This is Part 3 (due to size restrictions) of an article that documents our learnings from the first 6 months in Cadet go karting in the IAME Mini Swift Class in and around Texas.
Find Part 1 of the article HERE (https://www.brettcowell.com/blog/goquickerfaster)
Find Part 2 HERE (https://www.brettcowell.com/blog/goquickerfaster2)
This last part covers our learnings from Racing and Overall. Enjoy!
Section 4. Build a racing practice and practice racing
The hotel bedside clock red-glowed 3:28am. Not again. Race weekend. My thoughts were already on the track racing, tumbling over each other before I was even consciously awake and had remembered I was in a hotel room. Then my feet and knees began to phone in their complaints as the wave of dull pains swept upwards eventually reaching my shoulders. I’ve said before that the feeling is like waking up on those music festival weekends I used to go to, now in fading memories, but without the good music. Don’t fully wake up I say to myself helplessly, you need the sleep, but my mind doesn’t listen it’s still processing what happened yesterday, and what is to come today. I know that writing these things down can help, but Jack is in the other queen bed, sleeping soundly and I don’t want to disturb him. Perhaps I’ll leave a notepad in the bathroom or take my phone in under the cold fluorescent lights for this pre-dawn ritual that I could do without. So many questions. More than only about sprockets and tire pressures, they’re really about how what’s happening now will reflect on the type of future Jack will have. Whether racing is part of that or not, these lessons will shape the kind of young man he’ll be, and the man he’ll eventually become.
This section covers our learnings about racing (and that’s more than what happens on track), building a level of racing experience, and getting more consistent around bringing everything together when it counts.
A race weekend can be an assault on the senses, the emotions, the body and the mind for driver and parent. All of that effort can lead to moments of exhilaration and victory, and equally to, we’re seeing, crushing heartbreak. That is part of the passion of racing I guess, its magnetic appeal, how sport encapsulates life.
Learning #22 — Know who you’re racing
After being in his racing kart for a week, we entered Jack in his first club race, and it turned out that in the field of six in his class, there was a national champion, two national competitors, two others that had been karting for a year or more than Jack, and Jack himself. This is one of the joys of racing (in Texas at least) you never know who’ll turn up and the strength of the field varies widely as national competitors often drop in for seat time, to test setups and stay race ready.
We’ve found it’s important to understand who you are racing against to set the right goals and expectations, and to break your goals into chunks.
Jack came P5 in his first race, getting an overtake done. We were pleased with the results, and proud of Jack, and it gave him some good confidence. Jack went on to win his next club race a couple of months later but with a vastly different field. After that race, we threw him into his first regional race in Houston where he ran dead last, around P22 in the final.
We learned a lot from that regional race, much of it off the track, which I’ll talk about later.
On track, the learning was that although the leaders seemed untouchable, the field when you looked at it wasn’t some big solid homogenous thing, it was made up of different groups and races within the race.
For example, there were others towards the back of the field that were much closer to Jack’s skill level. Rather than focus on winning (P1) as the only measure of success, and getting discouraged we could focus on catching and beating the back markers and then move onwards and upwards from there, which is what we decided to do after the dust had settled and we’d gotten back from the weekend.
I called our first mission “catching the freight train” at the time. Success was to work to catch the back of the pack, and if we could do that, we’d “won.” The reason was Jack would learn much more racecraft that way. It was a meaningful milestone that we could celebrate. Any more than that of course was a bonus, but it’s also dangerous to say you’d be happy to reach a goal, and yet secretly keep wishing for and being disappointed if you don’t get much more, since that would show through to Jack. You’d lose trust that you are both driving to the same goals.
Catching the freight train is what we did, and by the next regional race we had some nice battles with the bottom middle and back of the field, finished on the same lap as the leaders, and learned much more as a result.
Then we moved on to focus on the next fastest group of kids. Taking this approach allowed us to chunk up our development and to see and celebrate progress along the way. In the next regional there are three other drivers we want to finish ahead of, and we know specifically who they are. We’re also now friendly with two of those drivers and parents, it has become, at least how I see it, a friendly rivalry, whereas before Jack wasn’t even in the picture. We know that this type of competition will spur all of our kids/young drivers along, and I was happy when we came ahead of one driver in a race, then they went on to win a much bigger race ahead of us.
I’m not sure if this framework is useful to you, but I’ve come to think of the field as composing five or so groups, for example:
· Segment 1. Drivers who are competitive/winning at national level and setting fastest laps at tracks and in races
· Segment 2. Strong regional drivers who are competing at national level, within 0%-1% laptime of the top, often right up and battling at the front in regional races
· Segment 3. Experienced regional drivers within 1% to 2% of leaders, and who’ve “clicked” and are consistent solid performers across different tracks
· Segment 4. Solid drivers e.g. within 2%-5% of leaders, but more variable across different types of tracks i.e. much better on their home track
· Segment 5. Back markers, e.g. more than 5%-7% off leaders lap times but still finishing within 1 lap of leaders
· Off the back. More than 7% off leaders, finishing 1, 2 or more laps behind leaders
Obviously, the percentages are approximate and mainly to illustrate the concept that the field can be split into different segments based on lap times and skills, and doing that helps you to get an idea of the strength of field, where to set your goals and expectations, and how to measure and celebrate progress.
Based on our lap times at our track, and this segmentation approach I can work out our likely position and set both goals and stretch goals. There are actually two big races are coming up on our home track, so that gives us real motivation for practice. We can see how putting in the effort now will move us ahead of certain drivers, when race time comes, all other things being equal.
We are probably between Segment 4 & 5 above, and winning for us right now is beating certain drivers, and when we do I can honestly congratulate Jack for a great job done, rather than constantly being disappointed we weren’t first (that will hopefully come later!) and feeling bad about the whole thing.
Learning #23 — Racing comprises a specific set of skills beyond driving fast
In my mind there are two interdependent halves of driver skills, knowledge and experience.
First is going around a given track quickly, having good fundamentals, which we covered in Section 2 and which I just touched on above.
