When I saw that Racepak had a new heart rate monitor, I was very interested. From all the books I read and the time spent working with a sports coach, I know having the “right” heart rate is instrumental in getting in the “zone” before a run. I also knew the data would tell a story when after almost 7 years in the building process, our 69 Camaro Super Stocker was ready to test. Not only was the new car going to be 1 second quicker and almost 20 mph faster than my Stock Eliminator car, leaving off a transbrake would also be new to me.

In an attempt to ease my nerves, while the car was in our shop, I spent time in the seat getting a feel for the fit and visualizing what the run would look like, starting from the staging lanes to leaving the line and driving down the track.

After all my preparation, it was time to test! I was happy our first test session would happen at Bradenton Motorsports Park, my old home track. It’s a track where I made several hundred passes throughout the years and would provide me with a comfort level to help ease some anxiety about driving my new car.

The first run in my new car, my heart rate was around 141 coming out of the burn out and spiked to 161 as I was getting ready to launch. The average for the run was 147. We recorded the heart rate for each of the 14 runs and by the last run a minimum of 113 and a maximum of 138, with the averaged at 127 was recorded. An improvement from 147!

What was interesting is we thought the heart rate would peak just prior to, or during the launch. However, although the heart rate was elevated prior to the launch, the peak rate for me was during the braking at the top end of the track. While it will take some time to get comfortable driving my new car, being able to monitor my heart rate helps me better understand where I am in relation to being in the zone and gives me the opportunity to make adjustments.

The Racepak Heart Rate Monitor was comfortable to wear and easy to operate. Just turn it on and it pairs itself to the Racepak system when making a run.