How good do you want to be?

Dear Friends and Family,

One thing I've noticed over the past few years, whether that is sport, in the classroom, or on the job is that there is an expectation for mediocrity in the world.

Some things quickly come to my mind as I recall my days in different places in the world. Some of my teammates in various sport would take short cuts when we were on training runs. At University I remember classmates frowning if I asked a question when it got too close to the time to leave. Over and over again at different jobs I have witnessed some people happy to do a job that is just good enough to get by. I have never understood this, why are people driven to the middle of the road, to being mediocre, and not pushing themselves to seeing what life can really hold?

Last week I spent some time planning specifically where I want to be over the next five years and how I am going to get there. I want to be in Formula 1 in five years and not just in Formula 1, I intend on being the 2013 Formula 1 driving world champion.

I told a few people about this last week and I got a few responses "are you serious?" or "You think you can actually make it to Formula 1?" All of a sudden my team mates taking short cuts came back into my mind, the people that would rather get by than get the most out of life. If I don't go to Formula 1 who is going to?

Well perhaps it is ambitious. Perhaps it is completely unlikely, but Yes, I do think I can make it to Formula 1 and I intend on doing it.

So my next question is for you. Where on the road do you want to be in five years? Are you one of those people who accepts the middle? From the incredible encouragement I receive from so many of you, I would imagine you are of a different breed. You know the world is a tough place but great things can happen when great people put there mind to it.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Your friend

Michael

On the Job: 2009 Championship Campaign

Dear Friends and Family,

This week I have started planning for the 2009 Championship. I have been kindly granted a few days off work so I can focus on the planning stages of my racing plans. I have been working recently with the incredibly talented Megan Wood of Game Plan on a marketing piece which explains the commercial benefits of a motorsport program with MJDrive.

Although everyone is quick to talk about the talent level of this driver or the commitment level of that driver, before you can even get on the track it takes a massive amount of captial. Just for next years Formula Ford campaign I am told to expect it to cost around 100k British Pounds to be with a top team. A step up from there to British F3 is around 500k British Pounds. If you are reading this in America just double that figure to get the US Dollar equivalent.

To me this is one of the saddest things about the sport. I even recall Fernando Alonso mentioning a few years ago there are more talented drivers in karting than Formula 1, its just a matter of having the money and getting the breaks. Well, I don't have either, but I think money would be a stupid thing to let stop me.

I am incredibly grateful for Megan's help on the proposal. It is in a .pdf form and I cannot figure out how to load it here, but if you are keen to see it send me an email and I will pass it on.

Hope you are doing well, would love to hear how things are going on your side of the world.

Cheers

Michael

In the news: AUTOCAR

SPECIAL NOTE: ALL THE PHOTOS IN THIS ARTICLE WERE TAKEN BY HIS LORDSHIP STUART PRICE.

Dear Friends,

A few weeks ago I was at the newstand where I picked up the Autocar magazine. Autocar is a major british publication, and the worlds oldest car magazine. My friend Colin Goodwin writes for the magazine and he did an article about his day 'trying out' to be a Palmer Sport instructor.

Attached is the article if you would like to read it. There are a few parts I found quite interesting, especially the one highlighting the past instructors who have moved up the motorsport ladder.

Hope you are doing well and looking forward to a brilliant week. This week I have a few days away from Palmer Sport and I am going to be working on putting together my racing program for next year. I will post with details as they develop.

Cheers

Michael

(to see the article close up, click on the page you want to read)

V.V.V.I.P.

Dear friends and family,


During a normal week I get to work with a fantastic variety of racing drivers at Palmer Sport. Some of them have never sat in a racing car before, others are avid enthusiasts, while a few of them have raced Le Mans, European touring cars, and frankly could most likely offer me valuable advice! The variety in itself is certainly enough to keep me on my toes!


Last Friday I had a complete change of pace when I was asked if I could give karting lessons to a young student. As my background in racing is based on thirteen years of kart racing and I have a bit of experience coaching young people I was happy to oblige.


When the young driver arrived his father accompanied him. Aboard Dr. Palmers personal helicopter they landed moments after our normal day came to a finish. After landing the six year old was fitted in an appropriate childs jump suit, helmet, gloves, the whole deal and we headed out to the track. Our kart mechanic had prepared a special cadet kart for the boy to drive that he would fit in and allow him to reach the pedals.


