William Cox III - Young Racing Champion and Breakthrough Performer
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William Cox III is a young race car driver who got his start in karting in late 2017 and has since then raced various club races and many national and international races. In 2019 Will accumulated 3 wins, 17 top-five and 19 top-ten finishes in 26 starts in the INEX Series. He raced Spec Miata Series for Panic Motorsports and US/INEX Legend Series for Championship with Team Farbo Motorsports. Will won the 2019 Asphalt Nationals in the Young Lions Division, finished 3rd in the World Road Course Championship and won the 2019 Atlanta Fall Series point Championship.
I met Will at the GoPro Kart Motorplex in Mooresville, NC through Sergio Campos, his Brazilian-born mechanic, on the same day I had been invited by 2-time Formula One World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi to watch his young son Emmo practice. It was April 13, 2018, a cold and sunny day. Sergio told me he thought Will had great conditions to become a top driver, but he needed to become mentally tough. He suggested a meeting with his father (Daniel) to explore the opportunity to follow my structured program and evaluate the results.
Will is home-schooled, fulfilling his tasks online while following a busy racing calendar year round. He lives with his parents Natalie and Daniel in Raleigh, NC and has two younger twin sisters who love soccer and athletics. He has a Christian upbringing and praying plays a big role in his life. Sometimes the family travels together in their motorhome, joined by their grandparents.
Our first strategy meeting took place in July 2018 and we started working together in August. I found Will to be calm, polite, thoughtful and straightforward about his aspirations: to be a Champion (why bother with less). His father wanted to provide him with all the best resources required for him to succeed. At 13, Will was a latecomer to the Kart experience, yet a fast learner who could absorb great amounts of information. Daniel and Sergio believed that understanding the key factors of Peak Performance and Mental Toughness would both accelerate this progress and give him an edge over his competitors. We agreed on a 4-month curriculum and started regular sessions via-Facetime, complemented with meetings at GoPro Motorplex to watch him race.
During the initial months, Will read and applied the training materials I shared with him, focusing on the exercises he thought would improve his preparation and pre-racing rituals. During his Kart racing phase, Will had to contend with often chaotic racing situations, questionable officiating and cheating. Calibrating the kart is not easy; it’s more an art than a science, and the quality of the replacement parts varies wildly. I could see that for Will, Sergio and Daniel this environment created a great deal of frustration because their input did not match the results. In addition, there were a couple of instances in which Will could have been involved in serious accidents, as competitors’ karts flew above his helmet missing his head by inches.
Thousands of kids start their racing career in Kart and is undoubtedly a pathway to develop their racing craft and toughen them up as competitors. However, sometimes it seems there are way too many vehicles racing together, such as when the organizers merge several categories and ages together totaling up to forty karts. If you qualified outside of the top ten, you find yourself in the middle of a procession, not a race – and the chances for disabling accidents multiply.
After evaluating the results from races in several states, changing teams, coaches and karts (all at a great expense), Daniel Cox decided in early 2019 to take Will to the Virginia International Raceway to test Spec Miata cars coached by Tom Long, a Mazda Motorsports factory driver who teaches upcoming drivers as well. Will’s remarkable performances in testing allowed him to get permission to race the Spec Miata Series for Panic Motorsports, which provided him with the necessary challenges and lessons to stretch his goals and skills. He also got an opportunity to learn driving fundamentals from Ross Bentley, author of “Speed Secrets” and former Indy Car driver. During this period of six months, we focused on increasing his capacity to learn the new tracks fast, improve his visualization and recall skills, as well as recovering from mistakes. All along, we monitored the emotional impact of his improving physical conditioning and the balance between stress and recovery each week.
During the summer of 2019, Daniel Cox decided to enter Will in US/INEX Legend Series for Championship with Team Farbo Motorsports in the Young Lions Division. It was a very hot summer in the Southeast, and the Legends small cars have front engines that generate an enormous amount of heat. I provided Will with suggestions for Hydration strategies and management, since the food, hydration and mood connection become a critical factor under pressure. Will found solid support in Team Farbo, who continuously improved the car from every aspect according to each track’s requirements. He also got the experienced strategic advice from Lorin Ranier, who has worked with many NASCAR legends and winning drivers, having contributed to Tony Stewart’s career in NASCAR as well (now in the Hall of Fame).
To crown his remarkable ascent in just six months, Will won the 2019 Asphalt Nationals in the Young Lions Division, finished 3rd in the World Road Course Championship and won the 2019 Atlanta Fall Series point Championship. He performed at his best from race to race, rebounding quickly from mishaps and consistently lodging himself in the top 4 positions and raking up points to become “the one to beat.” He continued to win in Young Lions in early 2020 (even choosing to start last intentionally to beat all his rivals and finish P1). He won the Cookout Winter Heat Championship and subsequently was allowed to race in the Pro division.
When I asked Will to look back at his success and analyze the lessons learned, he thought that the most important factors were his ability to learn the tracks within one session and then finds speed faster than before. He also told me that his physical conditioning allowed him to have endurance, especially during long days at the track and constant interruptions. Mentally, he was able to embrace the Ideal Performance Mindset we explored from day one, keeping his head in the zone, praying before each race to align himself with the challenge. Being in the zone allowed him to get up to speed quickly, maintaining an intensity between a 7 or 8 out of a maximum 10. He could be loose but intense.
On the mechanical side, his breakthrough was to be able to give accurate data on how the car felt to Ryan Farbo and his team. In the Pro division he encountered a massive difference in pressure, having to drive at 200% accuracy on every lap and every corner, hitting every marker perfectly. He found himself among really good drivers whom he had to pass as soon as possible. His initial results in Pro were excellent, climbing once again to the top spots.
Acting how we want to feel is an important element of confidence under pressure. Overtime, I’ve seen Will change physically (becoming taller) and improving his Confident Fighter presence. He feels confident but he will never boast. He sports two wonderful custom suits, one black and another one white emblazoned with his sponsors and team logos. He looks like a professional race car driver and acts like one. Will is confident with a microphone and on camera. Gradually, he’s gathered a following in social media and posts regularly about his racing life on Facebook and Instagram, giving his fans access to the inside story.
You can follow Will’s progress and wins at www.williamcoxracing.com/