{"id":30865,"date":"2020-03-02T04:00:17","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/?p=30865"},"modified":"2020-03-01T23:09:32","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T07:09:32","slug":"q-as-an-aspiring-driver-when-should-i-contact-the-teams-i-want-to-drive-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/q-as-an-aspiring-driver-when-should-i-contact-the-teams-i-want-to-drive-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Q: As an aspiring driver, when should I contact the teams I want to drive for?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q<\/strong>: \u201cI\u2019m an aspiring rally driver who just finished reading your book <\/em>Speed Secrets 5: The Complete Driver. In Chapter 5, \u201cCareer Steps,\u201d you discussed getting started in racing as well as choosing a series. As a driver, I have done a season of competitive karting, a season of rallycross, and been to two racing schools. I plan to attend one more school and do some rally sprints before eventually getting my full competition license, but the question I have is: When is the right time (if there is one) to contact a team to show your interest in joining them for the next season? Should I wait until I have more experience later in the year and a race license, or is it best to let them know as soon as possible?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: There\u2019s not one right answer to that question. It depends. If I had to pick one way to go, though, I\u2019d suggest communicating sooner rather than later. Hey, what\u2019s the worst thing they could say? That doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t need to get experience – the more, the better. But it\u2019ll at least tell you what the team wants, giving you the information you need to go get what they want.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s important that drivers not get overly-focused on a set ladder, or specific steps, but instead be flexible in their career progression. In my own career, I was too caught up in making the next step. I didn\u2019t \u201cstop and smell the roses\u201d along the way. There were years where I should have enjoyed my racing more than I did, but because I was so caught up in making it to the next step, or landing the next sponsor, I didn\u2019t. It was all work, and no pleasure. But when I backed off, relaxed, and got focused again on the reason I was racing \u2013 for the pure enjoyment \u2013 I actually drove better, which led to more opportunities to move up the ladder.<\/p>\n

Having said all that, I\u2019d recommend you contact the teams you want to drive for now, but be flexible in what you do with that info. And then do everything you can to get more experience. The more variety you have with your driving, the more valuable you\u2019ll be to any team. Have fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: \u201cI\u2019m an aspiring rally driver who just finished reading your book Speed Secrets 5: The Complete Driver. In Chapter 5, \u201cCareer Steps,\u201d you discussed getting started in racing as well as choosing a series. As a driver, I have done a season of competitive karting, a season of rallycross, and been to two racing schools. I plan to attend one more school and do some rally sprints before eventually getting my full competition license, but the question I have is: When is the right time (if there is one) to contact a team to show your interest in joining them for the next season? Should I wait until I have more experience later in the year and a race license, or is it best to let them know as soon as possible?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-ross"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30866,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30865\/revisions\/30866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}