I spent the first bit of time making sure he understood the basics, gas pedal, brakes, safely climbing in and out of the kart. You must understand the complexity of such a task, it is very tough to explain to a six year old how to 'stop' a kart, when all he just wants to go on the track and drive around in his new rompus suit! After practicing using the brakes a few times in the pits he headed out onto the track. Once on the track he followed behind one of my colleages in another kart and they did a lead follow session for a few laps so he could start getting a feel for a safe speed on the track. He did quite well and after a few more slow sessions he was able to take the lead and run a few laps without a guide.


After the lessons I had been asked to chauffeur the two of them back to their home in Oxford. For the ride home I had the pleasure of getting to know his father for what turned into a very interesting conversation. The boys father is a gentleman by the name of Adam Parr who has recently gotten involved in the motorsport industry and is the CEO of Williams Formula 1 racing.


At the end of the hour and a half drive he invited me in to his home for a drink where our conversation continued and I had a chance to meet his family. During the ride, Mr. Parr's boss Frank Williams called and Adam told him a bit about this kid that had just moved to England from Texas and sold his soul to race Formula 1 cars.


Meeting Mr. Parr was an incredible experience, aside from the fact more than anything in the world i'd like to work for him. He was a great guy, warm personality, and was happy to talk with me about his team, program, and operation. I learned a lot in a brief conversation and as I headed off he invited me along with the others who had helped with the day to come for a tour of their factory and watch their next test at Silverstone.










MEGA!


Wishing you all the best.


Michael

Porsche Saturday

In the Palmer Sport fleet of vehicles there are something like 50 vehicles which the guests and racing students drive in the pursuit of speed. Naturally some of those vehicles will have problems and engines, gearboxes, and differentials must be replaced. As is the proceedure when these things are replaced it is important to properly 'run them in.' This is a process of gradually building up speed as the mechanical components fit themselves together.

This past Saturday I spent helping the mechanic's at Palmer Sport running in a Porsche which had a new engine fitted. I brought along an onboard video and captured a few laps from the process. If you click on the video you can come onboard and see what I was up to this weekend!

Cheers

Michael

Paris

Dear Friends,

Last week after my birthday, once I had drying off from being thrown in the pond, for my birthday my mom took me on a weekend trip to Paris. It was the first time I had been to France and I really enjoyed it. Paris is a fascinating city with incredible personality. Below are a few of the photos from the sites.

Hope you are well and looking forward to a great week!

Cheers

Michael

Lewis' Lunch

As many of you know and as some of you will know now, it was only a few years ago that Formula 1 mega star Lewis Hamilton was employed at Palmer Sport. The same company I have the fortune to be a part of now.

As you can understand there is a very strong support for Lewis around the company since he was and still is friends with many of the members of the company. Naturally when working around an environment like Palmer Sport a guy like Lewis fit in very well from what I understand. He is a good guy to be around, works hard, and can be trusted on the race track (although apparently not as much in pit lane!!!!).

A few weeks ago I heard a story about Lewis which made me laugh and I thought you would enjoy reading about, that took place over one of Lewis' lunch breaks.

On this particular day Lewis was instructing on the karting event. During this event the guests do 10 minute session on the kart track where all of their times are recorded by a computer data system. There are three different instructors who work the event, so Lewis had a chance to slip away to use the gentleman's room.

On Lewis' return one of his colleagues was looking dumbfounded at the computer. "Lewis' take a look at this, one of the students did a 28.8 lap time!" Not only did the computer in fact show a 28.8 lap time, which quite frankly is off-the-charts fast, but it showed a few similar lap times from the same driver.

Lewis couldn't believe the time was so quick, especially considering his quickest time was a 29.2 almost half a second slower. Lewis decided the kart must be in especially tip top condition today and the weather conditions had aligned perfectly to create such a phenomenal lap time. Furthemore, the fact he was a McLaren-Mercedes sponsored racing driver and multi-time karting champion he should be able to soundly beat the time of any student.

Off Lewis set in the same kart the computer recorded the lap time. Lewis being incredibly talented got on to a blistering pace. He was at a 29.3 only a tenth off his personal all time best and he kept going and going until finally he had gotten down to a 29.2 matching his personal best, however still .4 tenths tardy of the other drivers time. He came in to check the computer time but his colleagues were heading out on their lunch break.

Lewis said he would stay behind and he wanted to beat the drivers time. According the other instructors let him be and left for their lunch break. An hour or so later the instructors turned back up and Lewis was still on track pounding around, lap after lap after lap. Lewis had managed to take another .1 second off his all time best lap but still was no where near the 28.8 second mark set by one of the guests as reported by the computer.

