Alan [00:00:00]:
You.
Belinda [00:00:01]:
Well, hello, Alan, and welcome to the motorsport coaching podcast.
Alan [00:00:05]:
Hello. Thank you for having me on.
Belinda [00:00:07]:
For those who don't know you, can you tell everyone a little bit about you?
Alan [00:00:13]:
For those that may be more familiar with carting, I set up a website with my brother about 15 years ago called carting one some of your australian and listeners might remember a guy called David Sarah, and he was doing some really cool stuff at the time with Carton. And we sort of latched onto this idea that Carton could be something better from a media perspective than what was around at the time. So we set up a YouTube channel and we just created our own media outlet. Carton is quite an interesting motorsport. It's got a lot of history, vibrance, and we wanted to bring that to the sport. And, yeah, I just ran with it, ran the YouTube channel, and it was quite lucky because the early days of YouTube, there was not much competition, so we were one of the highest viewed car and vehicles channel for a brief period of time. And now the landscape is very different. So that sort of got into it and it was a return for me from getting back into motorsports.
Alan [00:01:20]:
I'd been out of it for a few years because I'd been a musician and then I came back into motorsport. And anything's kind of creative, that's sort of a way that I can express myself via whatever mechanisms, whatever tools I've got. Cartin's quite good for that. And that's sort of how I sort of re entered motorsport. But then I got into the coaching thing. My brother was a driver coach and I sort of went my own way, and me and a friend, he set up a sim centre in London relatively early because I got big into sim racing as well. So I become a coach there and that sort of was a different section of my career.
Belinda [00:02:09]:
I have so many questions, I'm just writing down notes to ask, how do we coach or what do you coach in sim racing?
Alan [00:02:16]:
I coached on a simulator for car, so I should be more called. It was called a GTSRS simulation in London, and so we'd have people come to us who were just looking to get better in cars. And because we were London based, it was so easy to get to know. And we're right next to Heathrow, not next to Heathrow, but not far from Heathrow, so people internationally could come in, do a few sessions and then go. But admittedly, on my perspective, I'm very, very self critical. So what led to the first book that I put out was a book called the Science of the Racer's Brain, which I co authored with a man called Otto Lapi, Dr. Oto Lapi, who's a cognitive scientist at Helsinki University. And that came from me researching ICE strategy.
Alan [00:03:17]:
And sort of, I was frustrated in myself because I was coaching drivers and I was starting to ask myself, what am I basing this on? And am I just building my coaching advice on sand? So I sort of did some investigations and I'm a bit of an inherent contrarian. So whenever I feel like there's not a dogma, but there's a sort of set way of doing things and instinctively goes, is that really the right way to do? Yeah. Particularly in a sporting context. So I come across a book called Looking and Acting. I've got it with me. I had to get it out by Michael Landon, Benjamin Tatlow. It's a very sort of sciency book I write. This is a book I got years ago and it sort of got me started on eye strategies and the complexities to it.
Alan [00:04:12]:
And then from there I started looking at scientific papers and that's where I come across Otto, who was doing some work at Helsinki University with road driving. And I sort of built up a relationship with him, just conversing over emails. And then we realized that he was big into motorsport and it was like really lucky. And then, yeah, that's how the science of the racist brain came about, from all of that. It's not a coaching book. What we wanted to do with the book is to allow people to understand the cognitive mechanisms that are involved in race driving and understanding the depth and interest there is to hopefully inspire either scientists and researchers to look into the driving skill from a neuroscience perspective, but also to give drivers and coaches a better insight into exactly what's going was just. It was all born from a frustration in my own performance that I was sort of teaching things that I didn't really understand.
Belinda [00:05:18]:
And did you used to race yourself, Alan, or did you just get invested with motorsports through your brother?
Alan [00:05:23]:
So I started racing carts when I was eight years old, but my brother had been racing carts when I was born, so I've always been into the motorsport. I'm one of those people that you meet and I go and they'll meet in a pub and I'll be, yeah, yeah, I raced Hamilton. It's like that sort of thing, because I used to race Kimbolt and CARt Club and Shenson Cart Club. So now and again I would be on the same track at the same time as Lewis. I don't call that racing Lewis, but it's a small claim to. So most of all, my motorsport as a participant is cart racing. I've done car driver coaching and stuff, but really my passion is cart racing and particularly the history of it as well.
