Poll most professional athletes, and they have one thing in common – they hate losing more than they like winning. Competition is what drives them, but the fear of failure outweighs the glory of victory.
Meet INDY NXT by Firestone driver Nolan Allaer. The former driver who quit racing as a teenager to pursue a hockey career returned to racing upon high school graduation.
His father is an SCCA champion, and as a high school graduation present, he allowed Nolan to drive his car at a local Michigan track. Allaer drove quicker than his dad's lap time.
Even though Allaer still pursued a college degree in mechanical engineering at Miami (Ohio) University, he returned to the driver's seat, paving a path to INDY NXT by Firestone last season. He competed in 10 races and returned to HMD Motorsports on a full-time basis this season.
“We learned a ton last year coming from Formula Ford; it was a humongous step for us,” he said. “HMD did a really good job putting me with the right crew to teach me and show me the ropes. I know we got faster every race weekend. We finished on Sunday faster than we started on Friday, and that was our goal. And over the course of the season, I felt like we were getting more and more competitive.”
The goals remain similar this season. The key is ending Sunday’s race faster than Allaer started in Friday’s opening practice session.
Allaer began the season-opening St. Petersburg weekend 17th in practice with a top time of 1 minute, 7.1888 seconds. He chopped nearly three-seconds off the time a day later, vaulting to eighth on the speed charts with a top time of 1:04.8691.
He finished 19th in the race after contact with the wall on Lap 20.
“I keep using this quote, and I won't stop, ‘I love to win, like winning is great,’” he said. “Everybody likes to win. It's a lot of fun. I hate to lose. Like, really hate to lose. And that's kind of what's driven me.
“It's something that I always talk about is the determination to compete. I love competing in anything, in any sport that I do, so probably that that hate to lose, mentality that some a team like the (Detroit) Lions would have.”
So how does he cope when there’s only one winner and several losing drivers in racing?
“One of the stories I tell is, when I first got into sim racing, I was leading my first sim race at Laguna Seca in MX-5 and I blew up my engine on the last lap going into Turn 1,” he said. “In simulation, I didn't know you could even do that.
“I'm near tears. I'm devastated. I'm 18 years old, or 17 years old, and my dad comes over, and he's like: ‘Why are you so upset? Like, what's going on?’ I'm like, ‘I was winning. I was going to win, and I lost. I can't believe this. I'm so upset.
“And he's like, ‘You can't get this upset in racing, and in the sim, you can't get this upset. Racing is 90% disappointment with 10% moments of pure bliss. You just need to accept that it's going to be a lot of disappointment with these moments that are so worth it. And I truly believe that. And just kind of another thing that's kept me motivated.”
Allaer notes as a race car driver, he can’t enter every weekend expecting to win and being devastated if he doesn’t. A key example was racing in front of his hometown Detroit fans last June. Everyone was telling him a win was coming his way because he is a Detroit native.
He knew better.
“You have to find wins so that you don't come out of a weekend thinking that weekend was a loss,” he said. “So, for us, it is that sense of I want to be faster on Sunday and finish a weekend stronger than we started it on Friday. And there's little goals and there's overarching goals on a season. So, like I said one of the things I want to work on this season is qualifying better, starting near the front of the field, so we can finish higher.”