The second half is racecraft, which we’ll cover here, and is the ability to put that first half into practice in a racing situation with other drivers on track, an additional set of skills. There are also other factors that have to come together for a successful race weekend that I’ll talk about later in this section.
Some of the race skills, with a few notes on each, include:
- How to get the most out of Controlled Practice. We often try to go out behind the drivers slightly faster than us
- How to Qualify well. Jack is still in the habit of treating qualifying like a race, often getting stuck behind slower drivers or stuck defending much faster drivers and sacrificing his lap times. We are learning to find the right gap to get him into so he pushes and feels like he’s chasing faster but not too fast drivers
- How to nail Race Starts
- Getting through and optimizing first corner/first lap. Not trying to win the race on the first lap and spinning out, for example
- Situational awareness of other drivers. Looking or otherwise being aware of other driver’s positions while still focusing on going fast, allows for defending and also avoiding collisions where possible
- Defending. Understanding when and where on track defending is required, and how to do it in terms of racing lines and other techniques
- Overtaking. How to plan and execute overtakes, not just get stuck behind someone on the normal racing line
- Bump drafting. Something we’ve seen but haven’t yet had the opportunity to work together with others drivers to catch the leaders
- Endurance. We’ve been used to doing 10 lap practice sessions, while many races are 16–18 laps. We’ve been told that working in long stints of double race distance is handy to build endurance and we’ve tried to build that into our routine
You learn racing by racing, but some of these techniques we’ve worked on in practice too.
For example, we’ve started to practice the defending and first lap (inside) lines in addition to the usual fastest/late apex lines. Knowing the typical overtaking areas on a particular track is helpful too in planning defensive drills, and in thinking ahead in practices.
Learning #24 — Make racing the drumbeat rather than practice
The parent of a national champion racer I spoke to said that when they started, they entered every organized race they could find. This advice opened my eyes to what we were really trying to do and “what good looked like” in terms of driver development, and it had a profound effect.
Instead of practicing with the view of doing some races, we entered races and framed our practice to support that. We knew we had to get quicker, faster, because we’d be on show competing in another race soon, not at some far-off time. Racing became the drumbeat rather than practice.
First, we expanded the circle of our racing world to include all tracks and race series in a 5–6-hour radius, particularly including Houston, a big city which has many of the top drivers, rather than just focusing on our local tracks, and the regional series.
This approach dramatically increased the number and cadence of races. We’ve already done almost 40% more races with this new policy, and almost double the races of those equivalents who only focus on club and citywide races within the same time period.
Naturally we hope this approach will help us catch up with and overtake others who are not putting in the time to do this. Some might not be prepared to put in the time and effort, or be unable to, which is totally fine. I think for others that it is not even on their radar to even try to travel and race elsewhere, which is fine too. There is a local competitor that has been at karting longer than us and clicked, but doesn’t travel anywhere near as much and yet we’re still often neck and neck, with them winning a fair share, so that is a data point. Despite this I think, obviously, that our approach is sound and will pay off in the medium term.
Second, this focus on racing gave motivation for training, we visited other tracks and worked on different things, even getting coaching on other tracks than our home track. Instead of having, at a minimum, a couple of hours of the same old practice at our home track in a weekend and perhaps going home early, we’d have up to two or three days on track, including practice, qualifying, heats and races.
Thirdly, we got through many more mistakes in a given period of time and learnings from races fed back into our training plan, such as spatial awareness and defensive lines, starts and so on that I talked about above.
Jack’s starts, for example, seem to have come a long long way in the past few months, which they wouldn’t have yet I think if we hadn’t been racing as much This has a compounding effect since if you can do better starts and stay on track around the first lap you can learn a lot more by staying in the race.
As a side benefit to this racing focused approach, I’ve got to meet and get to know a lot more parents, and learn faster myself too. Some of the races we’ve been to have smaller fields but still with quality drivers. Instead of Jack being separated from another driver by 10 places, for example, in a big race, we are right next to them at starts and in the pit lane, so we’ve gotten a chance to chat to people we’d only otherwise see from a distance, and that has been great for Jack too, he can make new friends, learn and so on.
There is also probably something about making the effort to travel to races that shows others about your mindset, values and approach, that you’re committed and prepared to put in the work. By others seeing this, I think that people make more effort to help you, and you can find yourself in a virtuous cycle. You’re getting better inputs and help from those further up the field, and that helps you go quicker, faster.
Learning #25 — Practice, watch, get coached, and race tracks before you race them
This learning is about making the most of a race weekend by getting familiar with the track beforehand.
The origin of this learning is quite simple, after our first regional race in Houston, I made a pact that we’d never race on a track that we hadn’t practiced on first. Jack was running at the back and I thought he would have been capable of a lot more had he been on the track more beforehand. In fact, this seemed so obvious, what a lot of people would call a no-brainer, something hardly worth saying at all.
Controlled practice and even a whole controlled practice day wasn’t enough for Jack to come to grips with the track, and that isn’t really even the purpose of those sessions. Given all the effort and expense and expectations around a race weekend it seemed a waste to go there without sufficient prior practice.
My action was to look at the calendar and pencil in potential dates to visit Houston for practice weekends. This is easier said than done, to find yet another weekend for us to be away from the rest of the family, and as it turned out there was a race at another Houston track so we went there first to practice beforehand and to race, before finally getting back to the site of our first regional race.
It was only a few weeks ago that we returned there, and this time Jack had twice as much experience so my expectations were very positive going in, and I expected much improved lap times. We had a free practice session the evening before the race, then the usual controlled practice, qualifying and race the following day.
So, how did he go?
As it turned out he wasn’t that much faster than the first time we’d been at the track, and definitely still quite off the pace of the leaders! What was going on?
My interpretation was two things.
Firstly, things still haven’t fully clicked for Jack and we are still 1.5–2 seconds off best race pace even at our home track. It was unrealistic therefore for him to suddenly be much better on that track in Houston, even though I somehow expected him to be.