Belinda [00:06:15]:
Now, yeah, fantastic. As you said, you've co authored that book, the science book, and then you've got a brand new book that's just come out. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Alan [00:06:25]:
Yes. So it's called motorsport sagas, unlocking the power of storytelling in motorsport, in racing, sorry to be specific. So the book basically is expanding on this idea that I had, that to understand the way that a driver who's interested in motorsport wants to pursue a career, wants to enhance what they do in the motorsport realm. You have to understand narrative structure, because I is involved in the media side of things and I've been involved in being a participant, a racer. So I've had this fortunate avenue to be both sides of the fence, so to speak. So I've unfortunately been, I say unfortunate, but I used to be a recipient because obviously cartoon won the website. It's not around anymore as I've moved on to other things. But it was around for 15 years.
Alan [00:07:28]:
So I used to be flooded with emails and press releases and I interact with all of motorsports. I write a lot and do various things and I just see that there's a lot of. It's not naive, it's the wrong term, but it's a lot of paint by the numbers. And then I see people doing it really well and I see superstars and I think those guys are doing something really well. They're very engaging and you want to understand really why they are more engaging than other people. I want to understand, and there's a running theme, and I know I'm going around beating around the bushy. I'm trying to get to a point. There was a running theme that I'd have with a lot of drivers that I grew really frustrated with from my side.
Alan [00:08:20]:
Being someone that's run a media thing. I've also run carting events as well. Carting promoted them and I would say them. I'd say I'm not a fast driver in the sense that I'm not an elite level driver, but I keep getting opportunities coming my way and then I'll see drivers that are quite good who don't get any opportunities at all. And I always question, I say, you have to understand that results are almost secondary to everything else. If you're not a compelling person, if you're not interesting, then why would anybody be interested in what you do? And it's a quite harsh lesson for people, because I. Because I'm in carting again. It's an interesting sport because it's a symbiosis that the way that the sport works, because you've got it, one side sees it as a stepping stone to cars, and there's actual another side of the sport where it's its own rich motorsport with its own history.
Alan [00:09:24]:
So it depends which side of the aisle you fall on. But I do see a lot of drivers that you can see underneath. There's a frustration and a resentment, and they don't get opportunities. And I'm very harsh and I go, I won't say it directly to them, but my assessment is you're not interesting. So the book is a way for me to explain to people in detail, and it's a short book. It's the polar opposite of science to the racist brain, which is a very academic, heavy book. This is a much shorter read, and it's something very different. But I wanted to give drivers the opportunity to understand what makes motorsport compelling, what makes certain individuals compelling.
Alan [00:10:10]:
And what I did to do that was to frame motorsport in the context of a thing called the hero's journey. So it was sort of first put out there by a man called Joseph Campbell, and then further expanded upon by Christopher Vogler. So the hero's journey is basically a narrative structure that explains how films are structured, essentially. So when you understand how a film is structured, structured, you understand how writers are able to build stakes in jeopardy, and you understand how different characters within a film, what parts they play, what roles they play, and these sort of roles and these structures are kind of ubiquitous through all storytelling throughout history. Now, like all things, there's a lot of debate about how is it really like that? Is it really isn't, is it not like that? And actually, there's different structures that play. Film discussions are sort of crazy like that. But for me, I had to keep it relatively simple because I feel like the hero's journey is a kind of easy thing to understand. Everybody immediately gets the idea of a hero, a villain, a mentor.
Alan [00:11:40]:
They understand the idea of a call to adventure and various sort of ordeals that someone might come across. So once you frame motorsport in that context, so I sort of explain what the hero's journey is, then I basically give examples. And the main one, really is Valentino Rossi and his sort of journey through motorsport. Now, we're all not Valentino Rossi, but he's such a good example of someone that had all of these elements in play. There was different characters in his journey, there was mentors, there was heralds. So a mentor is your gandalf type character. Your herald is someone that announces this call to adventure. So you can see all the characters laid out and you can see what was interesting about Rossi in particular was he kind of forced his competitors into particular roles.
