Home » Blog » Allan's Blog » JIM RUSSELL’S INAUGURAL FUTURE DRIVER SEARCH IS AN IMMEDIATE SUCCESS . . . RELAXING TIMES WITH FAMILY & FRIENDS . . . AUTOSPORT INTERNATIONAL APPROACHES . . .
14 January 2010 | Posted in Allan's Blog
When I sat in front of 38 drivers that were eagerly anticipating the start of the Jim Russell Future Driver Search programme, it was a funny feeling actually, quite a frightening feeling in a way because I could see myself aged 16 in so many of these drivers faces, all waiting in anticipation for what might come their way and it was also the fact that there was a lot of emotion and talent present in the impressive Audi Forum building at the Infineon Raceway as we were going to have to try and select 38 down to ultimately only two.
I knew that job was going to be very, very difficult from a pure technical point of view and also on an emotional one because ultimately you could be effectively changing the course of someone's career. Invariably they are the ones that change it themselves, but you are influencing it or have a factor to play in it. So therefore it was very important from the whole Jim Russell Racing Drivers School ethos point of view as well as personally from myself that we made the right decisions and to try and take into account so many different factors, whether it be their experience, their age, whether it be just generally what they have been able to do in their lives up to that point in and out of racing.
We decided it was good to do two things. One to test them but also to give them learning as well and to give them some experience out of it and so we had various different things that we were checking them on. For example, we had a big strong karting section which is very strong at Jim Russell actually with one of the best kart tracks in North America. The skid school using the FJR-50 single-seater enabled us to see how they handled the car and some of these guys had never actually done a car race or anything like that having purely done karting.
To give them an understanding of it we had the Mitsubishi Evo on hand to see how they handled a heavy saloon car, how they reacted and adapted to it in a comfortable and controlled environment. We also had media and fitness training prior to them getting on to the magnificent Infineon track - initially on lead/follow to get them used to the circuit for the ones who didn't know it and then let them out on their own in small batches in the FJR-50 ‘school' car.
And when we say ‘school' car we were actually running it at its full horsepower settings so effectively over 300 bhp so this was certainly in full championship trim. It was really impressive to see because we had two Heats in the karting and then a Final - the latter was like a World Championship event!
In fact we had a couple of drivers that are at the top of their game in world level in karting and never mind drivers that have dominated their national championships whether it be in Germany, Australia, Switzerland or North America - it was really, really impressive to the point where I actually phoned my dad and said this is like a blast from 1986 when I was karting. When they got the FJR-50 out onto the circuit, I have to say it was a very difficult situation because the weather was so un- Californian.
It was drizzly and cold in the mornings. In fact at one point some of the drivers had to acquaint themselves with a new car [FJR-50] and a new track in very changeable conditions, the worst scenario you could possibly have. Sometimes not damp nor wet but a greasy ‘in between' stage and that was a very interesting factor for me to see how they would cope with those extreme circumstances - elements you get the further up the ladder you go.
Race conditions change. Sometimes you start in the wet, sometimes it becomes dry, sometimes it's the other way round and you have got to be able to adapt and understand and that's a natural feeling. You can develop some of the skills but some of it is purely natural and that was something that showed through.
Unfortunately some of the drivers ruled themselves out of the proceedings by crashing which was a pity. But that's the case in a race as well. If you crash in a race you don't make it to the end. If you don't make it to the end you don't win. So it was a really hard job to bring it down to 20 drivers after two days and then down to six for the final day which was a very tough decision.
We sat in a room debating for three hours on the merits of the different drivers and all the different things they had done. Their experiences and everything else we pondered over in our minds. What was very important for us was that we didn't just say ‘thank-you, you weren't selected, good-bye', we actually sat down with each of the drivers on a one-to-one basis. We showed them their data and information and all of the reasons why they weren't necessarily progressing.