More experienced drivers can better feel their way around a new track, and refamiliarize themselves with old ones they haven’t been to in a while. They seem to have a data bank in their brains and senses of a range of track shapes from past experience, which lets them dial in the track quickly, but Jack wasn’t there yet.
Secondly, the track itself had some specific technical features that made a huge difference to lap times if you didn’t get them right, and these were not features we had on our home track (though running in reverse direction there is a similar high speed corner I can now see).
These features and how to deal with them, were not super obvious, just something you have to learn on that track.
Jack was still driving these sections as he had last time, and getting similar results. Then I talked to another Dad whose son was on pace. He told me that they’d basically camped out at this track all summer in a previous year and got regular coaching here too. It quickly put in context the amount of potential effort required to master a track and layout. It wasn’t just throwing a few more sessions at it.
It also made me ask myself whether karting fundamentals or track knowledge were more important. That race changed my mind in favor of having the right fundamentals and “click”, but clearly getting coaching on specific tracks is important too.
That weekend I wondered whether we’d wasted our time and effort again, and we should have just stayed practicing at our home track, if fundamentals were that important. Later when we did get back to our home track Jack set his PB by half a second after only a couple of sessions, so that put the weekend in yet another light. As I mentioned earlier Jack often seems to get a bump in his lap time reduction after a race weekend elsewhere.
I’ve come to the conclusion that for now we’ll continue to race in Dallas and Houston plus any other regional venues but we won’t go out of our way to drive to some of the National venues that can be 12–15 hours away. It’s not worth it yet, but might be in future if Jack is getting really competitive at that level.
So, what instead?
The other more low-key preparation methods include:
· Racing on the track in a sim/mod
· Watching previous and upcoming streamed races from the track
· Watching YouTube onboards from the track
· Getting the track maps ahead of time and walking through them
· Speaking to others who have raced there who can give you a heads up on key get-rights for the track
What we’ll probably do is to try to convert all of that into some sort of initial analysis and notes with ideas, probably also marked on the track map, and I’m interested to see what Jack can come up with and if that’s helpful.
We can try out or verify the ideas when we get to the track and do a track walk, through initial practice sessions, and through watching others go around the track too.
Learning #26 — The success of a race weekend is down to more than what happens on track
Race weekends can be hot, noisy, busy places, but they move to their own rhythm too.
There is a lot to keep track of as a parent, especially if you’re also the mechanic too, some of which has to be done within or at certain times. What you do (or don’t do) and how you do it will have a big effect on your driver’s ability to be calm and feel prepared to be their best, and ultimately potentially affect their results.
If there is one key to success that we’ve learned for a race weekend it is preparation. This includes getting everything that we’ve talked about so far to come together:
1. A raceable kart in the right class
2. Practice and driver preparation
3. Kart setup, consumables, spares
In addition, you’ll need to have a plan to pull together all the other logistics around a race weekend: your trailer, transport, team (if applicable), accommodation, race entry and so on.
If you’re managing your own mechanical aspects/team then even forgetting something as seemingly removed from racing as a trailer jack or tent weights can be a rolling inconvenience and distraction that can take time and mental energy away from the many other tasks that have to be done.
You and your driver are truly a team that need each other to be performing at a top level if you’re going to be getting the overall results that you’re aiming for.
For example, Jack is not yet at the stage where he can give me detailed feedback on setup changes like gearing and tire pressures, so it is my responsibility to ensure that I have process to get that done and optimized. Also, with that I’m trying to get him to pay more attention to how things feel when I make a change, ideally only changing one thing at a time, and be able to articulate that back to me.
If the weather is changeable, you’ll be the one stressing about the weather and watching out for track conditions and ultimately making the decision about whether to use rain tires or not, for example. You’ll be checking the gas, warming the kart on the stand so your driver doesn’t have to stress about the kart not starting on the grid, and flooding the engine.
You might be involved in discussing start or race strategy with your driver. I find myself reminding Jack about key things about the start, or working with him to determine where we’ll put him out on track during qualifying. And I’m reminding him not to race people in qualifying, getting stuck behind a slower driver, or fighting to defend against a faster one and thus sacrificing multiple laps or even his whole qualifying. He is a racer after all though, they all are, so helping him get out in the right space in qualifying can solve a whole host of problems!
Although every parent is rooting for their child and part of their “team”, I feel that in motorsports especially when you are the mechanic too, that you are literally a key part of the team, and so you have heaps of skin in the game, I expect perfection from myself in my jobs, and yet of course I’m learning and make mistakes too, just try not to make the same ones twice.
I get choked up sometimes, and lose all kinds of separation and objectivity when people ask me how “Jack’s” racing is going because I’m deeply invested in it in every sense as his parent and team member. I’m right there alongside him on the adventure and I’d be lying if I didn’t share emotionally in his success, and also too when things don’t go to plan.
Apart from preparation, a key to success in a race weekend is getting into the rhythm of the weekend, ensuring that you’re doing the right things at the right time, and in time.
I usually use the published schedule for the weekend as a starting point, and through experience I’ve found that most weekends run in a similar way and understand what that is.
Even though there is a schedule I wouldn’t expect things to run like Swiss trains, and more often than not things are running behind or there are other changes. Once in a while a session will go out slightly early or multiple classes run together and might arrive at the grid early and ahead of you, so it pays to always be a bit earlier than what you think. Listen out for announcements and check is there is a physical copy of the updated master schedule posted somewhere.
I’ll put a timer on my phone 10–20 minutes before the next time we need to be at the pit lane. I also double check the schedule against the current sessions showing in the racing app (e.g. RaceHero or transponder app), and also if I have a moment, wander across to the track to triple check which session is currently running. Like I said you have nobody to blame but yourself if you miss or are late to a session, and that impacts your weekend and results.
Another tip is to walk around the paddock and find other parents/drivers in your class, even if you don’t know them well, or to look out for others in a class that is scheduled to run before yours. For example, I know that often Kid Karts and/or Micro Swift runs before us. It can be handy to have a visual reference for when other drivers are warming their karts or moving over towards the pit lane.
