[00:00:00] Intro.
[00:00:06] Mark Boudreau: You're listening to the Motorsport Prospects Podcast.
Hey, it's Mark from Motorsport Prospects and welcome to the Motorsport Prospects Podcast. This is where we dive into the world of motorsport with the people who live and breathe it. From driver coaches and sponsorship experts, to team owners, pro drivers and more. You'll hear real stories, practical advice and insights you can actually use, whether you're just starting out or already chasing success on the track.
Now, I've often been asked why I started Motorsport Prospects. I started Motorsport Prospects specifically to help people who keep asking me the same questions.
Who can I trust?
Often it's very difficult, whether you're aspiring or an independent driver, to find reliable guidance. So I created Motorsport Prospects to help them make informed decisions. The professionals I feature on this podcast represent that trust.
So if you work with racing drivers or racing teams, building trust is one of the most important things you can do. Over the years, I found that being clear about what you offer, following through in your promises and genuinely caring about your clients goals makes all the difference. So what I've done is I put together some practical advice in a free white paper called the Three Essentials for Motorsport Business Owners, which shares simple ways to strengthen relationships, attract the right clients and grow your motorsport business. Naturally, you'll find it in the show notes of this podcast
[email protected] so let's get started.
My guest today is Ed McDermott. Ed is a bronze graded driver with five years of sports car racing experience.
His background involved being a rugby player turned businessman where he had success in several sectors.
Welcome to the podcast, Ed. Thanks. So taking. Thanks so much for taking the time out to speak to me. And I understand you're speaking to me from Silverstone.
[00:02:04] Ed McDermott: That's right, yeah. Well, thank you very much for having me come speak to you. Always happy to talk about motorsport. And as you can see, I'm geared up in my race kit at the moment due to a sort of last minute shakedown and test opportunity that came up ahead of the British GT season which is starting in a few weeks. So yeah, much needed time.
[00:02:28] Mark Boudreau: Yeah, I love it. And this is not virtual reality. He is actually in his kit in, in a cinder block room at Silverstone.
So Ed, I always ask the same question, slightly different. Since you're an independent driver, based on your experience as an independent driver, what would be the one most important piece of advice you could offer A current or aspiring race driver. So somebody. It could be a young driver who wants to aspire to race. It could be somebody who owns a business and has an itch to race a Porsche.
One piece of advice could you give them?
[00:03:09] Ed McDermott: Well, there's probably several pieces, pieces of advice that I would give and, and have given to a lot of people I know that have, you know, typically there's a general link between being a automotive lover and somebody that ultimately then decides that they want to go and race cars as opposed to just enjoy them. You know, drive on a nice country road, go on a driving trip, often it escalates.
[00:03:37] Ed McDermott: Certainly did in my case. I was, you know, always obsessed with cars as a kid and, but being of slightly odd proportions for a racing driver, I never thought it was even a possibility for me. So I was always a massive enthusiastic cars. But when I came to racing itself, I had absolutely no idea what, what I was doing, who to do it with and what really was required to go about it in a safe, financially responsible. And you, you already touched on it at the beginning there in a way that I could do it with, with professionals that I trusted and I knew
[00:04:17] Ed McDermott: give me the true answer, whether I liked it or not.
[00:04:21] Ed McDermott: And that stems both from the coaching side through to the actually talking about the bills and pre agreeing what something costs before you actually do it.
[00:04:33] Ed McDermott: So I think it's not just one piece of advice that I would give. I think there's, there's quite a few, I mean, a lot of people, if you'd said to me before I started my motorsport journey what it was going to cost, I'd have gone, oh my God, no way. I couldn't go anywhere near that. And, you know, I'm somebody who's been reasonably fortunate in life and had some, some good outcomes. I'm certainly not anywhere near the higher echelons of the wealth in, in that you'll see around many of the sports car racing paddocks in, in this day and age, but certainly, you know, have been very lucky. But still, the numbers are scary right now.
[00:05:11] Ed McDermott: That can change a little bit depending on what kind of series you're doing. But, you know, motorsport is a big commitment, both financially, both time, and if you want to be good at it, you've got to be committed to, to, you know, fitness, to training, to preparation. And a lot of that preparation isn't just in the gym or on the simulator. It's also really understanding what things cost because that way you will be less shocked at least when the numbers start getting discussed.