Alan [00:12:34]:
Whether they wanted to be in those roles or not is secondary to the fact they were put in these roles. And then you have the sort of narrative structure, so you have the sort of the archetypes, and that's the character types, and then you have the journey map, so you have the beginning of the film, you're in the ordinary world, you're just living like, is it Bilbo Baggins or something like a hobit? And then suddenly there's a call to adventure, something that, for you to go on an adventure, and then you might be a bit nervous, and you might refuse the adventure, have doubt, and then those doubts get put aside, and then you face ordeals, and then you have a big ordeal, and then it's like that kind of thing. Now, if you look at motorsport through that lens, you're able to deconstruct. What I hope to do in the book was deconstruct why you might find Valentino Rossi and MotoGP interesting, why you might find Formula one interesting, but why other motorsports aren't interesting and that compelling. And once you understand that, you can then maybe look at your own interaction with motorsport. And I'm not sure if I'm. I can't recall how harsh I am in the book, but drivers tend to be quite. I'm just being blunt, just for ease of explanation, drivers can be kind of narcissistic in a way, where you're just looking at yourself, what can I do? You are the hero of your journey, but in a sense, the journey can.
Alan [00:14:07]:
What I want driver to do is to take a step out and look at the big picture holistically and go. Your singular vision alone might be interesting to you, but it might not be that interesting to anybody else. And there's two reasons why that you might find that important, is if you're looking to get partners and sponsors interested, and if you're just looking to have a more interesting motorsport adventure. So, at the heart of it really is, if you're not going on an adventure in motorsport, don't be surprised if people don't find what you do particularly compelling or particularly interesting. And I give use. I would love to use smaller examples. But yeah, I use the big ones, like Valentino Rossi. Travis Bistrana is a very interesting character because he was someone that raced and then ventured into freestyle motocross, but still did a bit of racing.
Alan [00:15:04]:
So there's a lot of interest there, and danger, which is inherently compelling, whether people like it or not. And then I talk a bit about Adrian Newey, so I try and sort of COVID all bases, and then I talk about Formula one and a particular topic at the moment, which a lot of people are talking explain. I'm trying to explain what makes things compelling. So I talk about the structure. But then you look at Formula one and you have to understand, people might say, Formula One is boring, but I make the argument, yes, but it's compelling. And it's compelling for these reasons. XYZ. And this is why people watch it.
Alan [00:15:46]:
Whereas people might say, oh, why don't you watch IndyCar, for example? It's more exciting. And my reply to that is that close racing isn't, in short, supplying motorsport. We have got a lot of close racing. We've got a lot of very high standard close racing. So, for example, one of my local clubs is called Trent Valley Cart Club PFI. It's a world famous cart circuit. Their club races are as competitive as any motorsport event in the watched for listeners, I mean, I would mention cars in this, like, I would say Kai Hunter, but maybe your listeners wouldn't listen to know their names. But for those that are know, I remember watching Alex Albon, I think Oliver Berman, he raced there.
Alan [00:16:37]:
George Russell. So I can go to a club race and find the closest, most high standard racing in the world nobody watches. It's no different than when I was at the 2013 world championship. The carton world championship was there, the first round, and Mac Verstappen was racing. And at the time it was quite funny because I put out a post on social media saying, this is the world championship. And I took a photo of who was watching, and there was nobody watching on the bank where we were. Yeah, yeah. And it was me and my friend will Dendy.
Alan [00:17:12]:
He's a very interesting character himself. And we were watching it, and Max Appen just dominated the race. And we were looking at each other going, this kid's just unreal. It's very difficult to understand what makes drivers really good, but we both looked at him and just went, this kid's just unbelievable. But the thing that's fortunate from my carting experiences is that I can say I've watched Max Verstappen. I've been on track with him as well. I went to Las Vegas to watch Schumacher race at the supernatural in 2009. So we look at these motorsports and I go, it's compelling to me because I know about these classes, I know about cutting.
Alan [00:17:53]:
But for most people, these sports aren't compelling, they're not interesting. Otherwise people would go and watch it. Right? So, just to try and get back to my original point, if I can explain to people what makes Formula one compelling and why they can sell tickets, like $500 ago, but in 2013, I was on an empty bank watching Max Verstappen. Nowadays, you wouldn't be able to get in. If Max Verstappen decided to race, it would be huge deal. So I explained that and then I sort of then finished by trying to encourage people to look at their own motorsport from the lens of adventure. So if you look at the way you go motorsport, and you can ask yourself, is this adventurous? Am I putting anything on the line? Is there any jeopardy here? Is there any high stakes? Because if you're struggling to attract sponsors or people into your journey, you have to ask yourself, is what I'm doing interesting? Is it compelling? And then I sort of encourage people to maybe look at it from a media your put yourself in the position of someone writing about motorsport. Why would they write about what you do or your sport? Because at the end of the day, what someone like Valentino Rossi did very well is he wasn't just someone who went racing.