Now we’ve gotten to know some people we will sometimes text people that are missing for a session, and vice versa, but this is definitely not something to rely on!
I’ve really emphasized the schedule since that the drumbeat of your time, and you’ll then work back from there to all the other stuff you have to get done on the kart, and with the driver such as analyzing the data and video from the session. Time can easily get away from you, so I’ve learned to “front-load” that work, rather than relaxing after a session first, then potentially running out of time.
In addition to all of that, here is a list of things at top of mind to think about, and any related tips.
For example, you’ll need to:
- Ensure that you’ve registered, paid, got all required wristbands and put them on, signed waivers etc. within the published time windows
- Get the latest version of the schedule, take a picture of it with your phone, set alarms on your phone with a timer ahead of next milestones. Like 10–30 minutes before your next key event.
- Pick up fuel and tires, register tires that you’ll use for qualifying onwards, for example
- Deal with tech requirements and/or inspection, fill out the forms, gotten and attach tags and seals as required by the race series management
- Move in. Set up your trailer, workspace, tables, tents etc.
- Check that the weight of driver and kart meets the minimum for that race series plus a buffer, recognizing that scales at different tracks all weigh exactly the same weight slightly or even quite a lot differently
- Ensure you have the right practice/race tires fitted for upcoming sessions, and that you have the right type and quantity of fuel loaded
- Check cold tire pressures
- Plan and make any setup changes well in advance of next upcoming session time on track
- Warm the kart engine on the stand far enough ahead to fix any issues, but not too far ahead that the engine is cold again on the grid, this will help ensure kart starts first time in pit lane, and can help avoid driver flooding the engine
- As you’re watching the track session make at least a mental note, or ones on paper or your phone about useful things you see your driver or others doing, or improvement areas
- Bring a small set of tools to the grid in case you need to go to tech e.g. screwdriver, spark plug socket, spring puller
- Look at sessions on track in especially in changeable conditions, to get any indications of need to swap rain and slick tires
- Fit rain tires or bring them for the walk to pit lane if conditions are changing
- Don’t hand or take anything from your driver as they come of track in an official session, and before the scales
- Don’t forget to go to tech when exiting after a session, if required
- Check and note hot tire pressures as soon as possible when driver off track
- Get some feedback from driver at the end of the track session while it is fresh in their mind
- Review video and/or data as well as any notes you took to identify small improvements and corrections. This is key to help the driver improve over the weekend, also note/discuss things that they are doing great that they need to keep doing
- Review the data logger info for anything that indicates a setup change is required
- Clean the kart with a cloth, to check for things like loose or missing parts, damage etc. This might prompt you with further questions you can get answers to from others at the track. If the kart is clean others will be more likely to help you!
- Discuss the session with other parents and get some tips and share info on the session
- Plan meals and snacks ahead at the right times, when have a break, not immediately before a race
- Ensure your driver rests, stays cool and hydrated between sessions. Jack often wants to run around and play or hang out with other young drivers, I try to let him do a bit of that but remind him what we are here for, and to be back well before next session. I even thought about putting an AirTag in his pocket
- Keep all your tools and equipment organized and avoid trip hazards and things getting lost or broken for no reason. Have a place for everything, keep everything in its place
- Remember to charge anything that needs to be charged, or swap out spare batteries
- Use your down time to get a head start on your packing up before the main event, so that all that is required is to load the kart at the end
- Take some behind the scenes photos for social media and memories
- Take a moment to enjoy the experience
- Take some time to get to know other parents and racers, be of help if they need it!
- Look after your team and others that have helped you, can be as simple as grabbing a coffee or water for them. Pay it forward!
This obviously isn’t an exhaustive list but just a thought starter (rather than a blank page) and to demonstrate that a lot of important stuff happens off track. Make your own list too!
It’s part of learning but I’ve tried to always do the same things in the same order so I can build up habits and not miss anything out. This organization also helps in not feeling like you’re having to be in rush mode all the time, which can cause careless mistakes, which unfortunately I still make but I don’t ever want to needlessly be in the position where something I’ve forgotten or rushed through has compromised all the hard work Jack has put in (it will unfortunately, but trying to minimize this where possible and get better).
Learning #27 — Plan and debrief races
One thing I learned from my previous corporate career was to debrief after any major events, interactions, workshops and so on.
If you don’t learn from your mistakes then you’re doomed to repeat them! These mistakes can be very costly and even “fatal” in business if you keep making them, but even in karting errors such as not checking your weight on the scales before qualifying can have disproportionately large impacts, like disqualification.
More than that if you want to maximize opportunities, it is critical to continually be getting better and reaching higher. All of these increments, eliminating past mistakes, and capturing small opportunities add up too. They take you up to greater levels of performance, and to the stage of unlocking new potentialities. As far as I know all professional sports teams and coaches use some sort of debrief and “plan, do, review” process.
For example, an item in the debrief from last time. The symptom was Jack getting stuck behind slower drivers in qualifying, and the root cause of that was not getting Jack into the right slot in qualifying. The solution was to ensure we were always at the grid a bit earlier, and to experiment with finding the best slot that worked for Jack e.g. at the front, in the middle or at the back.
Without a debrief process we might forget about the issue or not take any action, or not take the time to get to the root of the problem and solve it properly.
It’s not just Jack though, since I have lots of things to do there are lots of opportunities for mistakes. Like the time Jack came in from practice on race day with a wobbly wheel. It seemed like I hadn’t tightened it enough and so the fix seemed to be to make sure the nuts were tight, and to buy a spare hub or two. In case it happened again.
It was only after talking to another parent about this that I found that it is was more likely that I had overtightened the nuts and sheared off the stud/”bolt” connecting it to the wheel hub. This is another aspect of the debrief process and problem-solving process. You need to get beyond the symptoms into what is really causing the problem, only then can you make a sustainable fix, solving the right problem. You can use the same systematic process to chase down opportunities also.
