Shelby Manning (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shelbycobra) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
muserevival2015-11-28 10:35 pm
shelbycobra) wrote in muserevival2015-11-28 10:35 pm
Entry tags:
109.2.1 - quote
"A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them."
I got a lot of things right this season, but I made one big mistake in April, at the first (and now only) Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana. Running in the top ten and knowing the race might still be called by rain, I was itching to push further ahead while I still could. I tried to take the corner alongside Ryan, believing that he could see the nose of my car coming up beside him. He didn't. Instead, he bumped me off track and I spun back around into the side of his car, which in turn sent him up and nearly on top of Seabass. The result was my only non-top ten finish of the year and the race getting called shortly thereafter.
I figured I would wreck at some point in the season; I didn't think I'd be the one to cause it.
Almost worse than wrecking was that I decided to pitch a fit about it. I thought Ryan had run me off knowingly, and you can actually see me on the broadcast feed getting out of my car to go ask him what the hell he was thinking. It wasn't until much later, when we'd all been released from the infield care center and I was able to see the tape of the crash, that I realized it was actually my fault. I turned around and went straight down to the other pit stalls to make my apologies to Ryan and Sebastien, and thankfully they accepted them.
I've always believed that if you screw something up, then you need to own up and apologize for it. That's just the right thing to do, and I'm lucky to work in a field where the people around me understand, because chances are they've made the same or a similar mistake in their careers. It's all about having integrity and treating each other with respect. One only needs to look at this most recent NASCAR season to see what chaos happens when you don't. I made a promise to myself and my father when I joined IndyCar that I would never see my name in the Wednesday morning infractions report, and I take pride in knowing I never have.
That's what makes that one slip-up in April so irritating to me. That one was a mental mistake. It was me gripping and making a high-risk move out of pure desperation to get ahead, when I had nothing on the line but my pride. A top ten in that situation, that early in the season, would have been fine. But no, I had to prove something to myself, and the cost wound up being huge. I wrecked two other people, plummeted to twentieth on the day, and was basically the reason that stopped the entire race. If I'd just used my head, I could've possibly scored top tens across the board. There are championship winners who haven't done that. And that's not to make light of the damage done and the tongue-lashing I got from my strategist besides.
For those few moments, in that one day, I'd gone back to being that kid who felt like she had to win, had to show she could hang with the big boys, rather than the woman who had confidence in herself and her race team and should have known better. The good news is, nobody was hurt and I realized what I did wrong right away and was able to correct it. I regressed a few years at Avondale and it wasn't a good look on me.
My number one goal going into next season is to make sure that doesn't happen again. I know that I'll be nervous, because the last time I put together a sophomore season it didn't go so well for me. But it's my responsibility to deal with those nerves and my ego and not let them affect the way I race. Nobody ever clinched a title because of ego, but you sure as hell can lose it on one. I won't allow myself to make that mistake.
--
Shelby Manning Martin
Need for Speed OC
684 words
I got a lot of things right this season, but I made one big mistake in April, at the first (and now only) Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana. Running in the top ten and knowing the race might still be called by rain, I was itching to push further ahead while I still could. I tried to take the corner alongside Ryan, believing that he could see the nose of my car coming up beside him. He didn't. Instead, he bumped me off track and I spun back around into the side of his car, which in turn sent him up and nearly on top of Seabass. The result was my only non-top ten finish of the year and the race getting called shortly thereafter.
I figured I would wreck at some point in the season; I didn't think I'd be the one to cause it.
Almost worse than wrecking was that I decided to pitch a fit about it. I thought Ryan had run me off knowingly, and you can actually see me on the broadcast feed getting out of my car to go ask him what the hell he was thinking. It wasn't until much later, when we'd all been released from the infield care center and I was able to see the tape of the crash, that I realized it was actually my fault. I turned around and went straight down to the other pit stalls to make my apologies to Ryan and Sebastien, and thankfully they accepted them.
I've always believed that if you screw something up, then you need to own up and apologize for it. That's just the right thing to do, and I'm lucky to work in a field where the people around me understand, because chances are they've made the same or a similar mistake in their careers. It's all about having integrity and treating each other with respect. One only needs to look at this most recent NASCAR season to see what chaos happens when you don't. I made a promise to myself and my father when I joined IndyCar that I would never see my name in the Wednesday morning infractions report, and I take pride in knowing I never have.
That's what makes that one slip-up in April so irritating to me. That one was a mental mistake. It was me gripping and making a high-risk move out of pure desperation to get ahead, when I had nothing on the line but my pride. A top ten in that situation, that early in the season, would have been fine. But no, I had to prove something to myself, and the cost wound up being huge. I wrecked two other people, plummeted to twentieth on the day, and was basically the reason that stopped the entire race. If I'd just used my head, I could've possibly scored top tens across the board. There are championship winners who haven't done that. And that's not to make light of the damage done and the tongue-lashing I got from my strategist besides.
For those few moments, in that one day, I'd gone back to being that kid who felt like she had to win, had to show she could hang with the big boys, rather than the woman who had confidence in herself and her race team and should have known better. The good news is, nobody was hurt and I realized what I did wrong right away and was able to correct it. I regressed a few years at Avondale and it wasn't a good look on me.
My number one goal going into next season is to make sure that doesn't happen again. I know that I'll be nervous, because the last time I put together a sophomore season it didn't go so well for me. But it's my responsibility to deal with those nerves and my ego and not let them affect the way I race. Nobody ever clinched a title because of ego, but you sure as hell can lose it on one. I won't allow myself to make that mistake.
--
Shelby Manning Martin
Need for Speed OC
684 words