Jim Russell is a Racing School and is there to develop drivers. Part of that is feedback and constructive criticism and to make sure that we can assist them in the early part of their career not just through the school but also a little bit of advice like career management on what they need to work on so that they can become racing drivers in their own right even though they weren't successful on this particular day.
Bringing it down to the last six, then to the two ultimate winners was probably one of the toughest jobs that I have to do in the last few years. I think it was one of the most emotional jobs as well. So many of these drivers was like a reflection of me at a similar age and they were all hoping for success but unfortunately we could only pick two but I'm very sure the guys we chose, Alex Ellis and Gary Carlton, are two real quality drivers.
Gary automatically put himself into one of the fully-funded 2010 Jim Russell Championship Series "seats" on offer by being the fastest on the final day with his raw talent. It was interesting because he came straight from karting. He is one of the best in the world in karting and the telephone calls I made only confirmed that he was an exceptional talent and an extremely nice guy plus a hard, hard worker. He didn't have any real car experience but he was quick and never made any mistakes.
Alex meanwhile had a fantastically bubbly personality. He was someone that was able to jump into a car even after a bad session when it hadn't run well for him and just forgot about it and got on with the next one. He was very positive and had a unique feel in wet and damp conditions that you do not see very often in a car with someone with such limited experience and so that's not to say that the other drivers weren't of that level.
There were eight to 10 drivers that could easily have slotted into those two seats and who were going to have a very strong career and move their way up the motor racing ladder. But with Gary and Alex, I'm very proud that they are the two that were chosen. We'll be able to work with them and develop them as racing drivers through the School and to give them that opportunity in the Championship that they wouldn't necessarily have had.
It's good to do that at some point in your career and also I've been very fortunate that I've been able to realise my talent and to achieve my goals and I was proud that with Jim Russell we were able to do that for some of these aspiring racing drivers coming through.
Returning from the Jim Russell event just before Christmas meant my ‘season' was finally over. 2009 was a hard, tough year - there's no question about it. We have had a lot of hard fights with Peugeot. In my Audi programme we have had a lot of testing, a lot of development, a lot of PR commitments with it being the 100th anniversary of Audi. Also the launch of the Audi R8 V10.
It was a hectic schedule for the season. Even though I only did three races I actually did the same amount of travelling hours that I did in 2008 and 2007. I spent almost 30 full days travelling to events so it was definitely a busy one. It was therefore nice just to get home and relax and have Christmas to switch off, unwind and recharge the batteries.
I also had a birthday in between Christmas and the New Year with my wife, Kelly, and family organising a surprise birthday party which was really cool, in Dumfries. It was so nice to see people that I hadn't seen for a long time from home in Scotland although some had flown in especially. That was a real nice link into New Year or Hogmany as we call it in Scotland.
But now I'm eagerly looking forward to next weekend's Autosport International Show in Birmingham which always kick-starts the New Year into action. It's one of the world's biggest motorsport shows and certainly it's got a very strong karting presence to it.
Karting has been a very important part of my career but also I think an extremely important part of the fabric of racing and my old chum David Brabham has been very instrumental in creating a charity karting challenge at the NEC.
This year's race will be hard fought. An Audi Sport UK team features EP [Emanuele Pirro], Katherine Legge plus Alex Premat. We all know it's only for fun but as soon as the visor goes down then all that's to the side and you pick up exactly where you left off from the last race when you were fighting for the Le Mans victory or an ALMS championship or Petit Le Mans or something and I'm very much looking forward to getting into that.
I'm also looking forward to the testing programme with Audi and to hopefully a very strong and winning season in 2010. So I would like to just finish by wishing everybody a very, very Happy New Year. I hope that 2010 brings everything that you want and I look forward to seeing you in the pit lane soon if it's not at Autosport International.
Add to Digg 
Save in De.li.cious
Microsoft VBScript runtime
error '800a000d'Type mismatch: 'regEx.Test'
/includes/inc_blog.asp, line 327