It’s easy to focus on what went wrong in the debrief process but it’s important to also note down what went well so you can remember to do it again next time, and you’re not in the situation of fixing one issue and in the process breaking something that is working. It’s also better for the drivers confidence to hear and reinforce that they are doing things 95% or 99% right, and these are only small tweaks to make them even better.
There is a much bigger topic here about driver feedback, which I’m certainly not an expert in. Jack and I are still working on that. I think that we’re slowly building trust through practice and repetition of the debrief process and feedback more generally. For example, if it is something that the coaches have told him too, or a problem we’ve had before, and I’m reminding and repeating. He is starting to see that this is not his just dad having a go at him, like I do about picking his laundry up or talking about some feedback the teacher had. Those are for his to benefit in the long term right? Right?!!
Here is what I’ve been talking about in process form.
I create a folder on my computer for each race weekend ahead of time. The first items in there are the planning documents, track maps and registration and so on. Later I’ll put photos and videos from the event in subfolders to keep everything together.
I’ll also create a plan and debrief document in any text editor with the following sections:
a) Race date, location, logistics
b) Race story — filled in later the details of Jack’s results in each round, notable incidents. I fill this after the to give some memory joggers and context to what actually happened when looking back
c) Plan/Prep — big picture plan and specific steps to take ahead of race
d) Debrief — what went well
e) Debrief — better next time
f) Debrief — actions to take
g) Learnings — what have we learned
It’s important to do the debrief as close as possible to the race so it’s fresh in your mind. You might also want to make notes on your phone as you go along. It might seem like there are lots of headings but it’s amazing what useful information you come up with when prompted to fill in something under a heading, rather than relying only on what is top of mind.
It’s important to do “what went well” first in the debrief to get the right perspective. What worked, what ideas were successfully put into place, what luck went your way that you could plan for to not require luck next time. I have mostly been doing this part by myself but I’m gradually starting to involve Jack in this process too.
Next, you’ll cover “better next time”, which was the name suggests is future focused. There is no point in laying blame for what is already in the past. Better to focus on what needs to change next time. For example, perhaps your driver needs to work on spatial awareness, and adopt a defensive line if they are being pursued into a common overtaking area. Perhaps the lunch was missing or a bust. Real examples.
Often you won’t have all the answers to what to do differently, you’ll have to go out ask questions, experiment and learn. There will also be actions that come up too and you need to write these down and do them! For example, one action was for me to understand what the session summary information screen on the data logger (e.g. EGT, minimum speed, max RPM) were telling me about setup and driving,
Some of these on your list might seem insignificant but if not addressed might lead to irritation or frustration on the part of you and your driver, you won’t be in the best mood to perform at the highest level. Keep working out the tension and the kinks, so your driver can focus on the driving and nothing else.
Learning #28 — Yes, make a racing checklist
We all know that making checklists can be helpful but I wasn’t naturally a checklist person until I was forced to be when we started travelling for races with me doing the mechanics role, and I was worried about missing things. There is simply too much to keep track of or to leave to chance.
Even if you have created a checklist then you need to remember to have the discipline to actually look at it each time. I have quite a comprehensive equipment checklist but for our last weekend I didn’t review it because we were unsure if we were going to compete because of the weather. When the decision changed to a “go” I rushed to load our SUV, and forgot a removable jack wheel that I keep in a different part of my garage from the other kart stuff. This was not a show-stopper, but could have been if it had been something else, like the different varieties of fuel I have for different tracks. Yet even the jack wheel was still an avoidable mistake that caused inconvenience over the weekend.
My checklist extends back to the weeks and even months prior to a race, with sections for the week of, day before, and race days. And there is also the equipment checklist I just talked about.
My list also includes a packing list, items that need to be charged, booking accommodation and even a trailer booking, which we still are at the stage of renting.
Of course, this checklist is also updated based on the post-race debrief process, so new things are always being added.
I will see if I can get my checklist in shareable format, and if so, will post a link below. I’d love to hear feedback too if you have any thoughts or additional items.
Section 5. Remember your why, get creative, and have fun
In this section I want to cover off any other overarching learnings and “big picture”, and things that didn’t fit into the earlier sections.
Learning #29 — Racing will take your relationship with your driver, and their relationship with themselves, to a different place
It can be so easy to get caught up in the urgency and details and minutiae of racing that you can lose track of the big picture.
For us that big picture is that Jack grows into a responsible and driven (and happy) individual, who has confidence in himself, is kind to others and doesn’t take himself too seriously.
I want this to be “golden” time for us, super quality time, me, the family and our friends supporting Jack to achieve his dreams in a way that lets him live his life, no matter whether he climbs to the top of the motorsports pyramid or not.
I want it to strengthen our relationship too and not negatively affect it, which can be a real balance when my tendency is sometimes to reprimand Jack for making a mistake especially if we’d already talked about it before.
This karting adventure especially of late has made me respect Jack a lot more, which might sound like a strange thing to say, but I’ve seen his genuine talent for driving and of late his real determination and even grit to stick with something and get better. Whereas before I felt that he thought his base talent would carry him through by itself.
What I’ve seen recently in Jack are some of the universal human traits that most all of us admire and even aspire to, and I’ve been lucky to see them demonstrated in non-trivial situations on several occasions. I feel that karting has been instrumental in really forming positive aspects of Jack’s character, which he’ll take forward to everything he does in future.
We’ve also simply just spent a lot of a time together towards the same shared goal. We’ve had the time travelling to the track or other cities, in practice, at races, in hotels and meals after a long day when things have gone well, and when they have not.
We’ve had those shared experiences that he’s old enough now to hopefully remember and look back on. What first pops to mind as special memories was the first regional race we went in, staying in a basic motel near the track. It seemed even at the time to be special moments for both of us, something new and the first time we’d ever gone away just the two of us, apart from a camping evening.
We’ve also had to work through frustrations on both sides in working out our “karting relationship” as compared to what our average day to day relationship had been.