Alan [00:19:18]:
He was someone that went racing, but also wanted to expand the reach of MotoGP and make it more mean. He's just like the perfect example because he was a genius and he was charismatic and he understood all of these other things. So what I really want to encourage people is to be adventurous in how they go about motorsport and understand what makes things compelling, because the book isn't going to. I'm not an expert in how to write sponsorship proposals. I've attracted sponsorship for various projects that I've done, but for my own experiences, it's because those people were compelled by what I was doing. It wasn't that they wanted to advertise so much, they just wanted to feel good, to be part of a project that I was part of. Like when I was organizing the House of Hundred events with Oliver Scullyam. Very niche for those, for listeners, but we put on historic car events based on Formula Super A, which was like this class in the 90s, which was just the best thing ever, and people just wanted to be a part of it.
Alan [00:20:29]:
People would just want to send us money. And it was at one point where you say we have to actually justify why you want to give us money. It's got to be a sponsorship for a prize. You can't just once. I did the british carton championship in 2011 because I wanted to promote the idea of a british carton championship being something of value. That's why I entered it. And I got a chassis from Ricky Flyn, who lent me a chassis. And he's one of the biggest cart teams in the world, right? And he can charge.
Alan [00:21:03]:
He's got a blank check pretty much, for anyone that races them. He knows about cartons. He lent me a car. I got engines from Bob Astel at cartoon. And anybody knows about carting, know these things aren't cheap. These aren't cheap things to get. And then I went with aim motorsport. Steve Lake gave me space in his awning.
Alan [00:21:23]:
And then John Hoyle helped me with tires. He helped me with entry. So effectively, I got, for one weekend, I got everything. And it wasn't because I was going there to win, it was because I was going to promote the event because I felt a need to do it. And I got sponsorship as well from other people who just wanted to be part of it. So it's one of the frustrations that I have, as I see particularly now, is I see a lot of young people who have huge potential. And I only scratch the surface with what I do because I sort of limit myself by my passion with carts. And there's an inherent limit with that because there's only so much I can do with it.
Alan [00:22:05]:
But you see so many young people, and some of them are spending vast amounts of money, and I just go, just take 10% of your budget and put it into doing really cool stuff. Not just blogging your racing or talking about yourself. Do adventurous things and you never know what could happen. Such as, okay, so, for example, what I would do if I was young again, and I actually tried this and I never completed it. I have a real big problem with completing projects. If I told you of a young driver, young carter, and they decided, I'm fed up of racing Tony carts, I'm fed up of paying money to teams. I'm going to build my own chassis because nobody does that anymore. No one's building a cart chassis to go racing with.
Alan [00:23:04]:
I'm going to build it myself. Imagine, let's take an 18 year old and he's doing engineering. He's going, I'm going to build it. I'm going to take on Tony cart. I'm going to beat him at their own game. I'm going to weld the chassis myself. I've tried it myself, but I'm a real rubbish at finishing projects. But if someone's spending the money already, because I know how much people spend, you immediately go, okay, there's the adventure, there's the call to adventure.
Alan [00:23:32]:
You're going to have doubts because you're going to go, what? As if it doesn't work out. So there's that little interplay between a call to adventure, but the hero in the story is still a bit nervous about it. Then you have a mentor. So maybe it's one of the old boys from back in the day. He built carts. Could be help you. You can document all this, film it, whatever, and then you have your ordeals, your tests. So you take your cart testing, you find out whether it works, whether it don't.
Alan [00:24:02]:
You get over, whether it cracks, you fix it, get it better, and then you start racing it. And each one of these layers is. I'm looking at it from a view perspective, going, I don't care whether the driver is any good or not. I want to know if the car works. Is it good? Is it bad? Because there's some states. Because every decision that you make suddenly has a consequence. If you're just going racing something boring. If you race the MX five Cup and nothing against MX five Cup, and I don't want to make this sound bad from a perspective of a media perspective, I'm going, I've got nothing to write about here.
