There is some self hypnosis involved...and a whole bunch of research and record keeping! As Polarpete alluded, it's easier to remember the things you are passionate about.

I walked back to our pits, and noticed that Dale had the front end removed from the Gremlin.
"I thought you were going to make another pass?" I questioned Dale as he leaned on the passenger's side front tire.
"That was the plan", Dale shrugged, "but something doesn't sound right on this side of the engine, so I'm going to pull a valve cover and have a look!"
"Did you hear those guys talking about us on the loud speaker?" Boone interjected with a nudge.
"Yeah", I chuckled, I'm sure John mentioned something about it."
"Said he was surrounded by a bunch of celebrities, and insiders." Boone laughed.
I walked over to show John my time slip, when I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Rachael wasn't returning to our pit, but was instead driving the Belvedere right back up the staging lanes.
"I better go stop her...or she will burn that poor thing to the ground", I explained, then sprinted across the grass, waving to get her attention. "Sprinted", in this case, is of course, relative to what you expect from a 300lb. fifty year old! The effort felt like it to me, even if the result didn't appear to be "sprinting" to anyone else.

"What do you think you are doing?" I asked her, between gasps for air. She had the driver's door open, helmet still on, and I was bent over in the opening, with my hands on my knees.
"That one was too fast, and you told me we weren't accepting the 11.89...so I need another run!"
"Yeah, but you can't be making three back to back runs, everything is too hot, so bring it back to the pits, let it cool off, and we'll formulate a plan for how you're going to get an 11.50 time slip to turn in."
"Fine", she threw up her hands, "But I didn't run the car all out when I rolled through the beams on that first one...I'm smart enough to know that was a wasted pass!"

She parked the Belvedere in the grass next to John's Valiant, and headed straight for Boone while I opened the hood to cool the 440 down.
"Where is your time slip Boone?" I heard her ask, politely, almost sweetly. He handed it to her, and she immediately pulled out her phone and took a picture of it, then handed it back.
"I already got a pic of it", Boone looked at her, with a puzzled expression.
"This photo is for me!" She explained, then produced her last time slip from the Belvedere and took a picture of it."
"Because I want everyone to know that on this day, at Great Lakes Dragaway...the Belvedere drug the Barnyard Viper's butt!"
"Hey!! That's not funny", Boone protested, but judging from the laughter of everyone else in our group, he was apparently the only one that felt that way.