Winter can be the time to explore new opportunities and set good habits for the year ahead. Will Gray looks at the many different areas to place your focus.

Signs of early Spring may be appearing fast, but there are still a few months before many of the disciplines which take a winter holiday will be back on track. This is the ideal time, then, to explore other ways to get your motorsport fix. There are plenty of motorsport activities that continue through the winter – from grassroots events like AutoSOLOs and 12-Car rallying, to the muddy mayhem of Trialling – and entering events like these can help keep your skills polished.

The same is true of virtual racing or doing some racerecapping and watching helpful guides on MotorsportUK TV. If you’ve let your fitness slip over a mince pie or two, this is also an opportunity to correct that and get back in shape. Just building up some simple exercises over the next month or so could make a huge difference when you get back to competition – and it is just a matter of creating a routine, setting your goals and building up momentum.

This is also a great time to try out marshalling – and although many courses have already been run, there are plenty of ways to learn the skills you need to help your Club put on events in the summer.

Virtual Racing

Racing does not have to stop when the tracks close. It continues online 24-7, 365 days of the year – and with the quality of modern gaming and simulation software, it is not just a way to keep the buzz of racing going through winter, it is a valuable tool for building up new skills. It is far easier to race online than you might think, and neither do you need to throw yourself into the world of online racing immediately to keep your racing mind sharp – you can also build your racing skills or your track knowledge by driving on your own.

Even on a standard console, the SRO-licensed game Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC) will allow you to drive on many British circuits in GT3, GT4 machinery, while Gran Turismo includes familiar Club cars like the Mazda MX5s and Honda Civics, although on not so many familiar tracks. Head of Esports at Motorsport UK, Paul Crawford, says: “You can use a console and controller to learn race craft, how to line up overtakes and keep your eye in, and ACC is the closest on console you can get to a simulator.

“If you’re going to be racing somewhere like Donington Park, for example, during the season and you’ve watched some onboards, you can use ACC on a PlayStation or Xbox to learn
lines, corner speeds and sequences even better. “It helps to familiarise yourself with what to expect and although you can also get that to some extent with onboards, I think it goes in your memory a bit more when you’re making active inputs, rather than just watching a screen.”

To get the best experience, however, Crawford recommends using a PC with the right level of processing power for gaming, buying a steering wheel and pedals, then signing up to iRacing – which comes free with Motorsport UK’s eSports Membership. “If you want your sim racing to be constructive for real world racing, or if you can’t go real world racing and want to do proper racing on track against other people, you really need the equipment – but you can build it up slowly,” explains Crawford. The cheapest wheel and pedal set you can get is around £180-200 – but if you are used to the costs of going racing, that’s probably the fuel you spend getting a race meeting and competing out on track. Or less than a set of tyres.

“The PC is the expensive part – but if you’re a gamer already, if you already play Call of Duty or Fortnight on your PC, it will be good enough to run iRacing, or any of the other games. If you don’t, it will probably be a minimum of £700 to get one.” Crawford points out that there is a wide range of titles online that you can select from – including Assetto Corsa and Le Mans Ultimate – but says that if you are looking to do sim racing seriously, or to prepare for real world competition, iRacing offers the most options.

“It’s the most established and it’s got the most circuit and car combinations that you can drive on,” he adds. “You can do time trials and race against AI if you don’t want to go straight into competition, but when you do, there are hundreds of Championships running all the time and you go through different licences, starting in rookies then working your way up.”

Head to The Hills

If you fancy something completely different, you could join a growing number of track racers trying out the discipline of Trialling. This unique form of motorsport – which involves driving up a hill through a course of markers – has very little in common with everyday track racing, yet it has become a popular way for people to keep their sporting action going through the winter.

“It’s easy to get involved and it’s really good fun,” explains BTRDA Sporting Trials Chairman Stuart Beare. “There’s a lot of racers doing it now, especially in Historic Trials, and I think that’s because it’s a great social day, it gives people a chance to catch up with their mates and although it’s probably more relaxed than a race day, you’re still getting a buzz.”

