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Champion Traits

© 2006 Dwight Drum
Photos and story by Dwight Drum
Web work by Gary Larsen

"I would take the word champion and replace it with the word, successful people."
Eddie Cheever, 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner

"Those guys motivate the team."
Hurley Haywood, Five-time Rolex 24 winner

"I think the biggest one is heart, determination, focus."
Scott Pruett, Rolex Daytona Prototype winner

"It's a lot of focus as well as dedication."
Wayne Taylor, Rolex Daytona Prototype winner

"I think it's very much a team game."
Andy Wallace, Grand Am driver

"The main one is the will to fight and the will to be the best, the will to do the best."
Oswaldo Negri, Grand Am driver

"We look like this is whole lot of fun, trust me, it's all business."
Mark Patterson, Grand Am driver

"It's a just a general smartness when you're driving."
Colin Braun, 18 year old Grand Am driver

About one year ago Dwight Drum asked Tony Stewart a champion question during a teleconference that puzzled Stewart initially, but resulted in an energetic answer. Zoomster.com decided to ask it again to other NASCAR champions and drivers to compare their thoughts. We didn't stop at seven champions and pressed on to a dozen driver standouts and owners.

When we took the same question to NHRA POWERade champions and drivers for drag racing fans seven champions responded along with more than a dozen standouts and owners. We continued the question quest at a Daytona International Speedway Grand Am Rolex 24 test. Grand Am drivers had interesting input also.

The reason we ask this same question is apparent in the answers, once the answers are consolidated to a single story.

If there were a way to measure the complex human ingredients it takes to produce a motorsports champion there would be a mad rush to buy the formula and hasty searches to find the drivers with the right mix. Life and science doesn't work that way.

Champions and standouts know a lot about driving, winning and communicating, but they can't be expected to identify all it really takes to excel to the top. The human and mechanical variables are simply too complicated.

That said, smart drivers have a bright way of defining what it takes to be the best. Their thoughts are worthy of attention.

Dwight Drum asked the champion question to eight standout Grand Am drivers:

Eddie Cheever:

Do you think champions have common traits and abilities and if so could you identify a few?

"I would take the word champion and replace it with the word successful people. Even a successful kid in kindergarten is a good more thorough than the other ones are. I feel you never do enough. There's always a way to do something better tomorrow than you did today. If you keep that attitude you will achieve what you are trying to achieve."

Hurley Haywood:

Do you think champions have common traits and abilities and if so could you identify a few?

"Champions have qualities that are shared whether you a Formula 1 champion or a NASCAR champion. They all have the same type of drive and the same intensity to do well. The guys, let's take Schumacher for example. Let's take a guy like Jeff Gordon who is going to be racing here. (Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway) Those guys motivate the team. I think motivation has a lot to do with being successful. Their personalities are dynamic enough that they are able to motivate every single member of the team to work 100% to bring the car that they are driving to the victory circle."

Andy Wallace

Do you think champions have common traits and abilities and if so could you identify a few?

"I don't know, every time I ever won a race I had a good team and a good car and good teammates. I think it's very much a team game. You can't really say that one person champed. It's not like that. It's such a team sport. If everybody does their job right, you have a chance to win."

Wayne Taylor

Do you think champions have common traits and abilities and if so could you identify a few?

"I think so. There's a lot of really good racing drivers out there. You often hear people say some drivers don't know how to win and some do. Yeah. I think so. It's a lot of focus as well as dedication. It's tunnel vision, really, a lot of abilities obviously. Just the patience and understanding to win a championship it takes a whole year, sometimes more."

Scott Pruett:

Do you think champions have common traits and abilities and if so could you identify a few?

"I think they do. I think the biggest one is heart, determination, focus. Never give up attitude when the chips are down. That's when the cream always rises to the top. You look at all the champion drivers, all the champions period: even baseball, football, basketball. I think you would see that sort of sprit instilled in all those people."

Oswaldo Negri:

Do you think champions have common traits and abilities and if so could you identify a few?

"I believe so. I'm pretty sure. The main one is the will to fight and the will to be the best, the will to do the best. To beat the best and nothing but that .That's what champions are made of. A lot of people thought that a couple of drivers like me and Mark (Patterson) couldn't win in the series any more. We proved them wrong. That was so sweet. I just want to get some more wins in the bag and be up there when we can. I think another thing that makes a champion is learning from mistakes. To win the championship and races he needs to learn how to do that. The guy may have the speed, may have everything but he might not know how to do it. Throughout the career he stumbles here and stumbles there so he's got to learn. He has to pick the spots and identify what did they do wrong here and not make that mistake any more. I've done quite a lot of wrong things this year I hope I'm not doing it any more."

Mark Patterson:

Do you think champions have common traits and abilities and if so could you identify a few?

"Absolutely. Whether it's the pope, a champion in a race car, a businessman or an athlete that wins a 100 meter dash, they have something in common. Even the pope. You don't get there by accident. You have to have a meticulous objective. You have to have a very narrow focus. You must avoid the distractions. We look like this is whole lot of fun, trust me, it's all business. If you're going to win, it's all business. You have to be incredibly focused and linearly focused on what you want to achieve. You have to compromise, give up a whole lot of other things. Get them out of your mind, out of your life and stay narrowly focused. "You know what? When you get there it's almost like it should have happened. It's like a great golfer who is trying to get to scratch and he's played a six handicap his whole life and he just keeps practicing. One day he gets there. Wow. It's not so surprising. It's a function of just trying very hard, a huge amount of fitness exercise, a huge amount of sharing of data and a team behind you. Teams that are just ruthless about making the car dependable for the drivers. It's a whole combination of things. "Ultimately a champion driver like Sam Hornish, Oswaldo Negri or Michael Schumacher, it's not an accident they win. It's all intended by them."

Colin Braun:

Do you think champions have common traits and abilities and if so could you identify a few?

"I think it probably depends on what series your running for specific traits and things like that. Otherwise it's a just a general smartness when you're driving. I think you have top be pretty heads-up. You really use your head, be patient, know when to drive very hard, know when to drive easy. It's just being really smart. I think that's brings the car home in one piece and mechanically sound and all that. That's probably the biggest thing they have to."

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