Alan [00:24:36]:
If someone's building something from scratch and you look for things where you can do it, Carton is a good example, suddenly, bang, it's like, oh, this is an adventure. And then people get engaged with it. And you can do this for a long time, is an interesting one. Like Richard Brunning, who does. He's got a YouTube channel called Bad Obsession Motorsport, and it's a really popular, and I know him from carting, but he started this ginormous YouTube channel called Project Binky, and he spent about five years building a mini. People love it. But if you look at it from a racing concept, yeah, I'm immediately engaged by someone trying to do something different outside of the norm. And you can be anything.
Alan [00:25:20]:
And I think sometimes people are. This is what my book isn't for everybody, because there is huge amounts of people happy with what they do and race what they want to race. But sometimes look at where adventure is. Look at where you can be challenged, where you can try something, whether you can, because one of the big problems, I think, is if there's no chance of failure, I'm not interested. There's no chance for something to go wrong. It's like it's a thing. It's just an emotional thing. If you can take people on an emotional roller coaster, you're in such a good position to be engaging and to be interesting and to be compelling.
Alan [00:26:05]:
You never know what you can inspire in other people, because if you do something and then someone else does something, then there's an interplay, someone's doing something opposite to you. There's a bit of friction. Suddenly you've got a protagonist, and antagonist, like, Rossi did it very well. He was a protagonist and anyone that challenged him was an antagonist, and you get a bit friction, a bit of narrative. Yeah, that's something I would do, but there's so many more things you can do. But anything in motorsport where you're doing something, where there's a chance of failure, technical failure, engineering failure, anything like that, it's immediately engaging. But it's all about risk. Competitive risk is a very good thing to have.
Alan [00:26:55]:
I think I could make a philosophical point. Spec racing is very attractive for people, but it does make, most part, less compelling. So if that's nothing wrong with that, I'm just talking to a cohort of people who may be thinking, oh, actually, I could do something more with it. That's who I'm really aiming the book at. That makes sense.
Belinda [00:27:22]:
Yeah. So who specifically is it targeted for? The athletes, the parents, the clubs, the teams?
Alan [00:27:28]:
I think championship organizers, I think, would get something from the book or promoters. I think a lot of promoters, because you have two types of racing. You have spectator based racing, and you have competitor based racing. And as you'll know, competitor based racing means the event runs on the competitors entries and spectator racing, like f one, and that relies upon spectators. So anybody that's involved in spectator based motorsport to understand what's really. I mean, indy car at the moment is going through a bit of an identity crisis, because you see these drivers saying, we need to make it more interesting, we need to make it more of a show. And it's like you have to look at the fundamentals of what makes something compelling. So anybody that's involved in championship organizing, but drivers that are maybe sitting there looking for, if you're involved in the sponsor game, it's definitely aimed at you.
Alan [00:28:30]:
And if you want to do the sponsorship proposals and the stuff that I'm not very good at, I can't deal with that. What I want to do is encourage people to look at how do you make what you do more compelling, more interesting, so that when you do have to perfect proposals and stuff like that, you're not having to sell something. It's already there. It's already a narrative that anybody can hook into right away. So just for drivers that are looking for an adventure in their motorsport career and looking to develop their sporting career, their professional career, and promote what they do and promote the people that are around them as well, because it's not just an insular thing. So anybody involved in that kind of.
Belinda [00:29:17]:
Realm, and I think just the last question I wanted to ask is obviously around about the storytelling side of it. So we've touched base about having the hero, the hero. But also I'm thinking, like, obviously, there's a great connection with yourself. You're saying that you were previously a musician and the storytelling. So is that how the idea for the book came up as well? Like, did you used to write music as well? And obviously, when you're writing, you're telling a story and that's what you thought. It was a transferable skill across the.
Alan [00:29:46]:
Two industries, I think it's probably more a case of being an undiagnosed ADHD. He's constantly trying to seek novelty, really. I'm very tuned into what makes things interesting and compelling. Because that time. Yeah, because what I tried to understand is what makes things, because I don't like the term ADHD. But if you've got personality trait that is seeking novel things or interesting things, you'll find patterns in music, you'll find patterns in motorsport. Because I look at motorsport more through a creative lens than I do a competitive lens. So I enjoy deconstructing regulations to try and find avenues for exploitation.