So the first two things that I would say are you need to get a great coach because like anything in life, you know, if you want to become a really good golfer. And you've never really, you know, you, you've maybe hit some, gone to the driving range and smashed a few balls. You ain't a golfer, you're just somebody that has, you know, figured out how to hit a few balls. Now, you may be doing it entirely wrong. And certainly if you want to get any good at it, you're going to get a coach right? And no one seems to have an issue with doing that. But weirdly, some people in motorsport who are starting out kind of think they know quite a lot. And it's a very costly way to figure out that you actually don't, because it could be quite a humbling experience.
[00:06:21] Ed McDermott: You know, no one is sort of born with the ability to just suddenly go really rapid, rapidly around a track. Sure, there's one in a million that will know, you know, will have a better sense for it than others, but more often than not, it's a. You learn by spending time on track, in a car and looking at the data.
So having a coach that you trust, that will make your journey that much better. And most of these coaches are either former professional drivers or they're sort of drivers who race with their clients or have, you know, have multiple. But their real job in life, when you really boil it down, is that they are a coach. They will help you learn your craft and there's lots of great guys around. You know, I was very fortunate. I work with and continue to work with a guy called Michael Broadhurst who's been massively helpful, has probably saved me fortunes in, in crashes that I otherwise. Don't get me wrong, you're still going to crash in racing.
[00:07:22] Mark Boudreau: That's right, Absolutely.
[00:07:24] Ed McDermott: And that's another thing to be prepared for. But yeah, having a, having a coach is critical.
Beyond that, you, you then really need to understand what these things cost. And, and, you know, if you're driving an MX5 Super cup car, which is a great way, by the way, to start your racing journey because it's a approachable car, it's great fun.
The costs are, you know, not insignificant, but relative to sports car racing, for example, very small. You know, perhaps it's costs, you know, a weekend of MX5 racing might cost less than 10% of a weekend racing a GT4 and might be 5% of, of racing a GT3 car for a weekend.
[00:08:12] Ed McDermott: Okay, you know, very, very big differentials in numbers, not necessarily very big differentials in, in the fun factor or the learning of skill. And I encourage everybody who is starting out, no matter where they are in life to, you know, do club, club racing. It's a great way to kind of. But do it with a coach. Do it properly. Don't just turn up and kind of wing it, you know, make it count. Right.
[00:08:40] Ed McDermott: And then my, my next piece of advice is to talk to people who've been through the journey of motorsport because invariably they will say, I made huge amounts of mistakes. It cost me lots of money.
I dealt with, you know, this team who said that they, you know, the number was X, but actually the number was X plus 1 plus 2 plus 3.
And, you know, having that honest conversation, if you're somebody like me who's come to it late, you're probably quite happy talking about, you know, money and what things cost because, you know, you've been doing that for many years in your business life.
But don't be afraid to, you know, ask the question and, okay, is that the full number? Can you break it down for me? What does that include? What does it not include?
You know, what if. What if X happened? You know, really get an understanding of, of what your potential liability is beyond just the cost of the day. Because if you crash the car, for example, you know, that can get very expensive very quickly. And, you know, whatever car it is, it can get quite expensive.
[00:09:44] Ed McDermott: So those are probably the kind of key things, you know, have. Have somebody on the journey with you who's in your corner, I. E. Your coach, if they're kind of good at what they do, they'll probably have a very good understanding of the teams who's. Who, who does what, what the kind of budget realities are.
But, and I made these mistakes, by the way. Even with a coach, I still went to teams that offered a, you know, very good price versus the better teams. And, you know, one way or another, you end up paying what it would have cost you anyway, because, right, motorsport, you know, a set of tires, the vast majority of things in motorsport, there is a fixed cost for. There's no, like, a set of tires costs, what a set of tires costs. You can't really get around that. There isn't like, oh, If I buy 20 sets, will that give you a bit of discount? Not really like, they cost what they cost.
The parts on the car, they cost what they cost. There's not really a cheap way to go about that.