It’s a challenging and relatively low-cost event that involves a driver and passenger and is known for its skill and coordination – with throttle control being one of the key elements. It also demands good teamwork, as the pair in the car must work together, and the passenger must shift their weight around in the car to help them get up the course. There are two main forms of the discipline – Sporting Trials, which involve specialist cars with ‘fiddle brakes’, and Historic Trials, which involve simpler cars and sections that are easier to drive. There is also a class in between, but most beginners first find their way into the sport on the Historic side.

“A historic trial would get 60-65 competitors, whereas a modern trial would be 30-40,” explains Beare. “The calendar runs from January to December, but we have a three-month break from June to September, so it’s great for people who do other disciplines in the summer and want to keep going. Normally people come and marshal or watch a couple of times, get in the passenger seat, get confident, then get stuck in. There’s lots of opportunities to get involved and lot of the driver-passenger combinations tend to end up involving husband-and-wife teams, couples or fathers and sons.”

Events take place all around the country, roughly every fortnight, and they are full-on, with competitors constantly busy checking the course, watching others or driving themselves. There are multiple runs, and the course alters as the conditions change – so even if you master it the first time, there’s always a new challenge on the next run up the hill. Entry level cars can cost anything from £5,000 and often change hands between fellow competitors, so are quite easy to find, while beginners are well advised to take part in a training day to learn the ropes. The next one of these is in mid-March at Shelsely Walsh, so there is still time to sign up.

Beare explains: “There’s normally 6-8 cars on a training day and you will have one of the regular drivers sit in with you as you drive some sections to give you tuition. It’s important to get an understanding of it all, but being a passenger is also a good way of getting that, because you get a feel for the pace, the speed and what the car can do.”

For those who want to get competitive, there are Championships run by the BTRDA and Motorsport UK, the latter involving 17 rounds, with ten counting towards the title. Beare says the sport is in “good health” and has been slowly building thanks, in part, to content posted on YouTube and Facebook, which has grown a following and increased awareness.

“The Historic side has got lots of cars out of sheds and restored and refurbished,” concludes Beare. “It’s seen as a lower difficulty because the cars are not so capable, so we’re now finding some of those who came into the sport are moving to the Sporting side, with steeper hills and more nimble and powerful cars, to get even more of that adrenaline buzz.”

The StreetCar Scene

Even if you’re a seasoned competitor, there is always something to be gained from competing in StreetCar grassroots events. Club Development Assistant Benedict Smith explains: “They can keep your senses sharp, improve driving skills, build confidence in navigation, let you explore a new form of motorsport or simply just give you some fun in the off season.”

AutoSOLOs, for example, are challenging events that take place on a sealed surface around a course set out with cones. They are often held in a car park and while they may not look

like the most cutting-edge fast-action competitions, they are actually carefully designed to sharpen up your car control and keep your mind in focus. The aim is to get through the designated course in the fastest time, without accumulating any penalties. That means that the driver’s ability to handle their car is the most important factor – honing a skill that is beneficial whatever summer racing you take part in. And, as with any StreetCar event, you can compete using your everyday road car.

If you prefer Rallying but don’t have any Rallies you can enter, there are plenty of winter 12 Car events. These – as you might expect – involve up to 12 cars, following a course on public highways, with precise time controls that aim to test the participants’ navigation skills and driving concentration. They are also a great way for someone to start Rally driving or co-driving, as the navigation used teaches the basics for bigger events. They are also a great way to build team cohesion between driver and navigator, as the relationship within that team, and the ability to plan and work together under pressure, is key to achieving successful results.

Smith continues: “There are 75 now StreetCar Clubs around the country organising lots of 12 Car Rallies and AutoSOLO events. The StreetCar website – streetcarmotorsportuk.com – has a link to ‘Upcoming Events’ where you can find the latest details, or you can submit a ‘get started’ form to be matched with your nearest participating Club and discuss their events. The benefit of grassroots competition in StreetCar events is that you will not need to add any kit to your existing list. All you need is your everyday road car and your free RS Clubman licence; plus, the price of entry and Club membership you can keep your motorsport going through the year.”

