rolling more speed. I want to say, you guys were braking a little earlier. Gave up a little more on entry. Were very similar at a min speed in the corner. But you because you gave up a little more on entry, you were able to exit the corner more quickly and carry more speed down a straight. And, that, you know, allows you to put some time on me through that section. So there were areas where we could learn from each other. If you're working by yourself and don't have data to compare it to, then it's it's a little, I don't want to say harder, but, you know, you that's when you back up and you look at brake application and throttle application, steering angle, things like that. And just generally, are you doing anything that's upsetting the car? Do you feel, cars loose in this corner of the car pushes in this corner? Can't put the power down. Puts power down, and it it's it's taken all of it. It feels like I should have gone the gas earlier. Things like that. And you, you need them as a driver to come off the track with those mental notes of. It's doing this in this corner. It's doing well in that corner. And the thing you don't want to do is overload yourself. And you need to pick one to maybe three corners where your, you know, you're having trouble. This is a I feel it. The car's not right. The car is not doing what I want it to do. And then go back and look and are you making the car do that or is it something where. No, you're you're driving the car properly? We can make a change then to the car and make it make it do more of what I want it to do. And then sort of that same question for home. And if any listeners like me, you hope you unpack the truck and trailer when you get home, unpack the car, you go back to normal life, and then you always think, man, I gotta go back and look at that data. So what are some best practices for for doing a deeper dive into all the data you collected at the track? That's the same thing. One, you know, it's a it's a commitment. It's a time commitment, you know, and so you're either going to have, if if you have a coach, you're going to have that person look at it and, and take care of it. If you're going to do it yourself, you've already made the commitment to learning, you know, you're reading the books, you're, aim has, just a ton of really good videos on their YouTube, channel. Very. And and they're, universal, you know, they're made for the Aim software, but the ideas are universal. So go watch, you know, if you're a YouTube kind of guy, go, go watch those videos and learn, you know, so you get to learn what you're looking for. And then, you know, you got to make the commitment, and set time aside. And that's hard for everyone. But if you're serious about it and you want to, you know, learn what you're doing and learn how to get better than then make a commitment. It doesn't have to be hours and hours. Set aside an hour. You know, you know, I would say within the week, after the event, so that things are fresh in your mind and, you know, just sit down and look and again, it's it's, for for me, I'm looking for consistencies. And then consistently am I, am I doing the things that I want into the event? But that's another thing, you know, you, I'm excited to go back to Pitt with you guys to apply what I learned from last year. So you went into the event with a plan? And this is what I want to do. And then post event. Did I apply those things? Was I doing what I wanted to do? Did it make a difference? Did I go quicker? Did not. Did the things that I thought I wanted to do, did it really make a difference or, you know, it didn't. So then we got to start looking at a different plan, but, commit, you know, make a commitment. It's like any sport you know, if, you know, if I want to be a good golfer, I got to go play golf. You know, I can't sit at home and, you know, instead of home and read books and things like that and educate yourself. But then you got to go out and you got to apply it. And it's the same way with, with racing. You know, I want to get better. I go to the track, I do my, do my work there. But then am I coming home and educate myself and really critiquing myself and coaching myself? It turns out, you know, that's what it comes back to, is coaching. Other. You have someone that's telling you, I see this, let's try this. Or you going to coach yourself, and you need to take time to do that. Yeah, yeah, but, well, I just have three more questions. One has to do with the first one with your big goal for this year, and you want to be the father and husband that your family deserves. And in the demanding lifestyles of folks that are involved in motorsports, you're a business owner. And you're at the track, you're traveling. How do you balance that? How do you balance home and track? Let me know. Do I need a coach? That's what I'm asking. Yeah. It's hard. And as I was saying, you know, you need to make that commitment. In my mind, I'm thinking about the times where, that I commit to going over data and doing the things that I need to do on the computer. I'm I'm not doing, you know, I'm not reading my kids at bedtime or I'm not, you know, spending time with my wife or whatnot. I'm very fortunate in the fact that I have really, supportive, family support for my wife. She's amazing. But, you know, in this case, talking about motorsports. And, the one reason I don't have a SIM rig is because I know I would be on that side or out of hours and hours, and that's. That's the commitment I made to my family. That I don't even buy it. So in my case, it's, communication, you know, just communicating with my wife that I need to do this. And then also balancing knowing what the limit is and knowing that I can't spend, I would, I would be on my computer every night either looking at data or, looking at engine maps and things like that and, and data logs from dyno sessions and all that kind of stuff because I enjoy it, you know, it's, it's, it's business, but it's a hobby as well. So communicate, you know, you and if you really want an answer to this, you need to have my wife on for, a session. And, because she's a mental health counselor and, she would tell you all the things that you need and how to work that out. But. Yeah, you know, I don't schedule and and, communicate. Yeah. I think the big one you mentioned there is communication. It's you know, whether it's in business, relationships, whatever, communication is important. And when it doesn't happen, that's when the problems arise. So that's great. That's great advice. How do people get a hold of you, Chris, if they want to learn more about how to get your services? Maybe they want bounce ideas off you. Maybe they need some help with data. What's the best way to reach Chris Ludwig at LMS? EFI? You're real close there. Email's best. Chris. Chris@lms-efi.com. And, call. I know I said earlier, I hate to talk on phone, but, I'd love to talk about, you know, this sort of thing. And, I'm, I'm a one man band, so very seldom do I actually, answer the phone the first time, because I'm knee deep and in a project. So leave a message. But that's (502) 515-7482 and, yeah, email or call and, yeah, I'd love to talk about, you know, whatever project you got and try to help you out. Awesome. We'll make sure you put links to, that and that information in the show notes. Last question. What advice do you have for the listener to make sure that they are not late to grid? Do the work in the shop. You know, don't, don't come to the track and, and know that you have, you know, this part that needs to be changing. You gotta do the breaks at the track or something like that. I know you, you know, we're all busy. And it goes back to that scheduling and time thing. I'm a firm believer in races are won or lost in the shop. And you guys right here. Guys, for anyone that's been around, and watch you guys work at the track, you guys are very well prepared. The cars are done, when they, when they show up at the track. But then you're also ready when things, you know, and endurance racing, there's always something that comes up. Whether well prepared, with spares and, you know, you know, where they're at our package more quickly. And so you guys have done the work at the shop and, yeah. Let, you know, there's no substitute for preparation that starts before you need a full drive. That's awesome. Y thanks for being on again. You're a repeat guest and you shared some great ideas today. So thanks again for being on the podcast. Bill. Thanks for having me.