The stopwatch isn't the problem. When you pull it out is.
If you scanned the QR code at the end of the presentation Brett Cowell and I gave in Atlanta, welcome aboard. This one's for the track and cone course crowd.
Last week was about the instructor chasing the fast lap. This week, it's the student, and what happens when we hand them the clock too early.
I was in an IROC Camaro, running a third-gear right-hander.
Before we went out, they told us our lap times.
That's all it took.
Every lap, I went a little later on the brakes, trying to shave a little more time. Every lap, the car drifted a little wider on exit. I could feel it happening. I kept doing it anyway.
Then all four wheels went off the track.
No damage. Just a black flag and a slow roll into the pits.
The instructor walked up to my window, and I can still hear him:
"I knew I should've brought you in a lap earlier. Every lap, every corner, you were getting sloppier and sloppier as the technique went out the window."
Here's the part that took me years to understand. Had they not given us those lap times before we went out, I probably never would have left the track.
It's the same reason I never give students my time before they drive a course.
The skill was there that day. The number just got to it first.
That's exactly why it matters on your cone course.
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The watch changes the driver
You've seen it. A student runs your course clean. Smooth hands, eyes well ahead, braking in all the right places.
Then the stopwatch comes out, and a different driver shows up.
Eyes drop to the cones. Grip tightens. Braking points drift. Cones start to wobble.
The skill didn't disappear. It just isn't deep enough yet to survive pressure. That student is still in the conscious competence quadrant, and pressure pushes people back to whatever they did before you got to them.
Now add a classmate leaning on the fender, or a leaderboard on the whiteboard. That's two pressures stacked on a skill that isn't finished being built.
The rule I've landed on is simple:
The stopwatch or competition. Never both.
How I run it now
I teach the course with no watch in sight. I don't mention it. They don't see it.
My demo runs at a controlled pace, and I talk through the technique as I go. The demo sets the tone for the whole day.
They practice, with feedback, until they own the course.
Then the watch comes out: "Give me your quickest, cleanest run." Most will hit cones. Good. They just found their limit.
Next run: "Give me a quick run, but clean. Not one cone." It's amazing how often they deliver.
That last step is where the learning happens. They've felt the edge, and now they choose to drive inside it.
That's the 80% rule in action: drive at eight tenths, and leave something in your back pocket for the mistake. At ten tenths there's no margin left, and something always goes wrong eventually.
When I do use competition, I keep it light and I keep the group supportive of each other. The watch only comes out at the end of the session. Its job is to test whether the skill holds under pressure, not to build the skill.
One caution: not every student reacts the same way. One strong driver in a group can pull the others past what they're ready for. Once someone starts hitting cone after cone, their confidence is very hard to rebuild. The ego is fragile.
When that happens, it's on the instructor. Me included.
The road doesn't add five seconds
I've audited track programs all across North America, and we can't agree on the standard. Some agencies run a stopwatch and a clipboard, adding time for every cone. Others won't accept a single cone strike.
Think about what a time penalty teaches. Hit a cone, add five seconds. The mistake costs you a little time, and you keep going.
The road doesn't work that way. It doesn't add time. It sends a bill.
A left-turning car you didn't see coming is a damaged cruiser, an injured officer, and a call that never gets answered.
A cyclist or a kid in a crosswalk is a life changed forever. It's a collision investigation, a civil suit, and a question the officer will be answering for the rest of their career: why were you going that fast?
That's the real problem with scoring cones as time. It teaches students that a mistake is a cost you can pay and still finish the run. On the road, some costs can't be paid back.
On my course, a cone isn't five seconds. It's a run that didn't make it to the call.
On the road, the call is the stopwatch. It starts the moment dispatch puts it out, and the officer behind the wheel can hear it ticking.
The pattern is the same one I followed in that Camaro. A little later on the brakes. A little wider through the corner. A little more speed into the next intersection. Nothing goes wrong, so it becomes the new normal.
Lap after lap. Call after call.
On the track, there's a marshal with a black flag. I went four wheels off, rolled into the pits, and got a lesson at my window.
On the road, there is no black flag. The first warning is often the crash.
That's why the order matters. Build the skill first. Test it under pressure last. If the watch comes out before the skill is deep enough, the clock becomes the lesson. They'll keep driving to it long after they leave your course.
And when you see a student drifting a little wider every lap, don't wait for four wheels off.
Call them in a lap early.
How do you use the stopwatch on your course? Hit reply. I read every one.
For those who follow racing: the instructor at my window was David Empringham. Indy Lights champion in 1996. Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge GS champion in 2012. He came up through the Spenard David program himself, which is where I was driving that IROC Camaro. When a champion tells you your technique went out the window, you listen.
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Hugh Anderson EVOC Trainer | Author of Emergency Vehicle Operation Instruction: 5 Steps to Enhancing Your EVOC Training Grab the book on Amazon
