Do You Want To Be A Racing Driver?

Racing drivers have some very particular attributes, one of which is obviously the ability to drive at considerable speed without crashing – as well as avoiding being overtaken by people with similar levels of skill.  Here in the UK, there are a lot of people who think that they can drive – an even greater number of which who reckon they can drive well.

For those people out there, Vauxhall has the perfect competition set up – the VXR Racing Driver of the Year 2008. The competition kicked off last year and rose to an incredible level of success (including some TV coverage).  This year, Vauxhall are once again on the hunt for Britain’s best undiscovered driving talent (if you have a racing license don’t bother applying – but if you love doing handbrakers in your local Sainsbury’s car park after closing then please do).

What do you get if you win?  You’ll get to spend a season in a race-tuned Vauxhall Astra VXR – once of the most powerful hot hatchbacks in production with a 0-60 time of 6.2 seconds!  Last year’s winner goes by the name of John Alison, a mortgage consultant from Beverley.  Not only did he win the VXR Racing Driver of the Year but he’s now competing for Vauxhall in the Dunlop Sport Maxx Cup.

This year, a full season’s racing in the 2009 Cup is up for grabs, along with professional guidance and tuition from the BTCC team of Fabrizio Giovanardi, Matt Neal and Tom Onslow-Cole.  Sound good huh?  Frankly, for a lot of us out there, I’m sure it sounds like a dream come true (hey, it’s not like Ferrari does a competition like this anyway right?).

So, what do you have to do to actually take part?  The first section requires that you complete the online test – at the moment you have about 33 days left to do this before the option closes.  It involves first of all filling in a number of questions that prove that you’re ‘VXR enough’ – or simply are actually interested in racing.

The second part of the test is a little bit more interesting.  First up, you’ve got a memory/reaction game – you need to select the car is it appears.  After this, you have to control a car by threading it around a race track using your mouse.  If you’re using a trackpad, don’t even bother attempting this.  It can prove frustrating at best!

If you get past the tests, you’ll then go to semi-qualifying.  Here, you’ll be invited to one of five go-karting sessions across the UK.  Naturally, where you place and the lap times you set will be all-important, so do try to give your all if you make it to this stage.  If you make it through to the final twelve (so yes, you have to be reasonably good), you’ll be tested on track skills, knowledge and even be placed in front of the country’s media.  Scary no doubt, but worth it to be a racing driver.

So, who can enter?  Well, I have as I haven’t got my racing license yet.  Apart from me though, anyone who doesn’t hold a racing license but does hold a driving license and is over the age of 21 may enter.  You have to be ‘in it to win it’ as they say, but given I’ll be trying my hardest to upset your chances here at my top racing tips:

1. Concentrate on your own lines, not that of the competition.  How fast you enter and exit the corners will dictate whether you can get to that first position not whether you can angrily hang on someone’s tail.

2. The fastest lines you can take are straight ones.  When you see someone screeching around a track on TV, they may not be maximising their lines.  When you’re turning, you need traction for that – which takes away available traction for braking or accelerating.

3. Fast drivers are smooth drivers.  Being hard on the car might feel like fun, but it sure can slow you down.  Try to direct it/glide it into corners rather than wrestling it.

There you have it, some tips on how to set some damn good lap times whichever track you’re on.  Naturally there are a huge number of other tips I could give you, but I really, really want to win this and tell you all how great it is to be a racing driver…