Career To Date!

KARTING
3 x Repton Karting Championship winner
Winner of over 50 Kart races
Won on debut Club100 Kart race

RACING SCHOOLS
Jim Russell Racing School: Graduate (7 days of training) and received award!
Silverstone Racing School: 98% graded at Silverstone race school
Jonathon Palmer Racing School: Driver of the day (twice!) ..and faster than the instructors !!

SALOON CARS:
Won on debut in an Astra GSi
MG Trophy: MGZR’s: 1 Fastest Lap.

I’m fast, fit, confident, fit, super committed, slightly insane and always improving!

Career Summary:

Like all racing drivers, I’ve lost more races than I’ve won, but each time I’ve won, it’s been a day where all the hard work, preparation, concentration and commitment has come together and the luck has held (and nothing unforeseen has occurred!). I’ve lost over half a dozen car races due to mechanical problems and issues, and another 3 or 4 due to silly accidents with competitors (not normally my fault, honest!). This is part of motor racing and you have to accept that you can’t always win, despite your best efforts; sometimes the car just won’t be capable of doing so, sometimes a competitor will compromise you; sometimes your car will fail, and on the worst days you’ll make a mistake. It is therefore essential to always assess your own actual performance after each race to check you are traveling in the right direction and improving despite any on track set backs. I always do this!

Attitude:

After each race I always analyze my race performance very carefully and look for possible improvements, ensuring mistakes are not made twice, and I’ve learned from the experience. I will review my own thoughts, my team’s opinions, my observers opinions, any track data available (lap times, telemetry, condition of the tyres / car etc..), any video / TV footage and anything else that can be of use.

Whether it’s a simple kart race or a big national race car event, and irrespective of whether I’ve won it or I’ve come 42nd, the analytical review of the performance is the same. Honest and hard and with a critical eye on everything, If you don’t do it in this way, they you are not being honest with yourself.

I’ve actually had races where my performance has been better than those performances that I actually have earned wins for! ..but on those days where 1st isn’t possible or hasn’t happened it’s not just the result that matters, it’s the overall performance.

Performance:

For instance: My best saloon car race performance (so far!) was at Oulton Park in the MG Trophy, after a problem in the previous race saw me start 22nd on the grid, in an 8 lap race I finished 6th. I was held up on the first 2 laps passing some slower cars and then I was the fastest driver on the circuit by some margin for laps 3, 4, 5 and 6, (despite passing nearly a dozen cars during those laps) until I caught the leading group and then got slightly delayed again. I made no mistakes, I passed many competitors and I was fast and committed and could not have gone better in that car in those conditions on that day. This is not being big headed, this is an accurate review of my own performance on this occasion.

My best Karting performance (so far!) was actually during an endurance race at Whilton Mill in a Club100 event where I was driving for 20-25 minutes stints at a time, and I was very, very closely matching the leaders pace (despite being around 15Kgs heavier), was not making mistakes and did 14 laps in a row within 2 tenths of a second, overall that day the result was 7th, but that didn’t change what on another day in different circumstances would have been a race winning performance, only hidden by the result!

If you want to improve your own speed and performance then you need to be honest with yourself and if you have been rubbish, you need to put your hand up and say “Yes! Today I was rubbish!” and work out why and change it! If you won the race, but still made a couple of mistakes, or the performance wasn’t as good as it could have been, it’s important to not get carried away with the result and be complacent simply because you have won, the performance could still be improved.

Remember: You are your own best critic! ..and you can always improve.