The major difference is, is what does, you know, what labor is charged, what kind of preparation is involved with the car. Those are the important things to understand because once you know what the actual cost of certain items are, everything else is really just the labor and the margin that the team makes. And if you want to go with a good team, you want them to be making a bit of margin, because at the end of the day, they're a business and if they're not making money, you're not going to get the best possible service. Your car is not necessarily going to be perfect, you know, corners will be cut and that will affect your performance on track. You want to get with a team that's tried and tested, has an excellent reputation, and you know that when you get in the car, your only job is to think about driving. And the more capacity you free up for that driving, the better you're going to go, quite frankly, because you get far and you're thinking, oh, God, why have they put that, you know, new brake.
Have they put the new brake discs on? I swear I saw them sitting in the corner. You know, immediately, you know you're losing tenths off your lap time because you're just not thinking about the job in hand.
So, you know, I think we could probably talk for hours upon hours about other bits of advice that I would have through lived experience and also through what many of my. My motorsport friends have gone through.
[00:12:06] Ed McDermott: But as I said, I. I definitely think if you get the right partners in the beginning, and that, as I said, includes someone who will a help you drive better, will keep you out of trouble and will help you get much more widely in and around the paddock. And what is a realistic deal, what is. And you know, who to work with, who to potentially avoid. And, you know, you accept that people have bias in life, but generally, if they're a good person, they'll be with someone that you spend a lot of time with and you're really grown to trust. And that then extends to when they say, no, no, you're flat through this corner, but you're. Everything in your body is telling you to lift. You will actually go, okay, they're telling me to go flat. They're not, you know, they're not going to endanger me or themselves, so I'll listen and do it. And then suddenly you're like, okay, cool. And that's how you break through barriers and ultimately find yourself that much closer to. Or on, or very much on the pace.
[00:13:07] Mark Boudreau: Right.
You know, obviously, motorsport prospects is all about, like I had mentioned, it's all about trust. And I think that's the key. You had mentioned, you know, driver coaches that are true professionals. And that's where, you know, that's one of the things that I've noticed that. I'm trying to, I'm trying to set up something where when you do contact a driver coach, if they are verified through motorsport prospects, you know, they're a professional. And that's one of the things it kind of cuts through, it makes your research a lot easier, first of all, because you know you're dealing with a true professional. But the, the thing that I think is most interesting about what you mentioned was the fact that no matter who you are, no matter how successful you are as a business person or you know, in life in general, is to ask questions. You know, people. For some reason when it gets to motorsport, I don't know if it's because it's the excitement of it or the, you know, the perceived glamour, but they tend to not do. You know, as a lawyer, I always say due diligence, they sometimes don't necessarily do that due diligence that they really should. And I think what you were saying is really important that you have to ask questions and understand as complete as possible what it is that you're paying for.
[00:14:25] Ed McDermott: Absolutely. I, it's unquestionable and I think what you're saying about having a sort of, perhaps whether it's you know, a trademark or you know, if you think about like the building trade, you have check a trade, we don't really have that in motorsport. And I think it would be a great thing because you know, there are a lot of stories, especially if you go, you know, if you talk to the sort of wife, highly old people who've been around the paddock a long time. I mean, God, the stories of, you know, ripoffs and fraud and everything else, it is, you know, significant. And you are dealing with businesses that in most cases aren't huge corporations. You know, they're often family owned businesses that rely on having customers every year.
You know, people who are paying to go racing every year, otherwise they don't race and they certainly don't money.
And as I said, the costs as, as we all know are, are significant.
But the best thing you can do as, as a driver, the more questions you ask, the less money you'll actually ultimately spend, you know, and, and having that, you know, like, like yourself, people that are really interested in, in understanding the fine details and making sure that it's a, as professionalized as possible. Because nowadays we're dealing with race series where every single tenth counts. If you're, you know, quarter of a second over in a pit stop, you know, you can lose the race. And when you're Spending, you know, serious money every, every, every year, every weekend, every time you go on track.
[00:15:58] Ed McDermott: You know, unfortunately I've taken it to the extreme where I kind of, whenever I'm sitting in the car, I certainly know exactly how much every kilometer is costing me, you know, our cost.
[00:16:10] Ed McDermott: But you know, I'd much rather be eyes wide like that so that I can actually make informed decisions and things. You know, we go to the next level. You know, obviously a lot of people and I didn't realize when, when I first started racing that you can insure your car. It's an expensive business, but you know, it's there for that event where, you know, you would be looking at a very, very, very large bill.