Alan [00:30:59]:
So if I can find something that doesn't quite add up, I'll be like, oh, that's a creative outlet. So where there's similarities is creative outlets. Music is very good. It's almost too free. And motorsport has these weird limitations, but you kind of need them to create structure, whereas music is almost too creative because there's nothing stopping you. There's no cheats. That's not the right word in a motorsport concept. There's no gray areas to go on and to ask questions and of go, is this regulation? Can we you think about double diffusers in f one in 2009, or exhaust blown diffusers, the original f duct, all that kind of stuff, which it's just create, because Formula one in particular, it's a bit more restrictive and prescriptive now, which is a shame.
Alan [00:32:04]:
But if you ever listen to Adrian Newey, he sounds more like an artist than he does an engineer. So that's where the similarities are. So if you look at your motorsport more as a creative outlet, then you see where the potential lies. And that's the thing. If you look at what's going on at the moment in f one, it's pretty much a shapeshifter, not a shapeshifter. I'm thinking of shapeshifters because I wanted to make a point. It's like a soap opera.
Belinda [00:32:39]:
Yes, it is.
Alan [00:32:41]:
But the point there is, people go, I just want to focus on the racing. Not the so proper, but the technical structure of f one is what creates the jeopardy and high stakes that creates the compelling nature of all the stories that surround f one. Because the reason it's so compelling is because the technical involvement of personnel at the higher echelons of the teams is so important that if you lose Adrian Newey, you suddenly lose a big factor in your performance. So it's this weird interconnection of how the technical regulations inject high stakes in jeopardy, which then manifests itself in these characters having a weird amount of value in the public sphere. Sorry. The reason why I said shapeshifter by accident, because it popped in my head, is the characters, the archetypes. I try and explain that the good thing about motorsport is a shapeshifter, which is a character type in a film, someone that might maybe. It's hard to explain, you use something like a character that just shifts all the time.
Alan [00:34:03]:
Their. Their viewpoint, they're a bit of an unstable factor in. In a film, that creates a kind of nice tension. You know, you can. A vehicle can be a shapeshifter. A vehicle itself, you know, you think of in the book, I explain how in 2006, the Yamaha M, one that Rossi was on, had chattering problems, and it's this weird thing that the bike starts doing that and it puts the riders off and it just happened sort of now and again. And it's like. Or a car like the Mercedes.
Alan [00:34:38]:
The last two years, the rear end has been very unpredictable. So the cars themselves can take on character traits. And it's important when you're understanding what makes things interesting is if you're racing in a class where you have variance, technical variance, the cars themselves have an inbuilt personality that helps create jeopardy and interest, because sometimes a car isn't going to work, sometimes the aero platform that you've developed or whatever, doesn't work quite so well. So that all just feeds into itself.
Belinda [00:35:13]:
Fantastic. I do have a personal question. Obviously, you're an author of two books. How did you go about authoring your books? Did you self publish them or did you just.
Alan [00:35:21]:
Yes. The first book, we had an offer from a publisher, but it wasn't an amazing offer, so we decided that we always had a plan to self publish. And with the self publishing platforms now, like Amazon and Ingram, spark to me. It's funny, because I go about the music thing. I wrote a paper, not a paper, an essay, in 2003. And I just said, right, musicians have to learn how to be independent, because record companies are a nightmare. And then you find yourself years later, the same thing kind of happening with books. So we self published the first book and it was very successful.
Alan [00:36:07]:
And then this one I've just released. And I think it's one of those things that everything I do is not just a personal thing. I want to encourage others that maybe think, do you know what? Maybe I can give that a go. Maybe you can give it a go. Don't feel like all of these things are kind of special and out there. I mean, it's fortunate, I think, from the carton experience that I've had, because I've interacted with people that now you'd think an hour, like, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, or whatever it is, and you go, yeah, but they're just normal people. They were kids once. And it's like everything you do is like, everything I want to do is encourage people to say, you know what? You don't have to go with a publisher.
Alan [00:37:00]:
Like, I'm contrarian by nature. So if a publisher comes to me and says, oh, we want you to do this and this and this, I'll be like, I don't know. I'd rather just do it my own way. Thanks. I can do it all. I can format the book. I can write the book. I can kind of edit the book.
Alan [00:37:15]:
Maybe an editor would come in and improve it. But I can do the front cover, I can do all the design. And it's like all of this thing is about. So that even at the root of the book is to encourage people that, yes, sure, you can do things you don't know are possible. So even if it's self publishing or whatever, or being something or doing an adventurous thing in motorsport, because I have a thing about. One of my earliest. My best cart memories was a friend of mine, will dendi. Did the british carton championship in 2009, and he was, like, 18 at the time.