As Lewis pulled off the track the instructors were laughing their heads off. With the greatest sympathy they invited Lewis to come into the computer room and see with the magic of modern day computing technology which allows you to select, edit, an create immaginary lap times. The 28.8 was complete fictional and Lewis was one hungry driving instructor having missed lunch!

In the end Lewis is still a good friend of Palmer Sport and I am told is trying to get a few free minutes to come visit. Apparently his life is a bit 'mental' in his own words and he simply does not have any free time away from sponsor, team, and media commitments.

This week has been going really good for me. Yesterday I had a chance to run in one of the Cateram's which was good for about 3 hours of full out driving in the afternoon. The little cars are phenomenal, but very sensitive to the throttle. Even the slightest ammount of over acceleration out of a coner and the back end steps right out. The balance becomes then getting the car to turn into the corner while carrying maximum speed.

Today however my good fortune took an exciting turn back on the race track. This time with a paint and brush! A Thursday inspection from Dr. Palmer means that everything must be perfect including the curbing, so I was busy re-painting the red/white paint on the curbs I was busy destroying the day before!

Wish you the best!

Michael

Birthday Best

For many people, a birthday is a time for celebration. Friends and family gather gather around, parties ensue and it typically a wonderful time is had by all.

For me, my most recent birthday was none of these things. In the place of ballons and cakes was terror and paranoia.

In my most recent post, I mentioned the birthday tradition at Palmer Sport. Whoever the lucky birthday person is gets systematically rounded up, thrown in a vehicle, and dragged (sometimes kicking and screaming) to the local pond and pitched in. One day prior to my birthday an anonymous source from American filled in the Palmer Sport directors on my birthday and the secret was out of the bag.

Naturally I wasn't too keen to be throw in a pond, especially by a bunch of Brits. When I arrived at work, on my birthday, I realized I might have just gotten lucky. I had been scheduled for the best possible position. My job for the day was instructor at the Caterham pursuit course. I was stationed in what is effectionatly known as the 'jungle hut,' a two story fort which our guests stay in between their sessions on the off-road 4x4 course and the Caterham pursuit. While the jungle hut is an appropriate name given to the fortification near the woods, I thought the 'Alamo' would be an even more appropriate name. Knowing what would be coming for me I brought my Texas flag, a water gun, and a bucket full of water ballons. Perhaps it would be enough to deter any 'would be' attackers and I could make it through the day without getting soaked.

The first part of the day was going smashingly. There were a few minor attacks by the chief instructor and others, but the water gun had been enough to send them packing. However it seemed like more of the water bombs were getting thrown at me by my other colleagues than I was throwing at them!

By lunch time I was seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Rather than eating in the cateen, the area for instructors to eat lunch, I chose instead to go off-site and eat get a bite in the local town. Along with me I brought one of my colleagues, Brad Dude. I knew going to the canteen would result in certain dunking as I would be exposed to all of the instructors on their lunch break. It was in fact this 'good idea' that would be the begining of the end.

After eating in town, Brad Dude, suggested we stop at one of the suites and get a drink. What seemed like a great idea at the time started to smell a bit fishy when one of my other colleagues was waiting outside that very suite, this tipped me off and inside I could see the odd head sticking out from around the corner. It turned out, I had a double-agent as my lunch companion and it was an innovative trap to get me out of a car, into the suite. I immediately ditched the idea of the drink and I took off for the safety of the Alamo's defense systems.

Unfortunantely for me, the half dozen instructors who were waiting for me in the suite had sworn an oath as suicide bombers who would not be detered with their own soaking. Sure enough the alamo was under siege by fanatical, water bucket wielding Palmer Sport instructors. Although they took their shots, the end result was six buckets full of water getting dumped all over me.

Not five minutes later, the guests arrived and I was soaked head to toe. Sure enough I carried on in my most professional manner possible. An hour later (and mostly dried) I had a quick break where I could make my way back to my car and get a spare set of clothes I had brought for just this occasion.

There was one more group of guests I was to instruct and I was sure I would be able to make it without getting thrown in the pond. They had 'gotten me' but I had stayed out of the water. Things were going great with the last group and I was satified with the compromise of getting the bucket's rather than getting thrown in. As the final runs were taking place, things took a terrible turn for the worse. On the horizon driving towards the alamo was a fleet of Palmer Sport Jaguar XKR's, Seat's, Pathfinders, and Caterhams.