Importantly I’ve learned to try to keep these separate and put him in the driver’s seat, pun intended, much more around karting and for us to have much more of a working relationship there focused on karting, rather than me just telling him what to do, or even trying to.
We’ve also really tried not to involve karting in the consequences of not doing his chores, homework and so on. We try to never take karting away, since this is surely counterproductive since it says we don’t value all the work he’s already put in. The slight exception is that Jack has to keep his grades up if he wants to keep racing, and has to make the effort at school, even if he’s tired after a race weekend.
Racing has become part of Jack’s identity and a central part of how he sees himself. I have been at pains to stress that it is his effort and focus that are most important to his Mum and I right now even ahead of results at this stage. Yet Jack can see that winning does matter, and that’s not a bad thing, he is a racer at heart after all.
The last thing I’ll say is that sometimes you need to be in parent mode though, give your driver a hug when they need it and tell them that they can do it and you believe in them. That works for us, do what works for you.
Learning #30 — Managing the business aspects are key to a successful career
Early on in our karting experience I began to hear tales about talented drivers essentially being forced out of the sport because they ran out of money. At the same time other advice seemed to be to “not worry” about sponsorships until much later on, and essentially that self-funding was the only way to move forward.
These two views in my mind were contradictory, and coming from a business and content production background seemed a bit jarring,
It would be easy to “drop the ball” on business totally and miss out on funding and the like when Jack’s results made those options available. At the same time, I could see that when Jack was eventually starting to get better and more visible results, he would likely start attracting more attention. Other parents have told me as much too.
I didn’t want to be like one parent I saw, running around the track with a huge lens and professional camera shooting photos, and printing photo cards to give to professional drivers, when his son had just stepped in the kart and was a back-marker.
There should be an opportunity to find a middle ground in all of this, and think more creatively about how to approach things to lay the foundations for future success.
So, what is a way forward?
What we’ve actually done so far is to very casually create a social media presence (parent managed Instagram and YouTube) and brand (@RacingJack16 — Race Hard Play Hard) for Jack, without overthinking it too much.
We also have created a few different shirts that we can wear on track days. Jack likes racing and gaming, but also likes building structures and wants to design games. We’re trying to weave these things in since they are more unique to Jack, and his personality and will hopefully help distinguish us from others. Also, we don’t want to lose track of these other interests and remember to feed them despite his practice and race schedule.
In a very practical sense having the Instagram allows us to connect with other drivers and karting professionals we meet, and we also follow pretty much only karting sources so this is all handy to find out about stuff that is relevant to us, and might help us.
Next, if we’re to treat this like a real business we need to look at money going out, and money coming in, and how we can manage costs and start generating some income. I need to create a budget for next year, and understand what drives the overall cost, which is mostly the amount of practice and racing we do in the schedule. For example, for each race we’ll have at least one set of new tires and likely two, we’ll have entry fees, travel, expenses, fuel and so on. If we decide to join a team, we’ll have to factor that in too.
Basically, I’ll need to add up everything we’ve spent so far (something I’ve been scared to do), and use that, and an estimate/schedule of what we plan to do to come up with a budget. I can work out the total estimate for tires, fuel and work out which are the biggest cost buckets. Fast forwarding, I’ve read that some people have gone out to friends and family and found someone/a family to be tire sponsors, fuel sponsors and so on, which I think sounds like a promising idea, but don’t stop reading and jump into that yet!
The other side of the equation is income. At the moment the expenses are 100% covered by what you might call “startup investment”, which is basically our family paying or self-funding. I’ve just called it investment so that gets us into a different and more creative mindset, around how do we manage our investment, and potentially get some returns, or at least some funds coming in.
People only give you money and stuff if they think there is something in it for them, some value, and that can be financial and non-financial value. The classic sponsorship model is that you as a driver or team will help promote the sponsors business and they will sell more products or services as a result.
When I thought about this more generally there are lots of other types of value created here for other potential stakeholders and supporters.
There is entertainment, living the thrill of racing vicariously, education, motivation, supporting a kid’s dreams, giving back and making a difference, seeing yourself and your identity in a new and positive light and so on.
If we were to treat racing and Jack/your driver as a “product” you start to think about how to market that product. You can do some research on yourself about why you buy and keep buying various things. Products and services solve needs, wants and dreams so that is what we need to try to tap into.
Racing, driven by a resurgence in Formula One and shows like Drive to Survive and other factors, seems to be having a champagne moment in the sun, to mix metaphors so that is positive. Though this doesn’t always translate to people understanding grassroots karting in the mainstream, so the question is how do you bridge that gap. To do that, if it’s like any other business, is about education, metaphor, comparison, is about satisfying a need, telling a story then delivering on that in a way that is valuable to supporters.
Again, some of this is just finding the right questions to ask, and these ones come to mind:
- What are the potential sources of revenue?
- What do other drivers / parents / teams do?
- What makes a successful revenue raiser vs less successful? What are some supporting case studies?
- If/how/when to best engage friends and family?
- If/how/when to engage business or even corporate support?
- What are the different types of value that supporters get and across the different levels of support?
- What can we learn from higher levels of motorsports, other sports, and a broader set of endeavors e.g. indie music and film production?
- What should our social media approach and content plan be?
For us this all probably means getting more organized on storytelling and getting Jack out there to speak more in his posts and videos, so people outside our immediate circle can get to “know” him.
We also need to not forget to emphasize all the great and interesting things that come along with racing, and help potential supporters feel excited too. We’ll likely try to write some sort of document or prospectus to supporters that we can send out. Even if we choose to not send it out straight away, it is good practice on the business side on how to engage with supporters in the first place, so we will be ready and not starting from scratch when Jack hopefully moves towards the front of the field. I want him to be involved in this too, since this isn’t necessarily the stuff they teach you at school, yet is valuable in the real world.
And we genuinely want to find ways to give back, whether that’s demystifying karting and encouraging the next generation through means like this article, or engaging the schools, or more directly helping get others started in karting who would otherwise have not had the opportunity, for example.