[00:16:32] Ed McDermott: You know, sometimes we're racing, you know, three quarter million euro race cars here, you know, if you completely annihilate one of them, that's a very, very big bill. That's, you know, it's a pretty nice house in a lot of places in the world.
So, you know, you want to insure against that eventuality because it does happen, right? And yeah, horrible to have to write the check for, for the insurance but you know, knowing that you're working with a good insurance company that is going to actually pay out and things like that, you know, if you're just coming into it, you don't know these things and you don't, you may know that actually, okay, you think the excess is, let's say 15,000 or 20,000, whatever the excess is, but that doesn't cover necessarily like the big eventuality. There still might be overage beyond that. And if you don't really look into the fine details of said insurance contract, you won't really understand that. So you might think that, oh well, worst case scenario, if I break this thing to a million pieces, it's, It'll cost me 15 or 20 grand, whatever that might be, it might not, it might be more than that.
[00:17:36] Ed McDermott: So understanding and like you said, doing due diligence, but never ceases to amaze me and I'm guilty of it as well, by the way. So I'm not casting shadow at anybody else, but you know, very, very successful, very smart, very wealthy people who, like you said, they almost become a bit dumb around motorsport because it is this big thing and it's meant to be
[00:18:00] Ed McDermott: a hobby but, and it is, but it's a serious hobby. It's not something you just kind of pick up and put down.
[00:18:07] Ed McDermott: Like if you're committed to it and you want to do well with it, you really have to Understand the finer details, not just about the way you drive, but about all the back end things as well. And understanding the costs of these cars and what parts cost and then what labor costs.
You know, it gets kind of scary at times. But that also in theory should help you become a better driver because you realize that it isn't a joke. You know, you are doing a dangerous thing.
A lot of, a lot of drivers don't, for example, have any kind of insurance for if they hurt themselves, which you've also, that's not included as part of the insurance of the vehicle itself.
So you know, if you're somebody who has, you know, potentially quite high costs in life because, you know, you've had a good business career, you've been lucky. Let's, let's be honest, everybody who makes money is, no matter how smart they are, that they still is quite a lot of luck required.
[00:19:07] Ed McDermott: But you know, if you get seriously injured, you might not be able to perform your business duties. So, you know, something you also need to think about.
[00:19:15] Mark Boudreau: Um, Right, that's a good point.
[00:19:18] Ed McDermott: Yeah.
[00:19:21] Mark Boudreau: Speaking of racing, so tell me a little bit about what series you're racing in and what you're racing.
[00:19:28] Ed McDermott: So for the last four years I've been doing British GT which is a great championship run by SRO organization, which also runs World Challenge. And numerous other regional series. British GT is. Yeah, it's a really, really strong competitive grid. It's basically in the uk it's the best sports car racing championship that we have in terms of engagement, in terms of, you know, what a championship means. And again, that's not a disrespect to any of the other UK sports car racing championships because there's some very good ones. But I, I think most people would agree that, that British GT is probably the best we have to offer in terms of sports car racing here.
[00:20:16] Ed McDermott: It's very competitive series. You have multiple factory drivers racing with amateur drivers. It is very much a pro am championship. Although there is in one, in the GT4 class, they do have a silver, silver, silver pairing. So that's for the young aspiring drivers who are maybe coming out of single seaters and you know, want to race with another young aspiring driver like themselves.
But predominantly it's a pro am racing championship. So one of the drivers is almost always invariably a bronze graded driver. And then you can have a silver, gold or platinum driver alongside that.
Okay.
[00:21:00] Ed McDermott: Other than the sort of factory pros, so guys who are on works deals, you know, most people bring some sort of budget or some sort of sponsorship to it.
But you know, the, the bulk of the cost lays typically with the bronze driver.
[00:21:16] Mark Boudreau: Right. And how would people track what you're, what you're doing, what you're racing?
I'm assuming the, the, the series is. Obviously they have a website. I'm assuming it's streamed or it is.
[00:21:31] Ed McDermott: We're, we're both on Sky Sports F1 channel, so.
[00:21:34] Mark Boudreau: Oh, okay.
[00:21:35] Ed McDermott: Our races are shown live on, on Sky Sports F1. And then there's also a really great YouTube streaming channel called GT World, which I highly recommend.
