Trained for the Track: Positioning Racing’s Athletes for Success
PitFit Training Expands with New Facility in North Carolina
CORNELIUS, NC – PitFit Training, known for their pioneering motorsports human performance programs, will expand to the state of North Carolina with the acquisition of Podium Performance Fitness in Cornelius, NC. The program’s concept has a unique history, when in 1993 President Jim Leo created a strategy for Roger Penske’s IndyCar team at the team’s headquarters in Reading, PA. The success of this program led to more teams and drivers seeking out Leo’s program, and PitFit Training was officially formed in 1997.
With this being the first expansion of PitFit Training, Founder and President Jim Leo is ready to spread the program that he and his team have developed for more than a decade with the new location in Cornelius, NC.
“Expansion into the Charlotte-area market has been on our radar for quite some time,” said Leo. “Several obstacles were eliminated after a discussion with Trey Shannon, who started Podium Performance a few years back. I have been impressed with Trey’s program, but realized he was facing a common expansion problem for many small businesses that are a one-person operation, the burden of not enough resources This acquisition will not only provide the necessary resources of our organization, but also give Trey an ownership stake in the company.”
Although PitFit will acquire all the assets at Podium performance, including the facility, there will be more than just a name change to the space. New equipment will be brought in with top-of-the-line reaction technology, cognitive skills training tools, and recovery equipment including infrared sauna, ice baths, and a custom-built simulator. With all these additions however, there is one factor to say the same at the location and that’s owner Trey Shannon, who’s owned Podium Performance for the past eight years.
“I really can’t put into words how excited I am to take our partnership with PitFit to the next level and officially become one company,” said Trey Shannon. “PitFit is a true pioneer in driver fitness and has represented the gold standard for over 20 years now. Combining our efforts creates a huge opportunity to continue innovating and push motorsport fitness, safety, and performance forward. Jim has created something truly special over the last 20 years, and I’m grateful for this opportunity to be a part of the PitFit team.”
PitFit’s newest location opened on January 3rd with a plan to expand to larger space and add additional staff in 2022. For more information, visit www.pitfit.com or call 317 388 1000.
See How Elite Drivers Train Their Brains | PitFit Training x Reflexion
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Video: WRTV6 Tony Kanaan And Scott Dixon At Pitfit Training
Pitfit Training Expands To New Facility, Welcomes Fanimation As First New Partner
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., (May 13, 2019) – The month of May always brings a flurry of activity to the city of Indianapolis, and this year is no different for the men and women at PitFit Training. This spring, the facility that specializes in the training of IndyCar’s top drivers has left its home of the last ten years to a new facility on the northwest side of the city, nearly doubling in size. Fanimation, an industry leader in ceiling fans, has partnered with PitFit Training to provide high quality air circuiting to the 3,400 square foot fitness center.
Led by founder and owner Jim Leo, PitFit Training has become the go-to place in motorsports for driver fitness, reaction, and neurocognitive training. With over 20 years of experience, Leo and the trainers at PitFit create custom programs for professional athletes and race car drivers, responsible for over fifteen drivers in the NTT IndyCar Series and Road to Indy, and many more across Formula One, NASCAR, NHRA, IMSA, SRO America, USAC, and numerous junior level auto racing series. The expansion from the 2,600 square foot building to the new training facility gives the staff at PitFit Training 5,400 square feet of offices and gym space.
“This new facility really opens us up to a whole new world of possibilities,” said Jim Leo, owner of PitFit Training. “We now have separate rooms for physical therapy, mediation, and neurocognitive training, while also massively expanding our physical performance training area as well. We’ve been able to fill our gym with even more cutting edge equipment that will directly benefit the performance of all our drivers and athletes.”
Providing their own cutting edge equipment, Zionsville, Indiana business Fanimation has joined PitFit Training as the new gym’s first partner, equipping the vast facility with top-end ceiling fans. A local family business, Fanimation leverages technology and sustainability to implement energy efficient practices into its products, transforming the fan industry.
“PitFit Training is the industry leader of motorsports-specific human performance training,” said Nathan Frampton, President and CEO of Fanimation. Fanimation is the industry leader in ceiling fans and we couldn’t be more excited to partner with another best-in-class company based in Central Indiana.”
PitFit Training’s new partnership with Fanimation is just the beginning, as the team looks ahead to the installation of new flooring and next phases of construction on the office space.
“We have big plans for our new home,” concluded Leo. “We’re thrilled to have Fanimation on board, and look forward to welcoming more partners as the months continue. In the meantime, we’re fully focused on getting our drivers ready for the biggest race month of the year.”
Two of the most anticipated races of the year, the Freedom 100 and Indianapolis 500 will take place May 24 and 25 respectively. PitFit Training will not only train the drivers on the north side of town at the gym, but will also offer onsite support at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For more information, visit pitfit.com.
About PitFit Training
PitFit Training is an industry leader in the development and implementation of motorsports-specific human performance training and lists clients from Formula One, IndyCar, NASCAR, NHRA, ALMS, USAC, the World Endurance Championship and numerous junior level auto racing series. The roster of champions that have become part of the PitFit family is a who’s who of auto racing. Drivers such as Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan are just a few of the many drivers who have trained with PitFit Training.
These Boutique Gyms For Racing Drivers Are Nothing Like Your Local Planet Fitness
Source: Car and Driver
Professional auto racing is the Rodney Dangerfield of athletic pursuits—it gets no respect. Many casual observers assume that the car is doing all the work. But behind every rubber-scuffing hot lap is a human body also being pushed to the limit. Temperatures inside the cockpit can reach 130 degrees and most race cars do not have air conditioning. Drivers can lose 5 to 10 pounds in water weight during any given race. And racers must reckon with lateral and longitudinal forces that can go from 3.00 g’s in turns (what an astronaut experiences during a rocket launch) to in excess of 5.00 g’s under braking (blackout territory for the untrained). “And that force,” says veteran IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe, “is applied to every inch of your body.”