My last thought here is also “be careful what you wish for”, if you’re going to accept money from sponsors or supporters then that comes with additional levels of responsibility, commitment and potentially scrutiny too and overhead.
Keep any funds separate from your personal funds, and be clear at least to yourself, and ideally to supporters what happens if you decide to stop karting, or pull out of national races and so on. Do they get their funds back, a pro-rated amount and so on. With all the positives that can come from engaging supporters, be aware that there can be negatives too if things don’t go as you expect, and have an idea of what to do if that is the case. Under promise and over deliver.
Find out what works from you and go from there. As you’ll hear shortly getting the story of what you’re doing and why is probably as important for internal consumption within your family as external, to justify the time, energy and expense you’re already putting in.
Learning #31 — Find the balance with the family and other stakeholders (teachers)
There is a need, we’ve found, to bring family and other stakeholders along on the racing journey too, since they are not necessarily part of the adventure side of the equation. They just see that you’re away a lot and, at the extreme, living a parallel life in which karting is the only important thing! Some of finding the balance is simply about communication and conveying enough of the right detail about what is going on and what that means.
You and your driver will be away a lot more for practice and racing, and you’ll be tired when you’re back, and seemingly unable to focus on other things that are not racing. There will also be significant expenses, and even days away from school and the like. Kart racing is simply disruptive to the status quo, I believe, whichever way you look at it.
I don’t have all the answers here, but at least this is a reminder that you’ll need to bring others along, and square things off with your significant others at a minimum.
For us, we’ve tried to get the overall story established and stick with it. This is about more than karting, it’s about Jack growing as a person and a young man, learning responsibility and grit that will help him in later life. This is his sport, and we’re investing in his fitness habits too. We’re not in dreamland that he’s going to step into Formula One next year, but what is wrong with helping a nine year old chase down their dreams, if it doesn’t mean having to sacrifice everything else forever.
The karting story is about exploring his talent and potential, and when we made the decision to get the racing kart, that was also a decision for us to do our part and help him with more than money but time and emotional support for his practice and racing.
This wasn’t an open-ended commitment though, we said we’d review it after a year and as we went along. It’s important that we can get Jack to the click point and beyond this year, and even to a national race if he’s ready enough. From first stepping in the kart to national race is a great story if we can make it happen in a sensible way. We’ve also tried to set our expectations and remind ourselves that things don’t happen overnight, but we do want to see progress.
I’ve tried my best to explain to my wife and others little bits of the detail to show how hard Jack has been trying and working since those things can be invisible to anyone that is not with Jack every second as I am.
I’ve tried to decode for her the ideas about the strength of field I talked about earlier, the level of competition and so on.
For example, in Jack’s first regional race he was last of the starters (P22) and the first of two black flagged as the leaders came round to lap him. In the most recent regional race, he finished P12 last on track (due to spinning out early and getting started again), but was on same lap as leaders and wasn’t black flagged, plus had 3 race starters behind him, two who crashed out and one that had other issues after we’d overtaken them. This was significant progress! We’re getting to know our immediate competition more, so I can explain whether we came ahead or behind a certain driver or drivers. My wife can put a face to the name, and get a clearer sense of how we did, and therefore to celebrate progress, even if on face value the result might not seem impressive to others.
We do try to shield our daughter from track time, and having to sacrifice her playdates, sports and interests for Jack’s karting, so that inevitably means that my wife takes care of her when we’re at the track. I’m really mindful of making sure that I attend her big events, and have promised that Dad will drive her around Texas too, if that’s what she needs when the time comes!
A stakeholder is simply someone that is impacted by a thing or project that you’re doing. So apart from our family, there are parents, siblings, and extended family and friends. other important stakeholders are also the school and school district, and even our neighbors, parents of Jack’s friends (when we can’t make play dates, get togethers or parties sometimes) and others including the people at the tracks we are part of, and others in the broader karting community.
For school, we’ve tried to inform and bring Jack’s teachers along with what he’s doing, and with a new school year starting we’ll have to begin that over again. We probably have more work to potentially engage the school principal and even school district, and like I said get in the newsletter so we’re educating other students, parents and teachers too.
With stakeholder management, a thing I know particularly from business, you need to work out the impact on the stakeholder person and group and also work out “what’s in it for them” also known as WIIFM.
For the teachers and school part of the impact is that Jack will miss days of school to compete at regional and national races, and that he’ll be tired and probably not paying as much attention after a big race weekend. We also practice after school on say Wednesday and/or Thursday so again Jack might be tired the next day and we also have to manage any homework and have a process for that. They will have to come to know and trust that Jack and we are serious about school, and will get the work done. Even if that might look slightly different than others who don’t have the same levels of sport commitments.
What do they get out of it? Again, this is telling the story in an engaging way (and it is an engaging story), and making them feel like they are part of Jack’s journey, perhaps even a story they can tell others about talented students they’ve taught?
Keeping the school onside, and keeping within the attendance policy, and Jack keeping his grades up, are well-known challenges for student competitors. I know that there are several parents who either homeschool their kids, or their kids are part of a remote school.
We’re not there yet on remote school, but it is on our radar, especially too since Jack has his own unique challenges and creative strengths that might benefit from a more tailored education.
Of course, Jack himself is a stakeholder too. We have to remind him that driving the path of competitive sports means that he won’t have as much time to just relax, and play with his friends.
I’m a stakeholder too, and my wife and I together are a stakeholder group. We have to make sure that the demands of karting can fit in with how we want to live life, to sacrifice for our kids but not sacrifice everything if we could avoid that through better planning.
Learning #32 — Be a good member of the community
We’d heard that karting had a good community and we’ve found that to be really true so far.
For any community to work there is definitely give and take involved. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to experience that while karting is a business, the vast majority of people are in it for the love of the sport and racing, and have gone out of the way to be helpful. Naturally we’ve also tried to offer what limited knowledge and help we can too. This has mainly amounted to lifting stuff so far!
I always try to find my own way to give back and this article is an attempt to do that for something that I can do, while others might volunteer for track days, be part of the leadership of member tracks, host race series, fund karting infrastructure, teams and drivers, and so on.
