Bowmanville, Ont. – Here’s my favourite quote related to the fine art of race driving: “Ricky Bobby is not a thinker—Ricky Bobby is a driver!” This statement (from Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby), relayed by Ricky’s assistant as she attempts to motivate him back to the winner’s circle, works on a few different levels.

Of course, it’s a straight-up joke, a jab at Ricky’s “thoughtless” approach to NASCAR racing. But it also raises an interesting question: Can you think about your driving too much when out on the track?

Or, more pointedly, can you over-think your driving? Should you just clear your mind and focus on one thing only: keeping either your right or left foot planted to the floor at all times?

For years, former Indy driver Ross Bentley has touched on these points, dealing with the more cerebral aspects of race driving. A keen examiner of the sport, he’s penned no fewer than seven books covering the topic, all under the Speed Secrets banner. Bentley is also one of the leading driver coaches in the world and has been imparting wisdom to his students for years now.

In 2006, I had the chance to experience his coaching techniques firsthand for an article I was writing on the getting to the next level in race driver training. We met up at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in the middle of the California desert and, for about eight straight hours, I sped around the track in a BMW M3 Coupe generously provided by the manufacturer while Bentley took notes.

It was a genuine turning point for me as a driver, to finally be able to take the theory from his books and put it into practice. It’s also worth noting that my times improved by over 1.5 seconds per lap on a track that I’d never seen before in my life.

Last year, Bentley gave a seminar to BMW and Porsche club drivers in the Toronto area, speaking about the Speed Secrets approach to driving. One of the primary concepts is managing how the brain takes in information — more specifically, through the eyes, the ears and the seat of the pants. The reasoning goes that the more quality information you feed the brain from these three sources, the better the result on track. (Personal aside: This method is very effective.)

Since then, the Trillium Chapter of the BMW Club of Canada has engaged Bentley to develop a new curriculum for their advanced driving schools. The final weekend in April, I paid a visit to the school at Mosport International Raceway and came away impressed with the thorough nature of the car control instruction.

First, the school separates the drivers into three groups based on experience. This helps ensure that there isn’t too much traffic around the 3.9-km track. Over the course of the two days, each group moves among three learning stations: the classroom, the track and the parking lot, where a figure-8 is set up using pylons.

In the classroom, students establish specific goals for each track session and have the opportunity to share experiences and ask questions of the instructor. The figure-8 is designed to help with car control; students are encouraged to engage in a bit of drifting. The track is where all the lessons learned come into play; each driver is paired with an instructor who rides shotgun and gives feedback along the way.

The smartest aspect of this approach is that it forces students to step away from the car and think about the on-track sessions rather than just let them loose on the track for lap after lap. Not only that, the ratio of instructors to students is incredibly favourable—it affords the students a massive amount of feedback. Last but not least, students learn in their own cars, so they come into the weekend armed with some knowledge of their cars and their limits.

Over and above all these factors, the main reason why someone should attend a Trillium Club driving school is because it’s flat-out fun. On the track, with genuine thrills happening around every corner, the reasons why you bought that BMW or Porsche also come into sharp focus; these are cars that are not meant to be used strictly for commuting to work. And here’s one final takeaway from the school weekend: You can be both a thinker and a driver.