Alan [00:37:51]:
He was doing it off his own back completely. He didn't have a rich dad. He was working and he was doing some crazy things to get the money, and he was racing, effectively, team run by Paul Fletcher. Paul Fletcher is a multimillionaire and he was racing him and he was doing it on his own. And it's like, is this thing of, like, people can be so trapped in thinking that I'm just at this level and I'm like, no, you can put yourself in these areas. And that's really the message of the book. It's like, you can be adventurous in motorsport. It does allow for it, and you can create something really special, because I see a lot of potential in a lot of areas of motorsport for there to be really interesting things happen.
Alan [00:38:37]:
Really exciting things can happen. Like, even in America, it sounds ridiculous, is people started building power wheels, they'd get a power wheels toy car, which is kids run, and they'd weld together a chassis, throw in a 450 F motocross engine, and then they'd all do it for a laugh. And then next minute, someone's organizing a race meeting, and it looks like the best race meeting I've ever seen. Or you have dirt quake. And obviously, with what happened in 2020, this is what nailed a lot of these fun things. It's a shame. I want a lot of it to come back. You have dirt quake, which was like, it's a bike event where it's usually on dirt ovals and speedway tracks, and people just have these weird little classes of, like, mopeds or choppers.
Alan [00:39:25]:
And one year, Carl Foggart erased and Guy Martin does it. And it's these things where these really fun and idiosyncratic people run these events, and it's just to encourage people to say anything is possible. And really, it's a call to action for everybody that kind of has that adventurous aspect to them, that there's huge potential out there. And obviously, with your sponsorship stuff, if you want to develop sponsors, I mean, organizing events and doing adventurous things is the number one thing I put at the top of the list to do. If you were motivated to do that, it's not for everybody, but it's an opportunity.
Belinda [00:40:09]:
Wonderful. I like it. Well, thank you so much for your time today. Alan. Where can people go and purchase a book or learn more about.
Alan [00:40:18]:
Yeah, just if you search for motorsport sagas on Amazon or the full title motorsport sagas, I have this thing about having these long titles, because the event that I did with House of Hundreds, it was almost a joke, but it was part of the fun. So it ended up being called the London Diamonds House of Hundred super championship belt. Right. So it was like just for a bit of fun. So obviously think about long titles. So, yeah, Motorsport sagas unlocking the power of storytelling in racing. And that's on Amazon. And if you search for the science of the race's brain on there, that book's available as well.
Alan [00:41:02]:
And there's a hard book version of that book as all on. It's all on Amazon. Or if you search for. I have a blog as well, Alan Dovecoaching WordPress.com, where I scribble sometimes I scribble some thoughts down that aren't enough to write a book about. My thing I'm on at the moment is about Susannah Raganelli. That's my next project. So, yeah, if you keep an eye on that, there might be updates on that as well.
Belinda [00:41:36]:
Fantastic. Well, I'll make sure all those links are in today's show notes. Is there anything else you want to share with us today, Alan, before we wrap it?
Alan [00:41:47]:
Just. I just wish people out there just to have an adventure with motorsport and, yeah, if just one person just has a bit of a motivation to be a creative outlet and do something a bit different. Yeah, you've got my backing. Go for it. That's just the message I want to put out there. Really?
Belinda [00:42:10]:
That's right. Well, at the end of the day, uniqueness is what's going to project you forward, or like you say, get in front of the right sponsors. That is going to align with your brand and your values and stuff like that.
Alan [00:42:21]:
Yeah. There's nothing better than going on an adventure and expanding what you do. Like I said in the book, there's a lot of social media accounts out there. You're competing with a lot of people, but to be brutal, I don't see a lot of people creating things. I see a lot of people talking about themselves. But if you can see it from about a creative perspective, I think the potential for something really cool to come of it, and that's my main goal.
Belinda [00:42:51]:
Yeah, I love it. Well, thank you very much for all your advice and information today. So, guys, race out and check out Alan's book. And again, the link to the books will be available in today's show notes. Alan, thank you very much for your time. Make sure you get in contact next time we release another book. I'll be happy to have you back on the show.
Alan [00:43:07]:
Thank you very much. Thank you for having me on.
Belinda [00:43:09]:
You're welcome.