That way you watch GT World Challenge, which is just a phenomenal series with, you know, 70 car grids and you know, all the best factory talent around. You're likely to see the likes of Max Verstappen racing in that this year as well. So. And we've seen, well, Lance Stroll is racing in that this weekend for example. I know controversial for a lot of people, but a lot of it's not
[00:22:11] Ed McDermott: a strange place for F1 drivers. Similarly, British GT, we've had Jensen Button, Nigel Mansell, other people who have raced in this series as well. So it's, you're not just there to watch a bunch of gentlemen drivers like myself.
You are watching some seriously talented, both amateur drivers and professional drivers.
And I highly recommend watching that.
And it's just a great way to watch interesting races that are in the case of British gt, anywhere between one hour and three hours long. Okay. Typically it's, it's endurance racing, but not to the extent of, you know, your, your Le mans or your spa 24 hours. So you know, know an interesting way to spend a bit of an afternoon but not the whole day.
[00:22:57] Ed McDermott: Yeah, no great events to attend. If you're based in the uk, we do have around a spa, which is typically the week before the Spa 24 hour race. So we do have one in Nice.
So it's a really cool series and for me it's great. I have three young children so it means, you know, if I was in Europe, a weekend would end up being, you know, sometimes five or six days.
For British gt, it's a three day event typically with a test on, on either the Thursday or Friday and then the race weekend being Saturday and Sunday.
But it allows me to spend, you know, one or two nights away from home at the most. And the racing is, you know, seriously competitive. I think it's worth mentioning. Yeah, some of, there's nobody who doesn't have a clue what they're doing. It's not a sort of bad series that's full of nightmare drivers. It really does have a lot of talented people who are very committed to what they do.
[00:23:52] Mark Boudreau: Very cool.
Before I let you go, I. I have one. I do have one final question for you.
Favorite racetrack. Could be current, could be historical.
[00:24:04] Ed McDermott: For me, I have a real soft spot and always have done. And don't get me wrong, it hasn't always been very good to me as a racetrack. A lot of bad luck there. But I love Donington Park. There's something about. Okay, for me, a lot of people will say, you know, Spa or Le Mans, whatever it is.
[00:24:21] Ed McDermott: I've never driven Le Mans, to be very clear, but.
And you know, some of the, some of the racetracks like Spa are phenomenal. Alton park in the UK is just an unbelievable track. Not a great track to race at, but a great track to drive. But I think Donnington just has something really special about it. It's unique, it's old school.
It's kind of wide enough that you get really good racing there, but it's just fast and flowing. And when you, when you have a really strong race around Donnington, there's something feels really good.
[00:24:54] Ed McDermott: But I think we're blessed. You know, we have some really great tracks here in the UK. Brand, hatch, etc.
I'd say in Europe, Portal is one of my favorite tracks.
[00:25:04] Mark Boudreau: Oh, okay.
[00:25:05] Ed McDermott: Yeah, so I'd say those are probably my two favorite circuits and they have some similarities, actually. But yeah, I think Donington in the UK and Portimao, Portugal, I absolutely love as well. Highly recommend trying them both. Even if it's just for a track day in your road car, you'll. You'll come away with a very big smile.
[00:25:29] Mark Boudreau: Nice.
So I really appreciate being on the podcast, Ed. It's. It's great to hear from you and your insights and I just.
So, yeah, Donington park, of course. I remember the classic Ayrton Senna, that wet race where he just blitzed the field.
And so, yeah, but you guys are blessed with a most amazing amount of circuits in your country. So, yeah, that's, that's great to know when it's true. Track days.
I mean, people have the opportunity to, to participate on a track day, even if you're not racing in a series.
But, yeah, no, it's been great. I don't want to keep you from, from, from practice, so really appreciate you being on the podcast.
And that's it for me for this week. This is Mark from Motorsport Prospects reminding you to stay fast, stay focused, and keep chasing that checkered flag.
[00:26:26] Ed McDermott: Thanks so much Mark. Appreciate it.
[00:26:31] Mark Boudreau: Thanks for listening to the Mult Motorsport Prospects Podcast. For insights, advice and the latest news racers can use, visit motorsportprospects.com.