At the grassroots level everyone has been great at offering technical knowledge, loan of spares and help. I have met only a few parents who I’d describe more as takers, so this article is also an opportunity just to flag this to those new to the sport. It’s easy to get so focused on your own driver that it might also be easy to forget that you are part of a community also. Find your own way to contribute.
Karting has been a good activity for me to meet other parents too and share a bit of the journey together given our common goals to try to let our kids follow their skills and passions, and deal with the ups and downs of racing.
We are getting to know people, and finding our place, and definitely interested to see how this community aspect evolves.
Learning #33 — Have fun
I’m going to close on what is perhaps the second most common piece of advice after “seat time” and that is to “have fun.”
I’ve probably seen that simple advice from a thousand different viewpoints over time, and my current take is that in kart racing it can be easy to become obsessed, lose perspective and sight of the big picture.
Racing and competition can easily suck you in and become an obsession or addiction. It can be easy to forget at times that my driver is a 9-year-old boy, my son, and racing is just one of the things he does, and one of the ways he engages with the world, even though it is one he’s clearly very proud of.
It can be easy to be too hard on Jack when he makes a mistake, especially one he’s made before. It can be easy to be too hard on myself also, but that’s just the way I am, and a lot of us are too.
A few times now Jack has performed his best when he’s just relaxed and confident rather when I’m trying to coach him on a lot on things to get right. Taking things too seriously can be counterproductive, and I have to remind myself and him coming into a main event that we’ve done the work, so we just have to go out there and have fun.
There is also probably something too about this being a “marathon rather than a sprint.” It could be easy to miss the potential good times, and not be present for the experience but instead trapped in your head about permutations and the future.
A win is a win, as many parents have reminded me, so take the win, even a small one, they seem to imply, because there might equally be heartbreak next time. That’s racing.
It could be easy for either of us to burn out too, race weekends can be grueling already, and we haven’t even started nationals yet. Part of trying to keep some balance is making the most of our non-racing time too, and trying to keep things in perspective.
Last race weekend was a scorcher, weather wise, and one of the things I remember most fondly was Jack and I sitting in the car with the a/c running and eating a take away pizza. The final was still to go later that evening. It was paradise, just a special moment, we’d done the work and put everything we could into the weekend. The result didn’t really matter as Jack was likely to be off the pace anyway, as he had been all weekend. We could just look forward to the race and enjoy our pizza. That’s having fun in my book and a treasured memory, one that might live on now that it has been inscribed in this article.
Epilogue
The plane touched down at DFW from Maui’s Kahului airport a little after 6am, on a still dark rain-soaked morning. Through the painful fog of tiredness came that old familiar feeling. Cogs turning, wheels turning. Thinking about Jack’s practice schedule, and the seat time we’d missed while on vacation. Thinking about things we should be doing, or should have already done. Closing the gap. Constantly feeling that we are behind, running, trying to catch up.
Tomorrow we’d be back at the track and it would all begin again. We sleepwalked through the next 24 hours in a jet-lagged fuzz. Ready to go to the track, I decided to call the shop to double check that Jack’s engine service had been completed as planned, and it hadn’t since there was a backlog.
Now I really wasn’t sure what to do next. We had a race coming at the end of the following week and would be traveling to Houston. Then a key regional at our home track in 6 weeks. Jack was still off the pace by up to a couple of seconds.
The phone clicked off. After a flash of relief that we didn’t have to lethargically drag out to the track in our tiredness, the reality began to sink in. I’d hoped that after resting up for a few weeks on vacation Jack might make a breakthrough, find half a second, when we got back on track. We could work with that and confidently build from there. But now that reassuring expectation turned a little into mild panic instead.
Three weeks out of that kart would turn into four or five. A week can make all the difference in momentum. This year that we’d planned to invest getting Jack up to speed seemed to be slipping away. Jack’s chance to place in the top 10 in a regional race was fading. Even the likelihood of completing his first national race in the first year, and keeping his development trajectory and story strong.
I didn’t ever want to be in this position again. I know why people have backup engines too, and lamented the fact that I hadn’t acquired one yet. Our “why?” for racing had evolved, we were aiming to be competitors now rather than hobbyists and needed to plan and organize at the level we aspired to be.
I tried to console myself that sometimes setbacks can be blessings in disguise and hoped this would be the case. It was a prompt for us to up our sim racing game and finally think through what a fitness plan for Jack might look like including some cycling and distance swimming.
The engine was finally ready and we made the trip to Houston to compete, we even by chance ended up on the podium. On returning to our home track Jack made great progress over a couple of days as we tried various tricks to get him to push rather than only drive in familiar circuits around our home track.
We left for a planned in-laws family meetup on a high as Jack really seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough, and moving ahead of some of our immediate competitors from the last races together.
After arriving at the meetup, I casually looked at the results of a club race that we were missing and saw that one of our close competitors had bested Jack’s time and their own PB by a significant margin.
I held back from telling Jack for a while since I didn’t want to burst his bubble on what he’d just achieved, as I myself had felt quite deflated when I first saw it. When I did finally tell him he didn’t seem like it was a big deal, which kind of surprised me.
Perhaps his reaction was the real breakthrough, really what we were doing all of this for. Not falling apart every time the bar was raised on us, or there was a setback, but acknowledging it and getting back to work. In that moment Jack’s reaction and what it implied seemed much more valuable than any lap time could ever be.
Follow Jack on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/racingjack16/)
and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@RacingJack16) at RacingJack16
For more of my writing, and to read upcoming articles applying the lessons we learned to business and creativity, follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettcowell/)
I’d love to hear any tipes, suggestions, or feedback that you have. If you found the article valuable then please like and share it widely.
All the best, and keep pushing!
Follow Jack on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/racingjack16/)
and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@RacingJack16) at RacingJack16
Find more of my writing, and to read upcoming articles applying the lessons we learned to business and creativity follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettcowell/)