Learn from the Screen

Motorsport UK TV has a wealth of content that can help you use the winter to build your skills and knowledge, from following a fitness training programme to studying circuit guides for many of the UK’s major tracks. The 11-episode Fitness Training Series opens with insight into why this is so important inside the car, then goes on to cover specific areas including endurance; body weight; reaction times; hydration; grip; neck, core and body strength; and posture and movement.

The Driver61 section, meanwhile, offers a ‘University of Racing’ in which former racing driver Scott Mansell dishes out advice and guidance on the many different micro-elements that make up a good racing driver. The series of 25 videos helps improve your racing and race craft and covers a wide range of topics. These include understanding data logging, how not to overtake, how to take a first corner, how to make a perfect rolling start and how to warm your tyres. There are also technique-specific videos including cornering, which is split into specific videos on braking, entry speed, mid-corner and corner exit techniques, and how to cope with oversteer or understeer.

There are also circuit guides, offering advice on how to tackle some of the most popular UK circuits, and the ‘Your First Race’ series, which is aimed at newcomers to circuit racing and provides a step-by-step guide through your first race weekend.

Other disciplines are well covered too, with similar multivideo first-time guides to Rallying, Autocross, Hill Climb and StreetCar as well as Motorsport Explained, which introduces many of the UK’s different disciplines, all under the ‘Motorsport UK Originals’ section. These video guides are not the only thing you can learn from on Motorsport TV though – it is also a great place to go to catch up on the action you might have missed around the UK last year, and maybe learn a thing or two from others.

There is a huge number of race recaps available covering 13 different British Championships, from the BTCC to the BXCC. Delve further, discipline-by-discipline, and you can go beyond the British Championships and find coverage of Club events including the 750 Motor Club, BARC and TCR, which also gives great insights into racing on many of the circuits in the UK. You can stream races as-live or jump through to highlights moments, identified by yellow lines on the play bar. And if you want to brush up on a particular circuit, you can search through the different championships to see how it’s done in different machinery.

Fitness Focus

One of the best uses of your spare time in the build-up to the season is to work on your health and fitness – whether that is making physical adaptations and improvements or recovering from an absence from the gym. The additional time you have available will soon disappear, so it is a good plan to build good habits to keep going through the year. Jack Wilson, a fitness instructor at the Porsche Human Performance Centre, says that it is best to maintain a continuous level of fitness, because keeping at a good level is far easier than building from scratch, and explains: “The longer you don’t train, the more fitness you’ll lose – and you’re likely to lose cardiovascular fitness faster than strength.

“The rate of decline is also faster the older you are, so reductions in fitness over a given period of time will be more evident in people over the age of 60 to 65. However, on a positive note, those with more established training histories tend to regain fitness faster when they resume training than people with a more limited training history.”

The Porsche Human Performance Centre works with the Motorsport UK Academy but also with anyone who is looking to improve their fitness, and the team there identify six key fitness areas for motorsport: body composition, cardiovascular fitness, physical strength, mobility, psychomotor abilities like reaction times and visual skills, and heat tolerance.

So, with most racing seasons now around a month away, then, what can someone who has taken a bit of a break from training do to get back to full fitness? “Firstly, acknowledge the mistake of leaving it until you’ve only got one month to get fit,” smiles Wilson. “But once you’ve done that, you need to make a plan and focus on core fitness principals. “If you just leave it to chance, things are going to get in the way. The important thing is to get some consistency then use that to build up from there – and if you’ve had a long lay-off, you need to start steady and take a broader view – yes you want to be as fit as possible for the first race, but hopefully your season is longer than one race!”