In the dark ages of motorsports, before cars produced such cosmic forces, a reasonably fit driver could easily handle a car’s stresses. Hell, he might even have smoked a cigarette between sessions. It wasn’t until guys like Ayrton Senna and Mark Martin came along that their peers saw the impact that fitness could have on driving performance. Now working out is a year-round grind that has drivers fortifying their core, arms, and neck.
It’s not a regimen that drivers can keep up at Planet Fitness. Instead, many frequent places like Indianapolis-based PitFit, a boutique fitness center with a client roster that includes pros like Hinchcliffe and Tony Kanaan. PitFit aims to train a driver’s body and mind at the same time through a mix of strength and endurance drills, some borrowed from more-mainstream sports and adapted to the needs of drivers.
Some teams prefer to keep driver-fitness programs in-house. Two years ago, Ganassi Racing hired former NASCAR pro Josh Wise to develop a training program for its drivers. “A lot of teams shipped their drivers out to run circuits and lift weights with their pit crews, but from an energy standpoint and even a psychological one, there’s little relevance to what they’re doing in the car,” says Wise. Here’s a look at what makes Wise’s regimen or a place like PitFit different from your local gym, with an assist from IndyCar champ Kanaan.
Strobe-Light Panel
PitFit has a custom $20,000 sensory station created by Senaptec. It takes the old numbered-tennis-ball drill—a staple in baseball training in which the trainer throws a ball at the trainee who calls the ball’s number before catching it—and digitizes it. Here, the drivers are asked to interact with moving images on a screen. Their results are measured, indicating their ability to make quick decisions under pressure.
Race Trainer
One of PitFit’s pieces of equipment is the Race Trainer, its homemade steering-resistance machine that is composed of a weighted steering wheel paired with pedals. A light-up board mounted behind the wheel prompts the driver to simulate a turn, which then instructs his trainer to pull on the resistance bands strapped to the athlete’s weighted headgear, called the Iron Neck. This mimics the effects of lateral g’s.
Strobe Glasses
PitFit uses strobe glasses from Senaptec, a company that provides tools to enhance an athlete’s mental and physical performance. PitFit president Jim Leo says the glasses, which intermittently disrupt the wearer’s vision, are often used with a tennis-ball toss, so drivers can practice tracking a moving object while their field of view is compromised.
Funny Car Driver And Pitfit Athlete Jr Todd On RTV6
The Drive: Pietro Fittipaldi Gets Behind The Wheel Of An Indycar Two Months After Gruesome Crash
Source: The Drive
ietro Fittipaldi, the grandson of Formula 1 world champion and two-time Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi, completed a staggering 100-lap test at Mid-Ohio ahead of this weekend’s return to IndyCar with the Dale Coyne Racing team.
Tuesday’s road course test marked the first time the young driver climbed behind the wheel of a race car in more than two months, where he completed a full testing program that included cockpit acclimatization and tire and aero performance. Fittipaldi has spent most of his time since his April crash in Indianapolis, where he’s worked with IndyCar doctor Terry Trammell to develop a road to recovery that fits his medical chart and work commitments alike.
IndyCar
Fittipaldi tests at Mid-Ohio on Tuesday.
“It was amazing, man, I’m so happy to be back,” Fittipaldi told Motorsport.com. “The past two months after my accident, I’ve been working really hard with the great people around me working on getting back to driving.”
“It was a full test, we did around 100 laps, which was a lot, but that was our plan to get as many laps as I could and wear me out a little bit because we’re racing next weekend,” he added. “We used the morning to get comfortable and see what we had to do with the pedal [adjustments] and everything felt fine right off the bat. As soon as I was comfortable we worked on the test plan.
Another key figure in Fittipaldi’s recovery is Alex Wanee from PitFit Training, who helped the young Brazilian-American racer get his mobility back to 100 percent, and make sure his muscles are up to the task of manhandling an 800-horsepower IndyCar. PitFit training is a physical training facility that works with North America’s top racing drivers such as Scott Dixon, James Hinchcliffe and Tony Kanaan among other dragster and open-wheel racers.
“We had a limited range of things we could do given the condition of his [Fittipaldi’s] lower body, so there was a lot of communicating back and forth with the doctors and physical therapists to get his legs back up to speed while maintaining his upper body strength,” Wanee told The Drive. “We worked with very minute levels of resistance to keep his leg muscles active despite his condition. I’d place my hands on his legs and apply slight pressure against the areas where he wasn’t affected, and that’s how we progressed through his recovery program.”
“Personally, within a minute of having met him, I knew we would exceed on all fronts due to his optimism and enthusiasm. It’s normal to expect someone in his position to feel bummed for missing the [Indy] 500 and what not, but from day one he did as much as he could to get back in the car as quickly as possible,” Wanee added.
Fittipaldi was piloting a DragonSpeed LMP1 race car at Spa Francorchamps in April of this year when he lost control of his vehicle at Eau Rouge and crashed into the tire barriers at more than 160 miles per hour. He had to be airlifted to the nearest hospital where doctors diagnosed him with non-life-threatening injuries, however, both of his legs had been fractured due to the force of the impact. As a result, Fittipaldi had to cancel his plans to race in the FIA World Endurance Championship and, eventually, the Indy 500.