Driving Coaches No Longer Need to Ride Shotgunillustration By jason holleyWhether you're a first-timer on track or a seasoned amateur racer, there is one universal truth about that cool-as-ice pro driver coaching from the passenger's seat.This story originally appeared in Volume 37 of Road & Track.Amy Shore"He's actually scared shitless—99.99 percent of these guys would rather be anywhere else," says Rod MacLeod, lead instructor at the Concours Club near Miami.Many pro series limit cars' output, yet newbies or amateurs are allowed—or encouraged—to lap supercars with 700 or more horsepower. Bad things are bound to happen.In 2012, 26-year-old British racer Sean Edwards died in the passenger's seat at Queensland Raceway in Australia, when a driver bored a Porsche 996 into a tire wall and the vehicle burst into flames. The driver was extricated and lived. In 2019, instructor Peter London was killed at Palm Beach International Raceway when the teenage son of a Mexican billionaire crashed his own Lamborghini Aventador. MacLeod's scariest crash came while coaching in a Ferrari Challenge car that was torn into three pieces at Homestead-Miami Speedway, leaving him "bruised for weeks.GPX Stream, the brainchild of racer and entrepreneur Jeff Segal, might soon make the perils of right-seat coaching disappear. The system puts coaches safely behind the pit wall, where they can view, analyze, and give feedback on a driver's performance in real time. It isn't merely safer, Segal says, but also a smarter learning environment for coaches and students."The premise is to see things through a lens you don't have inside a car," he says. "You're giving somebody a coach, a spotter, a crew chief, or an engineer."The idea was born in 2016 with a Skype call—not a brainstorming session but a phone stuck to a Ferrari's rear window, giving Segal a first-person view of a Challenge race. Drivers began asking Segal, a two-time Rolex Series GT class champion, for a similar setup, but one that wouldn't drop a connection midcorner.Segal's GPX Lab already offered remote coaching for sim racers. A streaming system with live in-car telemetry was a logical next step. The year 2024 brought an advance: a Sony 5G dual-sim transmitter that trims latency to barely 0.5 second. A single-camera system sells for about $3000. It requires a $115 monthly subscription that includes cloud recording or a $250 plan that adds features such as simultaneous viewing for up to 10 people. Always up for a coaching session, I had to try it."Brake at the 3, down to third gear," MacLeod's voice advises over the radio as I steer a BMW M2 CS around the Concours Club's 2.0-mile circuit. A well-rounded racer and former McLaren mechanic, MacLeod has coached drivers at levels as high as Formula 1. After a dozen laps, he walks me through the video and telemetry from my session overlaid with his own. MacLeod focuses upbeat instruction on three key corners where I'm losing time. I jump back into the BMW and immediately improve by 1.5 seconds. I feel less pressure with a voice in my ear than with an instructor next to me. Pushing limits is easier; if I go off, it's all on me. And my coach is still waiting in the pits with a pep talk and data-driven feedback—where to dial up brake pressure or trail deeper into corners.The advantages accrue. Removing the weight of a passenger improves a car's performance. Instructors can choreograph safer passes over radio. Because coaches can orchestrate drivers on track better, there's less need to run separate groups for differently skilled drivers, maximizing track time and eliminating frustrating stack-ups.Segal acknowledges that drivers can still be reluctant to lose the onboard wingman. "The security of having someone next to you feels good," he says. "I've definitely had some pushback from a brand-new driver when you say, 'I'm not going to drive with you.'"Ultimately, these professionals say, a right-seater is just a security blanket. "At some point," MacLeod says, "you've got to drop the blankie and drive yourself."If You Can Only Own One Car, Make It One of TheseThese Are the Most Popular Cars by State
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