Be the Complete Racer: Be A Professional

Number 3 in a countdown of the things that racers must do to achieve greatness is to be a professional – in and out of the car, and after you've left the track.

To most, the definition of a professional racing driver is someone who gets paid to race – and for many, that is the ultimate goal. While that is the textbook definition, actually being a professional goes well beyond performing well on the track. It encompasses everything a racing driver does, even long after he or she has pulled off the helmet."I think the overall definition for a professional is doing something that some people think is difficult and making it easy for yourself," says Joel Miller, driver of the No. 07 Mazda SKYACTIV Prototype in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and an engineer for SpeedSource Race Engineering. "On the racing driver side, being a professional is being the complete package. Not just being able to lay down one clean lap, but beyond that, 10 fast laps, clean laps. In terms of sports cars, there are so many partners that are a part of a factory program ... being able to speak to each and every one of them and have that connection is important."For me, as well, having the opportunity to develop a car that doesn't have a book of parts that you can go choose from ... a professional can help the team figure out an issue, versus getting in a car that's setup and away it goes."