Tom Cottis, Sports Scientist at Motorsport UK, advises: “A good plan is to do two cardio sessions at conversational pace for 30 minutes to build your aerobic base then for strength you should do whole body exercises that include an upper body push and pull, two good lower body exercises like squats and lunges, and a couple of area-specific exercises. If you have a limited timeframe, it’s often best to work with a professional who can give you an optimal routine, suited to your lifestyle, that will work in the quickest period possible – rather than wasting time scrolling through the limitless number of Instagram workouts that don’t necessarily deliver on all the promises!”

Good nutrition is just as important as good training when it comes to health, fitness and performance in motorsport. It can help you to improve physical endurance and mental focus, reaction times and decision making, muscular endurance and strength and heat tolerance and thermoregulation, as well as being crucial for recovery. Cottis, who is a specialist in nutrition, says: “We fuel our cars with the best petrol, but we also need to fuel our body with the best food for optimum performance. Nutrition isn’t about eating a specific ‘superfood’; it’s about building good habits and consistency leading to a ‘super diet’ and there’s a list of ideal habits you should follow.

These include matching calorie and carbohydrate intake to personal goals and activity levels; replacing processed for whole foods; eating quality protein and vegetables or fruit with every meal; eating a mixture of natural fats; drinking non-calorie drinks; snacking intentionally; planning and preparing in advance and sticking to the rules 80 per cent of the time.

Cottis continues: “Take a ‘dietary audit’ and see where you need to improve and spot the easiest wins then nail one at a time. In four weeks, you’ll be half way there. The best diets are sustainable but also enjoyable. Focus on foods rich in vitamins and minerals, but make sure to include food and drink you like and don’t try to make too many changes in one go.”

Marshalling and Organising

Taking time away from the racetrack also gives an opportunity to experience and give back to motorsport in other forms – and becoming involved as a Marshal not only keeps the buzz going but can also open the door to exploring new disciplines, meeting new like-minded people and even standing trackside at major events like the British Grand Prix, subject to grading and selection process. Competition is rarely more intense than in karting, and this is a great place to build up your Marshalling skills as many nearby venues run on different weekends, giving the opportunity for plenty of trackside time. There’s also plenty of Rallies in winter that need Marshals, as well as grassroots and StreetCar events like Trials, AutoSOLOS, AutoTests and 12-Cars.

The first step into Marshalling is to become accredited – a simple process all done through the Learning Hub in the members log-in section of Motorsport UK’s website. Under ‘My Learning Paths’ you simply select the Registered Marshal Accreditation Course, complete all the sections and the assessment, then download your certificate. You can then go into your profile and, if you are already a registered member, just go to ‘Marshal Registrations’ and click on the ‘All Discipline Marshal’ to turn it from a red ‘add’ to a green ‘current.’ And that’s it, you are ready certified, registered and ready to go start your marshalling journey. It really is that easy.

It is then just a matter of getting some time under your belt, and Motorsport UK’s Volunteer Lead Sue Fletcher explains: “You can volunteer alongside more experienced Marshals at many different events, and they are more than happy to share their experience and knowledge. There are also modules available on the Learning Hub once you’ve registered.” Having the insight of active racers on Marshalling teams is seen as a major benefit and Fletcher adds: “Lots of Clubs run training sessions for their regular Marshals during this time of the year and many are very keen to gain a driver’s viewpoint – so there’s usually plenty of opportunities to get involved.”

Outside of Marshalling, there is also the opportunity to get involved in organising and running events. These do not happen on their own, and people with some spare time and passion for motorsport are always welcomed by Clubs to help set up courses on old airfields or farmers’ fields, laying out the tests with cones, hammering in stakes or putting up awnings. It is also a time to plan for the summer – and that presents the opportunity to get more involved in your Club and have a go at event planning. Many committees would welcome a newcomer offering to assist in planning and it can be fun – from going out on a recce for a 12-Car to managing entries for grassroots events (for those who enjoy spreadsheets!).

Ultimately, with so many things to do, there is absolutely no need to hibernate when the racing stops. This, instead, is a time to grow your passion for the sport, develop new interests, improve your preparation and start to plan for the season ahead. After all, you never know where it might take you next.