I realized things had not came to an end and in fact the battle was just begining. The armada of vehicles pulled in front of the Alamo and I was busy re-loading my water cannon. With fantastic range and accuracy most of the instructors getting out were within range and were hesitant to get any closer. Clearly these were not as convinced as the lunch time fantatics.

To the cheers of a group of Palmer Sport guests, I gave up my superior position and I bolted through the crowd of instructors, water bombs and water guns blazing a path. I immediately jumped into one of the Jaguar's which had arrived on the scene and gave myself an immediate crash course on operating the gearbox and paddle shifters. The escape path was clear and I knew I couldn't be stopped at this point as the V8 roared to life.

The race was on, however it wouldn't last long as I got stuck on a one-way run off road. I bailed from my escape vehicle and took off into the field relying on my years of athletic training for escape. I looked over my shoulder and there were two red clad instructors who had boxed me in, on the one way road. After what must have been a quarter mile into the field they were loosing ground and I was planning my next move. Suddenly out of no where a black Pathfinder came bearing down on me through the field, splashing through ankle deep water in far less effort than I was expending to travel the same distance. As it closed, I could see the huge smile of one Stuart Saggers from the drivers window. After another quarter mile of attempting to outsprint the Pathfinder I saw it stop and Stuart Saggers took to a foot race. Now thoroughly tired from outrunning the first one's he was able to out sprint me and finally grabbed me wrestling me to the ground. It wasn't a few moments later three more red-clad holligans had me by the arms and legs and were carrying me towards the pond.

The inevitable was under weigh and a few minutes later I was trying to figure out which way was up, and how deep could this pond possibly be? After a good laugh from everyone present I climbed onto the pier and had to make the half mile track back to the office. Someone gave me a tip on a shower on premises. I walked straight in, clothes and all, and rinsed off the pond water. Thinking the fun was had by all I headed back towards my car and off to the pub to join a few of my friends.

Halfway back to my car I noticed a Palmer Sport mini-van circulating the parking lot.

Within the fourteen seater bus was atleast eight red-clad individuals. Although I didn't want to accept what it was initially, when the bus pulled a 180' and headed towards me, the mini-bus's mission became clear. Immediately I bolted, relying on my ability to seriously 'leg it.' The mini-bus side door opened and a swarm of red came pouring out. I was heading in towards the mechanics work shop, a place I was sure I could slip through and out to the car park on the other side and freedom. However the slick floor of the workshop did not provide good grip for changing of directions and once again, I was covered up by red. I was dragged into the mini-bus, which was on a one way trip to the pond....

Sure enough once again, I was taken back to the pond, and thrown in.

Thankfully this would be my last time into the pond on this particular afternoon. The 16" fish I am pretty sure were tired of me and I even felt a few bites on my fingers. Soaked from head to toe I made my way to the pub and joined everyone for a proper birthday party.

In the end it was a fun birthday. I did get buckets of water dumped on me, thrown into a pond... twice.

I hope you are all doing well, I have dried up, and I expect the emotional scarring will heal soon.

Wettest regards

Michael

A Big "Thank You" to somebody...

This week I had some incredible things to share with you on the mjdrive online diary. Last weekend I took my first trip to Paris where I captured some great images I was looking forward to posting, furthermore I have uncovered some really cool (and funny) stories about the past racers/instructors at Palmer Sport that I wanted to share as well.

However... Somebody had to go and spoil it for everybody. I am not sure excactly who it is, but SOMEONE found out that Palmer Sport has a special 'birthday' tradition. The lucky birthday boy or girl is routinely rounded up and thrown into the onsite pond which was a part of the old rally course.

While I was well aware of this tradition I thought things were going along swimmingly and I might even be able to sneak under the radar without anyone finding out Wednesday is my birthday. SOMEONE apparently decided they should let Palmer Sport know and sent an anonymous email directly to Dr. Jonathan Palmer's office to let him know that tomorrow, 4 June, is my birthday. Immediately the Palmer Sport machine went into action and by the end of the day today my birthday announcement was on the whiteboard in the chief instructors office.

So, without the slightest hint of sarcasm, THANK YOU VERY MUCH and HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Depending on the results of tomorrow's dunkings and whether ot not this certain person comes forward, you now may or may not get to hear the great stories I found out about Lewis Hamilton, photos of Paris, and all the latest happenings in the world of motorsport!

Hope you have a great day tomorrow!

Michael